Quake on Linux - Folly or a brave new world?

[Mr.Burns]

Thanks for all the responses Guys, work permitting I'll return to it one night this week and give it another try.

Kind regards

Monty

[Phenom]

Notice how R00k is nowhere to be found in this thread

[Syluxguy28O3]

Notice how R00k is nowhere to be found in this thread

[Spike]

(5:13:53 PM) spiritiit: dear god, someone post "apt-get install nvidia-96" in http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-hel...w-world-2.html
(5:14:03 PM) spiritiit: right now it is "how to make people hate linux"

[Mr.Burns]

LOL, Well that certainly wasn't the intention. Quite the opposite to tell you the truth. I was hoping it may be another freely available avenue through which individuals could discover and play Quake as quickly and easily as they can on windows. Unrealistic? Perhaps. An untapped market? maybe, who knows. Besides, my experience with older equipment may not be representative of the norm with more powerful and well supported hardware.

Perhaps I shouldn't have suggested it

Kind regards

Monty

[Spirit]

Nah, that was a misunderstanding (Hi Spike!)! I actually meant that you should install the package "nvidia-96". That should be the nvidia legacy driver on recent Ubuntu (12.10?).

If you edited xorg.conf, then revert to before. Editing that file is rarely needed nowadays.

Installing drivers (or any software really) by hand and not handle by your distribution's package management system can end up being a major pain in the backside.

[golden_boy]

It's quite simply a case of "many roads lead to Rome".

Downloading a Nvidia driver and installing it "by hand" (it's an automated software provided by the card's manufacturer actually) isn't much different from what you do on Windows, so I'm not sure how someone would hate Linux because of it.

Like I said, Ubuntu's package manager does often not install the latest or best version of the driver, because it relies on a third party (Ubuntu) to stay updated, so I gave the how-to that always works - downloading straight from Nvidia.

Distributions like Ubuntu present their package manager (and software center) as the ultimate solution to install software, which it simply isn't because it is never as up-to-date as upstream providers are (same as Windows).

There are many ways to do things on a Linux system and that's fine, too. Personally I think installing Quake into one's home dir and dropping the pakfiles in there is much more reminescent of what you do under Windows than having a package manager install it to /usr/local/games/bin or similar places where you'll end up not even knowing where your pakfiles are. The home directory exists for good reasons.

But regardless, Mr. Burns, several of us are running Quake on Linux (however they please) without problems, it's definitely not folly at all.

[Tremor]

What version of ubuntu are you currently running? If it's above 11.x (I believe), you're going to have to remove pulseaudio and compile alsa or another sound package if you want audio, which can be a major pain in the bunz.

[Mr.Burns]

[From Work] I did manage to get some limited time on my UBuntu box last night and attempted to follow both the apt-get option provided by Spirit AND the downloading and running of the NVidia package provided by GB and co. Unfortunately neither method succeeded throwing multiple errors saying your driver cannot be installed. Sorry, I would of course provide full details at this point but I'm on business at the moment and don't have the details of the errors with me, but thought you guys at least deserved a response for your efforts. For completeness I'll update this post with the details as soon as I return home.

Under the circumstances it seems it might be worth "clearing the decks" and delete and reinstall Linux this weekend and start again with a virgin linux installation.

To come back to you on the version question, although I downloaded the latest Ubuntu (which at the time was 11) it seems to have morphed through updates to become the "12.04 LTS" version. I try and keep a very open mind as far as OS's go and am happy to try a different flavour if anyone has any helpful suggestions?

If that doesn't work I will wait until Xmas when I will be able to use a more up to date Graphics card.

For the avoidance of any doubt, I suspect that some of the problems I have reported in these posts are probably more to do with some mistake(s) I, a Linux newbie, have probably made previously with the installation and maybe the driver rather than any of the instructions given or shortcomings of Linux. As alluded to above, and as I was hoping to demonstrate to others when starting this thread, Quake appears to be perfectly useable on Linux.

Many thanks for all those that have tried to be helpful, I really do appreciate you taking the time out to reply

Monty

[Spirit]

Mr. Burns, I would install the latest Ubuntu and see if it suggests you install "binary" drivers or something like that on the first boot. If so, do that. If not, install the nvidia-96 package. Do not edit any files by hand unless you are certain that is what you have to do. Be aware that Linux/Ubuntu changes over time and random google results might be relevant only for outdated software.

Downloading a Nvidia driver and installing it "by hand" (it's an automated software provided by the card's manufacturer actually) isn't much different from what you do on Windows, so I'm not sure how someone would hate Linux because of it.

As https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaManual helpfully points out, the drivers will break on kernel updates or when related packages update. They are also only uninstallable if the user keeps the installer script (or finds a copy of it archived somewhere). I would call this much different from windows, especially for a unexperienced user.

Software being managed by a package management system is one of the biggest advantages of Linux to Windows in terms of user-friendliness in my opinion.

I doubt that most users _need_ the most recent versions, when we talk about drivers for "legacy" cards this is fairly irrelevant anyways.

Installing stuff in home is handy (I have Quake there myself since many engines have not been "unix'd" but only ported to run at all). Putting stuff into the system not handled by the package manager is something for people who know what they are doing.

[damage_inc]

MY Quake on Linux experience.

I'm a Windows defector, but a poor one at that Still need Win7 from time to time...

I use PinguyOS(64 bit) stock out of the box! My computer is personally built: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition | ATI 5770 | 4 G's ram. I built this a few years back.

I simply created directories in Home: quake/id1 and placed the .pak files there.

Two things are important... no UpPer CaSe letters for directories or files and, sometimes you have to use " ./ " in a terminal, followed with game name and command line params, in order for the game to launch.

The best part about that is you can get error messages as to why it didn't launch which you don't get by double clicking on it! AKA, nothing happened.

Also, sometimes files need permission to execute for double clicking to work. Which you will find if you: right click file>properties>permissions.

If you try and run an engine compiled with libraries you don't have, double clicking with do nothing, at least that has been my experience.

Other than that... I've ran Dark Places, QuakeSpasm, RMQ, EzQuake and ioQuake3 with virtually zero problems. Even some others have worked in WINE. Although, once I had sound in WINE but something happened that stopped it. I am not simply versed in Linux enough to figure it out, or care :-P

As I stated, I don't have updated ATI drivers, whatever it came with is what runs. I once switched to ATI drivers but it fuxored my desktop look and feel so I switched back. Most games play great but DP with some bells and whistles boy... serious FPS drop there. Expected though really.

Now this is from a serious Linux newb! If I'm not pointing and clicking to get shit done... somethings WRONG!!!

Oh BTW, maybe there are three things important... I could never launch a game from my non Linux drive. Maybe it supposed to be that way, IDK!

Anyway, just thought I'd share my experience with Quake on Linux.

[bluntz]

Just get a real video card and you won't have any issues,end of drama.

[damage_inc]

Just get a real video card and you won't have any issues,end of drama.

Fanboi much

[Mr.Burns]

Just get a real video card and you won't have any issues,end of drama.

That's certainly the plan
Once that's received and installed a fresh install of Ubuntu is planned and hopefully I'll be quaking Linux style
There's just a few issues that have arisen IRL that I need to resolve first.

Kind regards

Monty

[BoraxMan]

I have had little difficulty getting Quake working with Linux.

Audio doesn't seem to be an issue either, for the most part.

The ports that I have gotten working, with little, of any troubles are

* Dark Places (if you have a recent distro, its fine. I had to recompile, but that worked OK)
* RemakeQuake
* QuakeForge'
* ezQuake
* Tenebrae
* QuakeSpasm
* FitzQuake