Linux Works Even for Total Newbies

Really Linux.com ^ | 2006-03-07 | Rob Milner

[When_Penguins_Attack]

Too bad that's not what we're talking about.

Yeah, but it sure beats talking about the Communist proclivities of Torvald's parents.

[N3WBI3]

Obviously they didn't know just how difficult it would be, and they still won't give any schedule for when they will complete

Yea what ar ethe odds that a huge company might have to push back an important upgrade or project?

---

"In the interim, Microsoft is likely to release a less ambitious version of Windows dubbed "Longhorn" sometime in 2003--the date the company originally planned to ship Blackcomb, say analysts. Like Blackcomb, Longhorn will include features that contribute to Microsoft's much hyped .Net initiative, but it will omit database technology that could forge greater ties between Microsoft's operating systems and its Web services." -- http://www.wininsider.com/news/?226

---

"SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. has pushed back the release of the next version of the Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn, until 2004.

In an interview here at its 11th annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, WinHEC, Jim Allchin, the group vice president of platforms at Microsoft, told eWeek that Longhorn was unlikely to ship before 2004. " -- http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,42185,00.asp

---

" DECEMBER 20, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Windows users who are anxious to get their hands on the first beta release of the Longhorn server will have to wait a bit longer than expected.

Earlier this year, Microsoft projected that the initial beta of the server version of Longhorn would emerge in the first half of next year. But now the company is saying that the beta code is due in the second half of 2005. " -- http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,98368,00.html

---

But hey at least if the date slips we know that most companies wont have any issues delivering what they said they were going to offer.

---

"Microsoft last week said it has scaled back the next major release of the Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn, opting to drop the next-generation file system, so it can ship the OS in 2006.

Without the much-anticipated Windows File System, the client version of Longhorn is not expected to be a revolutionary change over Windows XP, or a must-have for businesses, which considered WinFS and its search capabilities a major innovation, Rob Helm, analyst for Directions on Microsoft said.

"It's good news and bad news," Helm said of the announcement. "The good news is scaling back the operating system means it's more likely to show up in 2006, which means we will see the benefits sooner and developers will get applications out there sooner. " -- http://www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=19521

---

[FLAMING DEATH]

haha! Good one.

Still, though, the original topic was desktops vs. workstation....er, adoption of Linux for personal use.

[Golden Eagle]

Of course you aren't, you're too busy perpetrating the fraud that it's easy to convert when reality admits even IBM can't succesfully do it.

And why should you, since that radical leftist Stallman owns most of the copyrights to GNU/Linux software anyway. So you saved $100, but sold out capitalism in the process. It's too bad that guy is so much smarter than all of his obvious pawns.

[Golden Eagle]

The obvious difference is, no one is posting articles here claiming it is easy for people to do. If it was, IBM and Novell surely would have completed by now, after years of trying, but they still won't even give out a new schedule. In other words, "never" seems the most likely answer.

[N3WBI3]

If it was, IBM and Novell surely would have completed by now, after years of trying, but they still won't even give out a new schedule. In other words, "never" seems the most likely answer.

Yea because its not Like IBM moving over thousands of employees across dozens of departments, with hundreds of custom written applications, while leaving in place a decades old network is that much harder than Joe Smith moving over his desktop..

Your statement above is quite literally the biggest display of ignorance on large scale IT systems to date on Free Republic.

[Golden Eagle]

If it's so easy, what's taking IBM and Novell so long? Why have they missed their schedules, and refuse to announce new ones? Obviously because it's not that easy, which you grazed the surface of with your post.

[N3WBI3]

If it's so easy, what's taking IBM and Novell so long?

Integration with an existing infrastructure that dwarfs most companies out there let alone *an individual*

Obviously because it's not that easy, which you grazed the surface of with your post.

So you are saying that moving say IBM from 98 to XP should be as easy of moving my mother from 98 to XP?

[N3WBI3]

I doubt people should take advice from someone who said you cant click a button or two to upgrade or install software on Linux...

[Golden Eagle]

Official instructions on how to install Firefox, which is as easy as it gets but apparently still requires typing some long and incredibly stupid command in Linux. Why must you constanly lie?

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/releases/1.5.html#install

For Windows, Double click the Firefox Setup 1.5.exe installer to start the install.

For Linux, Extract the tarball in the directory where you want to install Firefox:

tar -xzvf firefox-1.5.tar.gz

[N3WBI3]

We have been through this before:

http://howto.homelinux.net/swf/yum.html

The instructions on Mozilla site are for generic Linux (i.e. no distribution) Suse, RedHat and most others provide an easy interface for installing software. All I would have to do differently in this scenario is select Firefox and click install.

So as with every time you try to play this card I have to ask: Dont you get tired of being proven wrong?

[clyde asbury]

There is nothing more entertaining than the sight of ignorance in action.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

o you are saying that moving say IBM from 98 to XP should be as easy of moving my mother from 98 to XP?

Cut the crap N3WBI3! Everybody knows your mother would beat you to an inch of your life (and then push you a foot) if you made her give up her Mac.;^)* Does make your point though, but the concept would be violent if implimentation is attempted.

*A little inside humour GE

[Golden Eagle]

Ridiculous, imagine you want to install a game. Take Quake II for example...you call this easy, much less fun?

Installing Quake II

Download the Necessary Files**
All the necessary files for Linux Quake II are available at id Software's ftp site, ftp.idsoftware.com. This site can be quite busy at times,so you may want to use one of these mirror sites instead:

ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff (California, USA)
ftp.gamesnet.net/idsoftware (California, USA)
ftp.stomped.com/pub/mirror/idstuff (Minnesota, USA)
mirrors.telepac.pt/pub/idgames (Lisbon, Portugal)
download.netvision.net.il/pub/mirrors/idsoftware (Haifa, Israel)
The Quake II files mentioned in in this section are:

Quake II Linux Binaries
libc5 tar.gz package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz
glibc tar.gz package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-glibc-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz
libc5 rpm package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-2.i386.rpm
glibc rpm package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-glibc-2.i386.rpm
Quake II Demo Version for Windows ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2-314-demo-x86.exe
Quake II Game Source ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/source/q2source-3.14.shar.Z
Quake II Capture the Flag ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/ctf/102.zip
Other software mentioned:

SVGAlib graphics library http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/svgalib-1.3.0.tar.gz
SVGAlib libc5 binary http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/svgalib-1.3.0.libc5.bin.tar.gz
Glide runtime libraries http://glide.xxedgexx.com/3DfxRPMS.html
Mesa 3D graphics library http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~brianp/Mesa.html
unzip archive utility http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/compress/unzip-5.31.tar.gz

Create the Installation Directory
The first thing you'll need to do is decide where you want to install Quake II. Lots of folks like to put it in /usr/games/quake. Anal system administrator that I am, I choose to install anything that's not part of my Linux distribution under /usr/local. So for me, Quake II goes in /usr/local/games/quake2. If you choose to install somewhere else, please substitute the appropriate path wherever /usr/local/games/quake2 is mentioned.

So go ahead and create the directory you'll install Quake II in, and cd to it. The rest of these instructions will assume that this is your current directory.


mkdir /usr/local/games/quake2
cd /usr/local/games/quake2



Installing from CD
Place your Quake II CD in your CD ROM drive, and mount it:


mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom


If your CDROM is typically mounted elsewhere, substitute its location for /mnt/cdrom. If you're not sure where your CDROM is mounted, please see the documentation for your particular distribution.


Full Install The simplest install method is a "full" install, which involves copying the entire contents of your CD to your hard drive. This requires about 350 MB, and is accomplished by issuing the following commands:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
cp -r /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/* .


There'll be a bunch of unnecessary Windows files hanging around that you can safely delete:
rm -f /usr/local/quake2/*.dll
rm -f /usr/local/quake2/quake2.exe
rm -f /usr/local/quake2/baseq2/gamex386.dll


Medium Install If 450 MB is too much space for you to devote to Quake II, you can skip installing the movie cutscenes and link to them on the CD-ROM instead. This will reduce the space requirements to about 200 MB:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
mkdir baseq2
cp /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/baseq2/pak0.pak baseq2
cp -r /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/baseq2/players baseq2
ln -s /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/baseq2/video baseq2/video


Note that this doesn't mean you have to mount your Quake II CD every time to want to play Quake II. If the game can't load the videos, it just won't display them.

3.3 Adding the Linux Binaries **
There are four Linux Quake II packages available for download:

a libc5 tar.gz package
a glibc tar.gz package
a libc5 rpm package
a glibc rpm package
Install just one of these packages. Each contains the same files, they're just linked against different libraries. Redhat 5.x users should choose the the glibc rpm package. Users of glibc based systems without rpm support should use the glibc tar package. The libc5 rpm is for Redhat distributions prior to 5.0 and other distributions that use the rpm package format. The libc5 tar.gz package is for Slackware and everyone else.

See the Download the Necessary Files section for the location of the Linux Quake II files.


Installing the RPM packages **
Installation of the rpm packages should be as simple as:


su root
rpm -Uvh quake2-xxxxx.i386.rpm


Rpm may complain that it can't find libglide2x.so. The Glide library is only necessary if you have a 3Dfx card and want to run Quake II in GL mode. If you don't plan to use the GL mode, you can override the glide dependency with the --nodeps option:


su root
rpm -Uvh quake2-xxxxx.i386.rpm --nodeps



Installing the tar.gz packages **
To install, just untar the file in your Quake II directory. Do it as root so the proper file permissions get set:


cd /usr/local/games/quake
su root
tar -xzf qwcl2.21-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz



3.4 Setting Permissions **
If you ran rpm or tar as root when installing the Quake II package on your system, the file permissions should be properly set already. The quake2 executable was installed setuid root so that it can access the graphics devices on your system. For security, the ref_*.so rendering libraries are owned by root and writeable only by him. If root doesn't own the libraries, or they're world writeable, quake2 will refuse to run.

If you plan to only run Quake II with the GL or X renderers, your quake2 doesn't need to be setuid root. See Running X and GL games without setuid in the Tips and Tricks section below for information on running Quake II without root permissions.


Quake2.conf **

For security reasons, there is a quake2.conf file, which tells Quake II where to find the rendering libraries it needs (ref_*.so). It contains only one line, which should be the path to your Quake II installation. Quake II looks for this file in /etc. If you installed Quake II from an .rpm file, this file was installed for you. If you installed from a .tar package, you need to create it like so:


su root
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
pwd > /etc/quake2.conf
chmod 644 /etc/quake2.conf



3.5 The X Renderer
Quake II should be ready to run under X now. Give it a try:


cd /usr/local/games/quake2
./quake2 +set vid_ref softx


If all is well, after a pretty significant pause, a small Quake II window will appear with the first demo running in it. You should hear sound effects and possibly music, if the CD is mounted. If any of this fails to occur, please see section Troubleshooting for help.


3.6 The SVGAlib Renderer
You need SVGAlib installed and configured if you're going to use either the ref_soft or ref_gl renderers. (Quake II uses SVGAlib to process keyboard and mouse input, in case you're wondering why you'd need it for the GL renderer). SVGAlib comes with most modern distributions, and must be properly configured before Quake II will run correctly outside of X.

libvga.config is SVGAlib's configuration file. On most systems you'll find it in either /etc or /etc/vga. Make sure the mouse, monitor, and video card settings in this file are correct for your system. See the SVGAlib documentation for more details.

If you don't already have SVGAlib on your system, download it from the location mentioned in the files section above. If you have a RedHat 5.x or other glibc-based Linux distribution, see Glibc, RedHat 5.x, Debian 2 considerations in the Troubleshooting/FAQs section for important information about compiling libraries for Quake II. A precompiled libc5 SVGAlib binary is available at http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/svgalib-1.3.0.libc5.bin.tar.gz for those who don't want to deal with the hassle of compiling for libc5.

You should run Quake II from a virtual console when using the ref_soft or ref_gl renderers. It won't run from X unless you're root when you start it, and that's not advisable. So if you're in X, do a CTRL+ALT+F1, login and then:


cd /usr/local/games/quake2
./quake2


Running SVGA and GL games from X in the Tips & Tricks section below explains how to launch SVGA and GL Quake II from X without manually switching to a virtual console.


3.7 The OpenGL Renderer
Hardware-accelerated OpenGL Quake is Quake the way God intended it to be. There is no substitute, and once you've experienced it there's no going back.

To run Quake II in GL mode, you need a 3D card with the Voodoo, Voodoo2 or Voodoo Rush graphics chipset on it. There are specific issues to be dealt with if you have a Voodoo Rush card, and I won't go into them now because frankly, I wouldn't know what I was talking about. A future version of this HOWTO will cover Rush issues (If somebody wants to write about Voodoo Rush issues, I'll gladly include it here).

The SVGAlib, Glide, and Mesa libraries must all be installed and configured properly on your system for quake2 to work. The following sections will very briefly cover what you need to do to get them going.

Bernd Kreimeier's ( bk@gamers.org) Linux 3Dfx HOWTO ( http://www.gamers.org/dEngine/xf3D/howto/3Dfx-HOWTO.html) is good source for further information.

The 3dfx.glide.linux newsgroup on the 3dfx news server (news.3dfx.com) is another good source of information about the intersection of Linux, glide, Mesa and Quake.



SVGAlib
Quake II uses SVGAlib to get input from the mouse and keyboard, so you'll need to configure it as outlined in section SVGAlib Renderer section.


Glide
Glide is a library that provides an API for programming 3Dfx based cards. If you want the Mesa graphics library to use your 3Dfx card, you've gotta have it.

The latest version of glide can always be found at http://glide.xxedgexx.com/3DfxRPMS.html. Select the package(s) appropriate for your system, and install according to the instructions on the web page.

Note that unless you download the 3Dfx device driver package in addition to the Glide library, you will only be able to run Glide applications (like GLQuake) as root. Install the /dev/3dfx module and you can play GLQuake as a regular user.

Once you have glide installed, try out the test program that comes with it. Remember this program: it's a good way to reset your display if you ever have a glide application (like GLQuake) crash and leave your screen switched off. NOTE: run this test from a VC, not X! It's possible for the test app to lose mouse and keyboard focus in X, and then you'll have no way of shutting it down.


/usr/local/glide/bin/test3Dfx


Your screen should turn blue and prompt you to hit any key. After you press a key you should be returned to the prompt. 3dfx.glide.linux on 3dfx's news server (news.3dfx.com) is a great source of information for Linux glide-specific problems.


Mesa
Once glide's installed, you need to install Mesa, a free OpenGL implementation by Brian Paul (brianp@elastic.avid.com). Luckily, you won't have to look far, because Mesa 2.6 is included with the Quake II binaries. All you have to do is move it to the right place:


cd /usr/local/games/quake2
cp libMesaGL.so.2.6 /usr/local/lib
ldconfig


If you want to upgrade Mesa to a more recent version (Mesa 3.0 is the most recent version as of this writing), you can download the latest from ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa If you have a RedHat 5.x or other glibc-based Linux distribution, see Glibc, RedHat 5.x, Debian 2 considerations in the Troubleshooting/FAQs section for important information about compiling libraries for Quake.

After you've built it according to the instructions, you will have to do two things:


Remove your old Mesa installation. If you previously installed a libMesaGL.so.2.6 as described above, you must remove it or Quake II may not use the new version.
cd /usr/local/lib/
rm -f libMesaGL.so.2*


If the new Mesa has a major version number that's greater than 2, you need to create a link to it with the name libMesaGL.so.2:
cd /usr/local/lib/
ln -s /wherever/you/installed/it/libMesaGL.so.3.0 libMesaGL.so.2
ldconfig


Now switch to a VC (CTRL+ALT+F1) and start Quake II:


cd /usr/local/games/quake2
./quake2 +set vid_ref gl



lib3dfxgl.so **
With Quake II version 3.19, an alternative to the Mesa library is available. lib3dfxgl.so is a mini-GL driver optimized for Quake that provides slightly better framerates than Mesa. This is a port of a driver that 3Dfx developed for Quake under Windows, and apparently not all of its features work properly yet. So hopefully we can expect its performance to improve with time.

Like Mesa, lib3dfxgl.so requires Glide in order to access your 3Dfx card. The Quake II packages come with a script, quake2.3dfxgl for running Quake II with this library on glibc systems. The next paragraph explains how to run Quake II with lib3dfxgl.so on a libc5 system. On a glibc system, the glqwcl executable must not be setuid, nor should you run it as root. glqwcl will silently load Mesa rather than lib3dfxgl.so if it runs with root permissions. This non-root requirement implies that you have the /dev/3dfx driver installed.

On a libc5 system, the non-root requirements mentioned above apply, but you also need to create a symbolic link to lib3dfxgl.so called libMesaGL.so.2 like so:

cd /usr/local/games/quake2
ln -sf lib3dfxgl.so libMesaGL.so.2


Then start Quake II from a script that tells $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to look in the current directory:

---

#!/bin/sh

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=".:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" ./quake2 +set vid_ref gl $*

---

You can tell which driver is being loaded by looking for output like the following in your console as Quake II starts:


GL_VENDOR: 3Dfx Interactive Inc.
GL_RENDERER: 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo^2(tm)
GL_VERSION: 1.1
GL_EXTENSIONS: 3DFX_set_global_palette WGL_EXT_swap_control GL_EXT_paletted_texture GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette GL_SGIS_multitexture


If GL_VENDOR says Brian Paul rather than 3Dfx Interactive Inc., that means Mesa is still being used rather than the miniport dirver.


3.8 The GLX Renderer **

ref_glx.so is linked against standard OpenGL libraries instead of Mesa. This allows Quake II to run on other 3D hardware that is supported by other OpenGL implementations. At this time, I dont' know of any OpenGL implementations that support hardware other than 3Dfx, but this renderer ensures that when they appear, we'll be able to play Quake II with them.

This is a GLX application, and as such, must be run from X.

You can use this client with Mesa/3Dfx if you install Mesa and Glide as explained in the previous section, then set the $MESA_GLX_FX environment variable to "fullscreen" before you run quake2:


export MESA_GLX_FX=fullscreen
./quake2 +set vid_ref glx +set _windowed_mouse 1


Why the +set _windowed_mouse 1 option? Remember that this is an X application which happens to use your 3Dfx card. Even though the display takes up your entire screen, Quake II is stil running in a window. This means that if you're not very careful, you could move the mouse pointer outside the Quake II window, and Quake II will suddenly stop responding to mouse and keyboard input. +set _windowed_mouse 1 avoids this problem by telling quake2 to grab the mouse and not let it move outside its window.


3.9 Linux-Specific Command Line Options
This section will cover command line options that are specific to the Linux version of Quake II. There are plenty of other Quake II options, but they're beyond the scope of this HOWTO. Check out some of the sites listed in section General Quake Information for this kind of information.

These are actually cvars (client variables) that you can set in the Q2 console, but it makes the most sense to set them on the command line. Set them with +set on the command line, like:


./quake2 +set cd_dev /dev/hdc



cd_dev device
Name of the CD-ROM device.


nocdaudio value
Disable CD audio if value is nonzero


sndbits num
Set sound bit sample size. Default is 16.


sndspeed num
Set sound sample speed. Usual values are 8000, 11025, 22051 and 44100. If set to zero, causes the sound driver to attempt speeds in the following order: 11025, 22051, 44100, 8000.


sndchannels num
Indicates stereo or mono sound. Defaults to 2 (stereo). Use 1 for mono.


nostdout value
Don't do any output to stdout. Use this if you don't want all the console output dumped to your terminal.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Just tried Mepis--though I don't usually care for Debian-based distros, I was pretty impressed with it.

Then again, I'm still partial toward Slax ;)

[rzeznikj at stout]

I second that. There is some adjustment, but once I got the feel of it, using it was a blast--I ended up learning to enjoy the time on my computer.

Of course, I'll throw in a snapshot of my desktop.

[Knitebane]

Or....

Point browser at: http://liflg.matrixau.com/torrents/quake2_3.21-r0.16.1-english.run.torrent

Open with your choice of torrent app.

When completed:

#sh quake2_3.21-r0.16.1-english.run

Idiot.

[FLAMING DEATH]

"Of course you aren't, you're too busy perpetrating the fraud that it's easy to convert when reality admits even IBM can't succesfully do it."

You don't have to lie to find things to argue about with me, Turkey. I never said it was "easy" (name where I did), i.e., that you would pick up and be using it the next day without problem. It's just not as impossible as you'd make it out to be. Heck, I did it, and to hear you talk, I'm not exceptionally bright. So, there's no doubt that the average user could learn if they would put their mind to it. Now, if they were a user like you, who lapses into Barney Fife hysterics at the mere mention of the words "command line", that might be a problem. But all users are not like you (thank heavens!).

"And why should you, since that radical leftist Stallman owns most of the copyrights to GNU/Linux software anyway. So you saved $100, but sold out capitalism in the process. It's too bad that guy is so much smarter than all of his obvious pawns."

First off, I saved way more than $100, because I have Linux running on three computers at home (soon to be four) and five computers at work. You do the math.

You clearly have no idea what capitalism is, moron. If I can pay less (or even nothing) for a product that I prefer, that's capitalism. If I must buy what you say I should buy, even though it's not what I want, that's not capitalism. Freerepublic recognizes this...why do you think they use Linux?

Besides, none of the money spent on my software ended up in the pockets of the Chicoms or the Democrats, like yours did.

P.S. - To all - Wouldn't it be fun if we had a betting pool to see who could get closest to the time that Turkey here utters his next "radical leftist Stallman" on the next thread?

[N3WBI3]

See post 77, going out and finding poorly written hand installs when binary packages are out there is a really sad way to try and salvage the joke you have made of youself on this thread..

[N3WBI3]

Dont forget, Knight, that most Linux UI's (KDE, Gnome, XFCE, ...) Will even let you click on that file to run it..