Author Topic: Installing on Linux - problems  (Read 2667 times)

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Offline J-H

  • 22
Installing on Linux - problems
I've been running Ubuntu on my new computer for a week or two, so I'm still pretty new to it.  I've found that most of the "guides" online omit key details and assume that anyone reading them knows how to do things like "get stuff from your repository when you don't know what it's called" or "how to make sure you download a half dozen components and put them in the place they need to go so that they automatically work."  This includes the FS2Open installation guide.

I've gotten as far as getting FS2 (base) working on Ubuntu.  However, the FS2 Open .AppImages I've downloaded flat out do not run.  I click on them, I hit Run, and nothing at all happens.
I've downloaded the zip (tar.gz, whatever that stands for) for the WX Launcher, but the "go download these things, install them, and by the way we don't tell you where or how" directions have me baffled.  What am I missing?

So far my experience with Ubuntu is that getting things to work on Linux is somewhat harder, less reliable, and less stable than Windows 95.  I regularly question whether or not it's worth putting up with the massive privacy holes of Win10 just to make sure that I can spend time using my computer instead of dealing with all this undocumented obscure wizardry.  I'm fine with the hardware, but everything under the hood is seriously obscure after two decades of understanding how Windows works.

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
The appImages are fairly new & haven't had a lot of testing. They're supposed to make things easier, they're obviously not working for you :(

Did you use the FSO Installer to download & install Freespace Open?
http://www.fsoinstaller.com/
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline J-H

  • 22
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
None of the links I saw pointed to that file :(

I have it downloaded and the .jar unzipped, but there do not appear to be any executable files... just a bunch of .txt files, .class files, etc.

  

Offline ngld

  • Administrator
  • 29
  • Knossos dev
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
You're not supposed to extract the .jar file. Why do people keep doing that?
The .jar file itself is the executable. If you have Java installed (and know how to open a console), you can open a terminal and run "java -jar <path to .jar file>".

What happens if you run the .AppImage files from the terminal?

 

Offline J-H

  • 22
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Because jars are meant to be opened?  Java was a big download at 100mb, but it's in and the installer seems to be running.

Thanks!

FS2Open was fun to play through a few years ago, and THIS computer is actually modern and up to date (the first time I've been top-of-the line since 1999).  It will be good to play at 60fps.

 
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
You're not supposed to extract the .jar file. Why do people keep doing that?
That's because of a stupid Java design decision, regular Java Archive and runnable java archive have the same file extension, and from a glance, there's no easy way to differentiate the two.

Because of that, you've got operating systems assuming that .jar files are all archives and open them with their default archive manager.

Thus, people assume they need to extract the archive and do something with its contents.

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
I've never tried double clicking on a jar in Linux, so I figured I should try it. And damn, stupid thing DOES open like an archive. I then tried right click -> open with -> OpenJDK Java 8 runtime... and it complains about the executable bit not being set.  So yeah, stupid design decisions indeed, which luckily I've never come across because I've always run java stuff from the command line...

Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline Mongoose

  • Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
  • Global Moderator
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  • This brain for rent.
    • Minecraft
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Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Aren't there utilities that allow an executable .jar to essentially be wrapped in a native executable file?  (This one seems to be a popular choice for Windows .exes, based on a quick search.)  I wonder if it might be worth doing so, since this seems to be one of the most common Installer support issues.

 

Offline jr2

  • The Mail Man
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    • Steam
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Aren't there utilities that allow an executable .jar to essentially be wrapped in a native executable file?  (This one seems to be a popular choice for Windows .exes, based on a quick search.)  I wonder if it might be worth doing so, since this seems to be one of the most common Installer support issues.

I mentioned that.  I forget how long ago.  Back with Turey's Installer?  No, I think he did have a wrapper.  Must've been the first edition of the new Installer then.  No one realizes just how little most people know about computers.  Honestly, you can't really blame them either, the whole point of a GUI is simplicity, and double-click always meant "do the default action on this item", and if that's opening in an archive manager, well, what else are people supposed to think?

 

Offline LapsedPacifist

  • 23
  • May, or may not be a GCU
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Uh, wouldn't it be better to have new users on Ubuntu  install the deb packages from the repo via Synaptic or whatever frontend for apt they're using these days?
« Last Edit: May 31, 2017, 11:47:13 am by LapsedPacifist »

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Only issue is that they're behind what's current, e.g. the link you shared only has 3.7.2 rather than 3.7.4. Otherwise yes, that's a good idea.
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline LapsedPacifist

  • 23
  • May, or may not be a GCU
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Well, I'd imagine that the newer package (if there is one) hasn't filtered through from Debian to Ubuntu yet. Is there a PPA we can use in these situations?

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
I don't think so, just needs someone to create one, and of course the hard part, own it long term. I tried setting up a PPA ages back but got lost in the contradictory documentation on setting it up for multiple versions of Ubuntu & lost interest. I'm probably missing something, there's so many PPAs out that that the problem would have been me rather than PPAs :)
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline J-H

  • 22
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Ok, WXlauncher took a long time to install and I had a busy week.  I have a bunch of subfolders for the mods, mediavps, campaigns, etc.

Now, where is the darn executable (or whatever it's called) to click on to actually RUN Wxlauncher to start the game with?  The wxlauncher-release-0.10.1 folder does not contain anything other than subfolders and text documents.

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
It seems that wxLauncher for Linux is just the code, you need to compile it yourself to make it work.

Or, as long as you're not planning to run 3.8.0RC1 or the nightly builds any time soon; just install the version from the Ubuntu repos. Run the following from the terminal.

Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install freespace2-launcher-wxlauncher

Or if you don't want to use the command line/terminal; search for & install "freespace2-launcher-wxlauncher" in the Ubuntu Software Centre (or software manager, sorry, I forget the precise name)
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline J-H

  • 22
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
I can get the launcher to run now, but hitting "Play" gets no reaction.  There are a couple of popups about missing something that are (per Google) usually associated with OpenAL.  Still not working even with OpenAL on.
I don't know how to get it to show the popups again.

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Do you have libopenal1 installed? I thought Ubuntu installed it by default, but it's worth checking. Run the following in a terminal & check if your output matches mine.

Code: [Select]
$ dpkg -s libopenal1
Package: libopenal1
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 496
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <[email protected]>
Architecture: amd64
Multi-Arch: same
Source: openal-soft
Version: 1:1.16.0-3
Depends: libopenal-data (= 1:1.16.0-3), libc6 (>= 2.16)
Pre-Depends: multiarch-support
Recommends: libasound2 (>= 1.0.16), libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1)
Suggests: libportaudio2 (>= 19+svn20101113)
Description: Software implementation of the OpenAL audio API (shared library)
 OpenAL, the Open Audio Library, is a joint effort to create an open,
 vendor-neutral, cross-platform API for interactive, primarily spatialized
 audio. OpenAL's primary audience are application developers and desktop
 users that rely on portable standards like OpenGL, for games and other
 multimedia applications.
 .
 This library is meant as a compatible update/replacement to the OpenAL Sample
 Implementation (the SI). The SI has been unmaintained for quite a while, and
 would require a lot of work to clean up. This is a fork the old Windows version
 to attempt an accelerated ALSA version of an OpenAL implementation.
 .
 OpenAL Soft supports mono, stereo, 4-channel, 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 output, as
 opposed to the SI's 4-channel max (though it did have some provisions for 6
 channel, this was not 5.1, and was seemingly a "late" addition). OpenAL Soft
 does not support the Vorbis and MP3 extensions, however those were considered
 deprecated even in the SI. It does, though, support some of the newer
 extensions like AL_EXT_FLOAT32 and AL_EXT_MCFORMATS for multi-channel and
 floating-point formats, as well as ALC_EXT_EFX for environmental audio effects,
 and others.
 .
 This package installs the OpenAL Soft shared library.
Original-Maintainer: Debian Games Team <[email protected]>
Homepage: http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html

Also, when you run wxLauncher does the basic tab look something like this?



And can you see a list of mods (not exactly the same as this, but similar) in the mods tab?

Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline J-H

  • 22
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
Yes on all 3 fronts :)

 

Offline niffiwan

  • 211
  • Eluder Class
Re: Installing on Linux - problems
ack, OK, can you get the "FS2 Open" Executable that you selected in the launcher and run it from a terminal? Something like:

Code: [Select]
cd /YOUR/FS2OPEN/INSTALL/PATH
./fs2_open_3_7_5_x64-DEBUG_coverity-1370830-fe1e9ca

(that's the exec from my screenshot, yours will have a different name).

I guess what I'm wondering about is whether you have all the pre-requisite libraries installed for FS2Open. If you get some error about missing libraries, maybe install the 3.7.2 version of FS2Open from the Ubuntu software centre just to get the pre-reqs installed. You don't actually want to run that version if you have a more recent version available, and it works.
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...