[northtwilight]

Sorry to start a new topic, but I'm at the end of my tether trying to figure out what the hell is going on with FS2Open on Debian AMD64.

It consistently freezes me out of X, such that I cannot Ctrl-Alt-Delete out and have to hard-reset the machine. The keyboard freezes as well.

Which AMD64 distros work with FS2Open currently? I'm not about to change, but knowing which ones work might help in tracking down the source of the problem.

It's getting to the point where I'm seriously considering just installing FS2Open on a separate Windows box in my home network, and having done with it, but FS2 has a special and sentimental place for me on Linux, so I'd like to get it working properly on the OS if at all possible.

I have the retail mediaVPs in a separate folder, symlinked to the working FS2Open folder. I have other symlinks to the replacement 3.6.9zeta mediaVPs as well. I did this on my previous i386/x86 box, same distro, without problems at all, so I'm thinking it must have something to do with the specific layout of files under the AMD64 implementation on Debian...

[taylor]

I have used FC4, FC5, and now FC6, all 64-bit, all working perfectly with FSO.  Also, I do have a NVIDIA card and use their drivers (package managed versions, not the same package they distribute).

I also know that it works perfectly out-of-the-box with 64-bit Ubuntu, or at least that's what I've been told.

I'm not sure why you've had so many problems, but it sounds too much like distro issues (few distros actually work all that well with 64-bit at the moment).  You could try Ubuntu (since it's based on Debian, it should be closest to what you are used to) and see if that helps the situation any.

[northtwilight]

Thank you Taylor, I suspected it might be that. I hope 64-bit Ubuntu works (am privately pessimistic, though ...), so I'll get the torrent sorted out, and back up the non-essential parts of the filesystem, and let you know how it goes.

I'll put 64bit Ubuntu on a separate drive to see it in isolation.

Cheers
Mass

[WMCoolmon]

I was able to get fs2_open working under Ubutu64, although I think that I had to install a few additional packages to get it working. To be fair, though, it was version 5.04 or so, and I was compiling fs2_open from scratch.

[northtwilight]

I was able to get fs2_open working under Ubutu64, although I think that I had to install a few additional packages to get it working. To be fair, though, it was version 5.04 or so, and I was compiling fs2_open from scratch.

Thanks for this. I compile it from scratch as well.

I've been away from my machine for the last two weeks, but I crashed the Ubuntu64 (6.10) install just prior to leaving. Which actually makes me think that it could be corrupted files from the retail CDs I have.

I borked the FC6 64 install when I tried to upgrade via yum or something, so perhaps I'll have to try that again.

[Zantor]

If your CD are scratched, especially of they're scratched up pretty bad, then I'd say it's the origin retail files that are giving you all the trouble.

I don't use linux much, but seeing it work on the AMD64 architecture is very exciting--I'm an AMD enthusiast.

[nodens]

FYI, I use fs2_open on Debian AMD64, with the latest nvidia drivers (from the experimental repository). I did have stability problem using CVS, but it's all gone now. I use Sid, though. What debian version do you use ?

Anyway, you should try using Magic SysRQ keys  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key) to kill X before hitting reset. It often works. "k" is the one you want. If it doesn't work, try "e", "i", "s", "u", and "b" magic SysRQ in this order, to limit filesystem corruption risk. Another thing worth trying is using ssh from another box, if you have one, display freezes seldom affect the whole system.