Topic: Linux for Dummies?

[Hexx]

Hey all

So might be having to get a new hard drive (very very low speeds on mine atm)
Unfortunately looks like my XP cd's were in one of the missing boxes when I moved (figures)

Anyway, not really looking to spend big $$$$ on buying anotehr copy of XP, and I've heard that vista won't let me watch a bunch of the movies/TV I've downloaded
so I was thinking of trying Linux.

Only questions are
1)- Does Linux work for people who have no idea about computers, or is it more of a OS for people who know their stuff

2) Can I play Op with Linux?

3) How hard is it to install as the OS?

[Lepton]

Hey all

So might be having to get a new hard drive (very very low speeds on mine atm)
Unfortunately looks like my XP cd's were in one of the missing boxes when I moved (figures)

Anyway, not really looking to spend big $$$$ on buying anotehr copy of XP, and I've heard that vista won't let me watch a bunch of the movies/TV I've downloaded
so I was thinking of trying Linux.

Only questions are
1)- Does Linux work for people who have no idea about computers, or is it more of a OS for people who know their stuff

2) Can I play Op with Linux?

3) How hard is it to install as the OS?

1.  It certainly can be good for average folks if you go with a no-brainer distribution, like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Linspire, etc.  I'd stay away from anything like Slackware or Debian.  The problem is if you really would like to do something extraordinary on Linux you're going to have to do a lot of things manually, but web browsing, music, word processing, etc is all pretty straight forward.

2.  Not that I know of.  You'd have to try to play it using WINE (free software) or Cedega (pay software).  Firesoul seemed to have got it working once but whenever I have attempted to, it's a no-go.

3.  Pretty easy.  Something like Ubuntu will guide you through the install, partition your hard drive for you and shrink your other partitions if you want to have both Windows and Linux on the same computer, etc, etc.  I installed Ubuntu on my laptop about a month ago and it was all smooth sailing.  It shrunk my Windows install down, installed Ubuntu, and I have encountered little to no problems with either the Windows or Linux side of things.

I'm sure others will pop their heads in here and give you recommendations, but if you are looking to play OP, and your XP disks are nowhere to be found, I think you are screwed.

[Nemesis]

1)- Does Linux work for people who have no idea about computers, or is it more of a OS for people who know their stuff

There are versions for the "expert" and for novices.  I suggest LinuxMint.

2) Can I play Op with Linux?

It is theoretically possible but I wouldn't count on it. 

3) How hard is it to install as the OS?

LinuxMint installed with minimum skill required for me.

[Bonk]

HOLY CRAP! I did it! (well really the guys at Kubuntu and Wine...)

I got OP running on Linux!     

I only got two screenshots so far, setup and the CD Key prompt. Not surprisingly the same kind of tricks to setting up OP under Wine on Linux are similar to the usual issues on windows.

Long story short - Kubuntu 7.04 (I like KDE better + K3b, Amorak... etc), I used the built in Adept package manager to install firefox and wine (0.9.45 I think it was) Make adjustments to wine in kubuntu's system setting applet if needed, though the default should be fine to start. First I tried Deus Ex, it ran pretty much out of the box, I was amazed. On to OP... install from CD no problem. Installed the patch,,. no problem, installed OP+4 with models, no problem... Many crashes and lockups later I find the shortcuts need to be edited with the working directory much as in windows, Tried hardware 3D with no luck, I installed DirectX 8.1NT in my Wine install (I know...), still no hardware, but ran the OP Setup utility (which needed the shortcut fix) to set it to software rendering at 800x600 and wow, it ran! I gleefully I entered my CD key and watched in awe as a D7 killed my CA in a quick skirmish. 

(Oh yeah, i had to set my desktop to 16 bit color my manually editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf and restarting, as some of the wine debug output indicated an inability to change it through its directx interfaces.)

It was a litte choppy, but by computer is a little old... this would probably work better on a newer machine. I'll post the screenshots I have and try to get it running windowed for better demo screenshots.

I'll post more detailed and organised instructions later, I'd like to see this duplicated.

More soon... would be nice to see hardware 3D... I have an old card, might make a difference.

[Bonk]

Some snapshots of the game running in windowed mode, though as with windows its finicky about that (mouse focus issues), especially while taking screenshots...  I think what's lagging it for me is the sound, I'll fiddle with Wine's sound settings to see if that helps (using OSS currently), and back to full screen..

[Bonk]

OK, sound is definitely a problem (at least on my system) its too laggy and slow, I wonder if a faster computer would have the same issue? I'll try disabling it altogether.

Some links that helped me get this far:
http://frankscorner.org/index.php
http://www.winehq.org/

I also installed EzINI and it seems to work fine with wine, it even created a desktop shortcut! (Deus Ex and OP shortcuts came up in the lost and found - I just made some folders and desktop shortcuts for them)

Now the big question: networking?
EDIT: Doesn't look good for networking right now...  poop... perhaps a little research will help.

[Hexx]

Cool... Thanks Bonk!

<ponders if Bonk noticed the "for dummies" >

[Bonk]

Cool... Thanks Bonk!

<ponders if Bonk noticed the "for dummies" >

Lol, I knew you'd start with that. I did mean to note that this first attempt is not for the novice. However I might be able to make up a set of pretty clear and reliable instructions eventually.

I just got a serverlist by following the instructions here:
http://wiki.winehq.org/DirectPlayGames
and additional details in the comments here:
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=7029&iTestingId=10927

Now, I just need to solve the sound issue and test a multiplayer game!

[Dash Jones]

It would be great if you would write up an article of how to do that step by step for us simpletons and post it on a site somewhere semi-permanent to permanent!

[Bonk]

Indeed, that was my intention. I'll keep trying to get the sound lag sorted (though that may just take a faster computer), and run a  few more tests, then write an initial guide in one of the "How To" forums.

[Commander Maxillius]

I'm running Mint (ubuntu clone) and got OP to load in Wine, but missions wouldn't run.  I you could post the specs of your machine and (when you get the instructions hammered out) how-tos up, I'd be glad to run it up the pole.

my specs:
Athlon 2400+ (2.0 GHz)
512MB RAM (64MB taken for video)

[Bonk]

Cool, I'd like to see this duplicated.

When you say missions wouldn't run do you mean even skirmish missions? Or just single player campaign missions? Or just D2 missions? Or just any missons?

I'll try a single player campaign mission and see if it will launch, though I wanted to get the missions for The Forge and test a D2 login as well. So far I have only tested single player skirmish.

[Bonk]

* Bonk ...wonders if the serverkit will run under wine?...

[Bonk]

I minimized the sound lag by selecting the ALSA driveer under wine and setting the hardware to emulation at 22kHz,8bit, though it is still a problem, it might just be that my old PC does not quite have the guts to do this.

I played some singleplayer campaign missions no problems and logged in to the D2 and multiplayer worked surprisingly well, I crashed out of one mission taking desktop screenshots (old hardware again) and managed to finish a second mission but lost connection at the end of the mission... very close. I'll have to test this some more, but I suppose a newer and faster computer on high speed may not see these issues.

[Hexx]

Sweet! Grats Bonk.

<still has no idea what Bonk's talking about but assumes it's important    >

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

<still has no idea what Bonk's talking about but assumes it's important >

Oh this is important and great news alright
I look forward to hearing more about this as time goes on... encourging news indeed!

[animator]

OMG if this  work i can give up windows almost entirely

[Lepton]

I've gotten the single player to work as well.  Definitely need desktop color depth set at 16 bit.  Need to set display driver with  SFCSetupMFC to Software. I used ALSA and had it set to full hardware acceleration, which resulted in very crackley sound production and a delay in playing all sound effects which is not too horrible but is able to be tolerated.  This was done under Ubuntu 7.04, Wine 0.9.33.  These are much the same problems that I had when I tried to run OP on my old 500 Mhz PIII machine, except video was intermittent at best and sounds were very delayed.  This is now a AMD64 3000+, so things are certainly better, but not as good as I would like.  I am going to try it with esound instead of alsa and see if that makes any difference.  Thanks for looking into this again, Bonk.  I had pretty much given up on OP uinder linux but it is looking pretty good from here.

[Lepton]

This sound card's driver does not support direct access
The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
This sound card's driver does not support direct access
The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.

This was the output I got when switching to esound.  Sound playback was entirely not functional.  At present stick with alsa.

[Lepton]

Online.  This is pretty cool.