Topic: Linux for Dummies?

[Lepton]

fixme:winsock:NtStatusToWSAError Status code c0000024 converted to DOS error code 6

I was getting this output in the terminal when connected to dynaverse and in mission.  I am assuming that this is happening every time the program checks in with the server.  Didn't seem to make any difference to the gameplay but it was there nonetheless.

[Bonk]

Online.  This is pretty cool.

eexxxxcceeelleennnttt... a partner in crime. I am very happy that you duplicated a D2 login. I only managed to test one multiplayer mission with deadman and marstone and it ran fine till the end of the mission when it seems I lost connection.

I have also found the best results with the ALSA drivers. Though at one point I had a combination of OSS for KDE and ALSA for wine, both emulating hardware acceleration with the KDE sound buffer maxed out gave an almost perfect result, though I could not duplicate it. Otherwise I have found that using either OSS or ALSA for KDE and Wine with both at low bitrates I get a a pretty similar result though ALSA is a bit better.

I started experimenting with a shell script to launch OP under Wine in its own X session when I discovered that Wine is releasing pretty much biweekly!      In the process of updating wine and installing the ubuntu restricted packages my dial up connection died mid update and borked my apt db, so finally after bringing it back to life manually I have started a fresh wine config with a clean install of 0.9.46 (additional directx fixes but nothing for our sound yet...).  I also intend to use the latest version of the Miles Sound System (mss32.dll) used in OP along with Pestalence's selected dlls in the "OP stability update" to see if that might help. I found using the stability update dlls did help, newer Miles might too...

So once I get my new Wine/OP install back to where I left off (but without the full Directx install this time, just the dplay overrides and my own 9.0c copies instead of the 98se ones in that link), I intend to start messing about with scripts to launch OP in an optimised (probably exclusive) environment.

[yochenhsieh]

I have no sound issues in my install, my spec:
Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring (2007.1)
wine 0.9.46
Running on my acer laptop with Realtek AC'97.
Prodedure:
1)Install wine.
2)Install SFCOP, just cd to your cdrom drive and run
wine Setup.exe
3)Install Patch. Note that the patch will not run. So you have to run it manually, cd to your SFCOP folder, and run
wine Patch.exe PATCHSFCOP-2500-2552.RTP
4)Run
wine SFCOPSetupMFC.exe
and choose software mode, 800x600. Directdraw HAL is SLOW, don't use it.
5)Done! Run
wine SFCOP.exe
and enjoy.

I don't use any dll override. Audio tab in winecfg is set to alsa, 44100 sampling rate, 16bit. I also have ARTS enabled in KDE control center.

[Nemesis]

So far I haven't been able to emulate your successes but it is nice to know it is possible.  Thanks guys.

[Bonk]

I have no sound issues in my install, my spec:
Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring (2007.1)
wine 0.9.46
Running on my acer laptop with Realtek AC'97.
Prodedure:
1)Install wine.
2)Install SFCOP, just cd to your cdrom drive and run
wine Setup.exe
3)Install Patch. Note that the patch will not run. So you have to run it manually, cd to your SFCOP folder, and run
wine Patch.exe PATCHSFCOP-2500-2552.RTP
4)Run
wine SFCOPSetupMFC.exe
and choose software mode, 800x600. Directdraw HAL is SLOW, don't use it.
5)Done! Run
wine SFCOP.exe
and enjoy.

I don't use any dll override. Audio tab in winecfg is set to alsa, 44100 sampling rate, 16bit. I also have ARTS enabled in KDE control center.

That's good to hear. What is the processor in the laptop, and how much RAM?

[yochenhsieh]

That's good to hear. What is the processor in the laptop, and how much RAM?

CPU: Intel Pentium-M "Dothan" 1.5Ghz
RAM: DDR333 512MB (256+256)
GPU: ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 64MB

[Bonk]

Poop. That business of "Wine in its own X session" is messing me up now that I need OP on Linux. I can't remember what I did and didn't document it here!

This will take a little digging.

Oh wait, that's not it, It must be the new video card. I'll disable hardware for now till I can dig up some linux nvidia drivers.

Nope, that didn't do it...  well I have a newer Kubuntu and Wine version that drb brought to me on CD, I guess I'll try that.

[Bonk]

Double poop. I did a fresh Kubuntu/Wine/OP install and running OP now crashes X.

I guess it does not like the Nvidia card. I'm thinking I just might put my old Matrox back in. Matrox has been writing Linux video drivers for longer than Nvidia has been in existence.

I love my old 32MB Matrox Millenium G450 - best video card evar!

Anybody interested in a $40 256MB BFG GeForce FX 5500?

[Bonk]

Yay! I got OP going again by installing the proprietary nvidia drivers.

Looks like Wine's built in directx support is still not up to directplay yet, so I'll try throwing in those Win98 generation direcplay dlls, and see if I can get to where I left off.

[Bonk]

Yup, that did it, got to the serverlist. I still have stuttering sound issues though. I wonder if any directsound library overrides might help?  Cool, now I'm back to where I was on this before I changed the video card at least.

[Pestalence_XC]

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

Incorrect, just Download Vista Codec Package for your version of windows.. if 32 bit, you want the x86 package, if you have 64 bit, you want the x64 package..

After that Download and install XVid, and then finally download and install DivX.

that will give you 99% of the codecs you need to play any movie on the net...

I would also install Quicktime as well for *.mov files, but other than that, I have had no problems playing movies in AVI format...

[Bonk]

Or you can just install VLC. 

(P.S. I strongly advise against installing Quicktime on Windows, I've reinstalled XP only once, it was in the first year and because of Quicktime. Granted that was a long time ago, Apple may be less malicious to Microsoft by now.)

[Pestalence_XC]

I have never had an issue with Quicktime on Windows and I have been using Quicktime and Windows since Windows 3.1

It is possible that you got malicious content in a file you were playing in Quicktime.. Quicktime security didn't build up until v6.5

now they are on v7

Since apple is becoming more MS compliant because of I-Pods and I-Phones and so forth, they really have to conform to MS standards or lose out on their most lucrative market.

so security of Quicktime is much higher and integrates well into Windows now.. the only thing I would recommend is not to use a Google or Yahoo tool bar on your system (spyware).. Also, to keep Quicktime from starting with Windows is to go into the Quicktime folder and find QTTask.exe and rename it QTTask.old.. that way it doesn't pre-load at system start.

other than that.. it works great... I watch all the High Def trailers with it.

all my other movies and High def material, I just use Windows Media Player 11.. with the Vista Package and Div X, and Vista's native Codecs as well as the NVidia current drivers, if you vid card is High Def capable, the playback is High Def.

I have had this system running since I built it.. 0 issues except OP and the D2...

That is why I am opening a shop for streamlining XP and Vista as well as Optimazation and upgrades.. I'm also going to offer Custom Builds, however I am going to be very limited on that end..

[Bonk]

Good stuff to know. I don't think I even got to the point of playing a file when I had it installed. I was so offended by the aggressive install, taking file associations and startup entries and tray applets... I tried to immediately uninstall it and was unable to. So I formatted the disk and reinstalled windows. (It was early on and I had not installed much else). Understandably, I have not touched it since, probably never will, despite your assurances, which I do have the considerable faith in.


Anyway, back to my OP on linux notes: I tried using a dsound library override using a directx9 dll, which not work at all - It did yield some rather psychedelic effects though!

[Nemesis]

Well Bonk I copied my games directory from my Windows 2000 Pro machine to my LinuxMint 4.0 machine just to see how it works.  OP still doesn't work (its crashing X), Galactic Civiizations 2 Dark Avatar recognizes its on a different machine and doesn't go on (I'll have to try a fresh install after I dig out the disks sometime).  Never Winter Nights 1 works, I don't have speakers hooked up so I'm not sure if the sound is working or not.  Spaceward Ho! works. 

No real tweaking yet.   It is nice that some things are working though.

[Bonk]

No, no... don't just copy directories over. Install the latest wine. Setup the fake windows drive. Mount the OP setup cd, run a "wine setup.exe" from the CD root and install to the fake windows drive program files directory. Then install the patch and OP+ similarly and run the OP setup util selecting hardware or software accel and resolution (EzINI installs and works under wine as well). Finally, add the wine directplay overrides linked above.

Note: the patch will throw you, it's output goes to the a console but will still launch a wine window to show the readme, which obscures the console window... I run the patch in the folder I've downloaded it to from the console with a "wine PatchBLAH.exe"

What video card do you have? Are there proprietary drivers for it? Have you tried them? If not have you tried running the op setup and using software emulation as Lepton did?

Also check the wine configurations for graphics and sound, set them appropriately to match what you have selected in the OP setup utility.


EDIT: PS you may need to edit the SFC.ini directly as it seems that the setup util will dump the changed lines into a new sfc.ini file in your home folder (you can use it's values to edit the actual one)

[Nemesis]

No, no... don't just copy directories over. Install the latest wine.

I have the latest Wine (0.9.58) installed and I already did a fresh OP install (neither of which did I remember to state).  Neither the fresh install nor the copied versions do more than crash X.  It does run the "intro movie" if I let it before it crashes (I've tried both start files just in case).  I probably need to do what you posted about doing earlier, change the colour depth to 16 bit.  I haven't gotten around to trying that yet.

I was quite surprised that it handled the Never Winter Nights 1 copy, that was unexpected.  I've previously had Total Annihilation work as well as the Spaceward Ho!.

I was playing around with the Spaceward Ho! and some headphones and it doesn't look like the sound is working.  I'll have to look at that.  I do want to be able to play movies on it once I hook up the speakers.

[Bonk]

That is exactly the behaviour I saw here with my new nvidia card before I installed the restricted drivers. (Was not an issue with my old Matrox card as they're OS Linux driver veterans, most dist's bundled drivers make full use of the card - not so for ATI or NVIDIA - I love matrox, I wish I could afford a new one... and they're based in hip Montreal!)

[Nemesis]

Envy doesn't find restricted drivers for either of the Linux desktops (ATi Radeon 9000 in one and an Asus card based on the nVidia EN7100GS chipset) unfortunately.  Hopefully that will change sometime soon.

[Bonk]

Support for the ATI fragment shader has been added in wine 0.9.59 but I exepect that wont help you without the proper drivers. Does ATI distribute a shell installer for their drivers like nvidia does? Always dicey working with somehtiung like that outside a package manager though...

Check out this post:
http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163374290.msg1122872277.html#msg1122872277
(just want to link that post of mine here... some interesting developments...)