diff --git a/LDP/howto/docbook/Linux-Gamers-HOWTO.sgml b/LDP/howto/docbook/Linux-Gamers-HOWTO.sgml new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a8fc5158 --- /dev/null +++ b/LDP/howto/docbook/Linux-Gamers-HOWTO.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,2018 @@ + + +
+ + + + The Linux Gamers' HOWTO + LG-HOWTO + + + Peter + Jay + Salzman + +
+ p(at)dirac.org +
+ + + + + + 0.9.1 + 2002-01-03 + Converted to docbook + + + + + + 2001 + Peter Jay Salzman + + + + + p(at)dirac(dot)org / + http://www.dirac.org/p. + + + Distributed subject to the GNU General Public License, version 2. + + + + + Abstract + + The same questions get asked repeatedly on Linux related mailing + lists and news groups. Many of them arise because people don't know as + much as they should about how things “work” on Linux, at least, + as far as games go. + + This document is a stepping stone to get the most common problems + resolved and to give people the knowledge to begin thinking intelligently + about what is going on with their games. Just as with anything else on + Linux, you need to know a little more about what's going on behind the + scenes with your system to be able to keep your games healthy or to + diagnose and fix them when they're not. + + I hope that this document will reduce the traffic and educate + people. I'm no expert at this stuff, so I hope that some guru out there + will tell me that I got something wrong and correct my understanding. + + + + + + + +Administra + + I'll keep it short. If you have ideas, comments, corrections or + questions relating to this HOWTO, please email me. By receiving feedback + on this howto (even if I don't have the time to answer), you make me feel + like I'm doing something useful. In turn, it motivates me to write more + and add to this document. You can reach me at p(at)dirac(dot)org. My web + page is www.dirac.org/p and my Linux + pages are at www.dirac.org/linux. + Please do send comments and suggestions for this howto. Even if I don't + take your suggestions, your input is graciously received. + + + I assume a working knowledge of Linux, so I use some topics like + runlevels and modules without defining them. If there are enough questions + (or even protests!) I'll add more basic information to this document. + + + + + Authorship and Copyright + + This document is copyright (c) 2001 Peter Jay Salzman. Permission is + granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of + the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1, except for the provisions + I list in the next paragraph. I hate HOWTO's that include the license; it's + a tree killer. You can read the GNU FDL at + http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html. + + + If you want to create a derivative work or publish this HOWTO for + commercial purposes, contact me first. This will give me a chance to give + you the most recent version. I'd also appreciate either a copy of whatever + it is you're doing or a spinach, garlic, mushroom, feta cheese and artichoke + heart pizza. + + + + + + Thanks + + Thanks to Mike Phillips who commented extensively on the howto, + even if it is in his best interests. :) Thanks to Dmitry Samoyloff, + dsamoyloff(at) mail(dot)ru, for translating this document to Russian. I + hope he keeps up with my revisions, since I'll be adding to this document + almost every day until it reaches 0.1.0. It blew my mind when he first + told me that he was translating my words to Russian. + + + + + + Latest Version + + The latest version can be found at + http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/lgh/LG-HOWTO/ + and http://www.dirac.org/writing. + + + + + + + Translations + + Dmitry Samoyloff, dsamoyloff(at)mail(dot)ru, is the maintainer of + the Russian translation of this HOWTO. The most recent version can be + found at http://linuxgames.hut.ru/data/docs/HOWTO/LG-HOWTO-ru.html. + + + + + + + TODO + + Discuss gaming under wine and dosemu. Discuss transgaming.com. + Fill in sections on meices, GGI, Simulations and Strategy. + + + + + + + + + +Definitions: Types Of Games + + Not everyone knows the different types of games that are out there, + so in an effort to form a common language that we can all use, I'll run + through each game type and provide a very brief history. + + + + Arcade Style + + Arcade style games refer to any game not covered by the rest of + the categories. It covers a vast expanse of games: card and board games + (solitaire, monopoly), classics (Missile Command, Asteroids), brain + teezers (Master Mind, chess), old favorites (Lode Runner, Hunt the + Wumpus), and all the tens of millions Tetris clones. Historically, this + was just about the only thing there was available to the open source + community. To this day, the overwhelming majority of Linux games are + open source arcade games. + + + + + + Text Adventure (aka Interactive Fiction) + + Once upon a time, when Apple ][, Commodore, and Atari ruled the + world, text adventures were the game of choice of “intelligent + folk”. They were self contained executables on disks (even + casettes). These days, we're a bit more sophisticated and concerned + with elegance than that. Now there's usually a data file and an + interpreter. The interpreter reads data files and provides the gaming + interface. The data file is the actual game, and is often implemented by + a language. So for example, you you could have the two Scott Adams + datafiles “The Count.dat” and “Voodoo + Castle.dat”. To actually play the games, you'd invoke the + scottfree interpreter with the name of the datafile you wish to play. + + + The first adventure game was Adventure (actually + “ADVENT”, written on a PDP-1 in 1972). You can play + adventure yourself (actually, a descendent); it comes with “bsd + games” on most Linux distros. + + They became popularized by Scott Adams, who is widely considered + (by really old people) to be the father of text adventuring. You can + play Scott Adams adventures using scottfree, written by Alan Cox. + Scottfree needs data files; most of the old data files are now shareware, + and you can download them directly from Scott Adams' website, which I've + included in this howto. + + Text adventures climaxed in the 80's with Infocom. There are many + infocom interpreters available for Linux; the most popular one being frotz. + You still need the data files, and these are all still owned and considered + commercial property by Activision. + + As computer graphics became easier and more powerful, text + adventures gave rise to graphic adventures. The death of interactive + fiction more or less coincided with the bankruptcy of Infocom. + + + + + + Graphical Adventures + + Graphical adventures are, at heart, text adventures on steroids. + The degree to which they use graphics varies widely. Back in the 80's, + they were little more than text adventures which showed a screen of + static graphics. When you picked up an item, the background would be + redrawn without the item appearing (oooh, aaah!). The canonical example + would be the so-called `Hi-Res Adventures' like The Wizard And The + Princess. I never did make it past the snake! + + + Next there are the `point and click adventures' which basically + have no text interface at all, and often have dynamic graphics, like a + cat wandering around the room while you're deciding what to do next. In + these games, you point at an object (say, a book) and can choose from a + pull-down list of functions. Kind of object oriented adventuring. :) + + + The old-style graphical adventures are simply non-existant for + Linux. They had architecture dependent graphics hard coded into them, so + it would be inconvenient (if next to impossible) to write an interpreter + for Linux. If you want to play any of these, you're going to have to do + it on an 8-bit emulator like apple2 or + atari800. + + We don't have many point and click adventures either. The only + one I can think of is Hopkins FBI (which happens to be my favorite game + for Linux). This is definitely an under-represented class of games, + which is a reflection of the times. Most people don't seem to be very + interested in adventuring any more. + + + + + + + Simulation (aka Sims) + + Simulations strive to immerse the player behind the controls of + something they normally wouldn't have access to. This could be something + real like a fighter jet or something imaginary like a mechanized warrior + combat unit. In either case, sims strive for realism. + + Some sims have little or no strategy. They simply put you in a + cockpit to give you the thrill of piloting a plane. Some of them are + considerably more complex, and there's often a fine line between sims and + strats (see the next section). A good example would be Civilization and + SimCity 3000 (both by Loki Software). These days sims and strats are + nearly indestinguishable, but a long time ago, sims were all real time + while strats were all turn based. This is somewhat awkward for modern + day use, since a game like Warcraft which everyone knows as a + strat, would be a sim by definition. + + + + + + Strategy (aka Strats) + + Strategy games have their roots in old Avalon type board games like + Panzer Leader and old war strategy games published by SSI. Generally, they + simulate some kind of scenario. The scenario can be peaceful, like running + a successful city or illegal drug selling operation (SimCity or DrugWars). + The scenario can also be total all-out war strategy game like Myth II. The + types of games usually take a long time to complete and require a lot of + brainpower. + + Strats can be further divided into two classes: real time and turn + based. Real time strats are based on the concept of you-snooze-you-lose. + For example, you're managing a city and a fire erupts somewhere. The more + time it takes for you mobilize the fire fighters, the more damage the fire + does. Turn based strats are more like chess---the computer takes a turn + and then the player takes a turn. + + + + + + First Person Shooter (aka FPS) + + What light through yonder window breaks? It must be the flash of + the double barreled shotgun. Linux has no deficiency of FPS! We have a + long, twisted and complicated history with FPS games which started when + ID Games released the code for Doom. The code base has forked and merged + numerous times. Lots of opensource efforts like Hexen, Heretic, Dumb and + tons of others. + + First person shooters are characterized by two things. First, you + pretty much blow up everything you see. Second, the action takes place in + “first person”. That is, you are the eyes of the character + who's doing all the shooting. You may even see your hands or weapon at + the bottom of the screen. Some are set in fantasy (Doom, Hexen), others + are science fiction (Quake I, Quake II), and some are set in the present + day `real world' (SoF). + + Just like text adventures, FPS fit the engine/datafile format. The + engine refers to the actual game itself (Doom, Quake, Heretic2) and plays + out the maps and bad guys outlined by the datafile (doom2.wad, pak0.pak, + etc). Many FPS games allow people to write their own non-commercial + datafile. There are hundreds, even thousands of non-commercial Doom + datafiles that you can download for free off the net. Often, companies + discard their engines and put them into the open source community so we + can hack and improve them. However, the original data files are kept + proprietary. To this day, you still have to purchase doom.wad + . + + + + + + Side Scrollers + + Side scrollers are similar to FPS but you view your character as a + 2D figure who runs around the screen shooting at things. Examples would + be Abuse for Linux and the original Duke Nukem. + + + + + + Third Person Shooters + + Again, similar to FPS, but you view your character in third person + and in 3D. On modern third person shooters you can usually do some + really kick-butt maneuvers like Jackie Chan style back flips and side + rolls. The canonical example would be Tomb Raider. On the Linux + platform, we have Heretic 2 and Heavy Metal FAKK. + + + + + + Role Playing Game (aka RPG) + + Anyone who has played games like Dungeons & Dragons or Call of + Cthulhu knows exactly what an RPG is. You play a character, sometimes + more than one, characterized by traits (eg strength, dexterity, + constitution), skills (eg explosives, basket weaving, mechanics) and + properties (levels, cash). As you play, the character becomes more + powerful and the game adjusts itself accordingly, so instead of fighting + kobolds, at high levels you start fighting black dragons with + disintegration rays. The rewards increase correspondingly. At low levels + you might get some gold pieces as a reward for winning a battle. At high + levels, you might get a magic sword or a kick-butt assault rifle. + + RPG's generally have a quest with a well defined ending. In + nethack you need to retrieve the amulet of Yendor for your god. In Ultima + II, you destroy the evil sorceress Minax. At some point, your character + becomes powerful enough that you can “go for it” and try to + complete the quest. + + The canonical RPG on Linux is RogueInteresting + tidbit: The ncurses library can be traced back to the screen handling + routines that were written for Rogue! and its infinite + variants like Zangband and Nethack (which has infinite variants itself). + Some of them are quite complicated and are great feats of programming. + There seems to be a deficiency of commercial RPGs on Linux. If you count + all the rogue variants as being the same, there also seems to deficiency + of open source RPGs as well. + + + + + + + + + +Libraries + + We'll run through the different types of gaming libraries you'll see +under Linux. + + What is Glide? + + Glide2 is an API plus driver that accesses 3D hardware accelerated + functions on Voodoo I, II and III cards, based on chipsets manufactured + by the now defunct 3Dfx. + + Glide2 is low-level: it supports defining a view point, displaying + a texture, sending tri's and that's about it. There are some Glide2 + features which resemble OpenGL, and some which have no counterpart. + + + A program can ONLY use the special hardware acceleration features + of these cards by using the Glide2 library in one of two ways: + + + directly: they're written natively using Glide2 + + indirectly: they use Mesa+Glide2 which implements OpenGL + using Glide2 + + + Examples of games which are written natively using Glide2 are Loki + Software's Myth 2, Descent 3, Unreal Tournament, Rune and Deus Ex. The + vast majority of games used Glide2 indirectly by using Glide2 enabled + Mesa (they also have OpenGL ports). + + Glide2 is no longer proprietary. 3dfx has opened up the + specifications and source code to the open source community. + Glide2 was ported to Linux by Daryll Strauss. Also, since Glide2 + accesses the video board directly, an application that uses Glide2 will + either need to be root or setuid root. A way around this was to create + the kernel 3dfx module. This module (and the corresponding device + /dev/3dfx) allowed Glide2 hardware acceleration for non-root users of + non-setuid applications. + + Glide2 is also a dead issue. It's only implemented on XFree86 3.3 + (most people are using 4.0 these days) and is used only by Voodoo I, II + and III cards. It's a sure bet that no more games will be written with + Glide2. + + Now what about Glide3? First of all, Glide3 is not a direct API. + It exists only to support DRI on Voodoo III, IV and V boards under + XFree86 4.0. None of the games which use Glide2 to render will work + under Glide3. Typically, if the user's system supports Glide2 as a + rendering option, it will perform better. However, that is becoming a + less-common configuration these days. + + + Glide X Ver Cards Supported Notes + 2 3.3.* Voodoo I, II, III Uses the 3dfx device for non-root access. + 3 4.*.* Voodoo III, IV, V Is used by DRI on 3dfx graphics boards. + + + There are games that are written to make use of Glide2 directly + (as opposed to indirectly using Glide2 by using Glide2 enabled Mesa). + Myth2 is an example of a game written directly with Glide2, although it + can also render in OpenGL (see next question). Quake3 is an example of + an OpenGL game that can use glide2 by using Glide2 enabled Mesa. + + + + + + What is OpenGL? + + OpenGL is a high level graphics programming API originally + developed by SGI based on their previous proprietary Irix GL, and became + in industry standard several years ago. It is defined and maintained by + the Architectural Revision Board (ARB), an organization that includes + members as SGI, IBM, DEC, and Microsoft. OpenGL provides a powerful, + complete and generic feature set for 2D and 3D graphics operations. + + + There are 3 parts to OpenGL and its canonical extensions: + + + + GL: The OpenGL core calls + + GLU: The utility calls + + GLUT: Utility tools for system-independent window event + handling (mouse motion/click detection, keyboard strokes, program quit + signal handling, etc.). Also has some UI stuff that should have been + included in GLUI. + + + + OpenGL is not only an API, it's also an implementation, written by + SGI. The implementation tries to use hardware acceleration for various + graphics operations whenever available, which depends on what videocard + you have in you computer. If hardware acceleration is not possible for a + specific task, OpenGL falls back on software rendering. This means that + when you get OpenGL from SGI, if you want any kind of hardware + acceleration at all, it must be OpenGL written and compiled specifically + for some graphics card. Otherwise, all you'll get is software rendering. + The same thing is true for OpenGL clones, like Mesa. + + OpenGL is the open source equivalent to Direct3D (a component of + DirectX). The important difference being that since OpenGL is open (and + DirectX is closed), games written in OpenGL are much easier to port to + Linux while games written using DirectX at this point in time are + impossible to port to Linux. In fact, if you start from scratch, it's + almost trivial to write a game which will compile under the Linux and + Win32 platform. + + + + + What is Mesa? + + Mesa is a free implementation of the OpenGL API, designed and + written by Brian Paul. While it's not officially certified, it is an + almost fully compliant OpenGL implementation conforming to the ARB + specifications. It's reported that Mesa is even faster than SGI's own + OpenGL implementation. + + Just like OpenGL, Mesa makes use of hardware acceleration whenever + possible. This means that there are different “versions” or + “builds” of mesa depending on what kind of video card you + have. If you have a Voodoo I, II or III card, you're supposed to use + “mesa+glide2” (written by David Bucciarelli) which is the + mesa implementation of opengl that uses glide as a backend to render + certain graphical operations. + + + + + What is DRI? + + Graphics rendering has 3 players: the client application (like + Quake 3), the X server and the hardware (the graphics card). Previously, + client applications were prohibited from writing directly to hardware, + and there was a good reason for this. A program that is allowed to + directly write to hardware can crash the system in any number of ways. + Rather than trusting programmers to write totally bug free, cooperative + programs that access hardware, Linux simply disallowed it. However, that + changed with X 4.0 with Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI). Loosely, + the direct rendering infrastructure allows X clients to write 3D + rendering information directly to the video card in a safe and + cooperative manner. + + DRI gets the X server out of the way so the 3D driver (Mesa or + OpenGL) can talk directly to the hardware. This speeds things up. The + 3D rendering information doesn't even have to be hardware accelerated. + On a technical note, this has a number of virtues. + + + + Vertex data doesn't have to be encoded/decoded via GLX. + + + Graphics data doesn't have to be sent over a socket to + the X server. + + On single processor machines the CPU doesn't have to + change context between X and its client to render the graphics. + + + + + + + + What is GLX? + + GLX is the X extension used by OpenGL programs, it is the glue + between the platform independent OpenGL and platform dependent X. + + + + + What is Utah GLX? + + Utah-GLX is the precursor to DRI. It makes some different design + decisions, regarding separation of data and methods of accessing the + video card. (For instance, it relies on root privileges rather than + creating the kernel infrastructure necessary for secure access). It + provides support for (at this time) a couple cards which are not + well-supported in DRI. Particularly, the ATI Rage Pro family, S3 Virge + (although anyone using this for gaming is, well, nuts), and an open + source TNT/TNT2 driver (which is very incomplete). The TNT/TNT2 driver + is based on reverse-engineering of the obfuscated source code release of + the X 3.3 drivers by nVidia. However, they're really incomplete, and + effectively, unusable. + + As a side note, until the G400 stuff is *really* fixed in DRI, + it's also the better G400 support—but hopefully that will not be an + issue by the time this HOWTO is published. + + + + + What is xlib? + + Every once in awhile you'll see some sicko (said with respect) + write a game in xlib, otherwise I wouldn't even mention xlib here. xlib + is a set of C libraries which comprise of the lowest level of programming + for XFree86. Any graphics programming in X ultimately makes use of the + xlib library. + + It's not an understatement to say that xlib is arcane and + complicated. I'd say it's the most difficult and time consuming + programming endeavor there is. A program that simply connects to an X + server, puts up a window and does absolutely nothing else could be a 40 + line program with arcane and very long-named functions. Because of this, + there are lots of libraries which hide the details of xlib programming. + Some of these libraries focus on drawing in windows (like SDL). Other + libraries are more concerned with widgets within windows (eg pulldown + menus, radio buttons and text boxes); these types of libraries are + appropriately named widget sets. Gtk is the canonical widget set on + Linux, but there are many others like fltk (a small widget set for use + with C++), Xaw and Qt (the widget set of KDE). You might have heard of + Motif; that's what Netscape uses. Motif used to be king of the unix + world, but was VERY expensive to license. The Open Group opened up + Motif's license, but it was too little too late. Lesstif (a Motif + clone), Gtk and Qt were the supreme widget sets. + + + + + What is SDL? + + SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) is a library by Loki Software's Sam + Lantiga (graduate of UCD, yeah!!). It's actually a meta-library, meaning + that not only is it a graphics library which hides the details of xlib + programming, it provides an easy interface for sound, music and event + handling. It's LGPL'd and provides joystick and OpenGL support as well. + The 40 line arcane program I mentioned in the xlib section can easily be + written in 6 lines of straightforward code using SDL. + + The most striking part of SDL is that it's a cross platform + library. Except for a few details about header files and compiling, a + program written in SDL will compile under Linux, *BSD, Windows*, MacOS + and BeOS. There are SDL extentions written by various people to do + things like handle any graphics format you care to mention, play mpeg + movies, display truetype fonts, sprite handling and just about everything + under the sun. Clearly, SDL is an example of what all graphics libraries + should strive for. The one deficiency is a lack of documentation (sigh), + but I understand an SDL book is on its way. If you're a game programmer, + do the rest of the world a favor and use SDL. + + Sam had an ulterior motive for writing such a cool library. He's + the lead programmer for Loki Software, which has used SDL in all of its + games except for Quake3. + + + + + What is GGI? + + GGI is seemingly now-defucnt project which headed for implementing + graphics abstraction layer uniformly to lower code duplication, ease + graphics hardware support in one place and bring higher stability and + portability, also replacing svgalib, fb, and X servers dealing directly + with hardware. + + GGI was supposed to have a kernel module inserted into the Linux + source code but Linus thought their code wasn't ready for production + kernels. There was brief talk about making *BSD their main platform. + It's been ages since I've heard anything about GGI. + + + + + What is SVGAlib? Frame buffer? Console? + + In case nobody told you, the console is the dark non-graphical + screen you look at when your computer first boots up (and you don't have + have xdm or gdm running). This is opposed to the X environment which has + all sorts of GUI things like xterms. It's a common misconception that X + means graphics and console means “no graphics”. There are + certainly graphics on the console—they are extremely fullscreen, + extremely fast, and extremely compelling. + + SVGAlib is a graphics library that lets you draw graphics on the + the console. There are many games that use SVGAlib, and I happen to be a + big fan of this library and of graphical console games in general. + SVGAlib gets a small rap on the knuckes because executables need to be + run by root or be setuid, but the library only needs to run as root when + the application first starts. It releases rootly status immediately. + + + Frame buffers are like the console, but they're implemented as a + graphics mode rather than a text mode. Why would you want to simulate + text mode from a graphical environment? This allows us to run graphical + things, like postscript viewers from the console environment. It also + allows us to pick and choose not only what font size we want our console + to be, but what font we want console text to be! Imagine having a + console font of Comic Sans MS? There is a good Frame Buffer howto + available from LDP. + + + + + What is OpenAL? + + OpenAL aims to be for sound what OpenGL is for graphics. Jointly + developed by Loki Software and Creative Labs, it sets out to be a vendor + neutral and cross platform API for audio. It is licensed LGPL and the specs + can be had for free from the OpenAL website. + + + + + + + + +Definitions: Video Card and 3D Terminology + +We'll cover some terminology that you'll see when reading about games in +general. This stuff prolly isn't crucial to actually getting a game working, +but will help when deciding what hardware is best for you. + + + T&L: Texture and Lighting + + The T&L instruction set on a video card allws it to proces all + the texture and lighting effects in a video game, as oppposed to + transferring them to be processed by the CPU. This obviously increases + the speed of the game. Not many games use T&L yet, but one notable + exception is Quake3. + + + + + FSAA: Full Screen Anti-Aliasing + + FSAA is "Full Screen Anti-Aliasing". Anti-aliasing is an artist's + technique for rendering an image, scaling it to a larger resolution and + then rescaling it back down to the smaller resolution. This has the + effect of eliminating the "jaggies"; random pixels that make curved + surfaces look uncurved or broken. FSAA dramatically improves a game's + visuals but can degrade overall performance by lowering the framerate + since the video card has to render multiple images for every task. + + + + + + + + + + + +XFree86 and You + + If you're going to game under X, it's crucial that you know a bit + about X. I think the "X Window User HOWTO", and especially "man + XF86Config" should be *required* reading. Don't short change yourself. + Read them. They have an extremely high "information to space" ratio. + Many problems can be fixed easily if you know your way around the + XF86Config (or XF86Config-4) file. + + + Getting information about your X system + + + Probeonly + + There are many ways to get information about your X system. A + popular method is using probeonly. From a console (and without X already + running), type: + + X -probeonly 2> X.out + + Yes, that's a single dash; so much for standards. The output of + X goes to stderr, so we have to redirect stderr with "2>" to a file named + X.out. This file pretty much has everything there is to know about X. + Go ahead and look at it. It's chock full of useful information. It's + crucial that you know the difference between the different the various + markers: + + + (--) probed (**) from config file (==) default setting + (++) from command line (!!) notice (II) informational + (WW) warning (EE) error (??) unknown. + + + Here's an example of what useful information I can glean from my + output: + + + I'm running at 16 bpp color: + + (**) TDFX(0): Depth 16, (--) framebuffer bpp 16 + + X has detected what my videocard chipset and videoram are: + + + (--) Chipset 3dfx Voodoo5 found + (--) TDFX(0): VideoRAM: 32768 kByte Mapping 65536 kByte + + + As I said, it's all here. Sometimes it's hard to find what + you're looking for. Also, if X is already running, you'll have to kill + it first, and sometimes you don't want to have to do this. There are + other ways of getting information about X, but I don't think any of them + have the wealth of knowledge that this method gives. We'll cover them + shortly. + + On Debian (and perhaps other distros?) the output of startx goes + to the file /var/log/Xfree86.0.log, so you don't have to do the + "-probeonly" business. + + + + + Getting info about your setup: xvidtune + + xvidtune is your friend when your X screen is shifted a little bit + too far to the right, or if the vertical length is too small to fit on + your monitor. However, it's a great diagnostic tool also. It'll give + you: + + + the hsync/vsync range specified in your XFree86Config file + + the 4 horizontal and 4 vertical numbers which defines your + videomode (the 1st horizontal/vertical numbers gives the screen resolution). + These 8 numbers will tell you which modeline your X uses. See the XFree86 + Video Modetiming Howto for more information. + the "dot clock" your videocard is running at. + + + + + + + Getting info about your setup: xwininfo + + xwininfo tells you all sorts of information about X windows. And + actually, your "background" or "root" window is considered a window too. + So when xwininfo asks you to click on the window you want the information + on, click on your background. It'll tell you things like: + + + Screen resolutionWidth and Height + + color bpp Depth + + + + and a few other things which are interesting but not immediately + relevent to our subject, like "Window Gravity State" which tells where + new windows tend to be placed by the window manager. + + + + + Other sources of information + + xdpyinfo gives cool stuff, like X version and loaded extensions + (invaluable when trying to see what's missing, like GLX, DRI, + XFree86-VidMode, etc.). + + + + + Getting information about your 3D system + + glxinfo gives lots of useful information about OpenGL (whether + direct rendering is being used or not, the currently installed versions + of glx and mesa), vendor/renderer strings, the GL library files being + used and more. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Various Topics + + + Memory Type Register Ranges + + Starting with Pentium class processors and including Athlon, K6-2 + and other CPUs, there are Memory Type Register Ranges (MTRR) which control + how the processor accesses ranges of memory locations. Basically, it turns + many smaller separate writes to the video card into a single write (a + burst). This increases efficiency in writing to the video card and can + speed up your graphics by 250% or more. + + See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/mtrr.txt for details. Note that + since this file was written, XFree86 has been patched to automatically + detect your video RAM base address and size and set up the MTRRs. + + + + + Milking performance from your system for all it's worth + + + If for some reason you're using X 3.3, follow the instructions + given by mtrr.txt (see section 5.1) to set up your MTRRs. X 4.0 does this + automatically for you. + Don't run a window manager (wm). Some wm's like twm don't + take up much CPU cycles, but still rob you of performance. Some window + managers like enlightenment will definitely produce a noticeable slow down. + To run a game without a wm, you modify .xinitrc in your home directory. + Here is what my .xinitrc looks like: + + + #quake3 +set r_gldriver libGR.so.1 + #/usr/local/games/SinDemo/Sin + #exec ut + #lsdldoom -server 2 + #exec tribes2 + exec /usr/bin/enlightenment + + + This file tells X what client to run upon starting. Usually this is + your wm, and/or a desktop manager (GNOME or KDE). Comment out the lines + containing a wm and desktop manager with a pound sign (#) and place your + game on a new line with any command line arguments you want to pass. If + the game is not located in your $PATH, give its full path name. Note that + this is for people who use `startx' to start X. + + I never use things like gdm or run-level 5 (so I'm not positive + here), but I suspect that if you do, you'll need to do things a bit + differently. My best guess is to go to single user mode (run-level 1) + by: + + telinit 1 + + then edit .xinitrc, then go back to run-level 5 by + + telinit 5 + + Then when you stop playing, go to run-level 1, modify .xinitrc + then go back to run-level 5. I don't use this stuff, so I'm not sure, + but you may need to kill gdm. I'd appreciate some feedback on + this. + + Kill all not-essential processes. Of course you'll have to do this + as root. A better way to do this than typing "ps ax", getting ntpd's pid, + and sending it a SIGKILL (with kill -9) is to make use of pidof: + + # kill -9 `pidof ntpd` + + However, an even better alternative is to use the startup scripts on + your system. On Debian, the startup scripts for run-level 2 are located in + /etc/rc2.d/. You can kill a service in an orderly manner by sending its + startup scrip the `stop' command: + + + # cd /etc/rc2.d + # ./ntpd stop + + + Another (radical) option is to simply put yourself in single-user + mode with + + # telinit 1 + + This will even get rid of getty; your system will be running nothing + which is absolutely crucial to its operation. You'll have something like + 10 processes running. The downside is that you'll have to play the game as + root. But your process table will be a ghost town, and all that extra CPU + cycle will go straight to your game. + + + + + About libraries on Linux + + A common problem you'll see in gaming is a library file not being + found. They're kind of mysterious and have funny names, so we'll go over + libraries on Linux for a bit. There are two types of libraries, static and + dynamic. + + Static libraries are only used when you compile programs. They + contain code which gets inserted (linked) into the program being compiled + at compile time. If you've ever used the -l option when compiling a + program under gcc, you've used static libraries whether you realized it or + not. When you compile a program with -lm (for the math library) or -lSDL + (for the SDL library), gcc includes a file called libm.a and libSDL.a. Add + a "lib" to the front and a ".a" to the end and that's how you get the file + name of the static library from what gcc knows the library as. + + The .a files are really an archive of a bunch of .o (object) files + archived together, in a manner similar to how you archive files using tar. + If you want to see what functions the .a file provides the object code for, + you can use the nm command: + + + % nm /usr/lib/libm.a + ... + e_atan2.o: + 00000000 T __ieee754_atan2 + + e_atanh.o: + 00000000 T __ieee754_atanh + 00000000 r half + 00000010 r limit + 00000018 r ln2_2 + 00000008 r one + ... + + + Now where does gcc look for these files? It looks for them in + standard system directories plus any directories you specify with the -L + option. + + The other type of library is a dynamic library, also called a + "shared library" . Dynamic libraries provide code for a running + application -- code gets linked into the executable at run time (as opposed + to compile time, as is with the case of .a files). They are analagous to + the .dll's used by the evil empire. The program responsible for linking + code "on the fly" is called /etc/ld.so, and the dynamic libraries + themselves usually end with ".so", like: + + + /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0.0.0 + /lib/libncurses.so.4 + + + Where does the system look for these files? There's a file + /etc/ld.so.conf that has a list of directories that contain dynamic library + files. If you add libraries to your system, you must update this file. + Changes don't take place immediately; ld.so actually uses a cached version + of this file, /etc/ld.so.cache. To get changes in ld.so.conf into + ld.so.cache, you need to run "ldconfig" which recaches the contents of the + ld.so.conf file. + + + + + + + + +When Bad Things Happen To Good People + + Of course we can't cover every bad thing that happens, but I'll +outline some items of common sense. + + There are two types of Bad Things: random and repeatable. It's very +difficult to diagnose or fix random problems that you don't have any control +over when they happen or not. However, if the problem is repeatable "it +happens when I press the left arrow key twice", then you're in business. + + + + RTFM! + + Read the ... friendly manual. The `manual' can take on a few forms. + For open source games there's the readme files that come with the game. + Commercial games will have a printed manual and maybe some readme files on + the CD the game came on. Don't forget the game's website. The game's + author has probably seen people with your exact same problem many times + over and might put information specific to that game on the website. A + prime example of this is Loki Software's online FAQs. + + + If you hate to RTFM, at least get into the habit of grepping for + things rather than not RTFMing at all. So if your game isn't networking + correctly, you can always "grep network *". It's better than not looking + at the FM at all. But do make the attempt to read the docs; people who + only want to be spoon-fed solutions are better off with a Microsoft product + than Linux. + + + + + Look For Updates and Patches + + If you're playing an opensource game that you compiled, make sure + you have the newest version by checking the game's website. If your game + came from a distro make sure there's not an update rpm/deb for the game. + + + Commercial game companies like Loki release patches for their games. + Often a game will have MANY patches (Myth2) and some games are very + problematic without them (Heretic2). You should check the game's website + for patches whether you have a problem running the game or not! + + By the way, Loki now has an automatic utility that searches for + lokigames on your hard drive and automatically updates them. Kudos to + them, this was a great idea! Check out http://updates.lokigames.com. + + + + + + Newsgroups + + If you don't know what netnews/newsgroups/nntp/usenet is, then this + is definitely worth 30 minutes of your time to learn about. Install a + newsreader. I prefer console tools more, so I use tin, but slrn is popular + too. Netscape has a nice graphical "point and click" newsreader too. + + + For instance, here's how to connect to Loki's news server: + + + * tin -g news.lokigames.com + + Most newsreaders will connect to the newserver held in the + environment variable NNTPSERVER. You can set it with: + + + $ export NNTPSERVER=news.lokigames.com + $ tin -r + + + + Most newsreaders also look for the file /etc/nntpserver for + the news server to connect to. + + + + + + + Google + + Every post made to usenet gets archived at this website. The + archive used used to be called deja (www.deja.com) but it was bought by + google. Most people still know the archive by "deja", so I'll call it that + for now. + + You are not a true Linux user until you use deja to fix a problem. + It's almost an absolute certainty that whatever problem you have with Linux + (whether gaming related or not) has already been asked about on deja. + Moreover, chances are very good it has been answered. Not once, not twice, + but many times over. If you don't understand the first response you see + (or if it doesn't work), then you'll almost certainly have many other + replies to read and try out. Deja should be one of your first reactions to + any problem. + + Go straight to the advanced search and point your browser to: + +
+ http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search + +
+ + It's easy to use. For example, if my problem was that Quake III + crashed everytime Lucy jumps, I would enter on the "Find messages with all + of the words" textbox: + + linux quake3 crash lucy jumps + + or if you can't get sound to work on Unreal Tournament: + + linux UT sound problem + + you may want to include your soundcard in the search. There are + fields for which newsgroup you want to narrow your search to. Take the + time to read and understand what each field means. I promise you. You + won't be disappointed with this service. Use it, and you'll be a much + happier person. + + + + + Debugging: call traces and core files + + This is generally not something you'll do for commercial games. For + open source games, you can help the author by giving a corefile or stack + trace. Very quickly, a core file (aka core dump) is a file that holds the + "state" of the program at the moment it crashes. It holds valuable clues + for the programmer to the nature of the crash -- what caused it and what + the program was doing when it happened. If you want to learn more about + core files, I have a nice gdb tutorial at http://www.dirac.org/linux. + + At the *very* least, the author will be interested in the call stack + when the game crashed. Here is how you can get the call stack at + barf-time: + + Sometimes distros set up their OS so that core files (which are + mainly useful to programmers) aren't generated. The first step is to make + your system allow unlimited coresizes: + + ulimit -c unlimited + + You will now have to recompile the program and pass the -g option to + gcc (explaining this is beyond the scope of this document). Now, run the + game and do whatever you did to crash the program and dump a core again. + Run the debugger with the core file as the 2nd argument: + + $ gdb CoolGameExecutable core + + And at the (gdb) prompt, type "backtrace". You'll see something + like: + + + #0 printf (format=0x80484a4 "z is %d.\n") at printf.c:30 + #1 0x8048431 in display (z=5) at try1.c:11 + #2 0x8048406 in main () at try1.c:6 + + + It may be quite long, but use your mouse to cut and paste this + information into a file. Email the author and tell him: + + + The game's name + Any error message that appears on the screen when the game + crashes. + What causes the crash and whether it's a repeatable crash or + not. + The call stack + + + If you have good bandwidth, ask the author if he would like the core + file that his program dumped. If he says yes, then send it. Remember to + ask first, because core files can get very, very big. + + + + + Saved Games + + If your game allows for saved games, then sending the author a copy + of the saved game is very important because it will help the tech reproduce + whatever is going wrong. For commercial games, this option is more + fruitful than sending a core file or call stack since commercial games + can't be recompiled to include debugging information. Again, you should + definitely ask before sending a save game file because they tend to get + long, but a company like Loki Software has lots of bandwidth. Mike + Phillips from Loki Software mentioned that sending in saved games to Loki + is definitely a good thing. + + Needless to say, this only applies if your game crashes reproducably + at a certain point. If the game segfaults every time you run it, or is + incredibly slow, a saved game file won't be of much help. + + + + + +What to do when a file or library isn't being found + (better living through strace) + + Sometimes you'll see error messages that indicate a file wasn't + found. The file could be a library: + + + % ./exult + ./exult: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot + load shared object file: No such file or directory + + + or it could be some kind of data file, like a wad or map file: + + + + % qf-client-sdl + IP address 192.168.0.2:27001 UDP Initialized Error: W_LoadWadFile: + couldn't load gfx.wad + + + Suppose gfx.wad is already on my system, but couldn't be found + because it isn't in the right directory. Then where IS the right + directory? Wouldn't it be helpful to know where these programs looked for + the missing files? + + + This is where strace shines. strace tells you what system calls are being + made, with what arguments, and what their return values are. In my `Kernel + Module Programming Guide' (due to be released to LDP soon), I outline + everything you may want to know about strace. But here's a brief outline + using the canonical example of what strace looks like. Give the command: + + + strace -o ./LS_LOG /bin/ls + + The -o option sends strace's output to a file; here, LS_LOG. The + last argument to strace is the program we're inspecting, here, "ls". Look + at the contents of LS_LOG. Pretty impressive, eh? Here is a typical line: + + + open(".", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|0x18000) = 4 + + We used the open() system call to open "." with various arguments, + and "4" is the return value of the call. What does this have to do with + files not being found? + + Suppose I want to watch the StateOfMind demo because I can't ever + seem to get enough of it. One day I try to run it and something bad + happens: + + + % ./mind.i86_linux.glibc2.1 + Loading & massaging... + Error:Can't open data file 'mind.dat'. + + + Let's use strace to find out where the program was looking for the + data file. + + + strace ./mind.i86_linux.glibc2.1 2> ./StateOfMind_LOG + + + Pulling out vim (because vim rocks) and searching for all occurances + of "mind.dat", I find the following lines: + + open("/usr/share/mind.dat",O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file) + write(2, "Error:", 6Error:) = 6 write(2, "Can\'t open data file + \'mind.dat\'."..., ) = 33 + + We see that it was looking for mind.dat in only one directory. + Clearly, mind.dat isn't in /usr/share. Now we can try to locate mind.dat + and move it into /usr/share. + + This method works for libraries too. Suppose the library + libmp3.so.2 is in /usr/local/include but your new game "Kill-Metallica" + can't find it. You can use strace to determine where Kill-Metallica was + looking for the library and make a symlink of + /usr/local/include/libmp3.so.2 to wherever Kill-Metallica was looking for + the library file. + + strace is a very powerful utility. When diagnosing why things + aren't being found, it's your best ally, and is even faster than looking at + source code. As a last note, you can't look up information in source code + of commercial games from Lokisoft or Tribsoft. But you can still use + strace with them! + + + + + Hosed consoles + + Sometimes a game will exit abnormally and your console will get + `hosed'. There are a few definitions of a hosed console. The text + characters could look like gibberish. Your normally nice black screen + could look like a quasi-graphics screen. When you press + ENTER, a newline doesn't get echo'ed to the screen. + Sometimes, certain keys of the keyboard won't respond. Logging out and + back in won't work, but there are a few things that will: + + + At the prompt, type "reset". This should clear up many + problems, including consoles hosed by an SVGAlib or ncurses based + game. + + Try running the game again and exiting normally. Once I + had to kill Quake III in a hurry, so I gave it the 3 fingered salute. The + console was hosed with a quasi-graphics screen. Running Quake III and + exiting normally fixed the problem. + + The commands deallocvt and openvt will work for most of + the other problems you'll have. `deallocvt N' kills terminal N entirely, + so that Alt-FN doesn't even work anymore. "openvt -c N" starts it back + up. + + If certain keys on your keyboard don't work, be creative. + If you want to reboot but the `o' key doesn't work, try using halt. One + method I've come up with is typing a command at the prompt and using + characters on the screen with mouse cut/paste. For example, you can type + "ps ax", and you're sure to have an `h', `a', `l' and a `t' somewhere on + the screen. you can use the mouse to cut and paste the word + "halt". + + Lastly, the most regrettable option is a reboot. If you + can, an orderly shutdown is preferable; use "halt" or "shutdown". If you + can't, try ssh'ing (you don't use telnet, do you?) from another machine. + That sometimes works when your console is very badly hosed. In the worst + case scenario, hit the reset or power switch. + + + Note that if you use a journalling filesystem like Reiserfs or xfs, + hitting the power switch isn't all that bad. You're still supposed to + shutdown in an orderly fasion, but the filesystem integrity will be + maintained. You won't see an fsck for the partitions that use the + journalling filesystem. + + + + + + + + +Hardware + + + Which video card is the best? + + If you're using Linux, you must be smart enough to know that there + isn't a plain answer to this question. There seem to be 3 choices for + hardware accelerated 3D these days: + + + 3dfx: Voodoo cards + Nvidia: GeForce + ATI: Radeon + + + The FPS king of the hill is the GeForce, but that's at low color + depth, lower resolution. At higher color depth, higher resolution, the + Radeon is king. However, the GeForce gets slightly better visuals than the + Radeon, although this might change once the Radeon DRI driver adds support + for T&L. + + The other factor is principle. For various reasons, Nvidia's openGL + drivers are proprietary and closed source--you can only get them in binary + form. ATI and 3dfx are open source. Personally, I think a lot can be said + for that. + + + + + Which sound card is best? + + Now that Linux is beginning to mature, this question isn't as + crucial as it used to be. Once upon a time, soundcards without onboard + MIDI chips (most PCI sound cards) didn't do MIDI. This was mostly a + problem for things like xdoom or lxdoom using musserv. These days we have + MIDI emulators like Timidity which don't require hardware MIDI support. + Frankly, I've had many cards and I can't tell the difference between any of + them. + + Your decision should be based on what will be the easiest to + configure. Redhat's sndconfig isn't perfect; I saw it identify a Creative + PCI-128 as a Soundblaster Live. If you already have a card and it works + well, that's good enough. If it doesn't work well, you're probably having + other problems like an IRQ conflict. If you're in the market to buy a + sound card, get something that will take you a second to configure. PCI + cards are easier to deal with than ISA when an IRQ conflict raises its ugly + head. + + A more relevent issue is speakers, but even here the difference is + slight. I've had expensive Altec Lansing speakers perform only slightly + better than el-cheapo speakers. You get what you pay for with speakers, + but don't expect a huge difference. You'll want to get something with a + separate sub-woofer; this does make a difference at a cost of extra power + and connector wires (perfect application for Bluetooth or 802.11b + technology). + + + + + + +Miscellaneous Problems + + Hardware Acceleration Problems + + XFree86 4.0 provides a more centralized and self-contained approach + to video. Much of the funkyness like kernel modules for non-root access of + video boards is, thankfully, gone. Solving problems is a MUCH easier task + these days. + + Hardware acceleration isn't working at all + + If you're getting like 1 fps, then for some reason, your system + isn't using hardware 3D acceleration. There's one of two things that can + be going on. + + + Your 3D system is misconfigured (more likely) + + Game X is misconfigured (less likely) + + + The first step is to figure out which one is happening. + + + If you have X 4.0 (X 3.* users procede directly to step 2), + look at the the output of X -probeonly. You'll see: + + (II) XXXXXX: direct rendering enabled + + or + + (II) XXXXXX: direct rendering disabled + + Where XXXXXXX depends on which video card you have. If direct + rendering is disabled, then your X set up is definitely faulty. Your + game is not at fault. You need to figure out why DRI is disabled. The + most important tool for you to use at this point is the `DRI Users + Guide'. It is an excellently written document that gives you step by + step information on how to get DRI set up correctly on your machine. A + copy is kept at + http://www.xfree86.org/4.0/DRI.html. + + Note that if you pass this test, your system is CAPABLE of + direct rendering. Your libraries can still be wrong. So procede to + step 2. + + + There is a program called gears which comes with the + "mesademos" package. You can get mesademos with debian (apt-get install + mesademos) or you can hunt for the rpm on rpmfind.net. You can also + download and compile the source yourself from the mesa homepage. + + Running gears will show some gears turning. The xterm from + which you run gears will read "X frames in Y seconds = X/Y FPS". You + can compare your system to the list of benchmarks below. The best way + to do this is to kill all non-critical processes first. There's no + need to run it as root. + + + CPU TYPE VIDEO CARD X VERSION AVERAGE FPS + + + Compiling Mesa and DRI modules yourself can increase your FPS by + 15 FPS; quite a performance boost! So if your number is, say, about 20 + FPS slower than a comparable machine, chances are that gears is falling + back on software rendering. In other words, your graphics card isn't + 3D accelerating graphics. + + More important than FPS is having a constant FPS for small and + large windows. If hardware acceleration is working, the FPS for gears + should be nearly independent of window size. If it's not, then you're + not getting hardware acceleration. + + + + + + + + + Hardware acceleration works for root, but not for + non-root + + If the following lines don't appear in XFConfig-4, put them + there: + + + Section "DRI" + Mode 0666 + EndSection + + + This allows all non-root users to use DRI. For the paranoid, it's + possible to restrict DRI to only a few non-root users. See the DRI User + Guide. + + + Voodoo specific slowness + + Under X3, Voodoo acceleration only takes place ONLY at 16bpp color + and fails silently if you try to start X in 32bpp color. Under X4, + acceleration takes place in 16bpp and 24bpp color, but X will fail to + start if you use a color depth that the Voodoo card can't handle. + + + Also, under X3, Voodoo boards needed the 3dfx kernel module and + /dev/3dfx device file for non-root hardware acceleration. Neither the + module nor the device file is used under X4. + + + + + + + Why isn't my sound working? + + First of all, it's probably not the game, it's probably your setup. + AFAIK, there are 3 options to getting a sound card configured under Linux: + the free OSS sound drivers that come with the Linux kernel, the Alsa + drivers and the commercial OSS sound drivers. Personally, I prefer the + free OSS drivers, but many people swear by Alsa. The commercial OSS + drivers are good when you're having trouble getting your sound card to work + by free methods. Don't discount them; they're very cheap (like 10 or 20 + bucks), support bleeding edge sound cards and take a lot of guesswork out + of the configuring process. + + There are 4 things that can go wrong with your sound system: + + + Shared interrupt + Misconfigured driver + Something's already accessing the sound card + You're using the wrong driver + + + + Shared interrupt + + The first thing to do is to figure out if you have an IRQ + conflict. ISA cards can't share interrupts. PCI cards can share + interrupts, but certain types of high bandwidth cards simply don't like + to share. These cards include network cards and sound cards. To find + out whether you have a conflict, do a "cat /proc/interrupts". Output on + my system is: + + + # cat /proc/interrupts + CPU0 CPU1 + 0: 24185341 0 XT-PIC timer + 1: 224714 0 XT-PIC keyboard + 2: 0 0 XT-PIC cascade + 5: 2478476 0 XT-PIC soundblaster + 5: 325924 0 XT-PIC eth0 + 11: 131326 0 XT-PIC aic7xxx + 12: 2457456 0 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse + 14: 556955 0 XT-PIC ide0 + NMI: 0 0 + LOC: 24186046 24186026 + ERR: 1353 + + + The second column is there because I have 2 CPU's in this machine + (called SMP) if you have one CPU (called UP, or uniprocessor), you'll + have only 1 CPU column. The numbers on the left are the assigned IRQ's + and hte strings to the right indicate what device was assigned that IRQ. + You can see I have an IRQ conflict between the soundcard (soundblaster) + and the network card (eth0). They both share IRQ 5. Actually, I cooked + this example up because I wanted to show you what an IRQ conflict looks + like. But if I did have this conflict, neither my network nor my sound + would work. + + If my sound card is PCI, the preferred way of fixing this would be + to simply move one of the cards to a different slot and hope the BIOS + sorts things out. A more advanced way of fixing this would be to go into + BIOS and assign IRQ's to specific slots. Modern BIOS'es can do this. + + + If your card is ISA and you have a IRQ conflict, I'm embarrased to + admit that I don't know what to do. Maybe some kind soul will donate a + detailed outline about how to use isapnp and pnpdump to this HOWTO. + + + + + + Misconfigured driver + + Sometimes, a card is hardwired to use a certain IRQ. You'll see + this on ISA cards only. Alternatively, some ISA cards can be set to use + a specific IRQ using jumpers on the card itself. With these types of + cards, you need to pass the correct IRQ and memory access, "I/O port", to + the driver. + + This is a sound card specific issue, and beyond the scope of this + HOWTO. (I should write about how to pass info to the driver). + + + + + Something is already accessing your sound card + + Perhaps an application is already accessing your soundcard. For + example, maybe you have an MP3 player that's paused? If something is + already accessing your card, other applications won't be able to. Even + though it was written to share the card between applications, I've found + that esd (the enlightenment sound daemon) sometimes doesn't work + correctly. The best tool to use here is lsof, which shows which + processes are accessing a file. Your sound card is represented by + /dev/dsp. Right now, I'm listening to an MP3 (not a Metallica MP3, of + course...) with mp3blaster. + + + # lsof /dev/dsp + COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME + mp3blaste 1108 p 6w CHR 14,3 662302 /dev/dsp + + + fuser is similar; but it lets you send a signal to any process + accessing the device file. + + + # fuser -vk /dev/dsp + + USER PID ACCESS COMMAND + /dev/dsp root 1225 f.... mp3blaster + root 1282 f.... mp3blaster + + + After issuing this command, mp3blaster was killed with SIGKILL. + See the man pages for lsof and fuser; they're very useful. Oh, you'll + want to run them as root since you'll be asking for information from + processes that may be owned by root. + + + + + You're using the wrong driver (or no driver) + + There are only two ways to configure your card: + + + + Support must be compiled directly into the kernel + + + You must have the correct driver loaded into memory + + + + You can find out which driver your sound card is using by doing + "lsmod" or looking at the output of "dmesg". Since sound is crucial for + me, I always compile sound into my kernels. If you don't have a driver + loaded, you need to figure out what's been compiled into your kernel. + That's not so straight forward. Your best bet is to compile your kernel. + BTW, let me say that compiling your own kernel is the first step towards + proficiency with Linux. It's painful the first time you do it, but once + you do it correctly, it becomes very easy down the right, especially if + you keep all your old .config files and make use of things like "make + oldconfig". See the Kernel HOWTO for details. + + If you haven't compiled the kernel yourself, there is an + overwhelmingly good chance that your system is set up to load sound + drivers as modules. That's the way distros do things. Have everything + under the sun compiled as a module and try to load them all. So if you + don't see your sound card's driver with lsmod, your card probably isn't + configured yet. + + + + + + + + + + +Websites + + Meta Gaming websites + + + + The Linux Game Tome: + www.happypenguin.orgAbout the games + themselves. + + + + www.linuxgames.comLinux gaming news + + + + www.holarse.netLinux meta gaming site + for German speaking folk. + + + + + + + Commercial Linux Game Websites + + Where to buy commercial games + + + Tux Games:www.tuxgames.com + Your one stop shop for buying any + commercial Linux game (software vendors like Tribsoft and Loki have + online shops at their websites too). + + ebgames:www.ebgames.com + They've got the best prices for + Linux games I've ever seen. + + Loki-Software: + http://www.lokigames.com/orders/ Loki + maintains an online ordering system for their games (they no longer sell + Quake 3). + + + + + + Who is releasing games for Linux + + + + Loki Software:www.lokigames.com + As the company that brought + quake3 to Linux, Loki is the father of Linux gaming. They were the + first and have, by far, the most titles available. Loki ports games to + Linux, mostly using the SDL library. They have so many games (I own + most of them ;) ) that I won't even try to describe them all. + + + Tribsoft:www.tribsoft.com + Currently they only have Jagged + Alliance 2, but are coming out with Europai Universalis, Majesty and + Unfinished Business. + + Jagged Alliance 2 is a cross between an rpg and a strat. You + play a mercenary hired to take over a 3rd world country from a ruthless + dictator. The game has some stability issues, and Tribsoft never + replied to my bug reports. However, ja2 is very addictive and nicely + done. It's clearly the most complicated game I've ever seen. + + + Hopkins FBI:www.hopkinsfbi.com + This is my favorite game. More + violent than Quake. More nudity than Hustler. More camp than + Liberacce. It's a comic book on your monitor. If anyone knows why the + author didn't pursue Hopkins II, please tell me! + + + Terminus: + www.vvisions.com/terminus/index2.html + I bought it but haven't played it yet. I'm still working on Myth2. + + + Phantom EFX:www.phantomefx.com + They offer Reel Deal Slots. I + played the demo; it was very nicely done! I'm not much for + poker/card/gambling games, but this was impressive. In the future, + they'll be offering Reel Deal Casino and Casino Tycon. + + + Theocracy:www.theocracy.com + A realtime strat where you play an + Aztec leader by Ubisoft. You'd never know this game has a Linux port. + In 10 minutes of surfing, I just barely found any references to this + game being available on Linux. Linux dollars don't mean much here. + Not even a mention on happypenguin.org! + + + Hyperion Software: + http://www.hyperion-software.com + This company has ported Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (an anime inspired + Robotech based FPS). They're also in the process of porting SiN, a + very cool looking FPS; looks similar to SoF. The demo is awesome, but + I heard the project might be stalled. They've ignored all my emails. + + + + + + + + + + Specific Websites Of Note + + First Person Shooters + www.linuxquake.com + Linux meta-site for first person shooters + + planetquake.com/linux + Linux meta-site for first person shooters + + www.quakeforge.net + Linux Quake I effort + + lhl.linuxgames.com + Half-life on Linux + + + + Three main Doom efforts + prboom.sourceforge.net + A GPL cross platform Doom engine + + www.doomlegacy.com + A GPL cross platform Doom engine + + zdoom.notgod.com + Non-GPL Doom engine (source available) + + + + Interactive Fiction + www.msadams.com + Scott Adam's mebsite + + www.cfug.org/infocom + Infocom on Linux website + + www.if-legends.org + Very cool interactive fiction site + + + + + + + Other websites + + + + www.dri.sourceforge.net + + DRI's homesite; see question 2.4. If you're having problems with hardware + acceleration, the DRI User Guide is mandatory reading. + + + www.mesa3d.org + + Mesa homesite; see question 2.3. + + + www.xfree86.org + + XFree86.org site + + + www.libsdl.org + + SDL's Homepage; see question 2.8. + + + www.openal.org + + OpenAL's website; see question 2.11. + + + www.ggi-project.org + + GGI's homepage; see question 2.9. + + + + + It's generally easier to get native code working, but for software + which which will never be ported, there's always emulation. + + + + www.dosemu.org + + dosemu's website. dosemu emulates DOS and some win32 applications. + + + www.winehq.org + + wine's website. Emulates win32 applications. + + + www.transgaming.com + + These people are implementing DirectX within Wine's framework. They have + an interesting business model. Their code will, at first, be commercial. + They'll release code every so often under the open-source wine license. + + + + + + + + +
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