LinuxQuestions.org - Blogs - Seph64's Lair by Seph64

So what game are you going to play first when Steam comes to Linux?

Seph64 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:52:07 GMT

inb4L4D2

With all the brouhaha from Phoronix lately about Steam coming to Linux, if and when it does happen, what (Steam) game are you going to play first? Of course, this is assuming there'll be more than 1 game on steam that will be available to be played on Linux come launch.

Well, I am hoping that Valve will allow Doom 3 to be under Steamplay when it concerns the Linux version (although, it may not happen since Steam users didn't get the ability to play the Mac version of Doom 3 with the Mac Steam client).

That or L4D2.

Triple Boot goal: OS X, Gentoo Linux, and Windows 7

Seph64 — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:26:39 GMT

I am intending to install Linux on this Mac Mini of mine.

Well, actually it's installed. So it's already coinciding with OS X and Windows nicely.

Partitions:

90 or so GB for OSX
23GB for Linux
40GB for Windows

Not a lot of options for a 160GB drive anymore. I might purchase a bigger hard drive later, of course I will also need the proper tools to open the mac up. I saw how it is done.

One of the problems I ran in to though is a DNS lookup problem. It takes about 10 to 15 seconds to resolve domain names. So file downloads for emerges are tedious because of the DNS lookup issue.

Another problem is that the login prompt takes a few seconds to pop up after the system finishes loading the startup scripts. The last script to load is always "local", and after that, I have to wait til the system gives me the login prompt.

And lastly, I need to figure out how to get the audio device on the Mac to work. It loads up the audio driver, but no sound outputs. I made sure to unmute everything. But I guess there's still some steps to do.

Aside from those issues, Linux works nicely.

Portal, Steam and OS X: A Mini Review

Seph64 — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:13:55 GMT

System Setup
Mac Mini
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHZ
2GB of Ram (256MB of which is shared with the graphics Device)
160GB HDD
GeForce 9400M
Snow Leopard (updated to 10.6.3)

Performance
I am going to get this out of the way first. Yes, the game doesn't perform as well as I would have liked. But that's mostly the fault of the system I chose (9400M is not the greatest GPU out there). And some of the fault, at least according to what I read around several places on the net, is due to the fact that the OSX drivers aren't up to par. Hopefully the next update (10.6.4) will help fix this issue when Apple releases it.

However if I set the resolution to 1280x800 (native res on the monitor I am using is 1920x1200, so the resolution I am using isn't ideal), it's playable. Although with a few stuttering when placing Portals.

The Game
There's no denying, I love Portal. It's one of the games that kept me coming back for more, not because of it's longevity (although the challenge and advanced test chambers do that somewhat), but because I am absolutely in love with this game. I love the puzzles. I love GlaDoS. I just love everything about this game.

Well anyway, it's basically a 3D First Person Puzzle game. The main gameplay mechanic is the the Portal Gun. With it, you place portals around places to solve the puzzles the game gives to you. And the main objective is to escape the Enrichment Center before the game's antagonist kills you. That's the Gist of it.

The Small Things
One of the things that surprised me when I first played Portal on OSX is that tabbing out of the game is seamless. It's so fast, you'll probably not need the steam overlay at all. Back on Windows, if you found that you needed to tab out of the game for whatever reason, it took close to a minute for the OS to minimize the game and bring up whatever has the priority afterwards. And of course, when you return to the game, it took about the same amount of time. Sometimes it would even cause the game to crash. So thumbs up to Valve, or whoever is responsible for this miracle. It came in handy when I thought the game froze and wanted to get to a terminal to close the game forcefully (luckily, it didn't freeze, was just taking a long time to load up).

Final Verdict
Valve once again proves that they are a great game development studio that does awesome things. Although Steam didn't launch with all of it's Source games (which will be rectified in the coming weeks), it did launch with a good number of 3rd party titles.

I look forward to what Valve does in the future.

RE: Steam: Possible Linux Client in the future? Continued

Seph64 — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:51:01 GMT

Steam for OS X has arrived (with Portal being the only Source game available atm). And still no official word from Valve concerning a possible Linux port of Steam and Source.

However, that does not stop phoronix and other online news sites from reporting that Valve has confirmed a Linux client (without a source).

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ement&num=1%22

Whatever happened to proper journalism? Where they provide sources to backup their claims?

And no, a Linux Steam Client that barely works does not count, although it does suggest that they'll start supporting Linux.

I do believe that Valve will eventually support Linux, and I am hoping that it comes sooner rather than later, but I won't believe any sites that say that Linux support is coming without them citing a proper source. Or until Valve comes out and formally confirms Linux support. And so far, neither have happened.

Thoughts?

Installing Audacious Media Player in OSX?

Seph64 — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:28:10 GMT

I'm getting a Mac soon, and I realize that I need a music player software for it.

Is it possible to install Audacious Media Player in OSX (Snow Leopard)? What apps would I need to install before installing it?

I don't mind compiling it if that is what I need to do.

Thank you in advance,
-Seph64

RE: Steam: Possible Linux Client in the future?

Seph64 — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:53:00 GMT

Few months back, I posted a blog post concerning Steam and Linux.

Now with the Closed Steam for Mac beta underway, people have noticed that in the same script that launches Steam in OSX has Linux entries.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...m_linux_script

This implies Valve is porting Steam to Linux.

To make things more interesting, there's references to linux steam client files on steampowered.com

URL REMOVED

"There is no doubt, Steam's coming to Linux." : http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=ODE3Mw

If all this is true, than Linux has just gained big support from another big name game developer.

hopefully, Valve will either confirm or deny this very soon. As it seems the cat may already be out of the bag.

Steam: Possible Linux Client in the future?

Seph64 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:37:32 GMT

With Valve Software announcing that Steam and their games based on the Source engine are coming to Mac OSX, I started wondering if they will throw us Linux nerds a bone?

For one thing, a lot of the leg work would have already been done. As in, porting the games Graphics interface from DirectX to OpenGL.

And it seems that there's quite a few (but still small number of) people on the official Steampowered Users Forums who would love to see a Linux version of Steam and Source games. Ranging from people like me who hope, to people who are absolutely sure that Valve is gonna port Steam and Source to Linux.

So I ask you:

A: Do you think it's possible that Valve will port Steam and Source to Linux as well?
B: And what do you think if they do?

Configuring GRUB2?

Seph64 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:59:50 GMT

I tried following the grub2 article at the gentoo wiki with no success on this issue.

it says to:

Quote:

if loadfont /boot/grub/unifont.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode="1280x1024x32;1024x768x32;800x600x32;640x480x32;1280x1024;1024x768;800x600;640x480"
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
terminal_output gfxterm
if terminal_output gfxterm; then true ; else
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi

insmod png
background_image /boot/grub/gentoo.png

The only difference is my image is grub.png

When grub loads I see what appears to be a small menu then goes in to the main menu (console) before I can see what items are listed in the first one.

I even followed the grub2 article for enabling graphics mode from the official grub wiki.

Anyone know what I am missing?

Here's my current grub.cfg file (which has the gfxterm configuration based on the instructions set down by the grub wiki article linked above):

Quote:

cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
set default=0
set timeout=50
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Gentoo GNU/Linux, with Linux x86_64-2.6.31-gentoo-r6" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5b49b784-c574-49ed-86a7-ed9e875322dc
linux /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.31-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/ram0 real_root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.31-gentoo-r6
}
menuentry "Gentoo GNU/Linux, with Linux x86_64-2.6.31-gentoo-r6 (recovery mode)" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5b49b784-c574-49ed-86a7-ed9e875322dc
linux /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.31-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/sda5 ro single
}
menuentry "Windows" {
insmod chain
set root=(hd0,2)
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.

insmod video
insmod vbe
insmod font
loadfont /boot/grub/unifont.pf2
insmod vbeinfo
insmod gfxterm
set gfxmode="1440x900x32;1024x786x32;800x500x32"
terminal_output vbeinfo gfxterm

insmod png
background_image /boot/grub/grub.png

### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

Any help will be appreciated.

anger Xorg 1.6 is driving me crazy. FIXED

Seph64 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:28:58 GMT

Ok, so I just reinstalled Gentoo on my main machine, and I installed Xorg too (with the appropriate input drivers installed too).

Only I can't get it to work.

Blank screen
No input of any kind
No way of getting out of it without a hard reboot

It's almost as if the Xorg devs expect people to stay with the CLI after the installation of Xorg-fail-server version "Goonandscrewyourself".6

First the log files lead me to believe that an option "AllowEmptyInput" is preventing me from accessing the GUI.

So I went out of my way to disable it.

Still blank and no input.

Ok, maybe it's the graphics driver. *updates it, modprobe -r nvidia, X -config /path/to/edited/xorg.conf*

Still blank and no input.

Ok, maybe Xorg does not like nvidia drivers anymore?

*changes driver to nv, X -config /path/to/edited/xorg.conf*

Still blank and no input.

Does anyone know the appropriate gesture, dance, living animal to sacrifice to appease the Xorg gods to get this thing to work?

xorg.conf coming as soon as I can get the motivation to reboot in to ubuntu.

UPDATE: I seem to have fixed the issue I was having, I am not sure what fixed it, but I recompiled xorg-server after placing "INPUT_DEVICES="mouse keyboard evdev"" in to my make.conf file (bold is what was added). and placing evdev in the right places (within xorg.conf) made xorg work.

Linux: Me and the lack of interest.

Seph64 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:22:23 GMT

I wouldn't say I have gotten bored of Linux, but I haven't had interest in using it for the past few months.

Either due to the fact that I am too lazy to find a Linux disc to reinstall GRUB to the MBR, or the fact that my games are keeping me tied to Windows.

Maybe I need a PC to exclusively use for Linux? I got an old PC that I use for a file server whenever I decide to turn it on. Maybe I should just backup the files on that machine on to an external hard drive, and then proceed to wipe everything on it, and reinstall Linux on there. I can pickup a cheap set of speakers from the local Walmart.

I just don't like the fact that the Video Card I have in there is so old. But since it's a computer with AGP, finding a good nVidia based Video Card is gonna be hard.

Then again, since I won't be gaming in this machine anyway, a good graphics card wouldn't be needed.

I will have to get another desk for it, because the way the old computer is set up is rather... unegonomical to say the least.

Linux From Scratch Rebuildathon: 64-bit edition Part 2

Seph64 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:13:04 GMT

After the last attempt at installation failed (it had something to do with misplaced headers due to package management failing to pack glibc correctly), I decided to try again. Using the 64-bit LFS CD/Instruction manual to build the toolchain, Gentoo X64_86 to build the base system.

Package Management: It's all in my head. Not a very effective way of managing what gets installed, but it is my preferred method of installing LFS.

And I've backed up the toolchain (before starting on chapter 6) this time, so that should save time on future builds (of 6.3).

Goals: To get a working system running, and to learn stuff related to the installation procedure so I can fine tune future builds.

2 Operating Systems, 1 user folder.

Seph64 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:36:19 GMT

I normally have 2 User Folders. 1 for Windows and 1 for Linux.

Usually this is because I have a nicely sized partition for Linux (50GB - 100GB on a 200GB drive for instance). But due to circumstances earlier mentioned in my previous blogs, and partly to do with my laziness, and also due to my inquisitive nature, I've decided to give my Linux partition a small piece of the pie on this drive. About 18 GB, quite inadequate for the kinds of files I download have the user folder to be on the same partition.

So I was wondering, "How would Linux perform if I made my user folder in Windows the same for my Linux user folder?"

Turns out it works well, with NTFS3G. Windows still runs, and now I only have one user folder to backup just in case the drive dies (hypothetically speaking of course).

Since I am running Windows 7, my Win User Directory is: C:\Users\Seph64.

So the entry in my /etc/fstab is like this:

Code:

/dev/sda5             /windows ntfs3g 0 0
/windows/Users/Seph64 /home/seph64 bind 0 0

That's probably not the correct entry, but something like that.

I would like to ask a question of you all, have you done this? Having both systems share the same folder for User settings/documents? And how stable was it? Did you notice any drop in performance what so ever?

Thanks for your time,
-Seph64

Reinstalling Linux due to a slip up Part 2.

Seph64 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:53:40 GMT

It's been months since my last posting. But I finally got around to reinstalling Linux.

I went ahead and reformatted the windows partition to lower it's max capacity by 18GB (for Linux).

The home dir is binded to the Windows partition, specifically, the Users folder. So the Linux user home directory is shared with the Windows User directory. So there's no need to back up both places, since they are shared. This is accomplished by NTFS-3G.

18GB should be big enough for all the linux apps (except for games) I would need.

I had an issue with Xorg freezing up (or locking out any and all input from the keyboard and mouse). Checking the logs revealed no related errors, but I did see a warning, "AllowEmptyInput is on" which seemed to have disabled the input drivers that I had installed. Possibly due to the way the Xorg handles input now. And I didn't feel like messing with that, so I fixed it by turning the option off in the xorg.conf file. When I get most of my stuff installed again, I may look in to configuring Xorg properly.

So far it's going well.

Reinstalling Linux due to a slip up with the W7 RC installer.

Seph64 — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:53:00 GMT

Yeah, I am testing out Windows 7, because I enjoy testing new things out.

One of the irks was that I had delete all the partitions I had in order to install this spoiled child. Creating a partition in free space of 100GB of a 200GB drive (50GB was used for Linux, and another for another installation of Windows) would yield nothing but errors.

Deleting of the other Windows partition would allow me to create a partition of that space. But to create a partition in the freespace where the former 100GB partition was is NOT ALLOWED. *facepalm*

I do not recall being hindered when I installed Vista in that same space several months before. But evidently, something about 100GB is not desired by the Windows 7 installer, whereas the 50GB space is perfectly fine.

Of course I could have taken the easy route and installed Windows 7 on the 50GB space. But, I like being a stupid idiot at times, so I just deleted all the big partitions on the drive and created a 200GB Windows partition (for some reason, Windows 7 had no problems creating a partition of the entire drive, it was just that 100GB of free space it had problems with -_-). Although I made sure to backup the home directory of the linux partition first.

Ok, that was a longer rant than I would have liked...

Back to the main focus of the post: Reinstalling Linux.

What I would like to do is make a 10GB partition (or somewhere around that space), having certain directories be binded/linked to a folder on the Windows drive. (/var/, /usr/portage/distfiles/, and /home/ for examples) This way I wouldn't have to make a big partition for Linux. And since ntfs-3g is an easy and (at least to me) stable way to read/write to NTFS, I shouldn't have any problems doing so. Would there be any specific problems I should know about in installing it this way?

Erm, well it seems Windows won't allow me to shrink it's own partition beyond 830MB for some reason, I might have to repartition the drive yet again.

I personally can't wait for Google Chrome to get a Linux version.

Seph64 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:29:22 GMT

Because I don't like Opera (something about it just feels weird to me), and Firefox 3 has some features I really do not like.

For instance, in the url bar, it now has the tendency to search through the titles of pages you visited instead of the url you are trying to type. If I wanted to search through titles, I would use the frickin' history list. I WANT THE BROWSER TO SEARCH BY URL NOT BY TITLE WHEN I TYPING STUFF IN THE URL BAR!

Excuse my screaming.

Ok, so it seems Chrome does it too, but not to the extent Firefox 3 does.

Now I've got another problem, seems like Firefox 3 on Linux likes to take up a lot of CPU cycles in a state where it does not do anything.

The only things I can do now is either use a different web browser or revert to an older version of firefox.

Google, please release a Linux version soon!

Private File Server Progress Report 2a: Everything is going ok now.

Seph64 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:35:15 GMT

Samba issues fixed and all relevant folders are now shared, OpenSSH up and running. Now I am upgrading the OS. This machine has been offline for several months, boy is that a lot of packages.

I just hope the software upgrade goes alright.

Portage should display the dependencies...

Seph64 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:38:08 GMT

Even if they are masked (either by keyword or hard masked).

Recently, the Gentoo dev team decided that KDE-4.2 needs a newer version of Xorg in order to function (it's been working pretty well with the version of Xorg I have been using). Wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't need to unmask all packages related to the new version.

And of course, it won't display a list of said packages. Because god forbid that I'd have an easy time unmasking packages right? I either have to try to look online for the list, or do the following:

emerge -uav world

"pack-cat/package-1.337 is masked by keyword: ~amd64"

echo ">=pack-cat/package-1.337" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

Rinse and repeat for every package needed. It's tedious and time consuming, and I'd rather find a way around it.

I looked at man emerge, and none of the options in there seem to deal with crap like this.

I am guessing if I want to actually update the software on my system, I'll have to write a script that automatically unmasks a package that is needed to update the software. And god knows, I never dabbed too deeply in to scripts.

Making a Local Area File Server

Seph64 — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:18:09 GMT

Well I finally bought some Ram (1GB DDR 333) from newegg for my old computer (AMD AthlonXP 2400+ 120GB HDD, 40GB HDD). There's no need for an OS install since Gentoo is already installed. And there is a lot of data on the dead (as of now since it has no ram) computer that I value highly.

Would directories defined as SAMBA shares be sufficient enough for a Private File server?

Of course, I need to configure the system to be access from a different system for system upgrades as I would like it to be monitor/keyboardless most of the time, I need OpenSSH (spelling?) to do that right?

But more to the point, this is just a progress report. I'll seriously look for more information once the system is up and running again.

Progress: 1GB of 333 DDR Ram ordered from Newegg.

To Come: Configuration.

A rant of Desktop Environments + latest Desktop shot.

Seph64 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:12:04 GMT

Back when I started using Linux, I was using Madrake 8.2 as my distro (back in 2001, maybe 2002). The default DE was KDE. And it looked different from the Windows I was used to, but that didn't scare me.

Throughout my Linux adventure, I kept switching between Desktop Environments, KDE and GNOME. At the time, I did not like the Gnome environment very much, so I would always go back to KDE (I made a joke to myself that no matter what would happen, I would always end up with KDE as the DE of choice). Then after awhile, the interface style of KDE became a burden to my mind. It is not as if I couldn't use it well, I just did not like the way KDE felt (KDE 3.5), so for a long while I decided to use GNOME.

Then I guess I got bored of GNOME as well, as I ended up spending more time in Windows (well I was playing a lot of games at the time as well). Then it hit me, I wondered what the new KDE looked and felt like. As I am/was a Gentoo user, I had to unmask a ton of packages. And then the long compile time, but it paid off.

I am now using KDE 4.2 as my default DE of choice, and proving once again, even though it took a year or two, that I would always end up with KDE as the DE of choice. And provided that I don't get fed up with KDE 4.2 as I did with 3.5, I might end up using it for a good amount of time.

Of course it could just be the fact of the eye-candy luring me in, but I like the interface this time around.

And of course, here's the latest desktop shot:

And yeah, the wallpaper is from an anime, but the flow of it just seems to fit the DE IMO.

To Linux or not to Linux? That is the question....

Seph64 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:47:38 GMT

No, I am not questioning whether I should keep using Linux (or not). What I am questioning is the wisdom of trying to get close relatives to use Linux when all they use is Windows.

When is it alright to get someone in your family to use something they have never used before?

Me? I have given up trying to get anyone close to me to use Linux. My mother jinxes any computer she touches. She installs junk (which I believe cause most of her computer problems), though when it comes to games she buys herself, she has to get me to install them. I shudder at the thought of her trying to use Linux. It'd probably be a nightmare.

My brother is quite content with whatever he uses (Windows XP I believe). Although he had expressed an interest in Linux a few times, but never explored the idea any further.

The only person I know who uses anything remotely close to Linux is my father, he has an old iBook that uses a rather old version of OSX. Though he never uses it anymore.

For those of you who have tried getting your family or close friends to use Linux? What was it like? What was the biggest road bump you have experienced trying to get them to use something so different from what they were used to? And most importantly, do they still use Linux, or do they use Windows?

Linux From Scratch rebuildathon: 64-bit edition.

Seph64 — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:24:56 GMT

Every year or so, after the last variation of LFS was wiped from the system (it's just something I do for fun, so I do not keep important files on the partition I am building it on), I decide to rebuild Linux From Scratch so I can try to force education on my ignorant self. The main reason why I wipe LFS is because of problems that prop up from time to time and my lack of motivation to solve them (mostly something to do with GNOME, so I am going to avoid using it this time around).

Package Management: Last time I tried using a slackware based package management system (not automatic like Swaret or anything like that), just something to keep track of packages I have installed. It worked mostly. But I have no idea if the scripts to make such a package would work in a 64-bit environment, so I'd thought up a different way to keep track of applications. A SymLink system.

Basically, for an example, if I am installing Firefox-2.0.0.16, I create a folder /apps/, then issue the command ln -sf -v /usr /apps/firefox-2.0.0.16 then issue ./configure --prefix=/apps/firefox-2.0.0.16 [+ the rest of the needed config options]. Of course this is an example. This would probably need a ton of symlinks. For software suites that have many different packages to install such as xorg or KDE, an /apps/X11-r7 or /apps/kde-[version.number] symlink will suffice for the entire suite.

Build Environment: Gentoo 2008.0 x86_64 or the official LFS x86_64 LiveCD. I know it's probably a little weird for someone who uses Gentoo to want to install Linux From Scratch since Gentoo is (technically) a build from scratch system which is entirely automated. Anyway, I am going to try to use Gentoo as the host system (if things go awry, I can always boot up the LFS LiveCD to do it properly). Since this is Gentoo, all the tools needed to build a Linux from scratch is already installed (although probably not a desired build environment for LFS).

Anyone have any comments or suggestions for me during this LFS Buildathon?