2 questions, actually:

1. With what application can I open /var/log/messages? I tried gedit (I'm using Gnome), but it tells me "Couldn't Open "/var/log/messages"" with no further information. Is it in some arcane machine language?

2. I installed SDLQuake2 and got it running fine. However, I made a new launcher and added it to the Applications==>Games list. But it doesn't work. I click on the launcher and no hard drive excitement, nothing. The interesting part is that if I navigate to the launcher via nautilus and double-click the launcher, it works!

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance!

P.S. typing in "sdlquake2" gives me:

@localhost:~$ sdlquake2
bash: sdlquake2: command not found

typing in "/usr/local/games/quake2/sdlquake2" gives me:

localhost:~$ /usr/local/games/quake2/sdlquake2
Quake 2 -- Version 3.21+rCVS
using /home/psasak/.quake2/baseq2/ for writing
couldn't exec default.cfg
execing config.cfg
Console initialized.

------- sound initialization -------
sound sampling rate: 22050
------------------------------------
------- Loading ref_softsdl.so -------
LoadLibrary("ref_softsdl.so") failed: No such file or directory
------- Loading ref_softx.so -------
LoadLibrary("ref_softx.so") failed: No such file or directory
Refresh failed
Trying mode 0
------- Loading ref_softx.so -------
LoadLibrary("ref_softx.so") failed: No such file or directory
recursive shutdown
Error: Couldn't fall back to software refresh!

But it still works if I double-click the executable "sdlquake2" in /usr/local/games/quake2.

Answer 1: You could do several things to read your /var/log/messages file. In a console, try 'cat /var/log/messages | grep quake' to bring up everything relative to quake. You're probably not able to open it with Gedit due to permissions.

Answer 2: You could always create a symlink to your quake2 binary, as root type 'cd /usr/local/bin && ln /usr/local/games/quake2/sdlquake2 -s sdlquake2'. Then you should be able to just run 'sdlquake2' from any console. Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your $PATH.

This is my $PATH:

localhost:~$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/opt/www/htdig/bin:/usr/lib/java/bin:/usr/lib/java/jre/bin:/opt/kde/bin:/usr/lib/qt/bin:/usr/share/texmf/bin:.


I did exactly "cd /usr/local/bin && ln /usr/local/games/quake2/sdlquake2 -s sdlquake2", but when sdlquake2 is input in a terminal, I get back:

localhost:~$ sdlquake2
Quake 2 -- Version 3.21+rCVS
using /home/psasak/.quake2/baseq2/ for writing
couldn't exec default.cfg
execing config.cfg
Console initialized.

------- sound initialization -------
sound sampling rate: 22050
------------------------------------
------- Loading ref_softsdl.so -------
LoadLibrary("ref_softsdl.so") failed: No such file or directory
------- Loading ref_softx.so -------
LoadLibrary("ref_softx.so") failed: No such file or directory
Refresh failed
Trying mode 0
------- Loading ref_softx.so -------
LoadLibrary("ref_softx.so") failed: No such file or directory
recursive shutdown
Error: Couldn't fall back to software refresh!

/var/log/messages is owned by me... it won't open for me or for root in gedit.

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