Hi. Im running RedHat 9 and quake 3 runs fine accept for two things. I cannot use the two thumb buttons on my mouse (MSExplorer Optical) and I cant seem to connect to any servers. What do I need to change for quake to access the internet? About the mouse thing how can I enable the extra buttons? Thanx for any help!

...Im quite new to linux so try to make it easy for me..

I got the same problem under RH9 with quake, no mouse.
I'll search for a solution.

Coming back on your third button problem :
Edit your XF86Config as root and in the Pointing Devices section add :
"ZaxisMapping" "4 5"
like that.

Will work.

Even though this link is for Mandrake, it still may be able to get your side buttons working:

http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/xwin/xmouse2.html

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
Identifier "DevInputMice"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Thanx for the replys guys... The above text was taken from my current mouse setup. According to the link posted by nuzzy reguarding Mandrake, I could change it to 6 7, gain the use of the side buttons but lose the function of the mouse wheel. Not much point in farting around with that I guess. Once you get used to one set of binds its hard to switch... its the not being able to connex to servers thats bugging me. Does anyone know what I need to do there?

Have you got the latest Q3 point release? (1.32b) and a valid CD key?

indeed sir... I installed the 1.32b patch then moved my baseq3 dir to my linux hd. I just tried to connect to a server and this is what it says in the console...

/connect 207.44.153.196
resolving update.quake3arena.com
update.quake3arena.com resolved to 192.246.40.56:27951
207.44.153.196 resolved to 207.44.153.196:27960
Resolving authorize.quake3arena.com
authorize.quake3arena.com resolved to 192.246.40.56:27952
Punkbuster Client: Connected to server 207.44.153.196:27960

one other thing.. when i first start the game.. after it gets to the main menu if I drop the console I see this text:

--- Common Initialization Complete ---
Opening IP socket: localhost:27960
Hostname: myhostname
IP: myip
Started tty console (use +set ttycon 0 to disable)
^5PunkBuster Client: File Not Found: pbcl.cfg
^5PunkBuster Client: Not Connected to a Server
^5PunkBuster Client: PunkBuster Client (v0.993 | A0) Enabled
^3PunkBuster Server: 0 Power Players loaded from /me/.q3a/pb/pbpower.dat
^3PunkBuster Server: 0 PB Rcon Filters loaded from /me/.q3a/pb/pbrcon.dat
^3PunkBuster Server: pb_sv_SsNext = 0 (0 to 999999)
^3PunkBuster Server: pb_sv_LogNext = 2 (1 to 999999)
^3PunkBuster Server: File Not Found: pbsv.cfg
^3PunkBuster Server: File Not Found: pbsvuser.cfg
^3PunkBuster Server: PunkBuster Server (v0.993 | A1293 C0.993) Enabled

Im assuming that since quake cant find the pbcl.cfg file that it will just make a new one once the connection to the punkbuster server happens. Hoppefully this is helpfull information.

Hmm, have you checked the permissions on all the files?

I checked most of the files and directories and most of them I have read and write access to.. any file or folder in particular? I have write access to my pb, quake3 and baseq3 folder... damn this is bothering me... it has to be somthing simple or maybe not... what about network settings.. is it posibble that a network setting is stopping quake from accessing the internet. When I did the install of RedHat I selected High Security.. could that have had an effect?

Well make sure you have 'read' on everything

Can you start your own games and join LAN games fine? If so, then I don't think I can help you much more, because I don't play it over the net :/

Thx for all of the replies fellas. I lowered the system security from high to medium and quake can access the internet now. Not too sure what that did as an end result but its working and im very happy to say the least. I would like to know what was turned on if anyone has an idea. Im guessing that it has enabled certain services in the firewall but I aint no network admin.. :P

Lowering the security level from High to Medium (recommended) just lets ports be opened by software...which is exaclty what you needed to do. Just so you know...

i have a question in regards to actually getting the dedicated quake 3 server up and running...when i start it "./q3ded +set dedicated 2 +exec server.cfg" everything looks like it's loading just fine, but when it gets to "sending heartbeat to master.quake3server.com" or whatever it is...it just stops...punkbuster is not enabled, furthermore i am not sure how to enable it...but could that be the problem? if not, what is causing it to apparently freeze while, what i assume to be, registering the server with the master server...above that, i can't see the server from quake3 on the lan side... thx in advance for any help!