My experiences with SW 13/64/Multilib

cwwilson721 · 10-17-2009, 11:14 AM

Multi part post. Part #1 will deal with installing and setting up a basic Slackware 13/64bit multilib system. Part #2 and above will deal with additions and oddities.

First off...It's a BIG download...Burned to a DVD, and all set.

My hardware:

AMD64x2 5200+
Asrock ALIVENF6G-VSTA motherboard
2GB DDR2 533 memory (2x1GB chips)
WD 160GB IDE (Yes, I have sata ports, but my sata drive died)
16xDVD +/-RW writer (ide)
Nvidia Palit 8400gs PCI-E x16 videocard 128mb DDR2
680w apower AK series PSU, w/PCI-E and SATA connectors, 40A +12v rails (2x20A)

Not a zooming system, but it does the job. Was previously running Vista Ultimate 64-bit on it, but the SATA drive took that out, along with all my data for last 4 years..

So, I started fresh. Booted the DVD, and did a full install. Used ext4 as filesystem. Installed lilo in 'expert mode', telling it to install on the MBR of /dev/hda

Ran the following as root:

Code:

xorgsetup (Basic setup of xserver, just took defaults on all)
alsaconf (Defaults)
alsamixer (Set basic sound levels)
alsaconf store (Save alsa sound levels)
adduser (Adding a regular user, with addition of being in plugdev group)

Logged into user account,Started X, went to Nvidia.com, got drivers for my video card.

Exited X, logged into root, ran the driver installer, answering Yes to all except "Do you want to look online for a kernel module", and rebooted.

Logged in as root, edited

Code:

sudoers (using visudo, to let my regular user use sudo)
lilo.conf (I hate the wait for boot, uncommented #compact)
lilo (To use the new lilo.conf)
/etc/initab (Changed to runlevel 4 for GUI logon)

Rebooted again.

Logged in GUI style (Yea!)as user, and went to Alien Bob's site to get files and instructions on making SW multilib. Downloaded needed files, installed the resulting packages, and went back to the site to get his SlackBuild of wine64, and installed that.

Rebooted once more. I now had a fully functional, 64/32 multilib FAST distro.

So far, so good...

Now, onto the unusual stuff...And why I installed wine

To be continued

cwwilson721 · 10-17-2009, 11:31 AM

Why did I install multilib and wine?

Because I'm a World of Warcraft addict. While I don't have a smoking games system, it does OK for WoW, as long as I don't use anything but lowest (about) settings. In Vista, was getting a average 30-40FPS in most areas, slowing down so about 20 in Dalaran. Since Vista went POOF!, I needed my fix, and WoW is SUPPOSED to work under wine. Luckily, I had all the updates on another DVD for all the patches since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion came out, so I didn't have to wait hours and hours for patches to download (again).

So, in goes the first WoW disk ,and told wine to install that. (It DOES take awhile). Then, the Burning Crusade expansion (Had to mount that DVD with a special command, look on 'net, it's everywhere. Use the same setup to install WotLK expansion DVD too.)

After those three were done, I installed the patches by copying them to the correct folder , and ran Launcher.exe. Patches only took about 20min total.

In summary, it took <15 min to install SW13, 15 min to get/install multilab/wine64, and 2 1/2 HOURS to install WoW. Yes, I'm an addict....lol

I modified the wow command to use -opengl, then I clicked the shiny new WoW icon, and away I went. Worked PERFECT! i was VERY happy.

Alot of people think that using WoW in wine/Linux gives a performance hit. Well, not here. I gained an average of 15fps..That's about a 20-30% increase in performance for free!

All was going good until: The wife wanted me to use Skype. I have a Logitech webcam for years, that worked fine in 12.1. Well, it DOESN'T work in 13. The kernel drivers for it just won't do the job. Sigh. Okay, how to get around this?

VirtualBox.I first tried the open-source version from Slackbuilds.org, but that doesn't allow USB connections...Sigh...Uninstalled, and got the binary from VirtualBox. After fiddling with Slackware mount settings in /etc/fstab, all is working now. The webcam works, and using the built-in mic on the camera, I can talk. But, there was a issue...No sound...

Part #3 coming up...

cwwilson721 · 10-17-2009, 12:41 PM

Well, the XP32 client inside Virtual Box had no sound. So, after MUCH reading, and because Ventrilo (Voice chat program for use in WoW) uses it too, I installed Pulse Audio using the Slackbuilds from Slackbuilds.org. And, what do you know, SOUND.

Okay. Now I'm fairly happy. With the exception of the stupid old webcam, which forced me to use VirtualBox/XP, everything is running great. Then the wife asks "Why can't I print over the network?"...Sigh...

Okay..Edited inetd.conf for swat access, made sure cups.d was enabled, and away I went..

I have a HP Deskjet d1660 printer, a cheap Wal-Mart printer. hplip (the version sent with SW) does not support this printer. Sigh...

Off to HP, get the source for hplip newest version, modify the SlackBuild script in /sources, ran the script, uninstalled the hplip that came w/SW, installed new package, and after unplugging the USB cable on my printer and reinserting it, hplip-setup found the printer. I can now print locally from SW.

But, so far, no matter what I do, I cannot print over the network using cups (Something stupid, probably). So, back to VirtualBox, install it there, and BAM! Network printing.

So, to summarize so far:

Installing and configuring base system: Fast. 10-15 minutes
Setting up multilib and wine64: 10-15 minutes, plus download times
Installing WoW in wine: 2 1/2 hours. Add another 2-3 for downloading 1-2GB of patches
VirtualBox download and install using binaries: 15 min max
Configure VirtualBox to use USB: 5 min
Install XP in VirtualBox: <15min (I was amazed myself!)
Install printer and webcam in XP: <15 min including download of Win drivers for webcam
Setup new hplip: <5 min

Without WoW, total time setting up the system to where it is now took about 90 minutes (Not including download times, Google/Linuxquestions.org searches and reading).

Things to still do:

Buy a UVC camera to use in Linux, so VirtualBox/XP is no longer necessary.
Figure out my Samba/Cups issue so VirtualBox/XP is no longer necessary.

This post will be added to as things change...

Now, off to fight monsters in World of Warcraft...

arkanunz · 10-17-2009, 04:39 PM

Nice

I'm looking forward to test some wingames (FEAR 2 and stuff) into Slack with wine

hope it works

cwwilson721 · 10-18-2009, 12:08 PM

Check the wine database, that'll tell you TONS of info

cwwilson721 · 10-19-2009, 01:12 PM

Okay...New working title:

"Dr. Slackware, or How I Stopped Rebooting and Got Rid of Windows"
(Some will get the reference)

When I last left my intrepid post, I needed VirtualBox to boot XP so I could:

Let a Vista laptop on the network print to my local HP printer
Make my old webcam work

Well, I'm happy to say that's history now.

The printer issue was a cups/samba/idiot admin error, fairly quickly sorted out. Was nothing major, just a few lines that needed help, and now, I have network printing in SW13/64.

The webcam took a bit of prodding and building. First, I had to download the libv4l sources, modify the Slackbuild script from Slackbuilds.org, run that, install that.

Next, had to edit the Slackbuild script for 32bit. Reran, installed, and now...

Code:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

And video WORKS!

So, now, I have NO need to run VB/XP.

Will keep it around, tho. Nice to have a OS I can hose...lol

Next, SW64 in VB..Nice to have a "testbox"...

Comments are welcome, and questions, if I can help, are also appreciated.

manwithaplan · 10-19-2009, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkanunz

Nice

I'm looking forward to test some wingames (FEAR 2 and stuff) into Slack with wine

hope it works

I'd really like to know how you can get FEAR2 running in wine. I've tried several different ways, and finally just used a Windows 7 partition

Domine · 11-11-2009, 10:29 PM

Hello,
and i would like to know how did you make the webcam be recognized by Virtualbox.

What i did until now with no result:
I added myself to the groups:vboxusers and plugdev
Edited fstab to:usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devmode=664 0 0
if i add the devgid the mouse and keyboard die

Now the gid of vboxusers is 102 while the plugdev is 83. Can i add the vboxusers to the group of plugdev?

Thanks for any help.