Linux Games

After you have Linux up and running the next step is to find games for your system. The Mandriva community has a [wiki entry] with links to each game.

Rank of best looking Linux games so far are:

  • [Secret Maryo Chronicles] – a Super Mario Brothers clone.
  • [Spring Project] – an open source RTS engine for Windows/Linux
  • [CUBE] – a FPS game engine.
  • [Sauerbraten] – an enhancement to the CUBE game engine.
  • [Fungaloids] is a visually fast paced game with lots of visual effects.
  • [ManiaDrive] – is an impossibly fast race car / track completion game. They use punk music and really short track times to catalyze aggravation..

    • Ubuntu Linux Distro

    I thought I’d give the Linux distro [Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition] a try. Mandriva was being a pain about setting up the NVIDIA graphics driver. Time for something new.

    First setup your build environment. Pop in the install CD and run this in a terminal.

    sudo apt-cdrom add
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install build-essential
gcc -v

    The following put me back on the network.

    You are using the b43 driver from linux-2.6.24

    If you are using the b43 driver from linux-2.6.24, follow these instructions.

    Use version 011 of b43-fwcutter.
    Download, extract the b43-fwcutter tarball and build it:

    wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
    tar xjf b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
    cd b43-fwcutter-011
    make
    cd ..

    Use version 4.80.53.0 of Broadcom’s proprietary driver.
    Download and extract the firmware from this driver tarball:

    export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR=”/lib/firmware”
    wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
    tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
    cd broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod
    sudo ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w “$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR” wl_apsta.o

    Download and check for all the updates.

    Ubtuntu’s hardware wizard was able to automatically download and install the NVIDIA display drivers. Do not try to manually install the NVIDIA display drivers or else the hardware wizard won’t work. For some graphics cards [setup] is required, but it was all automatic for me.

    Ubtuntu has a ton of [visual effects] that you can enable.

    I have to concede that Ubuntu is a better distribution than Mandriva. Ubuntu has better built-in hardware support and was easier to install.

    Amazon Kindle

    I just got my [Amazon] [Kindle] after 3 weeks of waiting and checking the shipping information every hour. Now I just need to figure out #1 how to hack it #2 how to install software updates #3 [how to transfer pdfs]. #4 how to get the kindle on my home network

    #1) Looking at the boot logs, some [hackers] have already found the Kindle software is written in Java.

    #2) My kindle has software Version: Kindle 1.0.8 (164820023) out of the box, so it’s already up to date.

    #3) I was able to use the free [MobiPocket Creator (publish edition)]. And it’s pretty easy to use the wizard to import the pdf and build the prc file. And then I transfer the prc to the Kindle with the USB cable for free.

    Mandriva 2009

    I had a chance to play around with the 4G [Mandriva 2009 DVD] on my old [IBUYPOWER] laptop. Initially X wouldn’t initialize, so I hit CONTROL-ALT-BACKSPACE a couple times and that did the trick. Unfortunately my wireless network card is not being detected. So I’m going to try [NdisWrapper] or [OpenWRT] or [X-WRT] the graphical front-end. The LAN is a [Realtek 8110 SB(L)]. My wireless network driver can be found on [LinuxWireless]. I was able to get my wireless network working with the following script:

    You are using the b43 driver from linux-2.6.25 or newer

    Follow these instructions if you are using the b43 driver from linux-2.6.25 and newer or compat-wireless-2.6, or from any current GIT tree.

    Use version 011 of b43-fwcutter.
    Download, extract the b43-fwcutter tarball and build it:

    wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
    tar xjf b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
    cd b43-fwcutter-011
    make
    cd ..

    Use version 4.150.10.5 of Broadcom’s proprietary driver.
    Download and extract the firmware from this driver tarball:

    export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR=”/lib/firmware”
    wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
    tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
    cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
    sudo ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w “$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR” wl_apsta_mimo.o

    Visit the [Mandriva Wiki] for tips on configuring the display. “init 3” exits the X session and “init 5” starts the X session. “uname -a” tells you your Linux kernel version so you can install the source and headers “[Linux 2.6.27-desktop-0.rc8.2mnb #1 SMP] Thu Oct 2 05:49:37 EDT 2008 x86_64 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz GNU/Linux”.

    An Hour with Michael Crichton

    In [Charlie Rose – An hour with Michael Crichton], Crichton talks about gene patents preventing doctors from treating illness. For example, Company X sequences the genes for Tuberculous and patents the genes. Doctors will no longer be able to test patients for Tuberculous or treat the disease without approval from Company X. This leads potentially to the patient dying. Later, Crichton talks about Universities have become so commercial that they will not release information about how many patients have died from treatment at their schools. It’s a little scary when a corporation can own a disease. Corporations stand to make money with patents in diseases like Mad Cow, the tomato outbreak, Bird Flu, Milk powder in China, etc.

    Soap Support Removed from VS 2008 C++

    After loads of searching, it turns out that Microsoft officially removed SOAP support from Visual Studio 2008 C++. The code can be added from [CodePlex]. Basically, a portion of the code became open source and was removed from Visual Studio to avoid potential legal issues in the future. This functionality is referred to as the [AtlServer]. [VS Team Studio blog] has a post about the separation being a good thing. But really, not having the web reference integrated, this sucks. Maybe [WCF] could work from unmanaged C++. No… how about [gSoap].

    Forum: [post]

    P5N-E SLI with 8G RAM

    I learned something about RAM tonight. I put in the full 8GB of RAM into my [P5N-E] and the bios wouldn’t boot up. I read some helpful forum posts that directed me to adjust my RAM speed and voltage. Now the RAM I put in is 5-4-4-12-2 Mushkin (4 X 2G). Recommended voltage is 1.8-2.1V. This is 800MHz ram, but it needs higher voltage to run all 4 sticks. To be safe you can still run under less than 2.1V if you adjust the RAM timing to 667 MHz. I did that and it works like a charm. I’m now running Vista 64-bit with 8GB of RAM.

    Gateway FX4710

    Okay, I picked up the [FX4710-UB802A] to replace the [FX7029E]. Now I’m in the process of backing up my files and setting up my [preferred development environment]. I was a little surprised because the ps2 keyboard was not usb and the speakers are a little bigger than the mouse. I’m a little concerned that I’ve had to repair Vista lots after [many reboots failed with a black screen], and I had to use the Norton Removal Tool to get [Norton uninstalled]. The Gateway/Vista automatic repair feature is both good and bad. Pro: it will restore your harddrive files to the last known good state. Con: That includes any external harddrives, so if you backed up any files, they will be removed (DANGER). I have 90-days for return from Sept 6th, 2008 just in case any issues arise. The [motherboard] supports up to 8GB of [DDR2 800 MHz DIMM memory] which matches the specs on my [IBUYPOWER] [Asus P5N-E]. FX4710 had some kind of boot issue that I can’t rely on. Back to the store it goes.

    Dead Pixel (continued)

    I stopped at Costco and tried to exchange my [FX7029E]‘s monitor with a [dead pixel]. Unfortunately, I couldn’t since the item is no longer in stock. I basically have to return my desktop before Sept. 11th. The new BATES 9000 replacement option is the [FX4710-UB802A] which comes with the next generation video card and 2 less usb slots and 1 more pci slot. I’ll have to setup my [preferred development environment] again, and backup all my stuff… And if I need to backup, I’ll need a [Backup Harddrive]. I’ve been skating on the memory edge of 4GB and need to expand to [8GB].

    Dead Pixel (continued)

    I called Gateway tech support over my ([FX7029E])’s [dead pixel]. And even though my Costco warranty lasts 90 days, Gateway will not replace a monitor with only 1 dead pixel. I can still return my desktop/monitor to Costco and get a new one. I have 90 days from from June 13th to get the monitor replaced from Costco (September 11th, 2008). I initially got the FX to replace my other [quad-proc box]. Up to [8GB of RAM] is supported by this desktop.

    Dead Pixel

    My [Preferred Development Environment] has been working great. The speed of the Gateway FX7029E is good enough to test Crysis mods and various other games that I’ve been working on (Supreme Commander, Warcraft III, Assassin’s Creed, and Crysis). The only problem is that I have a dead pixel on the screen. So I have 90 days from June 13th to get a free replacement. It’s just a pain, because I’ll have to backup my stuff and then reinstall my development environment.

    Screen Capture Recording

    I’ve always been a fan of video tutorials like the ones from [Luxology] that show all the features of Modo (my favorite modeling app). I’ve recorded some of my own videos using [Dr. Divx]. Brad Peebler, author if the weekly “Modocast” suggests [Camtasia Studio] – a full featured video capture, editing, and annotation piece of commercial publishing software. Best of all, Camtasia provides a plethera of . The marketing slogan is, “this is so easy a 6th grader can use it!”.

    Another tool that is capable of capturing single frames for analysis comes with DirectX and is called PIX. [GarageGames] has a blog article about using [PIX] to debug a shader and talks about filtering techniques used to diagnose problems with all aspects of DirectX rendering.

    It is possible to take screenshots of the desktop and output an image sequence. The image sequence is converted to an MPEG1 in [this example]. The [WMF SDK] provides a WMF writer object to write single images to a WMF movie. [DirectShow] wraps WPF and provides a convenient wrapper. Many DirectShow source examples are already installed with the Windows SDK and found within (‘C:/ Program Files/ Microsoft SDKs/ Windows/ v6.1/ Samples/ Multimedia/ DirectShow‘). To compile, make sure the Windows SDK includes (‘C:/ Program Files/ Microsoft SDKs/ Windows/ v6.1/ Include‘) and add the DirectShow common includes (‘C:/ Program Files/ Microsoft SDKs/ Windows/ v6.1/ Samples/ Multimedia/ DirectShow/ Common‘) are in the include search path. The Windows SDK libs (‘C:/ Program Files/ Microsoft SDKs/ Windows/ v6.1/ Lib‘) should be in the lib search path.

    Some of the DirectShow samples failed to find stream.h, which can be remedied by replacing:

    #include <streams.h>

    with:

    #include <Control.h>
#include <evcode.h>
#include <strsafe.h>

    Microsoft Movie is capable [importing an image sequence] and publishing a movie.

    DirectSound can be used to [record PCM data to a wav file].

    If you don’t find the answer to your question on this web site, [Where to Get Help].