Linux

Higlac

Higlac

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I want to put linux on my laptop and play games and still use windows. What would the almighty helplife2.net recommend that I have for basics and such. Any good windows emulators that you know of, or some good open source software?
 
Shortly AtomicSpark will be along to ruin your life, by filling every orifice you own with linux related information. I shall listen attentively too.
 
Unless you have a recent ATI or NVidia (and a little bit of luck), your experience of "Gaming on Linux" might not be too pleasant. I would suggest dual-booting until you're comfortable in Linux and know that it can provide everything that you need.

Now some games have native Linux binaries or can be run under Wine. Check Wine AppDB for compatibility and bugs you may find. Of course I always encourage users to find Linux builds of software. You don't switch to Linux to run Windows software.

What is your experience level in Linux? Did you know Linux is just a kernel and not an operating system? People group OSs such as Fedora, Red Hat, or Ubuntu into a catch-all name "Linux". Tis a bad thing if you think about it.

Most distributions will come with a pre-installed set of software. They're probably enough for you, but if you want to see what's out there, you can check the repository.

Using Linux isn't like using Windows. You don't just randomly download executable files and install programs. Although you can, it's not recommended. Using the software from your repository, even if slightly outdated, makes sure all your software runs well together and helps you maintain control of your software and configuration files.

I would suggest going with Ubuntu. It's pretty noob-friendly. By that I mean, it "Just Works". You don't need to build anything from scratch, works out of the box (for most people), and has a great community behind it. You may say I'm biased, but I've been around. You may see for yourself the pros and cons of the major distributions.
 
The OP would more than likely need to use Wine Windows compatibility layer. Unfortunately if he had an ATi card (R600 and above in particular) the Linux driver (fglrx) has some compatibiltiy issues with Wine that make performance/image quality terrible. I agree with you Atomic, Ubuntu would be a decent "starters" distribution, but I myself use either Arch or Fedora most of the time.
 
It's better than pre-R600 drivers that don't work at all. :x

We'll see. I'll be ordering a new PC Monday. I'll let you know how good the driver is for the ATI HD4870.
 
My experience with linux consists of about 30 minutes, posting on here from a mini laptop with ubuntu loaded. the laptop i want to load it on has an amd dual core and an nvidia 7150. I think dual booting is a good idea. How do I do that?
 
You'll have to install Windows first. Vista/Win7 especially freaks out if there is an already installed OS on your system.

During Ubuntu install, it will ask about partitioning. Select "Use Largest Continuous Free Space" (or if your disk is full, to resize the current partition). I've never resized partitions before, but apparently it works. After that, you pretty much click next. Your computer will reboot and you'll see GRUB. You can either let it auto-select Ubuntu, or down-arrow to Windows.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
 
I already have vista installed, and if I did it I would format before I did anything. So just basically download the install file and burn it to a dvd? Boot from the dvd and follow the directions?
 
Will do as soon as I get on a computer that has a cd drive.
 
I've recently tested Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64-bit with my HD 4870 using Catalyst 9.6 drivers and 2D acceleration works fine at 1680x1050 resolution. I'll get back to you about about the performance of games (HL2, CSS etc.) under Wine soon.
 
Unfortunatly I just get a black screen when I meet the menu. I've tried windowing the game, lowering the DirectX version and changing resolutions and nothing works. This is while trying to run HL2/EP1/2. I'll see how things work with my other computer which has a nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+. Oh by the way, I tried it with both the stable and the testing versions of Wine.
 
Did you enable the restricted driver? It sounds like you manually installed the drivers... usually not a good thing. I'll just keep it simple and say that drivers must be updated to run with the current X.org. Because of this, restricted drivers usually lag behind the current X.org version.

You should of installed Ubuntu 9.04. Many great improvements.
 
AtomicSpark said:
Did you enable the restricted driver? It sounds like you manually installed the drivers... usually not a good thing. I'll just keep it simple and say that drivers must be updated to run with the current X.org. Because of this, restricted drivers usually lag behind the current X.org version.

You should of installed Ubuntu 9.04. Many great improvements.
Click to expand...
I installed the drivers manually because usually AMD's site has more up to date driver versions. I'll upgrade to 9.04 and see how it goes from there, Karmic Koala's kernel (2.6.30) isn't yet supported by fglrx.
 
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is currently at Alpha 2. You should stay far away from it.

When I say "manually installing software" I mean downloading a .deb installer or tar.gz source code from the Internet and installing/building it on to your system. You should really only install a newer version of stuff than what's in the repository if there is a critical bug fix or a feature that you would like to test out. I know that you gamers love to live on the bleeding edge, but it just really doesn't work well on Linux.
 
AtomicSpark said:
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is currently at Alpha 2. You should stay far away from it.

When I say "manually installing software" I mean downloading a .deb installer or tar.gz source code from the Internet and installing/building it on to your system. You should really only install a newer version of stuff than what's in the repository if there is a critical bug fix or a feature that you would like to test out. I know that you gamers love to live on the bleeding edge, but it just really doesn't work well on Linux.
Click to expand...
Which I specifically did with Wine (I used their repositories). I do know what I am doing, I've been doing it for a while. As for Karmic, it isn't unstable on my end, however many proprietary drivers may not work yet since the 2.6.30 kernel just came out of testing. "Bleeding edge" isn't a bad thing, you just need to know what you are doing with what is being install and configured on the system.
 
Ok, so I'm having issues with my current install of Vista, I'm going to just format, and I'm going to triple boot Vista, 7, and Ubuntu 9.04. I'm just worried that since 7 is a limited install, and Ubuntu isn't compatible with my school's required programs, will I be able to get a legal replacement copy of Vista to install after this format. Anybody know how to do this?
 
I just wanted you to know that I ran the Linux version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on my new desktop and it ran flawlessly. I'm amazed how well the new ATI cards' drivers work. Of course there had to be something wrong. Apparently Quake Wars' SDL sound system isn't supported by Pulse Audio by default. There is a quick fix though! Install the libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio package and all shall be fine.
 
AtomicSpark, what made you turn to Linux-based OSes?
 
I use Linux-based operating systems because I have full control of the OS and its software and I can learn everything about it. I have a very curious mind and this kind of stuff is fun for me.
 
Ok, is there any way to partition a disk with data still on it? Or will I have to format first?
 
You can resize your partitions (as long as you have room) during the install.
 
Just resize? You can't make another partition out of your free space?
 
I installed Ubuntu on my USB drive yesteday, with Persistence enabled so I could, in theory, run it in live session with it remembering my settings. I just wanted to check it out, see how it feels, check out the eye candy etc.

Unfortunately I couldn't enable the Extra effects, as it said something like "Display settings could not be changed". I searched for a solution, but it seems there is no definite one. I thought maybe it's something with the drivers, I wanted to get the recommended NVidia driver running (it says "another version of this driver is running" when I click the recommended one in "Hardware drivers"), but when I click activate and reboot, nothing changes.

Shame. Maybe I'll boot it later and post what exactly I'm getting (ie. copy 'n paste the messages).
 
Unfocused said:
I installed Ubuntu on my USB drive yesteday, with Persistence enabled so I could, in theory, run it in live session with it remembering my settings. I just wanted to check it out, see how it feels, check out the eye candy etc.

Unfortunately I couldn't enable the Extra effects, as it said something like "Display settings could not be changed". I searched for a solution, but it seems there is no definite one. I thought maybe it's something with the drivers, I wanted to get the recommended NVidia driver running (it says "another version of this driver is running" when I click the recommended one in "Hardware drivers"), but when I click activate and reboot, nothing changes.

Shame. Maybe I'll boot it later and post what exactly I'm getting (ie. copy 'n paste the messages).
Click to expand...

You need a good enough graphics card to run the special effects. Before I got mine new GC, I messed with the OS a bit to let me use it, but i can't remember how.

Head over the the Ubuntu forums.
 
Managed to get the NVidia drivers working so I could check out some of the eye candy. The desktop cube is something I'd use if it was in Vista (I think there is an unofficial cube available for download).

Tried running a game with Wine, but it gave me errors (when using the terminal, cause RMB and "Launch with Wine" did nothing at all). Dlls missing and some other stuff. Couldn't bother, maybe I'll play with it later.

Is there a counterpart of the task manager if an application stops responding? Yesterday the whole system just stopped responding (only the mouse cursor could move) and I didn't know if there's a way to get out of it, other than restarting the system.
 
System > Administration > System Monitor

If you're running a full screen game, you might have to switch to a tty or kill X (which kills your whole desktop session). You switch to other tty's using Ctrl+Alt+F#. You can kill X by doing Ctrl+Sys Req+k. Sys Rq is that thing on your Print Screen key.

Did you try any native games? That's the first step to seeing if your graphics drivers work. I ran Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, since Unreal Tournament 2004 has some issues.

If you want better, quicker help, you can add one of my messenger accounts as a buddy. You can find them on my profile. You can add me on Steam too, but I obviously will probably be on Windows if I'm paying attention to that.
 
Ok, so I got Ubuntu 9.04 installed, but I have no idea how to install anything on it... Could anyone direct me to a tutorial or explain things to me?
 
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