18/04/2007 by mtn.

I came across a new community developed game today, Beyond the Red Line, based on the new (rather than original) Battlestar Galactica TV series. This was exciting as there is a Linux (as well as Windows and Apple) version. I did have a problem running the game tho (on my Toshiba A120 running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn beta - fully updated), so I have documented the solution here for future reference.

Installing the game was easy. Download the Linux install to the desktop (took about 30mins). Then change the permissions of the file so that it is executable - right click on the file, choose the permissions tab and click the “allow executing file as program” check box, and then click close. Then run the install - double click the install file (BtRLDemoInstaller.run) and click “run”. After checking the files integrity the install box pops up, then click through the couple of options. install completed.

To run the game pop up Nautilus file manager and navigate to home-directory~/btrl_demo, double click the btrl_demo file (I might have had to make this executable as well!). The game starts - excellent. The problem was when I click on the “Briefing” option the game crashed with the error [Linux] ERROR: “Could not load ABexp04 anim file” at fireball/fireballs.cpp:697. This was solved by checking out the BtRL forums, and following this thread.

Download the file libtxc_dxtn060508.tar.gz (from the bottom of the s3tc page) on to the desktop. Unpacked it with archive manager - double click it and click extract. Then install libtxc_dxtn - pop up a terminal using Ubuntu’s main menu Applications>Accessories>Terminal and navigate to the libtxc_dxtn dircetory by typing… cd Desktop/libtxc_dxtn …and then hit the enter key. Then type the two commands below, hitting enter after each command, to install libtxc_dxtn.
make

make install

That got things going for me. I still have a problem with garbled sound, but I’m working on this!

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25/02/2007 by mtn.

UPDATE: I have since run 7.04 and 7.10 and both work perfectly out-of-the-box, including the wireless card and Compiz Fusion (or whatever 3D desktop 7.10 ships with). I NO longer use Automatix as most stuff is installed by default or is as easy to install through Synaptic or Apt.

I recently (Jan 2007) bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 (Part Number: PSAC1E-04V00VEN) and, as I have been using Linux for the last two years and Ubuntu for the past year, the first thing I did was (boot up the system decline the Windows XP license and email Toshiba for a refund) install Ubuntu Edgy 6.10. Here I want to document the process for my own records and for anyone thinking of installing Ubuntu on a Toshiba A120. [EDIT: I had said that the built in wireless card did not work, this was wrong, the card works perfectly once Ndiswrapper is installed - see below]

Introduction
Basically it was a really (really) smooth ride installing Ubuntu, everything worked – Beryl 3D desktop even worked with no configuration once the repositories were added, and Beryl installed. Even the built in wireless card worked once Ndiswrapper was install using Automatix.

Basic Installation
I downloaded the Ubuntu iso file and burnt it on to a CD using GnomeBaker on my desktop, which is also running Ubuntu. I then booted up my Toshiba laptop with the Ubuntu CD in the CD Rom, making sure that the CD Rom was set as the primary boot device in the BIOS. At the Ubuntu menu I select the “Live CD/Install” option (at this point the hard drive is not effected) and boot in to the Ubuntu live desktop. On the desktop there is an install icon, click this and the install process will start. I went through the few steps, selecting time zone etc, and then left the laptop to install Ubuntu – this took about 15 mins.

Useful links

• Get GNU Linux - Trying out the live CD
• Video Tutorial – Installing Ubuntu
• Ubuntu Forums

Post Install
Ok, the installation was really straight forward, time to install Automatix and get the wireless network going as well as a few other useful codecs and applications.

Installing Automatix
Installing Automatix is a simple as going to the website and downloading the install .deb file. Having downloaded the file double click on it and install Automatix.

Setting up the wireless network card
Once installed, start Automatix from the Applications>System Tools>Automatix menu option and select the NDISWrapper from the “Internet” options and click start (you have to be connected to the Internet obviously). Once it is installed, from the main Ubuntu menu bar go to System>Administration>Networking and setup the wireless network settings.

It is also worth installing a bunch of other packages/applications through Automatix, namely Mplayer, GnomeBaker, Google Earth, Multimedia Codecs, AUD-DVD Codecs (to enable watching of DVDs) Thunderbird (email client), Flash Player, Real Player etc.

Installing Beryl 3D desktop
Add the Beryl repositories then open System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager, search for Beryl, select the packages and click “Apply”. Once Beryl is installed open Applications>Accessories>Terminal and type beryl, and Beryl should start. Try holding down Ctrl + Alt and pressing the left or right arrow key! To make Beryl start everytime the laptop is started open System>Preferences>Sessions, click the “Startup Programs” tab, click the “Add” button and type “beryl” (lower case with out the quotations) as the “Startup Command”, and you are done.

Games
With the good support for the Intel graphics cards I decided to find out what games run natively under Ubuntu, and was welcomely surprised to find quite a few really good ones

Open Arena
I was really please to find that the Quake III engine had been GPL’ed a while back and an open source project had been busy creating an excellent open source version called Open Arena. Having been a huge fan of the original Quake, it was great to be able to download this and have it just work, very smoothly, even getting straight into an Internet game. To start playing Open Arena, download the Linux tar ball, unpack, and double click the “ioquake3.i386″ file (I might have had to right click on the file, choose the “Permissions” tab and click the “allow executable” box) and it should fire up – excellent game.

PlaneShift
PlaneShift is a open source and free Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMOGPG) that, although I have not had time to get into it, looks really sweet. Well worth a try.

Other Games
Other games to try are BZFlag a “free multiplayer multiplatform 3D tank battle game” installable through Synaptic, as well as Globulation 2, LXDoom and Trigger.

Windows Games on Linux
To play a good variety of Windows games, for a small price you can purchase TransGames, Cedega. From my limited experience this is an excellent way to get Windows games going on Linux, with lots of titles supported.

Linux Game Publishing have a range of titles for sale that are worth looking at as well.

Well, hope this helps someone!

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