Considering building a test PC with Ubuntu and WINE

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Has anyone tried running Windows NWN on Linux with WINE before? I'm going to give it a go regardless, but I thought I'd ask first in case there are any pitfalls.

[PlasmaJohn]

Accidentally yes. Why not run the native Linux NWN client?

[Nighthawk4]

I am running NWN on a Mac with Wineskin, so it should be possible on Linux with Wine.

Or you could use the Linux client, which works well

[gutemensch]

I've been thinking of this also. Got a second system that's sole purpose is XBMC and they got that for Linux too. I'd be more than curious on how well it runs and how hard it was to set up. I can handle GUI interfacing but it's been probably 15+ years since I had to command line.

[Sathsarrion]

It works fine. I had some issues multitasking with it in WINE, but NWN doesn't multitask that well anyway.

[gutemensch]

Probably stupid question

What about Video Drivers? Last time I messed about with Mint or Ubuntu the Nivida driver instillation drove me nuts and I formatted and installed XP. Has it changed or gotten better?

[Nighthawk4]

So is the Linux client still available now other things like the Master Server are gone?

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

That's a good question about the Linux client. I am just curious and fancy 'fiddling' with things.

[Nighthawk4]

I found this. Not tried it, so I don't know if this will work.

I have a Linux installation setup now (CentOS 6.2), plus all the files from a Windows installation of NWN 1.69. My problem is how do I convert this to work on Linux without downgrading it from 1.69 and thus having to upgrade it again?

Do I just need the ./fixinstall part of the Linux client to rename everything to lowercase or is there more to it?


Edit - I tried all this and get an error message when I try to run ./nwn

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 ./nwn: ./nwmain: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory

Any ideas please?

It has been a long time since I tried using Linux, never mind running NWN in Linux


Edit2 - It seems the Linux I installed is 64 bit, so it has /lib64 rather than /lib.

Not been able to persuade NWN to accept that yet. I tried creating a symbolic link in /lib and I tried editing the ./nwn file to point to /lib64 instead of either ./lib or /lib.

None of these work. I may have to find a 32 bit version of Linux to use. Pity

Anyone else managed to get NWN to run in a 64 bit Linux please?

[S_N]

The linux binaries work fine, but you'll need some 32-bit libraries on a otherwise 64-bit environment. I'll return with some more detailed tips shortly.

[Gorgon]

Should help:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Neverwi ... 217-1.html

If not...
http://timelordz.com/wiki/Neverwinter_N ... bit_Issues

Useful command:

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sudo apt-get -v install ia32-libs

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=447006 (old, but maybe useful)

[S_N]

Actually, I don't have Ubuntu. So any instructions I give about that is likely to have some mistakes. But if you want ubuntu I suspect ia32-libs is what you want. I'm not sure how much that package installs though.


To get the native client running for Fedora (or CentOS too I'd expect) generic process is to ask the package manager which package that provide the missing library. For example as the missing ld-linux NH4 encountered:

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yum provides ld-linux.so.2

glibc-2.14.90-14.i686 : The GNU libc libraries
Repo        : fedora
Matched from:
Filename    : /lib/ld-linux.so.2

glibc-2.14.90-24.fc16.6.i686 : The GNU libc libraries
Repo        : updates
Matched from:
Filename    : /lib/ld-linux.so.2

glibc-2.14.90-24.fc16.6.i686 : The GNU libc libraries
Repo        : @updates
Matched from:
Filename    : /lib/ld-linux.so.2

This output means the library exist at many places. First the main repo, secondly in the updates repository (and third since it's already installed on my computer...) Anyways, the important bit of information here is 'glibc' and '.i686'. So that's what we'll install with:

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sudo yum install glibc.i686

When that's installed, you'll likely get another error about a missing library from the loader, for which you could repeat the process (yum -C to use it's cache for speed) but to you from some of the tediousness, use following command to cover most of them. (for Fedora 16 but will likely work with other)

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sudo yum install SDL.i686 libXau.i686 libXfixes.i686 libdrm.i686 libXext.i686 libXdamage.i686 libxcb.i686 libX11.i686 libXxf86vm.i686 libstdc++.i686 libgcc.i686 mesa-libGLU.i686  mesa-libGL.i686 

libmss.so.6 is the only exception, and is provided by the neverwinter nights installation.
I do not use any proprietary graphics drivers, so you have to read up if you need a different libGL or libGLU for those.

And stop by IRC for questions! :D (...and other linux goodies like bug workarounds and log rotator)

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

And stop by IRC for questions! (...and other linux goodies like bug workarounds and log rotator)

I can vouch for the wealth of knowledge about Linux on the Avlis IRC channel from S_N and others. Might need to dip into it soon as I am building a backup web server at the moment. I have learned a lot since the first time around though!

[Nighthawk4]

Still working on this in VM Fusion.

Tried CentOS - NWN failed to run

Tried PCLinuxOS - ditto

Tried Fedora16 - VMtools failed to work - so no shared folders - no NWN source

Tried Ubuntu - VMtools installed automatically. Still working on this.

I think the problem is with VM Fusion rather than the Linux NWN

Many thanks to S_N and PJ for their advice


Edit - NWN works on Ubuntu in VM Fusion!!

True, it is not exactly playable - but it does load up and let me login to Elysia. Very slow, even with the graphics set low. Haven't worked out how to make it go fullscreen yet, which might help a little.

This suggests that running NWN on Ubuntu installed properly would be a doddle. All I did was to install Ubuntu using its standard 'easy' config, copy the NWN from a Windows installation, make a backup copy of the ini files from that as at least one gets overwritten by the Linux client, copy the three Linux client files and extract them in the right order, correct the ownership of the files which got messed up (chown and chgrp), copy the nwncdkey.ini file back from the backup (otherwise you get prompted for your CD Keys), run ./fixinstall and then run ./nwn.

All of the config except the ./nwn required sudo to work. You run ./nwn as a normal user.

I have never liked Ubuntu until now - I don't like systems that disable running as root. However, after struggling for hours to get Fedora to do anything (and still failing), Ubuntu was a breeze

[PlasmaJohn]

I have never liked Ubuntu until now - I don't like systems that disable running as root.

Changing that is easy peasy. Root's there, just without a password (which prevents login as root)

sudo su -
passwd
follow the prompts

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Oddly enough I setup root to use a password on my web server, but have recently (within the last few days) removed the password. That has forced me to learn to do things 'properly.' I might even remove the ubuntu desktop on the server at some point, but it's just so much more intuitive using a GUI.

[Nighthawk4]

Checked nwn.ini and found it was set for fullscreen - I just wasn't using the correct resolution in NWN. Changed that and I have fullscreen. Still too slow to play but that is due to using this in VM Fusion.

I am sure that if installed natively it would be fine

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Cool. Now that my backup webserver is running, I am going to install Ubuntu on a spare PC and try it out.

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Well, it has been a long time coming, because I ended up using my spare PC round someone else's house when their old Windows XP machine went 'tits up'.

Just started installing the Windows version of NWN via Wine. Seems to be installing okay.

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Well, I got it working!

The only trouble is, the spare PC is a bit pony. (That's pony and trap if any non Brits want to Google it)

So the sound goes a bit wobbly and when I got it to load the game properly, it was jerko vision. Not too bad, but I prefer my main PC with Windows 7 on.

Perhaps I'll try a proper Linux version of the game one of these days.

[Nighthawk4]

I tried this again with Ubuntu on my laptop. Wow, Ubuntu has gone down since I last used it

Just like Windows - things working and then not working for no apparent reason. I left it working last night and connected to my NAS and my Mac and downloading a copy of NWN from the Mac. Three hours to go.

Next morning I got up and three hours to go. Nothing had gone into hibernation - it just hadn't copied any more than when I went to bed. I restarted and now it refuses to connect the WiFi. Correct details, just as before but now it does not connect. Restarted again and eventually it connected to the Router.

No NAS, no Mac, just the Internet.

So I tried updating. That worked. It is up to date.

Tried activating the nVidia drivers for 3D. Doesn't work. /bin/log/jockey.log is not written in English - or not any comprehensible meaning

Tried rebooting - doesn't connect to WiFi again.

is no help

does not work

is not helping either

didn't achieve much either

is very tempting