AO Linux HOWTO

[Telperion]

Things are working quite nicely now, although this crash on opening skills windows is annoying (especially when rolling new alts, since Newbie Island is one single zone, which means i can't do my ritualistic ten zonings before opening the skills windows).

I'd like to try custom GUIs, but i can't install them: i'm getting a "file is corrupted" message, and AO downloads a file from the default GUI, which makes the custom GUI pop the same windows as the default one. I'm getting this with all the Notum Dovvetech skins. Does anyone have a clue on how to fix this, please? Thx in advance.

[sebquantic]

I'd like to try custom GUIs, but i can't install them: i'm getting a "file is corrupted" message, and AO downloads a file from the default GUI, which makes the custom GUI pop the same windows as the default one. I'm getting this with all the Notum Dovvetech skins. Does anyone have a clue on how to fix this, please? Thx in advance.

I had a problem with the notum doovetech skin because one of the folders(Archives, Default) was set to lowercase in the zip file. Linux reads "Archives" and "archives" as two different folders, so chaning it to uppercase worked.

[Telperion]

Btw, i managed to get AO to run with Wine: performance is the same as with Cedega, but it's much more stable. The only drawback is that the AO windows extends beyond the limits of my screen, not allowing me to see my credits or my AggDef bar... And since titlebars apparently can't be hidden with Ubunty's default windows manager, i'm gonna have to learn to use another one... Gonna try to install Enlightenment. But at least i don't crash anymore.

[sebquantic]

The only drawback is that the AO windows extends beyond the limits of my screen, not allowing me to see my credits or my AggDef bar... And since titlebars apparently can't be hidden with Ubunty's default windows manager, i'm gonna have to learn to use another one....

Yeah the default window manager metacity doesn't support removing window borders, but if you install Beryl, that will let you drag the window up to a position where the window border is still there, but not visible, and you'll be able to see the bottom part of AO's window (right click titlebar and select move). Beryl comes with alot of crazy visual effects but you can disable almost all of them, and even with border transparency enabled its pretty fast with a graphics card.

[Telperion]

Using Enlightenment now, and it's working like a charm. The game slows down more when in alien ships or in Pande than it used to when i was under Windows, rhough.

I don't think i can use Beryl on my crappy old ATI card...

[Hacre]

I switched to Wine from Cedega a couple of days ago after Cedega yet again was giving me choppy/stuttery performance.

With Cedega still not playing well in an SMP environment I gave the latest Wine a try. cd'ing into the AO folder and doing wine ./Anarchy.exe was all I had to do. It works like a charm, incredibly stable.

I notice a framerate drop in certain areas like in some dungeons but there's nothing new there. It is smooth and performs very very well.

Well done to the guys at Wine. Cedega subscription cancelled.

Edit: The wine version I'm using is 0.9.37. I have reports it works fine with the cvs version too.

[rogers14]

I'm having trouble logging in at the Tir wompa (outside happy rebel) using Wine anyone know a way around that?

It must have something to do with the textures there becaus my other chars work fine..

[porter]

I'm having trouble logging in at the Tir wompa (outside happy rebel) using Wine anyone know a way around that?

It must have something to do with the textures there becaus my other chars work fine..

I've had random crashes under Wine ever since the 17.4. update went live. Screen freezes totally and when I tab out of AO to do "ps ax | egrep exe" I find that client.exe is defunct. I need to "kill -9" the process and then I can try to log back in. Sometimes it is enough to wait till the character already logged in message times out and then I can log the same char normally but quite often I have to wait longer. At the same time I can log in another account, I think I've also logged in another character on the same account successfully.

If I try to log in and it does not work properly, I get the loading screen but after a few seconds it freezes before I see anything even beginning to appear in sight. I can then again ALT TAB out and find that client is defunct and I have to repeat the kill and wait longer.

Usually these crashes happen when I either zone into a relatively busy area or hang around one - such as a grid terminal in WA or Tir, close to shops, etc. I have a theory that something, an item or buff or perk action or similar, something introduced in this patch causes the client to die the moment it tries to load the graphics. It has also happened to me in a solo mission once, though.

You might be able to log back in right where you were after whoever was wearing the conflicting graphics has moved away or you may try to petition for the character to be moved to another location.

My Wine is version 0.9.39 and the same also happened with the 0.9.35 I was running at the time 17.4. went live. Before this I crashed very very rarely now it sometimes happens several times a day or I may be lucky and play a full day without a crash. Hugely annoying.

[Hacre]

I've had random crashes under Wine ever since the 17.4. update went live. Screen freezes totally and when I tab out of AO to do "ps ax | egrep exe" I find that client.exe is defunct. I need to "kill -9" the process and then I can try to log back in. Sometimes it is enough to wait till the character already logged in message times out and then I can log the same char normally but quite often I have to wait longer. At the same time I can log in another account, I think I've also logged in another character on the same account successfully.

If I try to log in and it does not work properly, I get the loading screen but after a few seconds it freezes before I see anything even beginning to appear in sight. I can then again ALT TAB out and find that client is defunct and I have to repeat the kill and wait longer.

Usually these crashes happen when I either zone into a relatively busy area or hang around one - such as a grid terminal in WA or Tir, close to shops, etc. I have a theory that something, an item or buff or perk action or similar, something introduced in this patch causes the client to die the moment it tries to load the graphics. It has also happened to me in a solo mission once, though.

You might be able to log back in right where you were after whoever was wearing the conflicting graphics has moved away or you may try to petition for the character to be moved to another location.

My Wine is version 0.9.39 and the same also happened with the 0.9.35 I was running at the time 17.4. went live. Before this I crashed very very rarely now it sometimes happens several times a day or I may be lucky and play a full day without a crash. Hugely annoying.

Yeah I've noticed this. I get random stack errors when wandering through OA or in Gardens, and I can -guarantee- a crash in an LE mission. Cedega works fine.

[Khalem]

Also getting random crashes in Wine ever since 17.4. Havent tested Cedega though.

[porter]

Yeah I've noticed this. I get random stack errors when wandering through OA or in Gardens, and I can -guarantee- a crash in an LE mission. Cedega works fine.

One of mine: err:seh:setup_exception stack overflow 16 bytes in thread 000f eip 7efc168c esp 00240ff0 stack 0x241000-0x350000

My solo was with an alt in an RK mission around level 110. Never crashed in SL so far - I think.

Unfortunately I do not have Cedega to test with that (or rather mine was too old and AO did not work but Wine was good so I forgot about Cedega at the time).

EDIT: Can you play in a window and/or dual log with Cedega? I can't dual log in Wine and that was my main concern with it before these crashes.

[falixmonia]

You can dual/triple/quadruple log with wine in gnu/linux, I do it all the time(try to limit it to dual log though, it takes a bit of the performance away)

This is how you do it:
-Set up multiple .wine folders(use wineprefixcreate)
-Run a new X server for each AO(I use KDE, so K-Menu->Switch User->Start New Session
-Start AO with WINEPREFIX=~/.wine2 wine Anarchy.exe (or .wine3 or whatever)
-If you are running an anchient wine, please upgrade to the latest one, wine has a rapid development rate, new fixes get added all the time.


I got the stack overflow over here aswell, I mostly get it on zoning, but it have happened standing in a crowded place aswell, heck nearing rba is almost a 100% crash. This started just after 17.4 went live, so something is not right.

The new birthday backpacks are invisible on my linux(works on windows), not a major issue though.

Framerate in AI/LE(and sometimes Pen/Inf missions/catacombs) are horrible(unless I look into the ground all the time, but killing aliens that way is not optimal)

Other than that I'm extremely happy with my wine experience, I had to use windows for a few hours yesterday, and I can actually say that borealis is smoother on wine on my computer(exept when I crash that is).
The door/zone lag in sl dungeons(including missions) is also almost gone.


As a closing note: I can't wait for the updated graphics engine to be finished, I just hope they don't go for a visual upgrade at the same time, but just get the engine working first, AO looks ok at full graphics already, we just need some more fps and less doorlag/framedrops.

[porter]

Thank you Falixmonia! I'll try that solution soon and see how my old hardware manages it.

I got so tired of the random crashes that for the last few days I've rebooted to XP to play AO but while the game has better FPS everywhere (paid attention to the numbers this time) I lag more and zone slower in Windows. Regardless of FPS the overall gameplay experience is much more smooth in Wine (except when I crash or in the really low FPS situations).

I agree with your closing note as well by the way Better engine but same looks, please!

[Telperion]

Much like everyone here, i've been having the same annoying crashes since 17.4.
OA grid and Tir grid are now off-limits, and i sometimes crash on zoning too, both in Shadowlands and on Rubi-Ka.
My comp no longer has a Windows partition, so i guess i'm gonna have to live with the crashes, unless the "offending" glitch is fixed in the next patch... At least they don't happen in battlestations ...yet.

[Busata]

Hmm, I was formatting my comp today, and decided to stop by ubuntu again...
Installed ubuntu 7.04 , installed wine, installed & patched anarchy online without errors.
But!
When I try to launch it, I just get a black screen(well it draws it black), and never really launches/logs in
just get the following error at the end:

#
fixme:ddraw:IDirectDrawImpl_SetCooperativeLevel (0x170118)->((nil),00000008)
#
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DStateBlockImpl_Release Releasing primary stateblock
#
fixme:ddraw:IDirectDrawImpl_SetCooperativeLevel (0x170118)->((nil),00000008)
#
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DStateBlockImpl_Release Releasing primary stateblock
#
fixme:ddraw:IDirectDrawImpl_SetCooperativeLevel (0x171e20)->((nil),00000808)
#
fixme:ddraw:IDirectDrawImpl_SetCooperativeLevel (0x171e20)->((nil),00000008)
#
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DStateBlockImpl_Release Releasing primary stateblock

If anyone has experience with this, please share, trying to figure it out myself atm by using different wine versions

Edit: Used a different version of wine, seems to work now :-)

[Khalem]

Confirming that latest Cedega also displays the same crashing post 17.4

[falixmonia]

Busata: Only time I get a black window is if I try to run AO in windowed mode, for me it only works in fullscreen mode(although I use a wine desktop to run it due to dualscreen and xrandr not quite finding the "normal" screen resolutions)

[Busata]

Busata: Only time I get a black window is if I try to run AO in windowed mode, for me it only works in fullscreen mode(although I use a wine desktop to run it due to dualscreen and xrandr not quite finding the "normal" screen resolutions)

Well, I played around with wine & cedega all night , none had the performance I had in windows(serious fps drop), so kinda sticking to dual boot for it.

[Hacre]

Well, I played around with wine & cedega all night , none had the performance I had in windows(serious fps drop), so kinda sticking to dual boot for it.

I think it depends on your system. I run AO with wine and cedega at 1600x1200 full screen and it is more than playable.

Installed latest wine cvs last night, no crashes so far, fingers crossed.

I don't get the problem with cedega 6. So I'm guessing its something up in wine that doesn't like whatever changed in 17.4.

[dri2375]

I had tried to install AO before on my linux, following the guide provided but I could not get it going. However I want to try again but use Xubuntu? Does anyone have it installed with that version of ubuntu and did you have any difficulty getting it to run?

Also I was wondering is the guide on the first page of the post upto date and can I still use it to install AO, I do not have Cedega or a subscription so I am thinking of using cvs/wine?

Please any help will be appreciated, my computer is old and slow lol...but with xubuntu made for slower machines I am hoping to get AO to play a little faster on it then WinXP.

I Thank You all for ur time.