Puppy Gamers Unite!

[steve_s]

All right, I found a game that is MMORPG like Shaiya that is Linux compatible: Regnum. Looks pretty good...

But after login and trying to get the game going, I got the same I had with Shaiya...thought it had been wine and Shaiya before, but now not sure.

Logged into Regnum and X crashed.

Checked X log outside of X and saw something like this:

Code: Select all

Fatal Server Error:
Caught Signal 11.  Server aborting

Anyone have any ideas what this error means?

[MU]

tremolous looks very great.
What a pity, that it has no singleplayer mode

I made a first version of a game-muppy 084.
it includes no games yet, but all the libs and drivers you usually need.
Also the driver-detection and support is better now, as it is based on wNOP2/Tigerpup.

You just had to add a games-sfs, customize the outfit, and voià

It also should not launch by default the 3D-desktop for gaming, as that uses too many resources.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 416#219416

Mark

[steve_s]

tremolous looks very great.
What a pity, that it has no singleplayer mode

I made a first version of a game-muppy 084.
it includes no games yet, but all the libs and drivers you usually need.
Also the driver-detection and support is better now, as it is based on wNOP2/Tigerpup.

You just had to add a games-sfs, customize the outfit, and voià

It also should not launch by default the 3D-desktop for gaming, as that uses too many resources.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 416#219416

Mark

Thanks, Mark! I'll check it out...add another frugal install, probably. See what happens...

[steve_s]

Hey, MU, playing with the new gamer muppy as a frugal...nice job! Found the video card right away, at boot up! Nicely done...

I'm still playing with it...I don't have window borders (something in my config, I'm sure) and I don't really have it set up yet, but wanted you to know that the video card set up worked great!

[MU]

please be certain to read the follow-up messages.

the first upload had a bug, that I fixed later that day.

Type in a console:
echo $XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS

If it returns "1", you have the one with the bug.
Else, please as usual: attach xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log
Mark

[steve_s]

please be certain to read the follow-up messages.
...

Mark

...sorry, sir, but it seems I got ahead of myself...it's easy to do with how crazy easy a frugal install is...I'll try the non-buggy one.

Speaking of frugal install, I put a Puppy 4.0 in there on the same computer. I customized it up and installed the nvidia driver...worked great. I just can't resist having at least one JWM on the system.

...and, for some reason, Regnum works great on 4.0. I used gimp and the time delay for screenshots, so I sorta take what I can get, but at least you can see that it works...

[Lobster]

more potential games
http://www.junauza.com/2008/06/10-best- ... an-be.html

[steve_s]

Comments on the current gaming pc:

First of all, to say that a linux box can't be a game pc is patently ridiculous. Yes, as with anything non-Windows, you are occasionally called to think and seek out answers, rather than follow the herd. With that in mind, clearly this thread shows that some good games can be found for Puppy.

The current system I have now has come to this: I went with 4.0 and had to use a full install (WA-AY too big for memory/frugal), used the advise from this thread and some of my others, used advise from MU (thanks, Mark), got the video card set up and got going.

I've Teen-pupped out this 4.0, adding some stuff I liked from Teenpup (thanks to john biles, right?). I added a synthesizer (ZynthAdd something or other...pretty cool). Then about 20-30 or so games, most of them have nothing to do with the internet, most of them from threads that talk about games that install without dependents and such (if someone is looking, I've commented in each of the threads that I've enjoyed gleaning games from...).

As mentioned before, Regnum is in there. Battle of Wesnoth also. Also Ppracer, then the boys wanted Terragen so they "could make worlds," so I referred back to another thread I did for that one and it works great in 4.0 with wine. Barrage (very intellectual, hehe), various chess games, puzzle games, Ace of Penguins, attacks, etc.

Also VLC, gnumeric and abiword are in there (no OpenOffice) and Scribus in case they need to do any type of work amidst the games .

Still want to add a music player on there..exaile was grumpy so I'm still looking.

Oh, and I tried to do a remaster from the hard drive, but the iso is like 2 gigs or something. Might try to strip it down (it has movies and such in there right now) and make an iso of it, but that is not really my goal. Could be fun, though.

Thanks again to all that contributed to this thread and other gaming threads. I'll continue to post back to this thread with other game additions, and please feel free to continue to post here to all others that might want to set up a Puppy linux gaming box.

[MU]

you could create sfs files of the big games.
As they usually are not cluttered all over the filesystem, this is pretty easy.

Something like
mksquashfs /mnt/hda1/games games_301.sfs

So /mnt/hda1/games might look somewhat like this:

/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/nexuiz-glx.sh
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/pak/pak.01
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/pak/pak.02
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/quake-glx.sh
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/pak/pak.01
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/pak/pak.02


Like this you might be able to reduce the Iso to 700 MB to fit on a CD, and add 2 or 3 SFS files of around 700 MB.

Mark

[steve_s]

you could create sfs files of the big games.
As they usually are not cluttered all over the filesystem, this is pretty easy.

Something like
mksquashfs /mnt/hda1/games games_301.sfs

So /mnt/hda1/games might look somewhat like this:

/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/nexuiz-glx.sh
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/pak/pak.01
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/pak/pak.02
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/quake-glx.sh
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/pak/pak.01
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/pak/pak.02


Like this you might be able to reduce the Iso to 700 MB to fit on a CD, and add 2 or 3 SFS files of around 700 MB.

Mark

Once again, you the man. Great idea...I'll check it out!

[steve_s]

For fun, here are some screenshots...

With Wesnoth:
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp32 ... 2008-2.jpg

With Abuse:
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp32 ... 2008-4.jpg

...chess:
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp32 ... 2008-6.jpg

...Pingus:
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp32 ... 2008-7.jpg

and Tux-Math:
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp32 ... 2008-8.jpg

[steve_s]

So, now that I've got it set like I want, is there a good way to remaster from a full hard drive install? I tried the one (Dugal?) that I saw, but it just hangs, even after many, many hours...

I hear you, MU, on creating the .sfs files, but I'm leary of that in that I want to make certain I don't screw up the current install...maybe if I could remaster, then put it on another computer and extract the sfs files...not sure, just giving ideas.

Any suggestions on the full install remaster?

[MU]

when I create Muppy, I do not remaster.
I use a method, that is based on this concept (in Muppy it is more complex, but that does not matter).

I did not test it with copying files from a full installation, so I cannot guarantee, that it works

Create on a Linux-drive a folder like SFS.
So you might have:
/mnt/hda5/SFS/

Now boot from the LiveCD.
Mount hda5, and copy the contents of pup_400.sfs to the new folder:
cp -ax /initrd/pup_ro2/* /mnt/hda5/SFS/
So you have a writable copy of the original basesystem.

Now copy important folders from your own installation over this new folder.
Like:
cp -ax /mnt/hda1/root/* /mnt/hda5/SFS/root/
cp -ax /mnt/hda1/usr/* /mnt/hda5/SFS/usr/
cp -ax /mnt/hda1/var/* /mnt/hda5/SFS/var/
This assumes, that your full installation is on hda1.

You should ignore folders like /etc, /bin, /proc, /sys.
They have some systemfiles, and settings for your own graficscard and network. These should not overwrite the default settings for a CD.
/etc/ might have some new resourcefiles created by your games, though.
You had to find them, and copy them one by one.
But this is very seldom.

Then build a new SFS:
cd /mnt/hda5
mksquashfs SFS pup_400.sfs

Now you have a modified basesystem.

finally, you need to create a ISO fromit.
Create a folder:
/mnt/hda5/ISO

Copy all files from the CD there.
Replace /mnt/hda5/ISO/pup_400.sfs with your new /mnt/hda5/pup_400.sfs.

Build the ISO:
cd /mnt/hda5
mkisofs -o gamepup.iso -l -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table ISO/
md5sum gamepup.iso >gamepup.iso-md5sum.txt

Mark

[steve_s]

when I create Muppy, I do not remaster.
I use a method, that is based on this concept (in Muppy it is more complex, but that does not matter).



Mark

All I can say is, "Wow!" You amaze me, Mark. ....you make it sound simple...

Ok, I'm going to give it a shot tonight or tomorrow and post back results. Awesome; well done; thanks!

[steve_s]

Once again, Mark, great stuff on how to do a full hard drive install remaster. Excellent.

It worked like a champ, so it would seem. I used those three folders (root, usr, var) that you mentioned and when the dust cleared (so to speak) I ended up with an iso file that was just over 800MB.

I've fiddled around trying to boot it as a frugal from a usb hard drive and couldn't get it to go, so I think I'll try your remaster again and strip out what is unessential (I didn't look at it before, just straight copied to see if it would work). I would be willing to bet I could get it down to 700.

Thanks again; awesome advise, very concise and well put together.

[steve_s]

you could create sfs files of the big games.
As they usually are not cluttered all over the filesystem, this is pretty easy.

Something like
mksquashfs /mnt/hda1/games games_301.sfs

So /mnt/hda1/games might look somewhat like this:

/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/nexuiz-glx.sh
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/pak/pak.01
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Nexuiz/pak/pak.02
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/quake-glx.sh
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/pak/pak.01
/mnt/hda1/games/usr/local/Quake/pak/pak.02


Like this you might be able to reduce the Iso to 700 MB to fit on a CD, and add 2 or 3 SFS files of around 700 MB.

Mark

I need further clarification on this. I understood your previous input on how to remaster (man, that worked great!) but need more input on making the iso smaller (I can't get it lower than 780MB).

Does the sfs need to have all the data for a game or just the starting script? Does it need to be put together the same way it is currently in the system? In other words, if attack is in /usr/local/attack then does the entire folder, it's contents need to be put in the same way in the sfs file? Just not sure exactly how the sfs works in relation to the running os...

Sorry for the hassle, but I figure it is wiser for me to get clarification now rather than creating invalid sfs files all over the place...

[MU]

Does the sfs need to have all the data for a game or just the starting script?

You need all data of course, except you want to "criple" it.
To "criple" a game, you could replace a big "intro.avi" with a very small one , that just shows a black screen for a second.
But this is not so nice, this was done by Windows game crackers in the past to create smaller downloads (illegal).

Does it need to be put together the same way it is currently in the system?

yes.
Though some games are relocatable.
I think for doom3 it does not matter, where it is located.
You just need to adapt the path setting in /us/local/bin/doom3 with an editor.

If you need a sfs hat is smaller than 780 MB, but the game is larger, then you could create 2 f them.
So both had to be added then to the bootmanager by the user.

Example:
To thegameA_400.sfs you add:
/usr/local/thegame/bigmovie1.avi

To thegameB_400.sfs you add:
/usr/local/thegame/bigmovie2.avi


Mark

[steve_s]

Does the sfs need to have all the data for a game or just the starting script?

You need all data of course...

Mark

This is all invaluable stuff...awesome! So glad I could coerce you to get it put down on the forum for future reference...


Hmmm...none of my games are anywhere close to that size, except maybe Regnum...I need to check around and see where all the size is going for this iso..yeah, it's right at 780. Of course, it's got Audacious, Audacity, VLC and other stuff on it that are big space consumers...no OpenOffice but some others that are big...open to suggestions about where to check for "hidden" data that is just taking up space (some tmp file I don't know about?).

Thanks again for the info; I'll post back.

[MU]

you can type this:

cd /usr
du -m | sort -n

this helps to find big files.
Mark

[steve_s]

All right, I tried to trim it down even further but the best that I can do is 750M overall, so I have to explore the sfs option again.

I tried to get it to work before with just a Battle of Wesnoth sfs, but the best final result I got was this: Battle of Wesnoth added itself to the menu, but nothing happened when I clicked on it. I then ran it from command but that command wasn't found. So, clearly I did something wrong.

Here is the process I followed: I created a folder called /SFS. The folder for Wesnoth is located in /usr/local/share. The x-executable is located in /usr/local/bin. So, within the SFS folder I created I created a /usr/ directory, then a /usr/local directory, then a /usr/local/share and a /usr/local/bin directory within SFS/usr/local. I then copied the Wesnoth folder into /usr/local/share and the executable into /usr/local/bin of SFS.

Then I cd'd to the directory just outside of SFS and ran mksquashfs:

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/hdb2/
mksquashfs SFS/ wesnoth.sfs

Everything ran smoothly, it seems, but apparently I missed something. After all was said and done, and I had Puppy load the wesnoth.sfs module at startup it added the Battle of Wesnoth menu entry, like I said, but that was it.

I don't know how to check to see if the sfs file was loaded correctly beyond what I've done.

What did I miss?