Linux!

Post by **randi** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:14 am

Installing Linux from scratch can certainly be entertaining (not to mention time-consuming). So far, I'm pretty happy with it. This is the first Linux installation I've used where all my hardware actually works. I also like the feeling of control that comes from being able to download the very latest XFree86 source code, compile it, and use it right away without having to wait for somebody else to create an RPM for it.

How does this relate to ZDoom? Well, now that the 2.0.x series of ZDoom is restricted to bug-fixes and I have a working Linux installation, I might actually find time to update the Linux port.

But first I must figure out why I can't change Metacity's theme with the GNOME theme manager...

cccp_leha · Post by **cccp_leha** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:22 am

fp!
ZDoom running on Linux would be great; this way I can play in my school's labs instead of doing my work and assignments there... Good luck Randy.

Post by **randi** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:26 am

Your school actually uses Linux? Mine used OSF/1 on the Alphas, some other Unix variant whose name I can't remember on the older MIPS machines, and whatever SGI machines run (I never actually used any of the SGIs). The PCs ran Windows, and the Macs ran MacOS.

GameArena · Post by **GameArena** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:41 am

UofI actually has some pretty sweet computers running SunOS prototypes. But they even seem to run Windows based programs fine, I've always wondered what all they support. Maybe I should test something linux related

SargeBaldy · Post by **SargeBaldy** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:28 am

OMG about time! This would be cool indeed.

edit: haha see that fast speed connection on the link? oregon state? yay that's where i go :)

And try KDE, it's quite a bit nicer than GNOME imo.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:29 am

Hurray! And I might actually have time to play computer games in a few weeks (probably can't expect a port that soon though).

I don't really understand why you would choose the most difficult way possible to install Linux (it takes a hell of a long time just to compile everything). Oh well, what is great is that that choice is there (along with far easier methods). I mostly just want something that works and to stay fairly up-to-date, so I run SuSE Linux (still using 8.2 even though 9.0 has been out for a little while).

The University of Minnesota uses Solaris, Linux, Windows and Macs in their labs. Most of the CS machines run Solaris, and many of the rest run windows. (There are zero Macs). Thankfully, all our assignments are intended to be done on Solaris and Linux machines. I don't think that a school can really claim to have a Computer Science program if students are required to use windows, rather than Unix and/or Linux.

Anyway, this makes it quite convenient for me to run (exclusively) Linux on my own machine. I was just going to dual boot, but very soon I liked Linux so much that I never even booted to Windows anymore.

BTW Randy, SGI machines run IRIX.

Post by **Chris** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:28 am

I wonder if the Linux port could be made into a generic gcc+SDL(or my preference, gcc+Allegro) port. This way it could work on DJGPP, MinGW, and other Unix variants on a x86 architecture with gcc (and possibly non-x86 architectures if there's C/C++ code for all the asm). You may scoff at the mention of DJGPP("Icky DOS", I hear you say..), and wonder "what's the use?" for MinGW, since it's a Windows compiler.. but I have the heart of a Linux (l)user, and love compiling my own stuff using optimizations specific for my machine that a binary distro couldn't safely do without knocking out a bunch of the user base. Of course I don't think SDL has a DOS/DJGPP port, but Allegro does.

Smuggle · Post by **Smuggle** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 9:56 am

yeehaw! Thanks, thanks, thanks, Randy!!!

Cyb · Post by **Cyb** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:59 am

my uni is in love with sparcs and SunOS, especially the cs department, all our programs have to compile on SunOS before handing them in, which can be a pain because SunOS is really strict about memory stuff, moreso than Windows or Linux on x86, though I have managed to make programs that work on SunOS and Windows but segafult on Linux...which was weird

while I agree LFS looks a bit excessivly complex (even for linux heh) some people seem to enjoy having complete control over everything (which linux lets you do regardless of distro, though I have feelings that RedHat and/or Mandrake might even limit you) though personally I'd rather install binaries than compile everything, which is why I use Debian (apt-get is quite possibly the greatest thing ever, now if they'd only fix the damned server so updates would work again...) but anyways good luck with the porting, then I'll finally be able to use ZDoom on my linux desktop (which I use when I'm not at school) which will be schweet cuz prboom is starting to annoy me.

ps - KDE is better than gnome : P

akimmet · Post by **akimmet** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 11:03 am

randy wrote:Your school actually uses Linux? Mine used OSF/1 on the Alphas, some other Unix variant whose name I can't remember on the older MIPS machines, and whatever SGI machines run (I never actually used any of the SGIs). The PCs ran Windows, and the Macs ran MacOS.

I'm glad to see the posibility of seeing a Linux port of Zdoom again. Your original port to Linux was the best one out there, and didn't rely on silly sound servers or other nasty stuff to get working.

BTW: Sgi's run IRIX, which IMHO is the best Commercial UNIX ever made, and has a rather good window manager and compiler. The only bad part of IRIX was doing a fresh install from the miniroot. If you ever get another chance to check one out I would highly reccomend it, if only for playing with all the demos that come with IRIX (Hell it was the only OS I know of that actually includes a shareware copy of doom (1.9 too) on the install media).

cccp_leha · Post by **cccp_leha** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:40 pm

Randy, my school uses Solaris 9 which I conviniently call Linux (what a dummy). IRIX on SGI's is wonderful. I worked on a $50,000 computer at my fathers job in NYU Medical Center a few years back. Those things are super fast; something like 64 porcessors @ ~500Mz and TB's of RAM. Heh, it ran the Doom 1 demo rather fast.

wildweasel · Post by **wildweasel** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 5:54 pm

randy wrote:Your school actually uses Linux? Mine used OSF/1 on the Alphas, some other Unix variant whose name I can't remember on the older MIPS machines, and whatever SGI machines run (I never actually used any of the SGIs). The PCs ran Windows, and the Macs ran MacOS.

Yes, the SGI systems run on IRIX. This was possibly the most obscure OS that Doom has ever been ported to.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 2:03 am

Hi,

It's been something like four years with pretty much no dooming for me but I decided to install some source ports and try a few newer wads and noticed again just how good Doom is these days.

The old zdoom version is pretty much unusable on GNU/Linux for me though. Hermes doesn't seem to manage to set up resolutions right and I get crashes. Also, no music at all (I'm dependent on solutions such as timidity so that might well be it). Would be nice to see an option to use SDL which has never failed to work exactly like it should for me (and also allows for the same codebase for win/mac/lin/*BSD).

Would be great to see the 2.0.x series on Unix-like OS's. I don't have anything called Windows even installed anymore. Haven't had for years and I'm not looking back so the only way for me to use Zdoom is the GNU/Linux version.

Is there a reason for both Zdaemon and ZDoomGL being separate? Couldn't they both be integrated into the main Zdoom codebase so there would be no need for different versions for everything? (last I tried ZDoomGL it was way more buggy than the vanilla ZDoom though)

I've done LFS too. It was surprisingly easy and pretty interesting. The end result resembles a BSD more than your typical GNU/Linux distribution. Nice stuff, sure. But package management does have it's pros too even if it does make things a little more difficult sometimes. BTW, although it's a little less robust, Mandrake has the equivalent of apt-get in urpmi except for dist-upgrades. Also SuSE and most other serious distributors have similar things these days.

Regarding the obscurity of IRIX, I'm sure we can do better. I'd argue that even BeOS is more obscure and wasn't there a port to Amiga too?

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 2:16 am

The ZDoomGL version is done by a different author, and I'm guessing is not the same one you used before. The old version was done by Kokak, the new version is being done by Timmie, totally from scratch. It doesn't yet have support for OpenGL features such as models and dynamic lighting, but it does have what's important -- a stable OpenGL engine that is (almost) fully compatible with the current ZDoom release.

Randy has already said no to the idea of doing an OpenGL renderer himself, so there's pretty much no chance you're going to get a single code base to work with. On the other hand, you could just go with ZDoomGL, which has the option of switching back to the software renderer...

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:08 am

There was an Amiga port based on LinuxDoom sources if I recall correctly. That definitely should be the most obscure one IMO.