Making Discovery Freelancer work in Linux

[Dantrithor]

Right, that's the question. I'd like to keep at least some games working on Linux, specially Freelancer as my connection seems to be even more stable there, and i thought, where would be the best place to ask this strange question? Discovery forums, of course!


So, can anyone succesfully playing Discovery Freelancer in Linux help me?

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[Alex.]

Well someone got Eagle Utopia to work... I guess Discovery can be done aswell. Problem is, I'm betting Cannon's client side anticheat wont work - if so, you wont be able to play on servers that require it.

[DeathsOverture]

I've played on the RP 24/7 discovery server in GNU/Linux using this guide: http://freelancercommunity.net/viewtopic...=2466#2466

It seemed run but I was getting dreadful FPS.

Though I tried to use the install to play last week and I couldn't connect to the server, so it seems something is broken...

Good luck!

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[Alex.]

I've played on the RP 24/7 discovery server in GNU/Linux using this guide: http://freelancercommunity.net/viewtopic...=2466#2466

It seemed run but I was getting dreadful FPS.

Though I tried to use the install to play last week and I couldn't connect to the server, so it seems something is broken...

Good luck!

Try playing on Discovery of Discovery, they don't require the anticheat client, so it should work, providing it really is the anticheat being incompatible.

[The.Ringmaster]

I play in Gentoo 64bit all the time. I didn't do anything special, just compiled and installed Wine (winehq.org) and then stuck in the Freelancer CD like I was on windows. Installed FL, then FLMM, then Discovery. Logged on and it works fine.

I've even gotten it to work within a windows xp Virtual Machine (via vmware), and it wasn't laggy and worked fine, though there was a slight but noticable delay between moving the mouse and the cursor on the screen following suit. I doubt it was even half a second behind though, so only a problem when in real intense twitch fighting, like light fighter vs light fighter.

@ OP: Post your specific problem, and I can help you with it. Hard to help if I don't know what went wrong. If you are looking for specific instructions, drop to commandline, type "sudo apt-get install wine" to install wine, then install Freelancer using wine, run it, bingo there you go. Anything goes wrong let me know.

@ Death's Overture: Can you get decent FPS in other linux games of similar graphical requirements? What is the result of typing "glxinfo | grep direct" into the console? what is your FPS when running "glxgears" in console?

- The Ringmaster

[Dantrithor]

The.Ringmaster: Thanks; as soon as i can, i'll try to install it again. I tried it before i managed to correctly install another game (Metin2), and now i might have found the correct DX settings, although i didn't bother to check again about Freelancer, really. I will do it now creating a starflier, although i'll try to send a PM to one of the admins beforehand, just in case anything messes up with anti-cheat.

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[DeathsOverture]

@ Death's Overture: Can you get decent FPS in other linux games of similar graphical requirements? What is the result of typing "glxinfo | grep direct" into the console? what is your FPS when running "glxgears" in console?

Yeah, I have played Heroes of Newerth, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Jedi Knight Jedi Academy with little to no performance loss.

Perhaps its because I tested Freelancer in a nebula?

Here's what you requested and a few other things:

Code:

vinny@Shadowcat-XPS:~$ glxinfo |grep direct
direct rendering: Yes
    GL_EXT_Cg_shader, GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test, GL_EXT_direct_state_access,

Code:

vinny@Shadowcat-XPS:~$ glxgears
12440 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2487.909 FPS
12450 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2489.913 FPS
12226 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2445.190 FPS
12447 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2488.902 FPS

Code:

vinny@Shadowcat-XPS:~$ lspci |grep nV
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GS (rev a1)

I'm currently using Nvidia beta driver 195.30.

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[Dantrithor]

Great. Now i can not mount the ISO backup of the game (which CD was lost long time ago).

This is what i get once i try to mount it (other ISO's mount fine):

Code:

dantrithor@Local-Debian:/$ sudo mount -t iso9660 -o loop ~/Descargas/freelancer.ISO /mountedcd
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0,                              
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error                                    
       En algunos casos se encuentra informaci?n en syslog, pruebe                            
   dmesg | tail   o algo parecido

Translation of the spanish sentences:

Code:

In some cases information can be found in syslog, try
dmesg | tail or something similar

Also tried with gisomount with no joy. Any idea what could be this related to? I seem to be unable to find anything useful on google.

Also, with dmesg | tail i get this from system log:

Code:

dantrithor@Local-Debian:/$ dmesg | tail
[   94.831967] process `skype' is using obsolete setsockopt SO_BSDCOMPAT
[ 1070.810453] UDF-fs: No VRS found
[ 1070.810457] UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
[ 1070.824877] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[ 1070.826180] ISOFS: changing to secondary root
[ 1226.717188] ISOFS: Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[ 2328.766017] ISOFS: Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[ 2562.435266] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[ 2562.537588] ISOFS: changing to secondary root
[ 3069.561094] ISOFS: Unable to identify CD-ROM format.

EDIT: ISO image and optical drive/media are fine. Reinstalled the game from that very same ISO on windows less than a month ago.

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[Dantrithor]

Right, it was actually a .BIN renamed to a .ISO (god knows why i did that, or why the software did it). I converted it with poweriso to .ISO (after renaming it to freelancer.BIN) and mounted it. Now it worked fine. Let's try to make it work, will edit this post as i do it.

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[Dantrithor]

Great. I install freelancer: runs fine. I install the mod: runs fine. I get into discovery serve: Kick: Reason? bad installation

I get XML tags all around buttoms and descriptions, why can that be? i reinstalled the game and the mod, but they keep showing up (like, <XML tag...>). mouseover descriptions are fine... This happens in vanilla and DiscoveryFL mod.

Ideas?

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