Nix Games

[Pic0o]

Finally making progress this evening, I have a 200GB+ Drive to check Nix side games. Penumbra titles are 2007-2008. However I wish to avoid 12.xx amazon-edition Ubuntu, so if no work on there, oh well pass for now on those on Steam + Nix, play on 7.

 

Thankfully many bundles have built me some options on whatever distro version I try. Join the fight! Find an old HDD, that isn't mostly dead. :ninjawub:

 

Nvidia 310.32 drivers are rolling on my x32 install. Ubuntu 10.04 for the moment with current kernel. 'gdm stop' is nicer than the old school means in an old Nix Distro test / command list.

 

Don't forget 'gksu nvidia-settings'. You may not get said icon anywhere upon install.

Edited February 21, 2013 by Pic0o

[nick]

If you want to avoid the amazon-ubuntu stuff but still pull from their repos and whatever (makes installing Steam a shitload easier becuase the client is a lib cocktail from hell) you can do a network install from a minimal cd:

 

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

 

You'll need to install X, sound, and a wm/de of your choice afterward, but you'll be on 12.10 and stuff. This may be pointless as I'm sure most distros have a Steam package now (at least Arch does).

 

I found that TF2 and 1.6 ran surprisingly well in Linux, even with my weird window manager of choice (i3wm.org). 120Hz monitor support is a catastrophy, though, so I can't really use it for serious gaming.

Edited February 21, 2013 by nick

[Pic0o]

Cool man. It looks like my 10.04 Lucid Lynx install has a lacking Libc6 version 2.15. LL has 2.11.x on it.

 

I really only did a base install last night, so I'll re-roll that drive into a 12.04 install. Monitor wise, I'm still on team 60 Hz. Might pawn an organ and get a big 120 Hz sometime. :)

 

Btw, is it still a better idea to install x86 version of Linux distros, or have the x64 bit version been safe to use without package conflicts? Last time I jumped into checking, x86 / 32 was the more functional choice.

It looks like x64 should work, I just need some extra libraries.

 

Hurray. Steam running and downloading Penumbra Overture, FTL, and Cave Story. Good start for the night and weekend. Found a place in the case for this HDD too.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Pic0o

[Pic0o]

nick, you rock. Thanks a fuckton for the link, as that lite installer is magical. I got my distro rocking last night and have Steam running all good. I like the default window manage XFCE or w/e it is. Good menu and shortcut mapping.

 

Unity is a mess. what a clunky means for a new user to find stuff relating to system settings. No wonder they rolled amazon search in there. :puke:

[nick]

Yeah fuck Unity. And yeah, the ubuntu minimal spin is a bit overlooked in the nix community. You'll get a reasonably bloat free system with (mostly) just things you want and a pretty decent package ecosystem. Apt is still going to be slow as shit, but you can't have it all really. I guess it's roughly comparable to running debian testing, though a bit less involved and since testing is frozen atm you'll be more up-to-date.

 

If I weren't using Gentoo for redtape reasons a little ubuntu install would be a decent contender for my attention (I'd probably just use arch tho).

 

Tbh I really despise all the desktop environments (gnome, kde, xfce, unity, cinnamon, et al). They tend to be barely functional and you end up sitting in a terminal for any serious configuration anyway. Xfce is probably the most livable out of all of them.

 

I'm a big fan of i3wm, but even though it's simple to config, it's not really a low barrier to entry WM. If you find yourself fed up with xfce you might have a look at the more minimal environments like Openbox and Awesome. I don't think XFCE will rape your benches (at least with compositing off?), but it's something to consider.

[Pic0o]

It's time to put an install onto my SSD. The HDD install was tight enough, but I'm ready for liftoff now.

 

SSD users should like boot partition options of noatime and leaving reserved space (journaling) @ 5%. Thank you crunchbang.

 

Personal note. Don't be a tard and hit enter to select on the optional install packs. By time it comes up, I get happy rolled. Curses. Hehe

[Pic0o]

It's been over a year, but here I am on the same matter. I did indeed install Ubuntu in the method we described last year, but Steam did not have anything I wanted to test out in Linux, thus I pretty much stopped there. I got some games since and figure it will be a better test this run.

Steam wise, just run the .deb that is on the SteamPowered.com site. It will bring up the visual installer. This will then bring a console up telling you of dependencies. Follow the prompts, that are all pretty much saying Yes. The familar Steam login prompt will come up and you can login. If you have SteamGuard turned on, check your email to authorize your new install.

Current count I have 37 games supporting Linux via Steam. Goat Simulator is also included. :) I attached a display of the install process, just to go with the explanation of what you will see running the .deb installer.

Steam will also notify you of video card drivers. As an nvidia user, my linux driver updates are no where near as common as the windows ones.

[nick]

Yeah, Steam's Linux client hasn't had the craziest uptake I've seen but there are ~20 pages of games available for Linux on the Steam store now. Pretty impressive considering maybe 5% of that was available at launch last year.

[Pic0o]

I did fire up Goat Simulator, but I had my movement stuck in a circle. A friend was asking to see the game, so I just rebooted into windows and played it. The whole SteamOS + Linux part is telling though.

 

Speaking of that, those machines were due out almost a year ago, yeah? This upcoming week I may have time to jump into Left 4 Dead performance and such on Linux side. The lack of native Xbox 360 pad support is a factor too. Granted an obvious one in the hand of Microsoft, but still a determent for any PC gamers who have one.