Installing NWN on Linux

[Faeldridge]

Hello everyone.

I am back after a six year hiatus.

But, there is a pretty major snag I have run into. That is that Bioware has dropped support for nwn (not sure exactly when that happened), and all the instructions and binaries for linux have gone bye-bye.

So since it has been almost a decade since I actually had to perform an install, I don't have any binaries or information regarding this. I have found some very dated info on google searches, but they are pretty lousy at describing the process, and most of the files they point to are broken links.

Anyone have any straight-forward instructions and and know where to get the binaries? I saw that on the haks page (on the wiki) that nwn vault has the 1.69 critical rebuild, but I don't think that will be enough...

Thanks!

Fael

[Nighthawk4]

Try here for advice. Not sure if those links still work

[Faeldridge]

Hmm.. that seems to focus on a wine install.. I'd rather not, if I don't have to. It used to run great natively. More stable and fluid than on windows. There were no videos, but those are only interesting the first time you play anyway .

I will muddle through, and post back when I get it... if anyone cares at all...

Thanks.

-Fael

[Quinkish]

Welcome back - I hope you can figure out the technicalities. I know nothing, so don't look at me! But I will be glad to see you back in game; I remember some fun with Fael in the past.

[Nighthawk4]

That thread should include the Linux version as well

[Faeldridge]

That thread should include the Linux version as well

Oh, it does, nh... it just doesn't have a solution!

I may be whizzing in the wind on this one... we'll see, but I'll keep at it for a bit...

I'm hoping I can find the magic combination here... I figure it is just finding the right 32bit libraries and putting them in the lib path... but the nwmain output is too terse and obscure. "Segmenation fault" is not much to go on :0/ and strace isn't giving a lot more...

Thank you quinkish, likewise!

See you IG!

-Fael

[Blizzow]

Welcome back!

I'm certainly no Linux guru (or adept, or even apprentice), but will this help?

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... ex/4643217

[Aeveras]

Hey, it's you! Welcome back.

[Faeldridge]

Hey Aeveras! Thank you.

Hope to see you IG. Congratulations on your RPoTM.

I think I have this sorted out... unfortunately, my graphics card on my linux box amounts to owlbear pizzle. So I won't know for sure if it is working... but, I do know that it works on my laptop -- I just need to update my haks.

What a pain! When I get everything sorted, I'll post what I learne.

-Fael.

[S_N]

I've run the native linux client since it and I got some tweaks/addons to get it to use any resolution in windowed mode. With borders removed I find it much better than fullscreen mode.

(Bit short on time atm, because of assignment and exams coming up next week.)

[Missian]

FEAL!! welkome back to the game..

allways a good laugh we had.. cheers!! to old time sake..

[Ghostie]

Nice. Welcome back Fael.

[Faeldridge]

Thank you! I am happy to be back, and look forward to seeing you in game, missian and ghostie.

SN, I used to run it on linux exclusively, an it always ran beautifully. I have a new graphics card enroute, and it is an nvidia, so I'm hopeful that will solve my problem. The interesting this is that I was able to get it to run (albeit a bit choppy) playing the hordes of the underdark mod, but it crashed every time on the NWN and SoU mods... wierd. Must have been some texture or something that it just couldn't cope with.

I have an ati 4200 cheapy-chip soldered into my mobo now, and ati dropped catalyst support for it. Their linux support was alway shoddy, so I'm going with Nvidia. I'd be interested in learning about your tweaks!

-Fael

[theP]

Fael!!!!!! Finally!!! whoohoo!

Good to have you back, Chris!

P.

[Faeldridge]

Okay...

I have finally got this running.

My problems were twofold: First I was trying to use the -ravage- installer. Don't do this, it sent me of way off course, trying to trouble shoot phantom issues when in reality it did not install correctly.

Second, in the absence of binaries hosted by bioware, I was using my old install I found on my laptop -- which worked, until I updated the avlis/copap haks. Then it crashed immediately upon login.

Eventually, i did find someone who posted the binaries, and even instructions for installation at Robot Butler, which was very helpful. It gave me a clean install. From there, I installed each hak one by one, and tested for stability. Everything was good, so I conclude that it must have been a bad hak somewhere, or a conflict resulting from hold haks mixing with the new & not nwn itself.

It did run with my on-board ati chip, but not very well at all. Got the new nvidia card yesterday, and installed that, and it runs beautifully. Better than my windows box which has a better graphics card, more ram, another core and faster clockrate.

If for some reason the Robot butler page ever gets taken down, I am keeping all the files and instructions thereon, so if someone needs them, they can contact me.

I love a happy ending.

See you IG!

-Fael

[Nighthawk4]

I remember how fast NWN was on Linux.

In fact I have it installed on a VM in VM Fusion running Ubuntu on my Mac and it actually runs!!

Even better, it is almost as fast as running the Windows version of NWN in a Wineskin directly on the Mac, or in Crossover. For the Guest OS to run fast enough that the game can run in a VM is amazing

I only installed it like that to see what could be achieved - but it is almost playable

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Ooooh. *shudders* I think something just walked over my grave. Well, it felt like it anyway.

The thought occurred to me. Perhaps. *gulps* One of us should try *wretches* Windows 8.

[Nighthawk4]

Go ahead - not me


Actually, I do have a VM with a pre-release of Win8 on it

[Faeldridge]

In fact I have it installed on a VM in VM Fusion running Ubuntu on my Mac and it actually runs!!

Even better, it is almost as fast as running the Windows version of NWN in a Wineskin directly on the Mac, or in Crossover. For the Guest OS to run fast enough that the game can run in a VM is amazing

Yeah, nwn was remarkably lean, even for the time. I remember playing avlis over a dial-up, and it was still playable. Granted, that is a little different measure (network performance), but it just shows the folks at bioware turned out a pretty, lean, solid product. I still haven't heard of a game as vast, solid, trim and extensible as nwn. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was open source!

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

I have a disk and a key for Windows 8. I just don't want to ruin my test PC with Ubuntu on it by installing it.

[Faeldridge]

I have a disk and a key for Windows 8. I just don't want to ruin my test PC with Ubuntu on it by installing it.

Virtualbox, vmware, Xen, KVM and qemu are all your friends! Do your install, and keep your ubuntu untainted!

[Nighthawk4]

Not good

I tried to install Linux on my laptop so I could give this another try. I have run Linux on it before, but that was ages ago. I tried to download Ubuntu and it proved to be defective. Tried again - still defective.

I found a free DVD from a Linux magazine with the latest Ubuntu on it. The disk boots on the laptop but when I try to run Ubuntu all I get is a white screen with a flashing cursor in the top left.

I tried several other Distros - same result.

So I booted the laptop into Windows7 and installed the Wubi or whatever it is called. Not the way I wanted to install it, but

It installed and then wanted to reboot. I rebooted and ......

..... the same blank screen with a flashing cursor

So now the laptop will not even boot into Windows7 as the Linux menu should load first.

Any ideas please? Can this be fixed? Can I get back into Windows7 at least?


Edit - I got back into the boot menu and I can get into Windows7 on the laptop. Now I just need to find a way to make Ubuntu work or to delete it. Maybe go back to PCLinuxOS that I used on this laptop before.

[Faeldridge]

It sounds like your mbr was written over. I'm glad you got past that. I'm surprised that Ubuntu gave you a hard time. I found it to be pretty straight-forward with newer hardware (though not bleeding edge hardware). Is it an old laptop? It tends to be a bear with Ubuntu, and since it is so loaded-up with software and features, I just don't bother with it for older laptops. If it is a bleeding-edge new laptop, it can be a struggle sometimes, because the drivers may not be developed yet in the mainstream kernel.

Debian Linux is a great distro if you laptop is a bit older. It gives you much more control over the install, and yields a leaner system -- albeit the software it uses is a bit more dated than Ubuntu.

Does grub even come up (offering you a choice of OSs to boot from)? Or does it go straight from post to white screen? What kind of hardware are we dealing with?

[Nighthawk4]

It boots as far as Grub, with options for Ubuntu and Windows7. There are two installations of Windows7, which might be part of the problem. I think it might be looking on the wrong partition for the Ubuntu files, since I had to use the Wabi thingy.

I don't know how to get to the grub editor as I can't load Ubuntu.

The laptop is an Asus A6KM. It used to work with PCLinuxOS, so I assumed it would work with Ubuntu as well

[Faeldridge]

Well, you can try booting to the ubuntu disk again, and choose "try ubuntu" rathter than "install ubuntu", then mount your boot partiion. Or, you can use knoppix. I don't go anywhere without one of these disks , mount the boot partition and edit your grub.cfg file, then run your update-grub.

Ubuntu is funny (as is debian which it is fashioned from) in that they do not like you editing the grub file directly. You can learn more about their particular implementation of grub here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

The white screen thing is strange.. usually you get some sort of kernel panic, so it is possible that the problem lie elsewhere, with say, your video card driver. If that is the case, try editing the /etc/ininttab to get it to boot to a console, rather than X, and disable the frame buffer. If it works, then you know you need to tweak your /etc/xorg/x11.conf... Hard to say from here... but I hope it points you in the right direction .