Gabe N, Half-Life 3, VR & Linux

Have been seeing a lot of chatter lately online regarding Half-Life 3 and if it will ever be released.......Well, I started my gaming experience on the original Half-Life, before there was Steam.  Here are my thoughts or 2 cents.

1. Half-Life 3 is likely the most anticipated Title the Gaming world has ever been waiting for. The Franchise started it all for so many people, Half-Life 2 set a new standard in the Gaming Universe and even to this day both the titles and spin-offs continue to sell and I have to admit from time to time pull me back in for a weekend of entertainment. Not to mention the tie-in with Aperture in the Portal series and you have the biggest pool of anticipation ever.....boiling.

2. Virtual Reality - It truly is going to be the next definitive gaming / entertainment experience, with the introduction of the Oculus Rift the stage was set as the first Reaction Videos on youtube proved that people react in a totally different way to VR than any of us expected.

3. Linux - Steam OS and the Steam Machines are just a great Idea at the moment, allow those of the penguin persuasion to jump into the gaming universe along with everyone else, sure its list of titles is a bit stunted due to its late entry into the Gaming OS market........

4. Gabe N.......is no dummy, and he got pissed at Micro$oft, that is why we have Steam for Linux now.......

Lets recap....

1. Half-Life 3
2. VR
3. Linux
4. Gabe N
----------------------
New era in Console Wars - No one ever said Half-Life 3 has to support Windows.

Dedicated Linux Project Zomboid Server......Similar to Minecraft

As a reference: I am Running Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon on our Dedicated server Machine.....

This will work if Setting up the Server on a Dedicated machine, or you can alter it to run the server on your game machine, you would just need to NOT do the copy and paste bit to a Jump Drive.

01. Use Steam Linux to Install Project Zomboid On the Gaming PC
02. "Right-Clicked" Project Zomboid
03. Choose Properties on the Drop Down Menu
04. Clicked on the "BETAS" Tab
05. Told it use the "onlinetest -" Version
06. Use your File Browser to find /home/yourusername/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/ on your Gaming PC and then Copy & Pasted the Folder "ProjectZomboid" to a Jump Drive.
07. When copy was complete, take the Jump Drive to your Dedicated in Home Server PC and recreate the Path above on your Server to look like /home/yourusername/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common and then Copy & Paste the "ProjectZomboid" Folder from the Jump Drive to the common folder.
08. Then enter into the "ProjectZomboid" folder you just Pasted into the common folder
09. Here you will find a file called "projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh"
10. "Right-Click" the File "projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh"
11. From the drop down menu choose "Properties"
12. On the properties Window that opens select the "Permissions" Tab
13. Find the empty check box regarding "Allow executing file as program" and Select the Check box and then Close the properties Window.
14. Now back in the File browser Double-Click the "projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh" File
15. You should get a pop-up window that asks several things of you, mine indicates with buttons that read "Run in Terminal", "Display", "Cancel" and "Run"
16. On this first time of seeing this, I elected to use "Display" which opens the File in a Text-editor and I edited the amount of Memory that java would be allowed to use. Find these two lines in the file and change to what you would like to limit or expand it to.

    -Xms4096m \ (= Starting Memory)
    -Xmx4096m \ (= Maximum Memory)

I changed mine to read.

    -Xms1024m \
    -Xmx2048m \

17. Then save the File and close the Text-editor.
18. Now back in the File Browser "Double-click" the "projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh" File again and this time choose "Display in Terminal"
19. You will see a Terminal Window open and shortly you should see text running down you and it will end with "Server-Started".
20. Congrats......Your server is running!!!

21. This does not cover setting up a port forward in your router to allow people to join, nor does it cover making sure that your server firewall is configured to allow traffic in to the open port in the router.

I set a port forward for 16261 thru 16276 to allow 15 or so join.

After setting this Port Forward we discovered that all players use the same port to Join, just like in Minecraft, so it seemed as if we only needed 16261 to be open for forwarding, I dont know where the Idea came that every player needs there own port to use......but that is what the Server Tutorials kept saying to do. I decided to take a moment and revisit the Router and change the Port Forwarding to only include port 16261. As soon as this was done then no one was able to join.....Set the port forwarding to include 16261 thru 16276 and again the players were able to join again. So just as a FYI......It is confirmed you need to have multiple ports open to allow joining.

Mint 13 Mate Additional Drives ATI HD 4600 Fail & Works?

This Post is related to my Minecraft Client not the Server

All Documented Jan 24, 2013 except where notes indicate Previous attempts. No hardware changes have been made to system from release of Mint 10 to the day of this documentation other than 19 inch LCD added just recently.

Home Custom Built System:
ASUS M3A78-CM Motherboard
AMD Phenom 9950 Quad-Core BE (Stock Settings) 2.6 GHz it seems Mint Throttles it back to 1.3 GHz.
6 GBs DDR2-800 RAM
1TB Hard-drive (Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit)
120GB Hard-drive (Mint 13 Mate 64-Bit)
Sapphire AMD HD4670 Video to 22" LCD via DVI & 19" LCD via VGA

Initial Clean Install runs as expected for Mint 13 Mate and I am feeling as if maybe this will bring back the Satisfaction of Running Mint 10 64-Bit on this machine. (Mint 10 was just Perfect on this Machine)

Issue:

First thing Mint notifies me of is Proprietary Drivers Available (nice), so when I get it pulled up, I choose (post release updates) for my AMD/ATI Video Card. (I would like to attempt to use Steam now that it is available for Linux.)

These Drivers Download, however once the install begins, It throws an error that the installation has failed and that I should see the Jocky.log.  I have saved a copy of that log.

I have attempted this process multiple times using Mint 13 Mate, Mint 13 Cinnamon, Ubuntu 12.04, all 64-Bit.

In all cases I get the same error, and in all cases after the failed install of this driver and before a Restart, my Control Center shows the AMD CCC & AMD CCC admin icons.

**Now for some background that may be relevant**

In all previous cases, I threw up my hands and decided that I was going to have to stick to the open-source drivers that come with Mint and have to wait for a Video Card Upgrade before attempting to get the Proprietary Drivers installed for a "Steam for Linux" Play day that could be had for the taking.

However, on this particular day, I did a little Messing around with my configuration before I got the notice for the AMD Drivers. Mainly this: I pulled up the monitor window from the Control Panel, Rearranged the Monitor to get the correct Orientation "Left on Left","Right on Right", and turned off the Monitor on the Right to move my Panel to the Left Monitor and set it to the (Preferred) Resolution(1680X1050) and made it the Default setting for all users, so essentially via the Monitor window, setting it to a single Display for all user on initial Login.

**Why this Might be Relevant**

After the Failed Driver Install, I attempted to install a few of my favorite Programs from the Software Center, they all failed.  So I figured the failed driver install must have something to do with it.  I then restarted the Machine (note: on 1st restart as system drops to command line it gives"could not write, broken pipe and then modem caught signal 15 yada yada), and when it comes back on the previous configuration I applied via the Monitor window is no longer what gets displayed to me.  I essentially have mirrored Displays again as was the default when I initially installed Mint 13 Mate, as well as the AMD CCC icons are still in the Control Center.

Clicking on the non admin results in CCC loading and displaying, however as it is not the admin icon I do not have the ability to set up any display settings.

Clicking on the CCC admin icon results in nothing, no response of any kind, never loads, not even the request for my root password.  I can however start the CCC admin via command line with "sudo amdcccle" without quotes, the terminal asks for root password, it opens and I can configure my Desktops via the CCC admin window and when I apply the settings it asks if I would like to keep them and then states a restart is required to apply the settings.  I restart, It does not give the "could not write, broken pipe" line on second restart as it did on first restart when it drops to command line, and the configuration I choose via the AMD CCC admin window is exactly what I configured when via the AMD CCC admin window before the restart (in this case***Left on Left, Right on Right, both on, 1680X1050 Left, 1400X900 Right, Mate Panel on Left.

Well, I think, maybe these drivers are working after all??? Before I see if they will power any games though another notification pops up and lets me know that Restricted Drivers are available(Confirming they have not installed correctley?), I have not installed any other software, and have not run any updates. Lets see if Software will install?

Avant Window Navigator will not, however I believe that is due to repo removal? No, after running updates a 2nd time and Restarting, it has installed and starts without compositing, however I can turn on compositing and it works.

Drop box does install, links and begins sync as normal, Software Center seems to be working fine.

I decided to see if Minecraft will work....Not ready to trouble shoot Steam as of yet.

After Download, I create in my home Folder a "Minecraft" folder and move the minecraft.jar file to it.  Inside this folder I create an empty document and name it Minecraft.sh and add the appropriate lines to give more memory and mark as executable, when I double click it, a pop-up  asks me to run in term, display, cancel or just run, either run options results in Minecraft opens and I can play it no problem, except after I close it, every-time I end up with a hs_err_pidXXXX.log file in my new Minecraft Folder, which I believe confirms that the AMD/ATI Drivers have not installed correctly.

So, as I would prefer to use Mint Tested Drivers, the final questions I am looking to get answered are:

How do we get the drivers installed for my Video card without the error from the Jocky Application for Additional Drivers to rule out the Drivers?

Or if it is not the Driver, what would cause Java to throw an error and create the err log file?

Which chicken should I be Chasing?

While doing Research in the Mint Forums, I have decided to let the updates run.

During updates was asked to keep or Replace, Gnome.default.list and Grub file. I Replaced Both figuring it was important to flow with the updates.  After a 3rd Restart everything seems to be working normally.


*&*** I found these command references for further info or consideration and recorded the output of each: ***&*

Interesting: in terminal, the Linux command: inxi -Gx reports:


Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV730XT [Radeon HD 4670] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           X.Org: 1.11.3 driver: fglrx Resolution: 1680x1050@60.0hz, 1440x900@59.9hz
           GLX Renderer: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series GLX Version: 3.3.11627 - CPC Direct Rendering: Yes


For Further Detail: inxi -Fxz reports:


System:    Host: Mint13-Quad-Mate Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.6.3)
           Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M3A78-CM version: Rev X.0x Bios: American Megatrends version: 0405 date: 07/15/2008
CPU:       Quad core AMD Phenom 9950 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 20896.9
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1300.00 MHz 2: 1300.00 MHz 3: 1300.00 MHz 4: 1300.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV730XT [Radeon HD 4670] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           X.Org: 1.11.3 driver: fglrx Resolution: 1680x1050@60.0hz, 1440x900@59.9hz
           GLX Renderer: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series GLX Version: 3.3.11627 - CPC Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 series] driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-3: Linksys driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 13b1:001d
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.24
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e800 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Linksys usb-ID: 13b1:001d
           IF: N/A state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (0.6% used) 1: /dev/sda ST31000528AS 1000.2GB
           2: /dev/sdb WDC_WD1200BEVS 120.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 108G used: 5.9G (6%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 4.10GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0C mobo: 30.0C gpu: 28.00C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 2836 psu: 0 sys-1: 2848
Info:      Processes: 153 Uptime: 1:46 Memory: 941.6/5970.7MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.6.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.33

Further Research



After some Searching, Reading and Thinking, I have found a reference to Jocky and Synaptic having problems with the ATI Driver installation and getting around it by way of command line.

My first "Find" digging thru the Mint Forums indicate these Steps:

"Use Synaptic to remove any flgrx packages you can find.
Open the Terminal and type these commands

Code: Select all
    sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*


Code: Select all
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install fglrx-driver fglrx-control
***This Step above resulted in message that the install request refers to 2 Files and that I need to choose one of them, I assume those would be the fglrx with and without the Post Release Updates.***


Code: Select all
    sudo /usr/bin/aticonfig --initial
***This Step did nothing***



Although not advised I had to use --force which worked for me.
***I do not know how to use the above --force command***


I am attempting this now:

These Steps did not result in a completed process within the Terminal and upon restart a Blue Screen, No Panel, awn without compositing and no Desktop Icons. However I was able to pull up Jocky using a menu applet on the awn dock which had no entries for AMD CCC or AMD CCC admin and install the ATI Driver(No Post Update) and Jocky did ask for a restart. Before the Restart I did see the AMD CCC entries again in the menu system with Bold Font to indicate a newly installed Program. After Restarting the system as requested It came right back to the Bluescreen problem. Via the awn dock and a logout applet I was able to logout and set my session to mate, when I logged back in I was greeted by the correct Desktop with panel and all. Now I just am left wondering if the Post Release Updates support my Video Card or not???

Regardless, I still have the same hs_err_pidXXXX.log being generated in my Minecraft Folder.

I then ran Jocky a 2nd time and attempted to install the ATI with Post Release Updates and It Failed a 2nd Time.  I have saved that 2nd log. I will note, that I had the Control Center Open on one screen and Jocky open on the other, the 2nd attempt with the Post Release Updates did in fact remove the AMD CCC Entries in the Control Center and then put them back before the failed install error message.

Digging further into the forums I find a reference to ATI CCC requiring 32-bit Libraries or Multi-Architecture support, I did a search within Synaptic for both ia32-libs or Multiarch support to see what it could find and both are already installed.

Going back into Synaptic I decided to attempt removing the fglrx Drivers to attempt the install of the AMD Support Downloadable 13.1 legacy drivers for my Card, when I searched for fglrx I also noticed that xserver-xorg-video-radeon was also installed.  Checking it description I noted that this is not related to the ATI Drivers.  I am going to remove it, then attempt the jocky install again before a restart.  Running Jocky before a restart had no different effect, I will now restart and see if I have a picture.

Yes! the system rebooted no problem, I wonder if I need to be removing the xorg driver first then attempting to install the ATI Driver?

Minecraft is still throwing the same error log even after this attempt.

***UPDATE***

 I have kept at it for the rest of the day, and at one point had 3 AMD CCC entries, and unconfigurable graphics in all of them, even the monitors app stopped responding, ah for the love of.........I finally was laughing at my situattion and shaking my head. I have to little experience to understand which config file would have been causing it and even less understanding as to where I might find said file. I finally, did a fresh install of Mint 13 Mate out of frustration and totally forgot about the log files, so those have been lost.  I have begun a new thread in the Linux Mint Forums and will post any developments there and here.

The Original Post is here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=122168

New Post is here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=123806

***UPDATE***

 It was requested in the Forums that I Input these commands and post the Ouput of each:


The Output of glxinfo | grep direct is:

 ~ $ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: Yes
    GL_EXT_copy_buffer, GL_EXT_copy_texture, GL_EXT_direct_state_access,

The Output of fgl_glxgears in the termianl, Displays a Window with a  Rotating Box with Rotating Internal Gears with an Output in the Terminal of:


 ~ $ fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
1314 frames in 5.0 seconds = 262.800 FPS
1538 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.600 FPS
1539 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.800 FPS
1538 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.600 FPS
1544 frames in 5.0 seconds = 308.800 FPS
1538 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.600 FPS
1540 frames in 5.0 seconds = 308.000 FPS
1540 frames in 5.0 seconds = 308.000 FPS
1538 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.600 FPS
1538 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.600 FPS
 

Rebuilding The Server, New OS, and Apache2 Error 403: Forbidden

Just spent the Day backing up the Server (Bukkit, Minecraft, Configs,) and reinstalling a fresh new OS, Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon 64-bit. After running the Install and getting it fired up, reinstalled Webmin, and got remote access setup.  All of this was done as the result of Bukkit 1.3.1 RB being released.  So as I had been running Mint 13 on my laptop and had found it an adequate replacement for Mint 10, I figured it would be a good time to update the server as well.

Have just got apache2 installed and restored the configurations for our website, only to discover that my site is reporting Error 403: Forbidden.  Well, phewy....Did a little poking around and found some sites that gave different fixes.  While reading one of them in a forum, the post mentioned not knowing why they were having the problem and if there was a permissions file that needed to be updated?

This made me stop and think, you know, I moved all of my files to an external Hard drive and then back once the Server was up and Running again.....Could this change the file permissions of the Files that I moved?

Sure enough, all of my website Files were now listed as only accessible by one user, changed my index.html to include (others: read only) and it was instantly available on our website for viewing over the web.

Check your file permissions, evidently on Linux to move from external drive to internal drive sets them to you only.

Kicking the Bukkit Server

And I mean kick starting it, not killing it.

Has been a while since I last made a post. Much has taken place in that time which has affected the server.

The New CraftBukkit Server has been released for the new Minecraft 1.2.5 update. It took some time, but it seems that most of the Plugins we were using have been updated or an alternative that gives near same functionality have been updated, so we have the plugins up and running.

Currently installed would be:

1. tickleman1's RealPlugin along with his Real Teleporter & RealShop
2. Codisimus's ChestLock which allows one to take ownership of a Chest and lock it, along with other useful features.
3. KrazyTheFox's The Experienced Miner which allows for getting experience while you break blocks.
4. Nijikokun's iConomy for an in game Economy or Money System.
5. TechGuard's iZone for Zone protection from grief, fire, monsters, and just about anything else.

There are couple of other Plugins that just tie things together such as Vault or PermissionsBukkit.


Now I just need someone to help me understand how all of the permissions tie together, I have a basic understanding, and can get people the ability to build or even use the Teleporters that admin create, but some of them are a bit elusive. For one, as an admin, I have the ability to interact with shops that are made, but as a user I do not.  I have attempted everything in the way of giving users permissions related to the shops, but I still can not get it.


If you have an Idea, let me know, comments are on, so leave a little feedback.

Our First Run-in with Out of Space

OK, so I got home the other day and my wife is telling me about the weird error that she was experiencing while playing Minecraft on the home server while I was at work.

All day long she would take off in one direction or another and travel for a day or two, make a new base and then when something would come up, she would log out and take care of the 3 year old or make lunch or something.  When she would get back to Minecraft and Login to play, she was no longer where she had stopped, but be back where she started near the spawn.

I had never seen anything like this before and encouraged her to submit a bug to Mojang and ask them what was going on.

A little while later I decided to login to the server and run our map rendering program of choice lately, Overviewer, and discovered that the server was giving a bunch of error messages.

Turns out the Hard drive was completely full and had no space to save any information regarding her activity on the server.

I deleted everything that I could think of that could possibly be taking up all of that space, and never found more than 700 MB of space to free up.

I think it must be log files from the server or Apache, but I cant seem to find them.  If you know anything I should be looking for, please let me know.  I finally broke down and re-imaged the server on a 1TB Hard drive vs the 80 GB it was on.  Now I will have to check it periodically to see if it is filling up.

I just dont understand however, even after re-installing Linux on the new hard drive, installing Apache, the Server it self, and running it for several days, getting the Website back on it and running updates, It is only using up 4.7 GB of space Total, so what the heck used up all of that space?

Our Site has an Icon

It was bound to happen. As I was working on updating the site it occurred to me that all of the Sites that I visit have an Icon that appears on the Address Bar of my browser and also on the Tab of my Browser.

Took only a few moments to make up my mind. Had to have one and got started right away.

Did a few searches on Google to find out what size to make the new Icon. As I soon discovered, the correct size for the icon is 16 X 16 pixels.

So I opened up Gimp on Linux Mint and started by opening a blank image and setting it size to the desired dimensions.  Once on the screen, I then used the Preferences to set the grid size to 1 pixel X 1 pixel and proceeded to create my first Website Icon.

If you would like to see it you can visit our website here.

Before I could use it however, I had to find out how to use it. Spent most of the next hour trying different variations of code that is to be put between the <head> and </head> tags in the html of the Website.

My final code looks like:

"<link type="image/x-icon" href="busnet.ico" rel="SHORTCUT ICON"/>" 


All of the other variations that did not work were very similar to this. The only thing that I changed was the name of the file it referenced as well as the location. The other variations seemed to indicate they referenced a file location, so I just kept after it with no success at all. So I turned back to my Google Search and checked a few more listings which all seemed to adhere to these indicators. Finally after some desperation, I decided to go to a few websites and look at the source of the sites, the html code, several used the quotes around the file name and not a location or directory structure. Having seen it now, I then did a few more searches and html checks to confirm what I was seeing.


The code above I pulled out of another site, but it gave an error.  Then I noted that the first work "link" was all in upper case. Once I changed them all to lower case the error went away and my new Icon displayed on the web browsers.