Downloaded... Now what?

I downloaded SL for Linux and it decopmpressed on a double click. I now have a fold with an executable file in it. I double click that and nothing happens. So what does someone who is (very obviously) just starting out in both Linus and SL. Please don;t tell me RTFM as I don't have an FM. Just trying to get away from microsoft and my replacement applications for everything else came with installers. (Open Office, MoneyDance, Etc.) but this just sites there and laughs at me. (You can all laugh now). Any help would be appriciated, even if it's just a refrence to some sort of general how to guide that covers putting thrid party apps on Suse Linux 10.1

I know I can't type and ought to edit more but I've alot going on just this sec....

Please do *not* unpack the Linux archive using a graphical unpacker. Those tools often omit empty folders in the archive, causing Second Life to fail on startup. Decompress it by opening a text console, changing into the path where SL is installed and run "tar -xjvf SecondLife-1.xxxxxxx.tar.bz2" (replace with the actual archive name). After this, change into the resulting folder and run

./secondlife

A lot of debug output will be scrolling by, that's fine. If the viewer breaks or doesn't start at all, read this output to find out, what might be wrong. Also, be sure to install the binary drivers from the vendor of your graphics card's chipset.

I guess if you are a true newbie to linux you might need a bit more info...

You can open a terminal window (xterm aterm eterm or various others) from the list of installed programs (depending on which windowmanager you are using).

Once in the terminal window, you will be in your home directory. Change to the directory where you downloaded SL to using:

cd <directory name> (changes to that directory)

ls (lists the contents of that directory)

tar xjf SecondLife....tar.bz2 (uncompresses the file: tar stands for tape archive and is a way of storing directories, x means extract j means the file is compressed in bzip2 format, f means the target is a file (not a tape). You need to do this as has already been mentioned, because graphical uncompressors do not always uncompress secondlife correctly (for some strange reason.. perhaps someone should submit a bugreport about this!!).

cd SecondLife... (the name of the directory you have uncompressed)

./secondlife (executes the secondlife binary in that directory ./ refers to the current directory, otherwise it won't find it..).

You will then get a load of output and it proably won't start. Post the output here.

The most likely thing you will need to fix is to install the accelerated graphics drivers for your graphics card.. This is a bit fiddly, but is really pretty simple once you have done it a few times! If you post info here about what version of Linux you are running, I will try to help.

SL on linux is actually still in alpha, so that is why it doesn't have an installer, and it is pretty rough around the edges, but with a little perseverance anyone should be able to get it working.

Good luck, and don't give up!

PS: I know Zi has already posted most of this and I don't want to tread on her toes, but having two people explain something sometimes helps with understanding it better (IMHO).

Quite alright I'm not as good at describing things in a step-by-step manner

Graphical decompressers don't work? That would be a problem with the application in question, not the SL package. If the graphical decompressor doesn't sit on top of the standard command line tools (or at least a common library with just about all of the shared functionality), that's pretty messed up....

Thankyou for all the help. I am running SUSE Linux 10.1 and using GNOME for the desktop.I followed the step by step to decompress the downloaded file and this is the output I got when trying to run the program... What's next?

eric@saturnine:~/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1> ./secondlife
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: LLDir_Linux not fully implemented!
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: QUEUED THREAD STARTING
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: QUEUED THREAD STARTING
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: QUEUED THREAD STARTING
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Checking marker file for lock...
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Marker file isn't locked.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Checking marker file for lock...
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Marker file created.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Removing message.log
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Exiting init_marker_file().
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Opening debug file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11 _3_1/SecondLife/logs/debug_info.log
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Second Life version 1.11.3
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Local time: 2006-08-16T20:12:00 PDT
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: CPU info:
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 3 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz step ping : 4 cpu MHz : 3192.137 cache size : 1024 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 0 cpu cores : 1 fdiv_bug : no hlt _bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fp u_exception : yes cpuid level : 3 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid xtp r bogomips : 6389.82 processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu famil y : 15 model : 3 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20 GHz stepping : 4 cpu MHz : 3192.137 cache size : 1024 KB physic al id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 0 cpu cores : 1 fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 3 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid xtp r bogomips : 6384.19
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Memory info:
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z MemTotal: 1033888 kB MemFree: 151856 kB Buffers : 114400 kB Cached: 561600 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 415604 kB Inactive: 397312 kB HighTotal: 129584 kB HighFree: 252 kB LowTotal: 904304 kB LowFree: 151604 kB SwapTotal: 3148732 kB SwapFree: 3148732 kB Dirty: 55872 kB Writeback: 0 kB Mapped: 231264 kB Slab: 55580 kB CommitLimit: 36 65676 kB Committed_AS: 462872 kB PageTables: 2428 kB VmallocTotal: 114 680 kB VmallocUsed: 17588 kB VmallocChunk: 94324 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 Hugepagesize: 4096 kB
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: OS info: Linux 2.6.16.21-0.13-smp #1 SMP Mon Jul 17 1 7:22:44 UTC 2006 i686
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading feature tables.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Applying Feature Mask: RAM256MB
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Applying Feature Mask: CPUSlow
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading configuration file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondL ife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Couldn't open file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1 _11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: LLXmlTree parse failed. Line 1: Couldn't open fil e /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Unable to open control file /home/eric/Desktop/Sec ondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Failed to load settings from /home/eric/Desktop/Secon dLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading legacy settings from /home/eric/Desktop/Secon dLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.ini
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: LLControlGroup::loadFromFile unable to open.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Couldn't open file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1 _11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/crash_settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: LLXmlTree parse failed. Line 1: Couldn't open fil e /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/crash_settings .xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Unable to open control file /home/eric/Desktop/Sec ondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/crash_settings.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: QUEUED THREAD STARTING
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading art table from /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_ 1_11_3_1/app_settings/viewerart.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading base colors from /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLif e_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors_base.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading user colors from /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLif e_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Failed to load user colors from /home/eric/Desktop/Se condLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors.xml
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Loading legacy colors from /home/eric/Desktop/SecondL ife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors.ini
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Default vfs data file not present, found /home/eric/D esktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Old salt: 1
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Bad or missing vfx index file /home/eric/Desktop/S econdLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/index.db2.x.1
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Removing old vfs data file /home/eric/Desktop/Seco ndLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Renaming /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/Secon dLife/cache/. to /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/data.db 2.x.1526968715
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Renaming /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/Secon dLife/cache/index.db2.x.1 to /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/c ache/index.db2.x.1526968715
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Pre-sized VFS data file to 524288000 bytes
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: VFS: Using index file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1 _11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/index.db2.x.1526968715 and data file /home/eric/Desktop /SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/data.db2.x.1526968715
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: VFS: Using index file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLife_1 _11_3_1/app_settings/static_index.db2 and data file /home/eric/Desktop/SecondLif e_1_11_3_1/app_settings/static_data.db2
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Initializing window...
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: createContext: creating window 800x600x32
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: createContext: window creation failure. SDL: Couldn't find matching GLX visual
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Unloading all GL symbols...
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: OSMessageBox: Window creation error
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: Unloading all GL symbols...
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: LLWindowManager::create() : Error creating window.
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z WARNING: Unable to create window, be sure screen is set at 32-bit color in Control Panels->Display->Settings
2006-08-17T03:12:00Z INFO: remove_marker_file()
eric@saturnine:~/Desktop/SecondLife_1_11_3_1>

You now need to install the accelerated graphics drivers for your graphics card.

To help with this I need to know:

1) What graphics chipset you have
2) What distro you are using



I know.. I meant submit a bugreport to whatever graphical decompressor shows this problem.

Well... my paperwork says I have the ATI X300 Radion Graphics Card. How do I find the Distro?

What version of Linux did you install? Redhat? Ubuntu? Debian? Fedora?

Edit:

Oh.. sorry.. just saw you are using SUSE!

this is from the SUSE website:

http://en.opensuse.org/ATI_Driver_HOWTO



I think the last gnomic comment actually means this:

sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx

although maybe sax2 -r works.. I don't have SUSE and I have no idea what this command does so it is up to you to find out and report back!

You may also need this (although I think this is already done by the automated stuff):

aticonfig –-initial -–input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

All commands need to be entered as root.

Thank you so much! It is now working.

I had a little trouble with the YaST instructions but a little perserverance (as suggested above) did the trick. I've a window running SL on my Linux System! It required me to reboot at one point when it all hung, but forcing a power-cycle seemd to let everything start up properly and so Far so Good.

Thank you again.
Saturnine

OK, following the sage advice in this thread I've managed to get the danged thing installed, but now it hits me with this message when I try to ./secondlife:




Doing head-bangy thing against desk top now...

I'm running GNOME on Fedora Core 5 and am at the limit of what little Linux experience I've gained.

I'm using Ubuntu on a laptop with a ATI Radeon 9000 Mobility and i get the following problem:
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: LLDir_Linux not fully implemented!
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Error setting log file to /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/logs/SecondLife.log
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Checking marker file for lock...
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Marker file isn't locked.
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Checking marker file for lock...
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Failed to create marker file.
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Removing message.log
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Exiting init_marker_file().
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Opening debug file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/logs/debug_info.log
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Opening debug file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/logs/debug_info.log failed. Using stderr.
SL Log: /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/logs/SecondLife.log
Second Life version 1.11.3 build 1
Can't get terse CPU information
RAM: 0
OS: Linux 2.6.15-26-386 #1 PREEMPT Thu Aug 3 02:52:00 UTC 2006 i686
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Second Life version 1.11.3
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Local time: 2006-08-20T01:35:03 EDT
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: CPU info:
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 13 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.50GHz stepping : 6 cpu MHz : 1495.337 cache size : 2048 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe est tm2 bogomips : 2993.27
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Memory info:
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z MemTotal: 1556016 kB MemFree: 177576 kB Buffers: 117408 kB Cached: 809480 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 903700 kB Inactive: 395448 kB HighTotal: 655032 kB HighFree: 81592 kB LowTotal: 900984 kB LowFree: 95984 kB SwapTotal: 1622524 kB SwapFree: 1603616 kB Dirty: 176 kB Writeback: 0 kB Mapped: 461992 kB Slab: 55072 kB CommitLimit: 2400532 kB Committed_AS: 651060 kB PageTables: 2772 kB VmallocTotal: 114680 kB VmallocUsed: 11764 kB VmallocChunk: 102776 kB
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: OS info: Linux 2.6.15-26-386 #1 PREEMPT Thu Aug 3 02:52:00 UTC 2006 i686
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading feature tables.
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Applying Feature Mask: RAM256MB
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Applying Feature Mask: CPUSlow
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: QUEUED THREAD STARTING
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading configuration file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Couldn't open file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: LLXmlTree parse failed. Line 1: Couldn't open file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Unable to open control file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Failed to load settings from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading legacy settings from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/settings.ini
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: LLControlGroup::loadFromFile unable to open.
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Couldn't open file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/crash_settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: LLXmlTree parse failed. Line 1: Couldn't open file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/crash_settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Unable to open control file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/user_settings/crash_settings.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading art table from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/viewerart.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading base colors from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors_base.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading user colors from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Failed to load user colors from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors.xml
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Loading legacy colors from /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/colors.ini
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: QUEUED THREAD STARTING
LLErrorStream::crashOnError() failed to get mutex for log
LLErrorStream::crashOnError() failed to get mutex for log
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Bad or missing vfx index file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/index.db2.x.1
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Removing old vfs data file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/data.db2.x.1
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Renaming /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/data.db2.x.1 to /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/data.db2.x.1509376937
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: Renaming /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/index.db2.x.1 to /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/index.db2.x.1509376937
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Can't open VFS data file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/SecondLife/cache/data.db2.x.1509376937 attempting to use alternate
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: Couldn't open vfs data file after trying many alternates
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z INFO: VFS: Using index file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/static_index.db2 and data file /home/master/SecondLife_1_11_3_1/app_settings/static_data.db2
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z WARNING: OSMessageBox: Second Life is unable to access a file that it needs.
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z
2006-08-20T05:35:03Z This can be because you somehow have multiple copies running, or your system incorrectly thinks a file is open. If this message persists, restart your computer and try again. If it continues to persist, you may need to completely uninstall Second Life and reinstall it.

I'm also on Ubuntu but I get a GLX error. Its just baffling. Doesn't work on WINE or Striaight linux no matter what I try.