unpacking and installing the linux client on debian

Hi,

This is probably really basic stuff I should know how to do, but maybe someone will be willing to help an admitted novice. I'm running Debian (sarge) and gnome, and I usually just use apt-get to install debian packages.

So, I don't know what to do with this tarball I just downloaded. Are there brief instructions for unpacking and installing the client?

Thanks alot,

John
aka Zizonus Serapis

tar xjf SecondLife (tab for auto complete)

That should untar the file, it is okay to do this in your home directory or on you desktop. Then to run the client do: cd Sec(hit tabl again) then ./secondlife and that will cause a great amount of spam to scroll by and if all is well the client will start. If not reply here with the error, the last ten or so lines of output from running ./secondlife

Thanks! Got that far and then got the following error: looks like some missing libraries ...

zizonus@hedgewizard:~/SecondLife_i686_1_12_1_13$ ./secondlife
bin/secondlife-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I see there´s a fairly large amount of people trying to run sl and having that sort of error popping around.
I guess the problem happens because the earlier versions of Secondlife does not come with required 32bit libraries, so that means you will have to pay a visit to

http://rpm.pbone.net/

download, and unpack the required 32bit libraries into /secondlife/lib
(I suppose you are running Linux 64bit, right?)

Wow, sarge doesn't have libstdc++.so.6 ?

It doesn't have libstdc++.so.6 by default, no. But the file exists in one of the packages. You can have packages.debian.org (incredibly useful site) tell you which package you need to install for each of the missing files. You may need to chop the ".0" off the end of the filename when you search, though.

In this case, running "aptitude install libstdc++6-dev" will get you the file you need.

That may not be everything you need to get it running, though. I'm discovering that now. Will post again if I have more notes.

Yeah, that seems to have done it. The other files appear in the 'lib' directory you unpacked.

I can't say for sure that the client works under Debian, as it turns out my Linux desktop doesn't meet the requirements video card wise (it was a long shot).

Ok,

Thanks, I installed the libs that Da Rahja recommended. Now, it starts up, then fails to create the window. This is the tail-end of the terminal messages:

2006-10-04T21:40:20Z INFO: Initializing window...
2006-10-04T21:40:20Z INFO: createContext, fullscreen=0 size=800x600
2006-10-04T21:40:20Z INFO: createContext: creating window 800x600x32
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: createContext: window creation failure. SDL: Couldn't find matching GLX visual
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: destroyContext begins
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: shutdownGL begins
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: SDL_QuitSS/VID begins
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z WARNING: OSMessageBox: Window creation error
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: Skipping quitCursors: mWindow already gone.
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: destroyContext begins
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: shutdownGL begins
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: SDL_QuitSS/VID begins
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z WARNING: LLWindowManager::create() : Error creating window.2006-10-04T21:40:21Z WARNING: Unable to create window, be sure screen is set at 32-bit color in Control Panels->Display->Settings
2006-10-04T21:40:21Z INFO: remove_marker_file()
zizonus@hedgewizard:~/SecondLife_i686_1_12_1_13$

I'm not sure how to fix this. I think I'm already using 32-bit color, but I'm not sure ... how do I check that config?

Check if your graphics card is correctly installed and supports OpenGL.
Type glxinfo and look for errors.

To check for configuration open the config file (xorg.conf ?) in a text editor (debian uses xorg right?) it should be at /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Be sure the most recent driver for your video card is installed, it will need to be accelerated (nvidia/ATI) with openGL (glx) extensions installed. Doing 'lsmod | grep nvidia' for nvidia cards should return 'nvidia'. I am unsure about the ATI driver should you have ATI hardware.

fglrx is the module name, I belive.

Thanks, everyone, for all this help!

So,

I found that the package 'nvidi-glx' and it's associates were not installed, so I installed them. Now, when I enter 'glxinfo,' I receive the following:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info,
GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
GLX_NV_swap_group, GLX_NV_video_out, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_NV_float_buffer
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 4.0.4
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_abgr,
GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract,
GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc 1 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x24 24 tc 1 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x25 24 tc 1 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x26 24 tc 1 24 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x27 24 dc 1 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x28 24 dc 1 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x29 24 dc 1 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2a 24 dc 1 24 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None

I do not have a file xorg.conf on my system.
lsmod | grep nvidia returns nothing.

I get the same error upon trying to run secondlife, namely it asks me to set screen display to 32-bit.

Any more ideas?

Further poking around reveals:

my video card is an nVidia TNT2 M64 APG. The driver is 'nv'

In dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86, I cannot set screen display higher than 24 bit.

Perhaps my video card is too old?

There is an older nVidia driver used for TNTx based graphics cards. It's available for download on nvidia.com drivers section. Though with a card that old I am unsure how well SL will run, but it is worth giving a try.

Look through here http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

The TNT cards are below the SL minimum requirements (for windows anyway). They might work (although I haven't heard of anyone ever using TNT for SL), but it could be rather painfully slow if they do.
I always hate to suggest that people upgrade because not everyone has $30 or so, but the very most basic and cheap graphics card that nVidia sells today, say the FX5200, will knock the socks off a TNT and is well-supported on Linux. It's still not a fast card though; go for a FX5600, FX5700 or higher if you possibly can (ideally higher).
What's your CPU like?