Help Me! I can't run SL at all with Linux!

Ok, so when I download SL onto the linux program, all it does is downloads it with this Archive thing, and then a whole bunch of folders and templates pop up. I can't figure out what to do! I really want to play SL but since I'm new to the Linux program I have no idea what I'm doing! Could someone help me? Just start from the beginning!

Just double click on the file in there called "secondlife" with your file browser. If it asks you if you want to edit it or run it, choose run.

If that doesn't work (it /is/ a beta, and linux /does/ suck for 3D), drop into a terminal window, cd to the directory where you untared SL, and type "./secondlife". A whole lot of text will flash by, hopefully some of it will tell you what the problem is.

/Get

Before anyone can help you (from the beginning), we need to know what your system looks like. Specifically:

1. What distro? (OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linspire, Debian, Mandriva, etc.)
2. What desktop? (KDE, Gnome, other)
3. Does your system meet SL's system requirements?
See
http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php
for more details on system requirements.

It is probably easier than you think, but it would also be a good idea to go through whatever tutorials are available for your distro in order to gain familiarity with it.

Adamas

It's Mandriva, and there is no file in there titled Secondlife, and I'm guessing the desktop is KDE. I don't know if it's compatible with SL because I tried the compatability test and that didn't do anything either.

I don't recall ever seeing any "compatibility test" but I wouldn't be surprised if there is such a thing for Windows and Mac users to make sure their stuff will work with SL. For example, Windows 2000 is the oldest version of Windows that will work with SL. The requirements for Linux are a "reasonably modern 32-bit" system. Let's assume you're using Mandriva 2008 with KDE and your hardware meets SL's requirements. If not, please correct me. If so, it is compatible.

If you just downloaded the current client, you have a file called "SecondLife_i686_1_19_1_4.tar.bz2" which is located wherever you told your Internet browser to put it. Your home folder is "/home/<yourusername>" and the file should be either there or in a subfolder, like maybe "Downloads." If you have some sort of second life file and it is not the one I just listed, you have an older version and you must download the current version. (Linden Labs (Second Life) updates their client often, so everyone gets to do a lot of downloading from them.)

Wherever it is, the first thing you do (after finding this file) is to unpack it. Open a file browser, find the file, and move the mouse cursor until it is on top of the file. Press the right mouse button and drag the cursor down to "Extract here" and release the button. This option may be in a sub-menu, look for it. This will unpack the file. The first thing you will see is a folder entitled "SecondLife_i686_1_19_1_4" which contains the complete program.

Open that folder and click (or double-click) the file inside labeled "secondlife" to run it. This starts the Second Life viewer.

As a final note, if you're used to Mac or Windows, Linux is not that hard to learn. There are some differences between the three of them, but they are similar in many ways.

When you're ready for voice, here's a page I put together that tells how to make that work:
http://www.adamascarter.com/extras/sl_voice_linux.txt

Adamas

Aki Thalheimer - Did Adamas's solution solve your problem?

Get Takacs - How does "linux suck for 3d"? My linux does 3d (opengl / sdl) perfectly fine. Perhaps you're refering to not having M$ DirectX which is irrevelavant for SL anyway?

Don't get me wrong, OpenGL is great. DX is nifty too, even though it exists solely to lock developers into one particular platform. However, the general 3D on Linux experience still sucks.

Ways in which 3D sucks under Linux includes:

* Lack of comprehensive driver support for the various cards and chipsets out there
* Lack of support for the authors of free drivers by manufacturers, hence the free drivers suck (this is /slowly/ starting to change)
* To get decent performance, you need to revert to proprietary, closed source binary blobs that run as root on your machine, which sucks more
* The amount of voodoo getting GL in X to work (although this is much, much less of an issue with modern X and modern distros)
* The general lack of stability of the xserver and both the proprietary and free drivers for 3D work
* The constant acceleration architecture and extension churn (XAA > KAA > EXA > (eventually) Native OGL) resulting in drivers that are out of date and under-performing
* Incompatibility with various extensions, especially composite

Unless you're willing to put up with all this, especially with proprietary drivers, 3D on Linux is improving, but continues to suck.

In summary:

1. OpenGL sucks
2. Proprietary sucks worse

By your own argument, the Linux experience is still better than Window$ and Muck.

Open source will improve (and IS improving!). Window$ users will still have to pay for the privilege of asking permission to use to use a locked, proprietary, insecure platform.


Adamas

Heh. I don't know where you got that from, it's the opposite of what I actually said.

OpenGL is an excellent 3D API. Linux's stack just isn't mature enough to implement it well. The experience is better on proprietary operating systems.

I don't like (or like to use) proprietary software, but although it /is/ improving, the 3D graphics experience on Linux /still has a long way to go/.

/Get

Maybe I was just reading my motivations into it, like the way Windoze allows hackers into your computer with spyware and viruses and stuff leading up to identity theft and more.

I'll put up with Linux's temporary immaturity in return for a stable, safe and secure computing experience.

Adamas

If it's KDE, there's something you have to do which I've seen in this forum but can't remember the link for, alas, and the forum software will tell you "KDE" is too short a string to search on. I hope a kind person will provide the link. (Basically, KDE hogs the sound device. You can see the error message if you run the secondlife shell script from a terminal.)

The link:

http://www.adamascarter.com/extras/sl_voice_linux.txt

In KDE the part that hogs the sound device is aRts. You shut that down by going into the KDE Control Panel and disabling the sound system. (This really only shuts aRts off, not the entire "sound system."

Adamas

As a rule, I just edit the Secondlife_i686_*/secondlife script to remove the comments fron the Alsa and OSS lines and run 'esd' before secondlife

$ esd -as 10 -trust -beeps -terminate &
$ ./secondlife