Hey
I'm setting up an old pc with ubuntu so my kids can trawl the internet without me having to uninstall a billion virusses every day. Except I want to install BG2 with a couple of mods as well. It's probably a core 2 duo with a gig or two of ram and a generic on-board video card.
I'm pretty rubbish at linux, which is OK as long as google is your friend. My 3 options are either trying wine, virtualbox, or dual booting. I really don't want to dual-boot. Wine would be most convenient once set up, but I imagine it's less stable than virtualbox? Virtualbox will take longer to load, and probably be slower overall, but then if my kids want to run some other aging game like populous the beginning or magic shandalar, then it's good to go, whereas wine probably needs to be configured for each game separately? Plus the mod installs are also windows executables, so for all I know I need to set them up for wine too? I'm leaning towards virtualbox, unless wine is a whole lot more brilliant than I give it credit for. Does anyone know?
BG2 on Linux
Débuté par
The Potty 1
, mai 22 2012 01:47
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#2
Posté 22 mai 2012 - 10:14
Gate70
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Hi
Not used virtualbox but all my BG activity for the last 2 years has been Ubuntu/Wine, and the spec is similar to yours (celeron 1.7ghz will be weaker but 1.5gb ram and Intel 945 onboard graphics).
Game works fine in single/multi player and with various mods including BGT, comparable to Windows 98 on older machines or Vista on the same laptop (plus no quirks around multiplayer startup needing to be windowed).
I did write a how-to but trashed it, if you're lucky ussnorway might have kept a copy
I had to use the generalized biffing mod last to prevent lag, but then I had the same issue with Vista Easytutu so could be my laptop. No modifications to the Wine setup for BG2/BGT, it just works. I haven't used it for anything else so can't comment there.
I'm happy to help with any questions/issue you have, either on forum or messages etc.
Mods are slightly different to usual and you need to install WeiDU but once you know what to do it's simple. I'm going to install to a second (older, slower) laptop via external dvd (easier than trying to get the original 5+1 BG1 and 4+1 BG2 to install on Linux) so if you want I could make notes and pass you a word doc. Was thinking of doing that sometime this week anyway as I borrowed a drive today.
Not used virtualbox but all my BG activity for the last 2 years has been Ubuntu/Wine, and the spec is similar to yours (celeron 1.7ghz will be weaker but 1.5gb ram and Intel 945 onboard graphics).
Game works fine in single/multi player and with various mods including BGT, comparable to Windows 98 on older machines or Vista on the same laptop (plus no quirks around multiplayer startup needing to be windowed).
I did write a how-to but trashed it, if you're lucky ussnorway might have kept a copy
I had to use the generalized biffing mod last to prevent lag, but then I had the same issue with Vista Easytutu so could be my laptop. No modifications to the Wine setup for BG2/BGT, it just works. I haven't used it for anything else so can't comment there.
I'm happy to help with any questions/issue you have, either on forum or messages etc.
Mods are slightly different to usual and you need to install WeiDU but once you know what to do it's simple. I'm going to install to a second (older, slower) laptop via external dvd (easier than trying to get the original 5+1 BG1 and 4+1 BG2 to install on Linux) so if you want I could make notes and pass you a word doc. Was thinking of doing that sometime this week anyway as I borrowed a drive today.
#3
Posté 23 mai 2012 - 07:57
The Potty 1
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Excellent thanks, that would be brilliant 
I'm gonna download ubuntu 12.04 LTS now, and install it this weekend. My really old Celeron 1700 is running ubuntu 11.10 and keeps trying to update, but I'm ditching it cos it's too slow.
I'm gonna download ubuntu 12.04 LTS now, and install it this weekend. My really old Celeron 1700 is running ubuntu 11.10 and keeps trying to update, but I'm ditching it cos it's too slow.
Modifié par The Potty 1, 23 mai 2012 - 08:15 .
#4
Posté 23 mai 2012 - 07:24
Gate70
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OK, quick runthrough rather than a word doc...
Installed much easier than on my laptop. BG1 & BG2 installed with no issues. This is all I had to do, bearing in mind I set up a games folder as otherwise you have to use Wine to get to save games, ini files etc. I started with that but after several months switched to my home folder. It looks as though you can right-click and share the folder.
n.b. this is just what I did, may be better ways and could cause issues if you have more than 1 logon id as I'm installing to a user location. You can use weinstall etc but I find it best to tolower and use Wine.
First create a games sub-folder in the home folder. Press super-1 to open the hole folder (super is the windows key), right click in a gap and create a folder called games
To get tolower download the weidu-linux from weidu.org. (I got file not found so checked the read-me and saw it was looking for an old version 129 so changed it to look for version 131), then extract the WeiDU-Linux folder to the same location. To extract double click the zipped file and choose the extract option, default location will be the download folder unless you change it so best to extract the folder and not the files within.
Then from the terminal type sudo cp '/home/fred/downloads/WeiDU-Linux/tolower' '/usr/bin' (replacing fred with your logon name).
Extract any mods you want to the bg2 folder instead of the game folder. Check their setup-modname.exe file sizes are all the same. If any are different (smaller), delete them and copy/rename another one to the same name. I didn't need to do this for BGT as I've only got the 1 mod this time.
Then use the terminal to type cd '/home/fred/games/bg' or wherever you installed to. Then type tolower and a couple of y 's to convert everything in the bg folder to lower case. Type cd '/home/fred/games/bg2' and tolower to do the same in your bg2 folder. I usually manually check the conversion by viewing the files as various messages pop up but it still seems to work.
To install a mod right-click it e.g. setup-bgt.exe and open with...wine windows program loader. Similar to Windows from that point.
Then from the game folder find your baldur.exe, right-click it and make link then drag the link out of the folder and onto the desktop.
Right-click the desktop shortcut/link and open with...wine windows program loader
Installed much easier than on my laptop. BG1 & BG2 installed with no issues. This is all I had to do, bearing in mind I set up a games folder as otherwise you have to use Wine to get to save games, ini files etc. I started with that but after several months switched to my home folder. It looks as though you can right-click and share the folder.
n.b. this is just what I did, may be better ways and could cause issues if you have more than 1 logon id as I'm installing to a user location. You can use weinstall etc but I find it best to tolower and use Wine.
First create a games sub-folder in the home folder. Press super-1 to open the hole folder (super is the windows key), right click in a gap and create a folder called games
To get tolower download the weidu-linux from weidu.org. (I got file not found so checked the read-me and saw it was looking for an old version 129 so changed it to look for version 131), then extract the WeiDU-Linux folder to the same location. To extract double click the zipped file and choose the extract option, default location will be the download folder unless you change it so best to extract the folder and not the files within.
Then from the terminal type sudo cp '/home/fred/downloads/WeiDU-Linux/tolower' '/usr/bin' (replacing fred with your logon name).
Extract any mods you want to the bg2 folder instead of the game folder. Check their setup-modname.exe file sizes are all the same. If any are different (smaller), delete them and copy/rename another one to the same name. I didn't need to do this for BGT as I've only got the 1 mod this time.
Then use the terminal to type cd '/home/fred/games/bg' or wherever you installed to. Then type tolower and a couple of y 's to convert everything in the bg folder to lower case. Type cd '/home/fred/games/bg2' and tolower to do the same in your bg2 folder. I usually manually check the conversion by viewing the files as various messages pop up but it still seems to work.
To install a mod right-click it e.g. setup-bgt.exe and open with...wine windows program loader. Similar to Windows from that point.
Then from the game folder find your baldur.exe, right-click it and make link then drag the link out of the folder and onto the desktop.
Right-click the desktop shortcut/link and open with...wine windows program loader
Modifié par Gate70, 23 mai 2012 - 07:42 .
#6
Posté 28 mai 2012 - 09:18
The Potty 1
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OK firstly, wine is brilliant, it runs windows programs completely seamlessly, I know hardcore linux users will view this as the coming of the apocalypse, but being able to out-windows microsoft is not a bad thing. I'm running a virtual XP on windows 7 because of other old windows programs that don't work on 7, I plan to try them on Wine just for a laugh. Hm, I wonder if windows viruses will work?
I had to copy SoA's cds 2-4 onto the hard drive, then install cd1, because it never found cd2 during the install. It does find cd1 again at the end, and the ToB cd just worked.
After checking that BG loads, I spent a couple of hours installing mods. Note your instructions referred to Weidu 129 & 131, that should read 229 & 231. Also perhaps clear up that you should download the windows versions of any mods. You can install the linux ones too, but you need to start them from the terminal rather than double clicking the install exe. The weidu exe auto-update doesn't work on linux, and they will not run until you update them all manually.
Also note that various mods install TobEx, and while this does apparently work on linux, I removed it because I thought it had frozen up, and TobEx.log was full of errors. See my query here: http://www.shsforums...-on-linux-wine/
However it was still really slow even without TobEX. Eventually it loaded, I rolled a character, and started. Geologically slow. I exited and resolved to try Virtualbox. At least I can install vanilla BG and then copy over my override directory so should be quicker.
I've just seen your initial comment about using the generalized biffing mod to improve speed, so I've downloaded that and I'll try that first.
I had to copy SoA's cds 2-4 onto the hard drive, then install cd1, because it never found cd2 during the install. It does find cd1 again at the end, and the ToB cd just worked.
After checking that BG loads, I spent a couple of hours installing mods. Note your instructions referred to Weidu 129 & 131, that should read 229 & 231. Also perhaps clear up that you should download the windows versions of any mods. You can install the linux ones too, but you need to start them from the terminal rather than double clicking the install exe. The weidu exe auto-update doesn't work on linux, and they will not run until you update them all manually.
Also note that various mods install TobEx, and while this does apparently work on linux, I removed it because I thought it had frozen up, and TobEx.log was full of errors. See my query here: http://www.shsforums...-on-linux-wine/
However it was still really slow even without TobEX. Eventually it loaded, I rolled a character, and started. Geologically slow. I exited and resolved to try Virtualbox. At least I can install vanilla BG and then copy over my override directory so should be quicker.
I've just seen your initial comment about using the generalized biffing mod to improve speed, so I've downloaded that and I'll try that first.
#7
Posté 28 mai 2012 - 05:05
Gate70
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I'm sure I glossed over a lot so here's the next brain-dump. Impressed you installed from the cd's, I didn't bother trying as I also have the 4-in-1 set.
I don't install directx from the game disk. Wine should have this in-built.
I tend to switch off wifi while running the game (habit carried over as it caused issues on my quicker laptop when it had Vista).
Wine Configuration, Graphics tab - I have enabled a virtual desktop 1024x768. Works fine on my laptop but the one I did last week for my daughter is too slow, dropped the screen resolution to 600x480 and it is fine so suspect game performance is badly affected by resolutions for certain graphic chipsets.
Winetricks (installed from Ubuntu software centreer)
As I use multiplayer I needed to enable various items like directplay. Some added while playing with character generators and some more when I was trying a few other things out but maybe a few of them help the game run better.
- Select the default prefix.
- Install a Windows DLL or component. I probably went overboard here...
comdlg32ocx, d3dx9 (installs 26-41), d3dxof, devenum, dinput8, dirac, directmusic, directplay, dmsynth, dotnet20, dsound, gdiplus, glidewrapper, icodecs, l3codecx, mfc42, quartz, richtx32, vb6run, vcrun2008, vcrun6, vcrun6sp6, windowscodecs, winhttp, wininet, wsh57
baldur.ini file. Not sure why but sometimes the settings don't stick or the configue panel freezes so I tend to force them by editing the file instead. You could check if the 3d values are set, otherwise the game will try and run on software acceleration. I also set environmental audit to 0.
I don't install directx from the game disk. Wine should have this in-built.
I tend to switch off wifi while running the game (habit carried over as it caused issues on my quicker laptop when it had Vista).
Wine Configuration, Graphics tab - I have enabled a virtual desktop 1024x768. Works fine on my laptop but the one I did last week for my daughter is too slow, dropped the screen resolution to 600x480 and it is fine so suspect game performance is badly affected by resolutions for certain graphic chipsets.
Winetricks (installed from Ubuntu software cent
As I use multiplayer I needed to enable various items like directplay. Some added while playing with character generators and some more when I was trying a few other things out but maybe a few of them help the game run better.
- Select the default prefix.
- Install a Windows DLL or component. I probably went overboard here...
comdlg32ocx, d3dx9 (installs 26-41), d3dxof, devenum, dinput8, dirac, directmusic, directplay, dmsynth, dotnet20, dsound, gdiplus, glidewrapper, icodecs, l3codecx, mfc42, quartz, richtx32, vb6run, vcrun2008, vcrun6, vcrun6sp6, windowscodecs, winhttp, wininet, wsh57
baldur.ini file. Not sure why but sometimes the settings don't stick or the configue panel freezes so I tend to force them by editing the file instead. You could check if the 3d values are set, otherwise the game will try and run on software acceleration. I also set environmental audit to 0.
#8
Posté 30 mai 2012 - 09:11
The Potty 1
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Um ... 
OK here's the thing. I'm a software developer. I've written loads of mediocre code, a fair amount of good code, and far too little brilliant code. Mediocre code does what it says on the box. Unless you bump the box. Good code does what it says even if the box is upside down in lava. The thing that turns mediocre code into good code is endless testing, and coding for every idiot thing that the user is going to try to do because your user interface is daft, or the user is.
So, I'm the daft user. I'm trying to run windows software on linux. This is a bit like trying to windsurf on the moon. Nevertheless, the good people at winehq.org have given me a spacesuit, a windsurfer, and my own personal moon-lake. It does seem crass to ask for some sort of rocket to get me there as well.
My point is, if this can be solved by installing the VB and C runtimes, or copying over some other windows dlls, surely they could do this in their install? I realise Microsoft may not give them permission to do this, but have they asked? Hell, is it my fault for going for the stable release 1.4 instead of the 1.5.5 dev release?
In any case, I'm now fighting with Oracle's virtualbox. Getting it to find the cd was ludicrously counter-intuitive, enabling the network card was a doddle, and I have yet to figure out how to mount the share from the linux host. Once I've done this I can copy over my BG2 install to virtual XP, and then I can try the generalised biffing mod on the original wine copy of BG2.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm running a virtual XP machine on windows 7 at my work, and this is really the way for your basic idiot user to go. For a start, you don't even need a windows XP install cd, which you do need for virtualbox. Setting the network card was marginally more complicated than with virtualbox, but everything else was a doddle. The cd works. The host drives are shared automatically. The internet magically appears. OK that's unfair, virtualbox also found the internet instantly. Yeesh. Submit.
OK here's the thing. I'm a software developer. I've written loads of mediocre code, a fair amount of good code, and far too little brilliant code. Mediocre code does what it says on the box. Unless you bump the box. Good code does what it says even if the box is upside down in lava. The thing that turns mediocre code into good code is endless testing, and coding for every idiot thing that the user is going to try to do because your user interface is daft, or the user is.
So, I'm the daft user. I'm trying to run windows software on linux. This is a bit like trying to windsurf on the moon. Nevertheless, the good people at winehq.org have given me a spacesuit, a windsurfer, and my own personal moon-lake. It does seem crass to ask for some sort of rocket to get me there as well.
My point is, if this can be solved by installing the VB and C runtimes, or copying over some other windows dlls, surely they could do this in their install? I realise Microsoft may not give them permission to do this, but have they asked? Hell, is it my fault for going for the stable release 1.4 instead of the 1.5.5 dev release?
In any case, I'm now fighting with Oracle's virtualbox. Getting it to find the cd was ludicrously counter-intuitive, enabling the network card was a doddle, and I have yet to figure out how to mount the share from the linux host. Once I've done this I can copy over my BG2 install to virtual XP, and then I can try the generalised biffing mod on the original wine copy of BG2.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm running a virtual XP machine on windows 7 at my work, and this is really the way for your basic idiot user to go. For a start, you don't even need a windows XP install cd, which you do need for virtualbox. Setting the network card was marginally more complicated than with virtualbox, but everything else was a doddle. The cd works. The host drives are shared automatically. The internet magically appears. OK that's unfair, virtualbox also found the internet instantly. Yeesh. Submit.
#9
Posté 30 mai 2012 - 12:42
ussnorway
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I agree with most of what you said... IMO the difference between good and bad code is the amount of time spent on the attached readme & that’s what really lets Linux down. I run windows XP and Ubuntu side by side as my home gaming system and as long as you install windows first then they are both happy but I’ve not been able to find a good install guide for BG on Ubuntu... the fact that there are dozens of Linux flavours doesn’t do any of us a favour.
#10
Posté 30 mai 2012 - 05:32
Gate70
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Assuming you've checked the ini file I'd suggest biffing - makes a big difference in my installs. I don't use SCS/SCS2 and I appreciate the AI scripts there will add significant overheads if you have them installed.
If you have enough disk space you can quickly check the biffing results. Copy the bg2 folder to bg2prebiff, then biff the original. If it fails, copy back or delete and rename. If it works, result!
Will be interested to know if you find a better option than Wine. I had a play with GemRB, could see the potential but in terms of the look it felt more like PlaneScape Torment (larger avatar, scroll speed) and needing a lot more work done. No chance of multiplayer for a while as that's way down their priority list.
I get different results with the same version of Ububtu on two laptops - rebuilt one several times and depending what else I'd done before Wine/BG/mods I'd get different results there too. Add in things like WeiDU & mod versions changing, or not all mods having a Linux version and it's pretty challenging to write up...although I'm the first to admit documentation is not a strong point for me.
Despite using Ubuntu for 2 years I'm fairly sure I haven't found the best way to do various things. The internet helped a lot but it can be difficult to realise when you're just copying someone else's mistakes and maybe a "Linux for dummies" type of book would be a sensible precaution. There is a wealth of official information on the Ubuntu site but my eyes glaze over...
As for not installing VB/C runtimes etc this could be un-necessary bloatware for the majority of users. Pity Wine can't auto-detect and prompt "This app needs <whatever>, do you want to enable it".
For basic use we have 2 laptops that work better under Ubuntu than with the pre-loaded Windows (XP & Vista) so they've gone from Windows to dual-boot to Linux. IMO Wine is a great bit of software but will have it's limits.
Fortunately for one of those laptops BG is within those limits and the other copes at 640x480
If you have enough disk space you can quickly check the biffing results. Copy the bg2 folder to bg2prebiff, then biff the original. If it fails, copy back or delete and rename. If it works, result!
Will be interested to know if you find a better option than Wine. I had a play with GemRB, could see the potential but in terms of the look it felt more like PlaneScape Torment (larger avatar, scroll speed) and needing a lot more work done. No chance of multiplayer for a while as that's way down their priority list.
I get different results with the same version of Ububtu on two laptops - rebuilt one several times and depending what else I'd done before Wine/BG/mods I'd get different results there too. Add in things like WeiDU & mod versions changing, or not all mods having a Linux version and it's pretty challenging to write up...although I'm the first to admit documentation is not a strong point for me.
Despite using Ubuntu for 2 years I'm fairly sure I haven't found the best way to do various things. The internet helped a lot but it can be difficult to realise when you're just copying someone else's mistakes and maybe a "Linux for dummies" type of book would be a sensible precaution. There is a wealth of official information on the Ubuntu site but my eyes glaze over...
As for not installing VB/C runtimes etc this could be un-necessary bloatware for the majority of users. Pity Wine can't auto-detect and prompt "This app needs <whatever>, do you want to enable it".
For basic use we have 2 laptops that work better under Ubuntu than with the pre-loaded Windows (XP & Vista) so they've gone from Windows to dual-boot to Linux. IMO Wine is a great bit of software but will have it's limits.
Fortunately for one of those laptops BG is within those limits and the other copes at 640x480
#11
Posté 31 mai 2012 - 07:37
The Potty 1
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Well I think I figured out what virtualbox needs for the share to work. The client (XP) needs the oracle virtualbox guest additions installed. This is apparently an iso file, so downloading it in the client is fairly pointless. The simplest solution is to download it on the host, and map it as a cd drive in virtualbox. Start the client, and the iso will appear as a cd rom. Install the additions, shut down the client, unmap the iso, restart the client, and the shares may or may not appear. If not, right clicking the share icon on the client frame may allow you to enable them.
An old forum also mentioned you should not use the same name for the share as the original folder. This may no longer apply, but I did it anyway.
An old forum also mentioned you should not use the same name for the share as the original folder. This may no longer apply, but I did it anyway.
#12
Posté 04 juin 2012 - 02:02
Gate70
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If you go back to Wine I found this, better than my instructions plus some pointers about settings etc.
www.unixmen.com/install-and-configure-wine-to-play-latest-windows-games-in-linux-ubuntu-linuxmint-fedora/
www.unixmen.com/install-and-configure-wine-to-play-latest-windows-games-in-linux-ubuntu-linuxmint-fedora/
#13
Posté 07 juin 2012 - 08:42
The Potty 1
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Minor update, the virtualbox guest additions iso gives a version error when I try to mount it, so I'm currently burning any files I want in the client to CD. I tried burning a DVD, which read once, but now appears corrupt. I think I'll cart the entire box to work and just copy stuff over the lan from linux to the file server and then back to the xp client. While I'm at it I'll install the windows 8 consumer preview on a second virtualbox.
I ran the gen biffing mod on wine, but it really made no difference. I'll try PlayOnLinux over the weekend.
I ran the gen biffing mod on wine, but it really made no difference. I'll try PlayOnLinux over the weekend.
#14
Posté 08 juin 2012 - 12:42
The Potty 1
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Just noticed something, and I'm pissed off. I'm not sure who with, possibly myself. Virtualbox runs in a window, pretty much as programs always do. Various websites keep talking about the 'Devices' menu in the virtual machine's menu bar, where you can 'Install guest additions'. I could never find this, and assumed they'd removed it in the latest version. However, I've just spotted this free-floating menu on the top of the screen, which appears to belong to whatever window you have selected. Is this normal linux behaviour? If not linux, is it normal Ubuntu 12.04 behaviour? Bloody hell, I've wasted days looking for this. Grumble.
#15
Posté 08 juin 2012 - 04:54
Gate70
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It's a feature of the Unity desktop which replaced Gnome (correction, which Ubuntu now uses instead of Gnome).
Modifié par Gate70, 08 juin 2012 - 04:55 .
#16
Posté 11 juin 2012 - 09:49
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OK well virtualbox now works great, I installed XP SP1, then SP3, ran windows update, defragged, and then removed the network card from virtualbox config. No antivirus, memory running just below 100Mb, sweet. If I need a download, I'll grab it in linux, and put it in the share folder.
So I installed BG2, then copied over my linux install. Quick edit of Baldur.ini to change \\home\\chaos\\Games\\BG2\\ to C:\\Games\\BG2\\ and good to go. Dropped my linux resolution to 1024x768, set virtualbox to full screen, and BG2 to also run in 1024x768. I'd manually removed TobEx in linux and am too lazy to reinstall now it's working. So I rolled a Kensai, dualed to mage, and am busy wading through Tactics improved Ilyich.
Thanks for the help with wine, it is a brilliant project that I expect will eventually get integrated into ubuntu, which should make it idiot proof enough even for me. Assuming windows 8 is another vista, it should happen round about the time w9 comes out
Now I'm gonna make Deus Ex 1 run at 1024x768 as well, looks easy enough.
So I installed BG2, then copied over my linux install. Quick edit of Baldur.ini to change \\home\\chaos\\Games\\BG2\\ to C:\\Games\\BG2\\ and good to go. Dropped my linux resolution to 1024x768, set virtualbox to full screen, and BG2 to also run in 1024x768. I'd manually removed TobEx in linux and am too lazy to reinstall now it's working. So I rolled a Kensai, dualed to mage, and am busy wading through Tactics improved Ilyich.
Thanks for the help with wine, it is a brilliant project that I expect will eventually get integrated into ubuntu, which should make it idiot proof enough even for me. Assuming windows 8 is another vista, it should happen round about the time w9 comes out
Now I'm gonna make Deus Ex 1 run at 1024x768 as well, looks easy enough.
