Author Topic: Linux Installation Guide  (Read 10455 times)

Offline Mathalor

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Linux Installation Guide
« on: April 22, 2020, 03:05:35 pm »
There are two guides that I found for installing openxcom, but the whole thing is very confusing.  It took me a few hours to figure out what to copy where, and what to name each folder.  I also found a link to a youtube video that is 80 min long, windows 10 exclusive, and does not have time stamps.  And one of the guides lists several dependencies that no longer seem to exist.

Having an easier to understand linux specific guide would lead people to not be as intensely frustrated as I was.

Online Meridian

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2020, 03:45:24 pm »
The guide is directly on the project's front page: https://github.com/OpenXcom/OpenXcom

It can't be any more prominent than that... in my opinion.

Offline Mathalor

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2020, 12:56:34 am »
That is one of the two guides that I was referring to.  I was not so much concerned with it's prominence as it's clarity. 

I found the Linux section confusing, and my attempts to install the required libraries gave me messages that they were not found or had had their functions taken by other libraries.  I still think that a less confusing guide specific to Linux would be helpful.

This was the result of trying to install the listed dependencies:

sudo apt install libsdl1.2 libsdl-mixer1.2 libsdl-gfx1.2 libsdl-image1.2 yamlcpp
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'libsdl-gfx1.2-dev' for regex 'libsdl-gfx1.2'
Note, selecting 'libsdl-gfx1.2-doc' for regex 'libsdl-gfx1.2'
Note, selecting 'libsdl-gfx1.2-5' for regex 'libsdl-gfx1.2'
Package libsdl1.2 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'libsdl1.2' has no installation candidate
E: Unable to locate package yamlcpp

My mistakes in interpreting the guide involved naming a folder XCOM, which is the steam installation name, instead of UFO, which is what openxcom looks for.  I named a folder OpenXcom instead of openxcom, and the installer did not find it.  I tried making a folder named "user," while the guide treats a folder as a user folder but does not look for the named folder "user."  Also, the windows section says that it's installer automatically detects a steam installation and I mistakenly assumed that the Linux installer would do so as well.

I don't know enough about either openxcom or Linux to do it myself, but I was very confused by the Linux section of the guide, and think that it could be made more clear, and preferably separate.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2020, 01:00:05 am by Mathalor »

Offline tarkalak

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2020, 03:33:03 pm »
Edit: The following command will install the lbraries:
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libsdl-gfx1.2 libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-mixer1.2

OR:

Download the Windows game and run it with wine. Works like a charm. I have Ubuntu 18.04.

I tried the Linux binaries but they fail with the same error and it is just way simpler to run wine than debug all the ubuntu dependencies.

The user will be in your documents folder ~/Documents/openxcom and you still need to put the TFTD and X-COM files manually in their directories.

« Last Edit: July 04, 2020, 07:25:12 pm by tarkalak »

Offline R1dO

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2020, 09:54:40 pm »
If you are only interesting in running the game the easiest solution is to download the 'appimage' (which includes all dependencies) from here: https://openxcom.org/git-builds/ (might have to click on the penguin).

Mark the downloaded file as executable (via gui or the shell) and start it.
If you have never installed openxcom before it will complain on the first run but it will create the required folders on your system in the default location (~/.local/share/openxcom) making it easier to copy the required data files.

Wine is only easy if you already have set it up.

Offline Exceter

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2021, 11:21:05 pm »
I'm a very experienced Linux user and I concur that the Linux documentation is very difficult to follow. ~/.local/share/openxcom was created on the first execution of the AppImage just like previous posts have said. However, I'm still getting the error "ERROR: GEODATA/PALETTES.DAT not found" even after I copied the entire GEODATA file from the game into ~/.local/share/openxcom. The file ~/.local/share/openxcom/GEODATA/PALETTES.DAT definitely exists and yet the error persists.

Online Meridian

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2021, 10:06:26 am »
It needs to be copied into a subfolder UFO or TFTD, depending on which game you play.

Offline Exceter

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2021, 03:20:07 am »
The file ~/.local/share/openxcom/UFO/GEODATA/PALETTES.DAT now exists and the error persists.

Online Meridian

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2021, 09:45:26 am »
can you share the full logfile output?

Offline Exceter

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2021, 11:56:40 pm »
Code: [Select]
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Data folder is:
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Data search is:
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /home/john/.local/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /tmp/.mount_zTbqk2/usr/share//openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /usr/share/pop/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /home/john/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /usr/local/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /usr/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /usr/local/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - /usr/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] - ./data/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] User folder is: /home/john/.local/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Config folder is: /home/john/.config/openxcom/
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Options loaded successfully.
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] SDL initialized successfully.
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] SDL_mixer initialized successfully.
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Attempting to set display to 640x400x8...
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Display set to 640x400x8.
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Loading ruleset...
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Ruleset loaded successfully.
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [INFO] Loading resources...
[03-08-2021 16:49:16] [ERROR] GEODATA/PALETTES.DAT not found

Online Meridian

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2021, 12:18:38 am »
That looks like a VERY old version, something around the 1.0 release 7 years ago.

Honestly, I don't remember what the required filepaths were back then... just a wild guess: rename "UFO" to "data"

But for the love of god... upgrade.

Offline Exceter

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2021, 12:35:39 am »
Code: [Select]
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] OpenXcom Version: 1.0.8d45159bf (2021-06-11 15:18)
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Platform: Unix-like
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Data folder is: /tmp/.mount_OpenXctmTwix/usr/share//openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Data search is:
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /home/john/.local/share/openxcom/data/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /home/john/.local/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /tmp/.mount_OpenXctmTwix/usr/share//openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /usr/share/pop/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /home/john/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /usr/local/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /usr/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /usr/local/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /usr/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - /usr/share/openxcom//
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] - ./
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] User folder is: /home/john/.local/share/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Config folder is: /home/john/.config/openxcom/
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Options loaded successfully.
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] SDL initialized successfully.
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] SDL_mixer initialized successfully.
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] requested file not found: openxcom.png
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Detected locale: ar_AE.utf8
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Attempting to set display to 640x400x8...
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Display set to 640x400x8.
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Loading data...
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Scanning standard mods in '/tmp/.mount_OpenXctmTwix/usr/share//openxcom/standard'...
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [INFO] Scanning user mods in '/home/john/.local/share/openxcom/mods'...
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [ERROR] no mod masters available
[03-08-2021_17-34-38] [ERROR] No X-COM installations found

Offline The Martian

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2021, 01:11:43 am »
As you are having trouble running OpenXcom, perhaps you may want to try running "OpenXcom Extended" instead, it can be found here:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5258.0.html

The install is very simple, just unzip it and place the needed files from your copies of X-COM: UFO Defense and/or X-COM: Terror From the Deep into the /UFO/ and /TFTD/ folders found in the same folder with the OpenXcomEx executable.

Spoiler:





It may be helpful if you mention which version of Linux you are running.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2021, 01:16:19 am by The Martian »

Offline Exceter

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2021, 02:32:19 am »
OXCE seems to work :D

Offline beng

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Re: Linux Installation Guide
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2023, 04:01:57 pm »
As you are having trouble running OpenXcom, perhaps you may want to try running "OpenXcom Extended" instead, it can be found here:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5258.0.html

The install is very simple, just unzip it and place the needed files from your copies of X-COM: UFO Defense and/or X-COM: Terror From the Deep into the /UFO/ and /TFTD/ folders found in the same folder with the OpenXcomEx executable.

It may be helpful if you mention which version of Linux you are running.

I am running Linux Mint Xfce 21.1 , based on Ubuntu 22.04

I could not get OXCE to run - running the executable after unzipping and placing the data files in the required folder structure did nothing, as in nothing visible happened when I ran the executable.

However, I was able to get the OXC appimage to run by just downloading it from the OpenXcom website (In the OXC website I clicked Downloads > Nightlies > Pengun logo, and chose the least old version, the 2021-06-11 appiimage) to my downloads folder, making it executable, and running it.

The first time I ran it, it displayed an error message in a black screen which showed which directory the UFO and TFTD data folders have to be in. After copying them into that directory, it runs fine.

Note: If you have never run an appimage before you may need to install fuse but Ubuntu 22.04 (and newer) already has fuse3 installed which is newer than fuse and installing fuse (old version) over fuse3 could screw up your system like preventing some drives or filesystems from mounting. In Ubuntu 22.04 or newer, if the appimage does not run because of fuse, only install the fuse2 library, not fuse itself.  First try running the appimage without installing anything.  Only install the fuse2 library if it is needed. To do this the commands are:
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt install libfuse2