What is missing from lucid puppy linux?

[haywirepc]

I've been using puppy linux lucid for over a year now...

But something has been bothering me a great deal.

I chose puppy linux lucid so I would have access to the ubuntu repos...

Ur quan masters does not work.

Ardour does not work.

Cube does not work.

Armagetron does not work.

Saurerbraten does not work.

Beneath a steel sky does not work...

Chromium bsu does not work...


The list goes on and on and on...

Whatever the problem is, I believe it is a shared and related problem among many many games and applications in the repos.

Someone suggested before the problems were python related.
Obviously, there is something missing from lucid puppy linux which prevents a large portion of software from the repos (Especially games or multimedia apps) to not run.

To be clear, I'm not complaining, I just want to fix or help fix whatever this problem is so that people will have access to more software. To compensate, I've been using wine apps but linux native apps just run better.

Can anyone (or everyone) offer suggestions for fixing these problems so that common games and multimedia apps will run?

Kind of defeats the purpose of having access to the ubuntu repos if none of the games and many other apps just stall and don't run after install.
It also adds to user frustration and confusion....

Any help fixing this problem, or even suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to donate a good portion of my time to try and get these things working...

best regards,

Steven

[mikeb]

Well if python is suggested then that's probably the reason...it probably would not show up in the package manager check being a language of its own.

Perhaps you could make a neat python package for it otherwise most seem to resort to using the devx which is a bit silly and 10 times the size.

mike

[Moose On The Loose]

I've been using puppy linux lucid for over a year now...

But something has been bothering me a great deal.

You can try running them from a terminal and looking at the error messages. I've seen a few things (not games) fail for lack of a shared library link.

They want: libsomething.so
You have: libsomething.so.5

I've seen a few things fail because /var/something doesn't exist. It is just looking for a directory that always exists and is writable on the ubuntu system.

[bigpup]

Using Puppy Package Manager

I tried downloading and installing

Armagetron

Worked for me.

In PPM
When downloading from Ubuntu repositories, make sure to do:

examine dependencies

Download all listed, along with the program package.

Only problem I had was the menu->Fun->Armagetron did not work.
Had to run by going to /usr/games and clicking on Armagetron shellscript file.
Moved file to desktop, to make a desktop icon, to start program.

This is a problem you will run into with programs from the Ubuntu repositories. Their menu entries may or may not work. Puppies menu setup is not quite the same as Ubuntu.

May need to find the file that runs the program and click on it to start program.

This program did need me using a graphics driver that supports 3D.

[mikeb]

good point

/usr/games is in the ubuntu and debian path but perhaps not puppy

mike

[Hotdog]

There are a couple of Python pets at http://dotpups.de/ITAmember/python/. Be advised that if you install a Python pet and later decide to also load the appropriate devx sfs (which also has a version of Python) for your Puppy, there is a chance of breaking both Python installations. It happened to me on 5.2.8 full install. What might be a good idea is to convert one of the pets into an sfs. It could then be unloaded any time the devx sfs was needed.

Python programs generally do not need to be "installed" in the usual sense. Because it is an interpreted language we just need Python to be available for the program to run. Sometimes I have had programs that had to be run from a Python prompt. That usually only happens on a development software that may not be complete yet.

[mikeb]

Recommend python as sfs ..I have 2.5 and 2.7 ...3 is not compatible with 2 so being easy to swap is essential. They are all just a few megs.

Some handy scripts in python... one converts folders of images to pdf in a fraction of a second..zero recompression.. Another is a great chat/game server, a third strips svg images ...often by 50% with no visual loss.

mike

[haywirepc]

Thanks guys, I just re-installed armagetron and urquan masters.

From the "start menu" the games don't work. but if you go to /users/games and run from there, they work. I suspect this menu problem was the cause of many of my problems.... So glad I asked, I've been running almost no games (except for wine capable games) this whole time.

I assumed there was something missing preventing many games from the repos from working. Looks like it was just a bad start command being put in the menu...

Anyone know how I can modify the file the start menu uses with the correct command? I'm using xfce. I'm sure there is some kind of config or text file the start menu uses, anyone know its file name or location in puppy linux with xfce?

SO happy this is awesome now I won't feel like my system is not complete. Just installed Chromium bsu and a few others, and each time, the icons appear in /user/games and they run fine from here.

Finally, anyone able to get ARDOUR working with puppy linux?
I suspect thats a harder problem to tackle!

Thanks for everyone's help!

Steven

[haywirepc]

Thanks guys, I just re-installed armagetron and urquan masters.

From the "start menu" the games don't work. but if you go to /users/games and run from there, they work. I suspect this menu problem was the cause of many of my problems.... So glad I asked, I've been running almost no games (except for wine capable games) this whole time.

I assumed there was something missing preventing many games from the repos from working. Looks like it was just a bad start command being put in the menu...

Anyone know how I can modify the file the start menu uses with the correct command? I'm using xfce. I'm sure there is some kind of config or text file the start menu uses, anyone know its file name or location in puppy linux with xfce?

SO happy this is awesome now I won't feel like my system is not complete. Just installed Chromium bsu and a few others, and each time, the icons appear in /user/games and they run fine from here.

Finally, anyone able to get ARDOUR working with puppy linux?
I suspect thats a harder problem to tackle!

Thanks for everyone's help!

Steven

[mikeb]

Ok Xfce4 uses the standard approach of /usr/share/applications... desktop files.

What is most likely is for a game its using just theprogram rather than /path/to/theprogram for the exec= line as its expected to be in the path.

Edit those if you find that and the menu will auto update soon after.

mike

[haywirepc]

Just spent some time installing games, looks like everything does work, so long as you start from /usr/games. THANKS GUYS!

[haywirepc]

Thanks Mike,

I use a launchers folder with icons for alot of things, for now I'm doing that.

When I get a chance I'll fix the start menu commands...

Best regards,

Steven

[mikeb]

I discovered after some time that many games running in wine only work if you cd to the games program folder since wine did not include that in the path like windows does.

That opened up a huge pile of games to play

mike

[haywirepc]

Yes I found that myself, but how to tell wine to start in a certain directory?

I've just been opening a terminal in the right dir and starting from there...

Or maybe I should learn to write scripts to do this?



for example,

cd /root/windowsgames/doom
wine doom.exe

?

[mikeb]

well xfce4 seems to sort it for me....
for puppy a simple wrapper perhaps using `dirname $0` to get the folder path.... some of the pets might do this anyway.

mike