Friday, July 28, 2006

Me and wine, will I ever get it going...

Recent woes:
Steam!

Each and every time I try and launch steam I get to 26% on the software update and then this error:


Eish...
:(

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I just cam over this amazing site bursting with Gimp goodness!
Gimp Talk

On the front page there is a hughe section dedicated to all the different tutorials on the site created by the members. I went through about half the tutorials and I'm very, very much impressed!

I'm gonna have to try out some of these tutorials!

For those looking to get Gimp, it is propably on you ditro CD/DVD but you can get the latest version here at the Gimp website or for the Windows version go here to get it!

Great stuff this I tell you, great stuff!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Got tired of the all black theme on my desktop PC and changed it to this:




And here is the laptop, very minimal Fluxbox, but the wallpaper and the theme go hand in hand, don't you think?


Thursday, June 01, 2006

Counter Strike woes!

Seems wine and I are not very good friends!
I have seldom had any real success with it and now I got Counter Strike: Condition Zero from a friend and can't seem to launch the game.

It starts up a-okay, I can access all the menus and configure my settings, but as soon as I want to play say custom game, it loads, I get to the info screen before the game starts and bam, it crashes.

I was so hoping for this one to work, but allas, no go so far.

Here is the long-winded output and crash dump:


mw@my ~ $ winelauncher "C:\Valve\Condition Zero\czero.exe" -- -console -w 1024 -noipx
Invoking /usr/bin/wine C:\Valve\Condition Zero\czero.exe -- -console -w 1024 -noipx ...
fixme:ddraw:Main_DirectDraw_SetCooperativeLevel (0x7fd38570)->((nil),00000008)
fixme:ddraw:Main_DirectDraw_SetCooperativeLevel (0x7fd38570)->((nil),00000013)
fixme:x11drv:X11DRV_desktop_SetCurrentMode Cannot change screen BPP from 32 to 16
fixme:mci:MCI_LoadMciDriver Couldn't load driver for type L"C:\\VALVE\\CONDITION".
If you don't have a windows installation accessible from Wine,
you perhaps forgot to create a [mci] section in system.ini
fixme:mci:MCI_LoadMciDriver Couldn't load driver for type L"C:\\VALVE\\CONDITION".
If you don't have a windows installation accessible from Wine,
you perhaps forgot to create a [mci] section in system.ini
err:ole:CoGetClassObject class {4955dd33-b159-11d0-8fcf-00aa006bcc59} not registered
err:ole:CoGetClassObject no class object {4955dd33-b159-11d0-8fcf-00aa006bcc59} could be created for context 0x1
fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x77f31bf8,0x7fb9f6f0,28,0,0x77f6287c,0x77f324ec,0x77f62858): stub
fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x77f31bf8,0x77f8ba34,180e0,0,0x77f8dfdc,0x77f8bc84,0x77f8dfb8): stub
err:dscapture:widDsCreate DirectSoundCapture flag not set
This sound card's driver does not support direct access
The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x77f31bf8,0x76f880b4,180e0,0,0x76f8834c,0x7fd18374,0x76f88328): stub
fixme:ddraw:Main_DirectDraw_SetCooperativeLevel (0x796e0020)->((nil),00000008)
fixme:ddraw:Main_DirectDraw_SetCooperativeLevel (0x796e0020)->((nil),00000013)
err:ole:CoGetClassObject class {4955dd33-b159-11d0-8fcf-00aa006bcc59} not registered
err:ole:CoGetClassObject no class object {4955dd33-b159-11d0-8fcf-00aa006bcc59} could be created for context 0x1
fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x796fa3d0,0x7fb9f6f0,28,0,0x7970ae14,0x796fad04,0x7970adf0): stub
fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x796fa3d0,0x79778bfc,180e0,0,0x7977c6b4,0x7977c7c4,0x7977c690): stub
err:dscapture:widDsCreate DirectSoundCapture flag not set
This sound card's driver does not support direct access
The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
err:dsound:DSOUND_MixOne underrun on sound buffer 0x7977c668
fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x796fa3d0,0x7975c0a4,180e0,0,0x7975c33c,0x77eeb4c4,0x7975c318): stub
err:dscapture:widDsCreate DirectSoundCapture flag not set
This sound card's driver does not support direct access
The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
wine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000000 at address 0x1d0804c (thread 0009), starting debugger...
WineDbg starting on pid 0x8
Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0x00000000 in 32-bit code (0x01d0804c).
Register dump:
CS:0073 SS:007b DS:007b ES:007b FS:003b GS:0033
EIP:01d0804c ESP:7fb9f50c EBP:7772d3f8 EFLAGS:00010246( - 00 -RIZP1)
EAX:00000000 EBX:7ca266c4 ECX:00000000 EDX:b722bccb
ESI:7ca268e8 EDI:7ca26948
Stack dump:
0x7fb9f50c: 01e80c18 7ca268e8 ffffffff 7c963158
0x7fb9f51c: 7fb9f608 7ca26a10 798d7148 00000000
0x7fb9f52c: 798e4270 798d7148 0000003f 7772d3f8
0x7fb9f53c: 0000007e 00000000 00000000 7d3a97c4
0x7fb9f54c: 7c963158 0000007c 00000000 7772d3f8
0x7fb9f55c: 0000007e 798d7094 01e6fff8 00000000
Backtrace:
=>1 0x01d0804c in czero (+0x90804c) (0x01d0804c)
0x01d0804c: movl 0x0(%eax),%ecx
Modules:
Module Address Debug info Name (155 modules)
PE 0x01400000-03517000 Export czero
PE 0x10000000-1001f000 Deferred filesystem_stdio
PE 0x20000000-2033e000 Deferred steam
PE 0x21100000-2115e000 Deferred mss32
PE 0x26400000-2642c000 Deferred mssv29.asi
PE 0x26600000-26627000 Deferred mssv12.asi
PE 0x26f00000-26f2a000 Deferred mp3dec.asi
PE 0x30000000-30026000 Deferred nspr4
PE 0x6ab30000-6ab52000 Deferred gkplugin
PE 0x6acb0000-6acba000 Deferred cookie
PE 0x72c20000-72da5000 Deferred mp
ELF 0x738b7000-738cf000 Deferred mcicda
\-PE 0x738c0000-738cf000 \ mcicda
PE 0x76310000-7631a000 Deferred jar50
ELF 0x7658c000-765a0000 Deferred joystick
\-PE 0x76590000-765a0000 \ joystick
PE 0x766a0000-766af000 Deferred voice_miles
PE 0x766e0000-76720000 Deferred core
PE 0x76730000-7674e000 Deferred demoplayer
ELF 0x76aa7000-76b00000 Deferred dsound
\-PE 0x76ac0000-76b00000 \ dsound
PE 0x77140000-772c5000 Deferred gameui
PE 0x77780000-77788000 Deferred pipboot
PE 0x77790000-777b1000 Deferred imglib2
PE 0x777c0000-77a10000 Deferred gklayout
PE 0x77a20000-77a26000 Deferred embed_lite
PE 0x77a30000-77a54000 Deferred gkgfxwin
PE 0x77a60000-77a77000 Deferred gkgfx
PE 0x77a80000-77a9e000 Deferred gkwidget
PE 0x77aa0000-77aad000 Deferred webbrwsr
PE 0x77ab0000-77ad8000 Deferred docshell
PE 0x77ae0000-77b9a000 Deferred uconv
PE 0x77ba0000-77bd4000 Deferred gkparser
PE 0x77be0000-77bfa000 Deferred rdf
PE 0x77c00000-77c10000 Deferred chrome
PE 0x77c20000-77c34000 Deferred xpcom_compat
PE 0x77c40000-77c47000 Deferred xpcom_compat_c
PE 0x77c50000-77c5f000 Deferred profile
PE 0x77c60000-77c8e000 Deferred i18n
PE 0x77da0000-77dad000 Deferred mozz
PE 0x77db0000-77e21000 Deferred necko
PE 0x77e30000-77e3d000 Deferred xppref32
PE 0x77e40000-77e6f000 Deferred xpc3250
PE 0x77e70000-77e80000 Deferred caps
PE 0x780c0000-78121000 Deferred msvcp60
PE 0x78130000-78184000 Deferred js3250
PE 0x78190000-781ae000 Deferred embedcomponents
ELF 0x781b7000-78208000 Deferred libgcrypt.so.11
ELF 0x78208000-78283000 Deferred libgnutls.so.12
ELF 0x78283000-782a0000 Deferred libcups.so.2
ELF 0x782bc000-782ec000 Deferred winspool
\-PE 0x782c0000-782ec000 \ winspool
ELF 0x782ec000-78390000 Deferred comdlg32
\-PE 0x78300000-78390000 \ comdlg32
PE 0x78390000-78396000 Deferred plds4
PE 0x783a0000-783a7000 Deferred plc4
PE 0x783b0000-7840f000 Deferred xpcom
PE 0x78410000-78440000 Deferred mozctl
ELF 0x7844a000-784b0000 Deferred msvcrt
\-PE 0x78460000-784b0000 \ msvcrt
PE 0x784b0000-784b6000 Deferred mozctlx
ELF 0x784c6000-78500000 Deferred shdocvw
\-PE 0x784d0000-78500000 \ shdocvw
ELF 0x7bf00000-7bf03000 Deferred
ELF 0x7cf91000-7d010000 Deferred libglu.so.1
ELF 0x7d30a000-7d3b0000 Deferred oleaut32
\-PE 0x7d320000-7d3b0000 \ oleaut32
ELF 0x7d87c000-7d880000 Deferred libgpg-error.so.0
ELF 0x7d90c000-7d93e000 Deferred uxtheme
\-PE 0x7d910000-7d93e000 \ uxtheme
ELF 0x7d93e000-7da17000 Deferred comctl32
\-PE 0x7d950000-7da17000 \ comctl32
ELF 0x7da17000-7dafd000 Deferred shell32
\-PE 0x7da30000-7dafd000 \ shell32
ELF 0x7dafd000-7db5c000 Deferred shlwapi
\-PE 0x7db10000-7db5c000 \ shlwapi
ELF 0x7db5c000-7db70000 Deferred mswsock
\-PE 0x7db60000-7db70000 \ mswsock
PE 0x7db70000-7dbc8000 Deferred vgui
ELF 0x7dbd2000-7dbe6000 Deferred lz32
\-PE 0x7dbe0000-7dbe6000 \ lz32
ELF 0x7dbe6000-7dc00000 Deferred version
\-PE 0x7dbf0000-7dc00000 \ version
ELF 0x7dd43000-7dd5b000 Deferred msacm32
\-PE 0x7dd50000-7dd5b000 \ msacm32
ELF 0x7dd5b000-7dda5000 Deferred wineoss
\-PE 0x7dd70000-7dda5000 \ wineoss
ELF 0x7dfab000-7dfc0000 Deferred midimap
\-PE 0x7dfb0000-7dfc0000 \ midimap
ELF 0x7dfc0000-7e04d000 Deferred winmm
\-PE 0x7dfd0000-7e04d000 \ winmm
ELF 0x7e564000-7e5e8000 Deferred ddraw
\-PE 0x7e580000-7e5e8000 \ ddraw
ELF 0x7e5e8000-7e63a000 Deferred rpcrt4
\-PE 0x7e600000-7e63a000 \ rpcrt4
ELF 0x7e63a000-7e6d9000 Deferred ole32
\-PE 0x7e650000-7e6d9000 \ ole32
ELF 0x7e6d9000-7e720000 Deferred dinput
\-PE 0x7e6f0000-7e720000 \ dinput
ELF 0x7e75b000-7e800000 Deferred opengl32
\-PE 0x7e790000-7e800000 \ opengl32
PE 0x7e930000-7e96f000 Deferred vgui2
PE 0x7e9b0000-7e9c4000 Deferred particleman
PE 0x7eb60000-7eb74000 Deferred dbg
ELF 0x7eb76000-7eb80000 Deferred libgcc_s.so.1
ELF 0x7eca0000-7eca9000 Deferred libxrender.so.1
ELF 0x7ed0a000-7f4cc000 Deferred libglcore.so.1
ELF 0x7f4cc000-7f551000 Deferred libgl.so.1
ELF 0x7f554000-7f571000 Deferred imm32
\-PE 0x7f560000-7f571000 \ imm32
ELF 0x7f571000-7f672000 Deferred libx11.so.6
ELF 0x7f672000-7f684000 Deferred libxext.so.6
ELF 0x7f684000-7f70e000 Deferred winex11
\-PE 0x7f690000-7f70e000 \ winex11
ELF 0x7f70e000-7f73b000 Deferred libexpat.so.1
ELF 0x7f73b000-7f76e000 Deferred libfontconfig.so.1
ELF 0x7f76e000-7f77f000 Deferred libz.so.1
ELF 0x7f787000-7f79f000 Deferred libice.so.6
ELF 0x7f79f000-7f81d000 Deferred libfreetype.so.6
ELF 0x7f81d000-7f8b3000 Deferred gdi32
\-PE 0x7f830000-7f8b3000 \ gdi32
ELF 0x7f8b3000-7fa01000 Deferred user32
\-PE 0x7f8d0000-7fa01000 \ user32
ELF 0x7fa01000-7fa45000 Deferred advapi32
\-PE 0x7fa10000-7fa45000 \ advapi32
ELF 0x7fa45000-7fa63000 Deferred iphlpapi
\-PE 0x7fa50000-7fa63000 \ iphlpapi
ELF 0x7fa63000-7fa90000 Deferred ws2_32
\-PE 0x7fa70000-7fa90000 \ ws2_32
ELF 0x7fba1000-7fba6000 Deferred libxfixes.so.3
ELF 0x7fba6000-7fbb0000 Deferred libxcursor.so.1
ELF 0x7fbb2000-7fbb6000 Deferred libxrandr.so.2
ELF 0x7fbb6000-7fbbb000 Deferred libxdmcp.so.6
ELF 0x7fbbb000-7fbc1000 Deferred libxxf86vm.so.1
ELF 0x7fbc1000-7fcd0000 Deferred kernel32
\-PE 0x7fbe0000-7fcd0000 \ kernel32
ELF 0x7fde3000-7fdec000 Deferred libsm.so.6
ELF 0x7fdec000-7fe01000 Deferred libnsl.so.1
ELF 0x7fe01000-7fe07000 Deferred libxxf86dga.so.1
ELF 0x7fe07000-7fe21000 Deferred wsock32
\-PE 0x7fe10000-7fe21000 \ wsock32
ELF 0x7fe21000-7fe44000 Deferred libm.so.6
ELF 0x7fe44000-7fe4e000 Deferred libnss_files.so.2
ELF 0x7fe4e000-7fe58000 Deferred libnss_nis.so.2
ELF 0x7fe58000-7fe60000 Deferred libnss_compat.so.2
ELF 0x7fe62000-7fe64000 Deferred libnvidia-tls.so.1
ELF 0x7fe64000-7ff5b000 Deferred libwine_unicode.so.1
ELF 0x7ff5b000-7ffe0000 Deferred ntdll
\-PE 0x7ff70000-7ffe0000 \ ntdll
ELF 0xa7dd6000-a7dda000 Deferred libdl.so.2
ELF 0xa7dda000-a7eef000 Deferred libc.so.6
ELF 0xa7eef000-a7f41000 Deferred libpthread.so.0
ELF 0xa7f41000-a7f44000 Deferred libxau.so.6
ELF 0xa7f61000-a7f7c000 Deferred libwine.so.1
ELF 0xa7f7d000-a7f94000 Deferred ld-linux.so.2
Threads:
process tid prio (all id:s are in hex)
0000000a
0000000b 0
00000008 (D) C:\Valve\Condition Zero\czero.exe
00000022 0
00000021 0
00000020 15
0000001f 15
0000001b 0
00000019 15
00000017 0
0000000f 15
0000000d 0
0000000c 0
00000009 0 <==
Wine exited with a successful status.

Monday, May 29, 2006

End of May screenshot

After some searching and modding I'm finally happy with my current desktop!
I have scoured the net looking for just the right icon theme, and at last, with some mixing and tuning, I found the current one.

Specs:
KDE-3.5.2
kbfx 0.4.9.2rc1
deKorator
Styleclock
Clean

Bussy showing of the window decoration and kbfx menu



Very nice ideed, even if I have to say so myself!
:P

Friday, March 24, 2006

PCLinuxOS, new guy on the block!

I am a Gentoo fanboy. Full stop.
I doubt there is any other distro out there that can even come close to it, but I also love Linux and therefore am more than willing to test out new waters.

The test machine (as always) is the wife's PC. She is a bit slow taking up Linux and gives me the opportunity to use her PC as the guinea-pig. Also, she is the ideal candidate to give me an honest opinion of any distro which is needed because the more advanced Linux users tend to forget there are people who do not even know what a partition is.

Enter PCLinuxOS.

I have seen the name pop up all the more frequently on various forums and decided to try it out. They say it is based on Mandriva, will have to see about that...

You download the version you require from any of the following mirrors.

I opted for the nvidia image on one of the mirrors (the 7676 one, seems like the most recent nvidia driver they support.)

The LiveCD interface.




You boot into a LiveCD with X and nVidia support (yup, LiveCD with 3D DRI support) and just click one button on the desktop "Install PCLinuxOS".

The whole interface has a strong WindowsXP feel to it, something the die hard Linux gurus may snicker at, but I found it pleasing on the eye. The simplicity of the graphics just works.




The installation is the easiest of all the distro's I have ever done.

In 6 easy steps the OS is installed to the hard drive of your choice, it couldn't be easier I say.
This really impressed me, the ease with what everything is done. Once installed you have, of course, your X server WITH 3D and DRI support already implemented.



One downside is that the LiveCD desktop interface becomes almost useless once installation is in progress. One can understand this as the resources to load the desktop and then install it would be stretched to the max.

I would, however, highly recommend it for a beginner wanting to "check Linux out".

Now onto the nitty gritty....
Default boot (I only moved the icons a bit to make it more functional)





After installation you will find a fully functional KDE environment. Nothing fancy here, except all my hardware was detected and installed perfectly!
Sound, screen resolution, mouse wheel, network card, webcam, TV-tuner... and no interface was presented to ask input from my part at all. Not bad. One could, of course, change these settings if the need arise.

Applications that may be lacking "out-of-the-box" is a good office suite to complement KDE Office. (What would you expect from a one CD ISO image?)
Everything else needed is present, including the regulars like Firefox, Xchat, video players, The Gimp, K3B and a few p2p clients.

Also a plus is that MP3 and AVI (DivX/Xvid) support is included, not the case with many of the other offerings nowadays.

Looking a bit more closely one would notice that this version of KDE is indeed "patched" with a few nice little features! I was ecstatic when I notice the small things they gave attention to, like Yakuake and Krusader. A big plus in my book.

The software manager used is called "Synaptic Sofware Manger" and has the feel of Mandriva. Here we begin to see Mandriva sticking out it's head. So this distro is indeed based upon Mandriva!



Syncing to get the latest package lists was effortless and also selecting and installing packages went smoothly. I do however feel the need to mention that dial-up users be very careful in selecting packages, it could become a huge and time consuming task to update everything.
On that note, one downfall is the lack of "security only" fixes and patches.

The "PCLinuxOS Control Center" is almost an exact copy of Mandriva control center. It has all the familiar options one would expect from a n00b friendly distro and plenty of wizards to even out the bumps.



Looking at support one will find that all the more distros tend to use forums and wikis as a means to this end, and PCLinuxOS is no exception.
The forums is still young (as is the distro) but there is help available. I cannot comment on the forums all that much since I had no real problems to fix. You can also find the wiki here. Always a valuable resource for any distro.

There you have it, a distro for the beginner and not a bad download size to boot!

Thanks to osdir.com for borrowing the first few screenshot (hey, I'm not going to boot up a LiveCD again only for a few screenshots!)

Test PC:
AMD 2500+ Barton
Epox KT400 motherboard (8K9A7I)
512 Mb ram
MSI GeForce 5200 graphics card
LG CDRW drive
AOpen DVD drive
80Gb Seagate hard drive
Generic TV-tuner card
Netgear (marvell chipset) 54 mbps wifi-card

Monday, March 20, 2006

.........

It has been a few days since I posted anything, so sue me!!!!
I do have a job you know, not like all those people who take all the parking space at the shopping centres. Who are they, what are they doing at the mall at 3pm, don't they have jobs?

Grrrr, as you can see, parking has become an issue, and no, I have a right to roam the streets at 3pm, I'm the only one other people have to accomodate....

Seriously though, lets see if I can find anything interresting to post here in the next week, who knows, even a game link or two!!!
:D

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Just when you think....

So, here I was earlier this year thinking it would be great to go and get all the UT2004 mods there is and run them to see how they perform.
Maybe even a website dedicated to this...

Many a moon-hours later (about a week) the next release (UT2007) is announced to be released in 4Q this year.
What happens? All active development of UT2004 mods stop, like in a dead stop!

What a massive pity! We knew UT2007 would MAYBE be released in 2006 but most devinately be available in 2007, so there is no BIG surprices there, but why stop development of some really great mods???

Maybe later I'll have a search on the web again and link to these mods, but again, what a shame...