Wine and WoW

The installation of Kubuntu on my second drive was simple . All my hardware was recognized and after tweaking some settings I have a fully functional system. An ongoing issue I have with Kubuntu is my printer. I have an HP Photosmart c4180 and it is not listed in the long list of hp printers available. HP's website is of no help " If what you were looking for is not listed, then it is not available for downloading from the web in this language." Thank you HP. I have run the printer in the past with the generic hplip driver and the performance is scream inducing. This is one of the areas where open source software is frustrating. For whatever reason HP chooses not to release drivers or open the code for this printer. For the most part HP is very good about making it's hardware compatible and releasing linux drivers. Why they haven't or won't for this printer is annoying.
1 point for keeping a Windows partition.

Installed wine per instructions at winehq. Installation and configuration of wine is straight forward especially with synaptic package manager. After installing wine I went to install the game that is the heart of this experiment, World of Warcraft. This install was not as smooth as I would have liked. I was not able to install off the cds and had to copy all the data off the discs to the hard drive and point the installer to the file. This was a minor inconvenience that led me to install krusader in order to quickly copy files. Once the files were on the hd the install was easy.

I was going to conclude this post with a report that I was not able to make WoW play on my system. In looking at the wine WoW page I see a new link with fixes for the issues I am having. I am going to see if this solves my problems or at least points out something I missed.

Closing the Windows II

I built this computer for gaming. I spent many hours reading reviews and forums before deciding on the hardware. My budget didn’t allow for top of the line, bleeding edge components but I shopped around. What I ended up with was a fast stable rig that produced decent benchmarks. That was 2004 and the system is now starting to show its’ age. My purpose then is to extend the life of the current setup at least another year and continue to use it for gaming. The second and more important purpose is to test whether gaming with wine on Linux is a viable option. If I get good game performance then I have no reason to continue using Windows.

The Hardware:

Motherboard; DFI NFII Ultra Infinity Rev. A+. with nvidia nforce2 chipset.

Processor; AMD Athlon 2600+ w 512Kb cache

Memory; 1.5Gb Corsair DDR 400 memory

Video; Chaintech Geforce 6600 w 256 MB

Harddrives; Maxtor 60Gb and Western Digital 250Gb

The motherboard has serial ATA connections and I originally purchased a serial ATA hard drive for the system. At the time SATA was just reaching the consumer market and this board shows that all the bugs were not out of the system yet. I have managed to install Windows on the SATA drive but only after turning all system settings way down. Even then it was a hit and miss process that took many attempts. I have never been able to install a Linux distribution on the SATA drive. Most of them will recognize the drive and begin the install and then hang during the drive formatting stage. I don’t know how well current motherboards are handling SATA drives but mine is on the parts shelf waiting to find out.

In my last post I stated that I have been trying different Linux flavors for years. I currently have a stack of discs ranging from the old Mandrake 8 to the new Sabayon 3.26 and GoboLinux 013.

Sabayon is very pretty and seems to perform well. I installed and ran this for several days without any problems. The support community for Sabayon is still small though. This became very apparent as I started looking at installing wine and read through the forums.

GoboLinux appealed to me because of the way the tree is structured. This addressed one of the problems I have had learning my way around Linux. I had no problems with the install and all my hardware was recognized. I played with this distro for a few days as well and was leaning toward using it. As I got into the website and the forums I realized that GoboLinux is intended for a more experienced Linux user. Since I am still learning and am trying some things I haven’t done before I decided to leave this for future consideration.

The distribution I settled on is Kubuntu the KDE flavor of Ubuntu. I have been using Kubuntu fairly regularly since about ’04 or ’05 and really like this distribution. Kubuntu appeals to me on several levels. I really like the philosophy behind it, the support community is large and active, and package availability is great. The key selling point for this setup is the fact that WineHQ has instructions for installing and running wine on Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

Next post I will cover the install, setup and testing of Kubuntu, wine and world of warcraft.

Closing the Windows

For years I have been trying different Linux distros. At first it was out of interest in different operating systems. Then I began looking for an alternative to windows.
I have grown to dislike windows for a number of reasons. Security (or lack there or) is a huge problem. I now have a software firewall, an anti virus program, and 6 anti spy and adware programs running on my XP box. To say this is frustrating is a huge understatement. All of this software is using resources that should be devoted to the projects I am working on. Then there is the annoyance factor, windows pop up informing me that this or that program is updating, scanning, giving birth, or needing money. My computer is no longer my own. The only reason I have put up with all of this frustration is gaming. I am an avid gamer and the games I like are written to run on windows. To work around this I have been dual booting for a number of years, running XP and Linux on separate partitions on my hard drive. This is a workable but inconvenient solution. I have to reboot each time I want to switch systems.

I bought a Mac Mini this fall to take care of the rest of my computing needs and to eventually be my multimedia computer. I like OS X; it is secure and stable and is easier than windows. The Mini just doesn’t have the horsepower to do much and gaming is out of the question. This brings me back to my XP/Linux dilemma. I came across this blog the other night and it inspired me finally commit to running Linux as my main OS.

I am going to use this blog to track my experience and show others that it can be done. Tune in tomorrow for hardware specs and to see which flavor I Linux I decide to work with.

Neighborhood connections

Having been in Fond du Lac for a number of years before moving to Milwaukee last September I had forgotten how inconvenient moving is. Aside from the obvious hassle of finding a new place, packing and hauling everything, calling utilities, etc. I now realize the little things that I took for granted; a good barber, a favorite ice cream place, and a mechanic that I have known since grade school.

I just bought a 2000 VW Gulf and thought taking it to the dealer for service would be a good idea (ok stop laughing, it made sense for a minute.) I was given a ridiculously high quote for some minor suspension repairs. At this point I remembered Tony and Mobile Car Care. Tony repaired my car after someone attempted to steal it last fall. He gave me good service and a fair price. So I took the VW to Mobile. Tony put in 2 new struts, plates and a new axle for less than the dealer quoted for a strut plate and CV boot . He also gave me a ride home, picked me up and made sure I was on the road in time for work. So this is where I insert a plug for Tony and Mobile Car Care. If you live in or near Riverwest I highly recommend Mobile.

Finding a good mechanic makes me feel like I am starting to put down roots in Milwaukee. Now if I could just find a good barber I'll really be feeling at home.

Great Writing

I have been an avid SciFi and Fantasy reader since I learned to read. Over the decades I have read and collected a number of writers. One that I always loved was CJ Cherryh. I am rereading Rider at the Gate because I haven't been to the bookstore or library in the past week. Ms Cherryh is an author whose work is easy for me to go back to time and again. The depth of her settings and characters amazes me.
I am intimidated by authors of this caliber. Ms Cherryh's imagination leaves me stunned. As I read her work I can't help but thinking "how do you think of all this?" I am always impressed with good writing but to me SciFi/Fantasy turns it up a notch by forcing the writer to create believable worlds and universes on top of good characters and story lines. CJ Cherryh is one of the best, her settings are thought out to an amazing level of detail. On top of these strong foundations she builds believable characters that draw me in. Reading writers like this is what inspires me to want to write.