Freeciv SDL

[seth]

Hi,
I used to like playing Civilisation on my old PC, and I was happy to find out that there is a free Civilisation-clone in the Fedora repositories available.
But when I installed freeciv from there, it didn't fit on my screen Apparently, the version of freeciv in the repositories uses a too big resolution...

After some surfing, I found out that there is actually a version of freeciv that uses a different "client" to run: SDL and this version is made for devices with smaller screens.

Now since I am a complete newbie (seriously, I think this post has at least 5 mistakes in it ), I was wondering if anyone got freeciv SDL running on his or her One... and if they could post a small guide for me here. Mayhaps

Any advise that can make freeciv fit in my One's screen would be greatly appreciated!

PS: Please forgive any language mistakes, I am not a native English speaker...

[danjlawson]

Hi,

For anyone wanting to play freeciv on the AA0 http://helpfulstuff.blogspot.com/2008/11/install-freeciv-sdl-client-on-aspire.html has a detailed howto. Assuming you've gotten the AA0 advanced mode set up, the steps there can be condensed down to:

1. Install a repository containing freeciv for Fedora 8. At time of writing, this can be installed from: http://dnmouse.org/repo/Fedora/ajrepo-2-2.noarch.rpm - simply click this link to install the repository (you'll have to give it root access).

2. Install freeciv. You need both freeciv-server and freeciv-client-sdl, which can be accessed through "system->add/remove software" or by typing in a console :
sudo yum install freeciv-client-sdl freeciv-server

3. start freeciv (its added to the menu as games->freeciv), or is "civclient-sdl" from a command line). Edit the options to 1024x600 fullscreen and the world is ready to be conquored

Hope this works for others?

[seth]

You dear sir, or lady, are a demi-god.
And that fellow you linked to is... pretty great too.

I followed the instructions above and everything worked like a charm.

Many thanks!

[me075064]

Thats fantastic, works for me as well

Many thanks
John M

[Reliant39]

Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

I get the following error:

Error: Missing Dependency: libggzmod.so.4 is needed by package freeciv-client-sdl

Any ideas? I had the original FreeCiv installed first, so maybe that caused the problem? I understand the missing file is part of the GGZ package, but I can't seem to install that either. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[andychurchill]

Same as the above poster - hadn't installed the original version of freeciv though.

Currently I've followed instructions on enabling te advanced menu, installed FF3, and skype, but I don't think any of those things would have caused this dependancy error I'm getting now.

Haven't tried installing the original Freeciv yet either.

[Reliant39]

Perhaps some additional information is helpful in tracking down the root of this problem.

The original version of FreeCiv installed fine, but due to the resolution (1024 x 600 pixels), the bottom part of the window is essentially invisible (thus rendering the game unplayable, even though it starts and loads just fine). Did a search here, removed FreeCiv, rebooted, then tried to install the SDL version. That gave the error described above.

I did manage to customise my AAO to my liking, using the wonderful tips and tricks found here. I altered the desktop (it now looks like a "regular" LINUX desktop), removed the original games (demos, etc.), and then managed to update OpenOffice (I have updated nothing else--the rest is all standard stuff, including Firefox). The only other thing that I have installed is kdegames. Everything works fine, apart from FreeCiv SDL. Maybe something got deleted when I removed the default games? That's the only thing I can imagine that might cause the dependency error (seeing as earlier posters clearly didn't experience this error).

EDIT: I assume one of the following packages ought to be added to the packet manager, but which one? I am guessing "Fedora 8 updates for i386.newkey", or some such.

http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/searc ... gzmod.so.4

[andychurchill]

The only other thing that I have installed is kdegames. Everything works fine, apart from FreeCiv SDL. Maybe something got deleted when I removed the default games? That's the only thing I can imagine that might cause the dependency error (seeing as earlier posters clearly didn't experience this error).

I doubt that's it, as I've not uninstalled any default games or installed kdegames, but so either those before us already had something else installed prior to this, or perhaps a change occrured when I did the online update last (probably sometime between christmas and new year), just before doing all of the customisations for advanced desktops etc.

[Reliant39]

I doubt that's it, as I've not uninstalled any default games or installed kdegames, but so either those before us already had something else installed prior to this, or perhaps a change occrured when I did the online update last (probably sometime between christmas and new year), just before doing all of the customisations for advanced desktops etc.

I haven't updated the system since I got it, so I doubt that's the problem. It's really quite curious. Once I've plucked up the necessary courage, I may install one of those packages that I linked to in an edit to my earlier post. Maybe that will solve the problem. (Although I'm rather reticent about fooling around too much with my AAO just to get a game working!)

EDIT: I ran a backup and tried installing said package. It didn't work: another library/package was missing now.

EDIT 2: I managed to install the game by first installing the server and common files, and then the client and sdl-client ones. The game doesn't start, though (the server is fine). When I try to run the game from the terminal, I get the same error message as before (libggzmod.so.4 missing). That file/package is needed, but I can't seem to find it/install it. I am not going to bother any further and instead hope that someone more knowledgeable in these matters makes his or her way into this thread and enlighten us!

[Reliant39]

So I'm stubborn and lack patience... I finally managed to solve the problem. Unfortunately, I was trying out different things and didn't keep track of what I was doing exactly, but I hope the following will be useful anyway. If you still can't get FreeCiv to work, I'll do some digging in the package manager and write down what it was I installed exactly.

I installed the Livna repositories, as explained here. I also updated the Fedora repository using a tip on macles* site (linked from a page on this very forum), but I'll be damned what the URL was. I don't think that was a vital step, though, as I think the GGZ packages are offered through Livna, rather than Fedora.

Anyway, I loaded up the package manager, searched for "freeciv", then selected the server (won't work without it), SDL-client, common files, and the regular client. Once all that was installed, I did a search for ggz. Having added the new Livna repository, a number of options appeared. After some trial and error, I selected two packages that installed missing library files (one for Gtk+, the other a general ggz file--do NOT use the development packages, etc., just the finished files). These installed rather swiftly.

Following the installation of FreeCiv, two shortcuts (icons) should have been placed into your "Games" folder, one for the FreeCiv client, the other for the server. If you click the FreeCiv client, it will automatically load the SDL-version, which is much nicer than the regular version I was used to!

If the game doesn't load, open up the terminal and type "civclient-sdl" (without the quotes). An error message should appear, telling you what the problem is. Chances are that one of those pesky ggz-libraries are still missing. If so, relaunch the package manager, do another search for "ggz" and select another package to install.

EDIT: corrected a mistake.