The Linux Thread!

[sal_vager]

offbeat, no idea sorry, the stutter is engine level stuff and no one's found a fix, though why it's worse for you I don't know, my 'unused reserved' memory does go up a little bit faster but not enough to impact my gaming.

Hagen von Tronje, the Unity engine officially supports Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and later, but players have gotten KSP running on almost every Linux distribution so far, I even managed to start KSP in Puppy Linux, so feel free to choose one that best suits you, as a player new to Linux I suggest sticking with a version of Ubuntu, Kubuntu uses the K desktop and is probably the most Windows like, Ubuntu uses the Unity desktop by default and is a bit like OSX, Xubuntu (Xfce) and Lubuntu (Lxde) are lightweight and could best be compared with Windows 2000/XP in some ways.

But any version of Linux should install happily to a HDD, most online instructions will help you avoid any pitfalls, and it's just a matter of choosing which you'd like at boot time.

As for modding, there's very little difference, most addons just drop into GameData and work fine, some external tools like ckan will take a bit of work to get running but aren't too hard.

And yeah, KSP's file structure is pretty much the same, only a few things like logs are different.

If you get stuck we'll help as best we can, and if you have any questions just ask

[Hagen von Tronje]

Thanks Sal, after old man has a nap I'm going to install Kubuntu and see how things go. Hopefully smoothly and I don't have to bug you with anything.

[Stone Blue]

Hagen, Good choice... I'm a Linux newb, and tried Kubuntu first, but for some reason, i had issues with it installing...So i tried my 2nd choice, Lubuntu, and the install was SUPER easy, and NO issues getting it to triple boot with my existing Win7/Win8.1 dual-boot... I mainly just wanted Linux to SOLELY play KSP, but I've been using it as my primary OS more and more. Stuff that I still need to do that I havent figured out how to do with Linux yet, I just boot into one of my Windows OS's, easy-peasey...

I'm slowly adding more and more mods to my KSP Linux 1.0.2 install...I LOVE all the RAM headroom that Lubuntu gives me..The OS only uses up around 230MB of RAM at idle...I have 6GB of RAM (5.8 useable), and have pushed KSP to 4.5GB so far with no issues.. I'm ordering a new stick of RAM in a couple days to end up with at least 8GB...

And yes, so far, i have found all the mods I've installed worked fine on Linux...These are the same .zips that I use for KSP on Windows.

Oh, and the biggest hurdle you may run into at first, is video drivers, depending on what you have. I've seen lots of issues with Nvidia cards & Linux, and had a little bit of Googling and tweaking to do, but finally got KSP to use my Nvidia graphics pretty easily.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Stone Blue

[cantab]

I spent most of my Sunday not playing KSP, but troubleshooting KSP. To my continuing bafflement, it would appear that installs that were under the memory limit before and stable for weeks can decide at whatever time that they need even more memory than that on startup, and become impossible to start.

Try editing the settings.cfg to set half-res textures, that might help as a band-aid fix until 1.1 or a switch to Linux.

Seems common knowledge that Ubuntu is the most popular distro. Any reason to choose something else, or anything I should know about distros relevant to KSP?

The regular Ubuntu has an interface more akin to OSX. It might feel odd if you've been using Windows all your like. Consider variants like Xubuntu, or derivatives like Linux Mint. KSP is officially support on Ubuntu (which includes its variants), while SteamOS is based on Debian, so I'd say at least pick something in the Debian or Ubuntu families (Ubuntu itself being a Debian derivative).

- I have an SSD and HDD. The SSD runs Windows and games that benefit from an SSD; I'd prefer to install Linux to the HDD for now so I don't have to worry about competition for disk space and KSP doesn't seem to benefit from an SSD anyway. Is it difficult to run both Windows and Linux on the same PC for this purpose?

There should be no problems as long as 1) WIndows is installed first, then Linux, and 2) You aren't using Bitlocker or any other full disk encryption.

Once I get Linux installed and KSP installed for Linux, is modding it and playing it going to be pretty much the same as on Windows? It's not that I'm a Windows fan so much as I'm getting kind of old and don't like surprises. Given that I never see Linux or Mac versions of mods, I guess it must be the case that KSP's internal file structure is the same regardless of OS?

Yes, virtually all mods work on all platforms. (An exception I know of is Advanced Fly-By-Wire, which works with joysticks and gamepads and so needs separate versions for each OS.)

[offbeat]

The thing I don't understand is why the reserved memory works differently in the Linux version of the client. Pressing a mouse button down and moving the mouse makes it shoot up until it becomes purged, whereas in windows it stays fairly constant and hence doesn't get purged every 5 seconds causing the stutter. I am fine with the normal stutters of the game but this one is making it unplayable for me... And it just doesn't make sense as to why this issue is occurring

[sal_vager]

Well it is a different OS, with very different drivers, and one of the issues with rotating the camera has been the UI redrawing, thankfully this is being replaced for 1.1

Why it goes up much faster for you is interesting though, can you video this so I can see how much faster? Simple screen recorder is probably the best tool for this.

[offbeat]

Well it is a different OS, with very different drivers, and one of the issues with rotating the camera has been the UI redrawing, thankfully this is being replaced for 1.1

Why it goes up much faster for you is interesting though, can you video this so I can see how much faster? Simple screen recorder is probably the best tool for this.

https://youtu.be/i0TxbTiqtFU

There's a video - 2 things to note are I leave KSP running at the end and the stutters occur naturally as the memory is purged. This doesn't happen in Windows because the memory usage isn't really going up to 'force' the purge. Also using a wireless mouse with a lower dpi makes the memory usage go up slower (about half as fast), but still results in the forced purge

Edited September 22, 2015 by offbeat

[sal_vager]

Okay it shouldn't be doing it to that degree, I get a stutter when I do that but it takes a lot longer for the unused reserve to fill up, and mine isn't anything like as severe.

Your Windows demonstration looks like what KSP does on Linux for me.

So maybe we can find a way to alleviate it for you until 1.1 replaces the UI, if you could upload your hardinfo report (sudo apt-get install hardinfo, and is called System Profiler And Benchmark when installed) and your Player.log after spinning the camera in KSP (/home/user/.config/unity3d/Squad/Kerbal Space Program/) it'd help with figuring this out.

[offbeat]

http://pastebin.com/KSkJXJ8w - clean player.log of me opening the game, starting a new game, wiggling the mouse for 30 seconds then doing a clean shutdown through the menu

http://pastebin.com/V64b78YT - hardinfo report

[sal_vager]

Okay not much stands out, the log says the highlighting system is off due to anti-aliasing being off, It's worth testing with AA on just in case.

The PC specs seem fine, you're using Mint though and I have seen some reports of graphical and performance issues with Mint, though nothing concrete as a cause for them.

If it helps to compare systems I am using an AMD A10 with a Nvidia GTX650, and Xubuntu 15.04

I don't suggest you change your OS, but you may see an improvement if you disable Cinnamons compositing, you might also see an improvement with a lighter desktop environment, which can be installed via synaptic and selected in the login menu (no need to reboot).

[offbeat]

Okay not much stands out, the log says the highlighting system is off due to anti-aliasing being off, It's worth testing with AA on just in case.

The PC specs seem fine, you're using Mint though and I have seen some reports of graphical and performance issues with Mint, though nothing concrete as a cause for them.

If it helps to compare systems I am using an AMD A10 with a Nvidia GTX650, and Xubuntu 15.04

I don't suggest you change your OS, but you may see an improvement if you disable Cinnamons compositing, you might also see an improvement with a lighter desktop environment, which can be installed via synaptic and selected in the login menu (no need to reboot).

AA and vsync don't work in linux but I could give it a go (it's also why windows seems so smooth in comparison)

I have tried ubuntu in the past and got the same issue - and you're right I really don't want to switch OS because I've only just got mint setup the way I like it and nothing is "broken" at the minute...

I guess I'll just wait for an update or just use windows for ksp... thanks for your help, but the amount of time I've already spent on this has just been a waste

[sal_vager]

Yeah AA in KSP is broken, but a few things rely on the option being enabled, AA can be forced by the driver though.

Supposedly it's possible to fix v-sync on Nvidia, I have not tested this yet though.

[broomish01]

Im told this is the place to come for help with my installation of nvidia proprietary drivers on mint 17.2. Im not sure what information you require but if you tell me what you need to know to help ill do my best to accommodate.

[sal_vager]

Okay I can try, do you know what graphics card you have?

[broomish01]

gtx 480. Downloaded 355.11 drivers. Initially had problems blacklisting Nouveau. Seemed to get that sorted as the install went through and automatically updated the x config but upon reboot and left wiht a resolution of 640x480 or something similar with no other options to choose. So I dont know where I went wrong as it all seems to have gone through

[sal_vager]

The 355 driver should work with the GTX480, and Mint (and Ubuntu) should automatically blacklist Nouveau as long as the driver was installed from either the repository (when it's added, it isn't in the Ubuntu repo yet at least) or the official PPA.

So I'm guessing you installed the driver from the Nvidia website, which should mean you also have nvidia-settings installed, this should be in your system menu.

So the question now is do you have nvidia-settings installed?

If you can't find it try running "apt search nvidia-settings" in a terminal.

[broomish01]

The 355 driver should work with the GTX480, and Mint (and Ubuntu) should automatically blacklist Nouveau as long as the driver was installed from either the repository (when it's added, it isn't in the Ubuntu repo yet at least) or the official PPA.

So I'm guessing you installed the driver from the Nvidia website, which should mean you also have nvidia-settings installed, this should be in your system menu.

So the question now is do you have nvidia-settings installed?

If you can't find it try running "apt search nvidia-settings" in a terminal.

Yes that is correct, I downloaded from the nvidia website and installed via the Cli. It would not remove Nouveau automatically for some reason but I managed to manually blacklist it. I do have Nvidia settings installed.

Nvm, I wasnt reading propperly you have just explained why it didnt do it automatically.

[sal_vager]

Heh no worries, can you start nvidia-settings and change your resolution?

[broomish01]

Yes but only to a smaller resolution. 320x240.

- - - Updated - - -

My actual Install steps:

Download the said driver from website.

Changed the file to be able to run via the gui ie right click, preferences. Renamed to n.run

Loaded into a Cli with Ctrl-Alt-F1, not from grub.

navigated to folder of file

sudo service mdm stop

sudo ./n.run

Runs fine and then asks if id like it to remove Nouveau

After agreeing and rebooting it does the same thing again appearing to not have worked

Manually blacklisted Nouveau (Cant remember exact step but solved the issue so if its important I can look it up to inform you)

managed to this time complete installation and allowed the installer to automatically create a new x conf

that brings me to here, I may have missed a thing or two so apologies if I did

[sal_vager]

Alright so the driver is working or you'd see nothing, and the settings are working as they can be changed, but the resolutions your screen is capable of have not been detected.

I searched and found this, so resolutions can be added, but that's per session, to make them permanently available entails editing the xorg.conf

I'm reluctant to suggest doing this, as I managed to break my own xorg.conf earlier today when testing a fix for vsync on Nvidia drivers, but I was able to fix it by running this in a terminal:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This worked for me and I use an Nvidia as well, so may also fix your issue as long as Nouveau is blocked in modprobe.d

Simply deleting the etc/X11/xorg.conf and restarting X may also solve this, as X will automatically rebuild the file, that is what is suggested here at least.

I'd try dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg first, then reboot.

If you find yourself at the command line, run it again then run "startx"

[broomish01]

I am unsure wether you mean try that command should I destroy my xorg.conf or just to try running it. Regardless I tried just running it from the Cli and rebooting to no effect, is there a way to verify Nouveau is blocked in modprobe.d? I tried the steps in the first link to add the resolution however I was met with an error about VGA1 not being found when entering xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1920x1200_60.00"

[sal_vager]

You can check that you are using the Nvidia driver by running this command.

sudo lshw -c video | grep configuration

For me it shows "configuration: driver-nvidia latency=0", if I was using the Nouveau driver it'd say driver=nouveau.

Can you check nvidia-settings again please, see if your monitor is correctly identified, it should be shown on the xserver display configuration screen where there is also an option to detect displays.

[broomish01]

Monitor is listed as unidentified, ill try the command now.

The command gives the same output you mentioned

Edited September 24, 2015 by broomish01

[sal_vager]

Okay, so it's definitely using the Nvidia driver, if you run "xrandr" in a terminal it'll list the resolutions detected as well, though I expect you'll see 640x480 again.

Did you try the "detect displays" button in Nvidia settings?

Turning up blanks on searching for Nvidia missing resolutions btw.

[broomish01]

After detecting it it now has two options. One is xserver o and CRT-0

The command just displayed the same two resolutions as you expected.

Edited September 24, 2015 by broomish01