KSP and Linux ? yes/no questions list

[Yski]

I'm also with AMD. Just to confirm, is there any way to force AA with radeon?

I managed to force AA on using the catalyst control center and fglrx drivers. Everything seems to work just fine, and the game looks gorgeous with a few mods added to the mix. I have had some issues with it before though, so try and see if it works I guess.

[soulsource]

On a related note, when it comes to drivers, I've found that AMD and NVIDIA are opposites:

NVIDIA official driver: Great

NVIDIA 3rd party driver: Buggy

AMD/ATI official driver: Buggy

AMD/ATI 3rd party driver: Great (at least the Omega driver that I tried a few years ago)

True, but a small note: While for nVidia the open source driver is indeed 3rd party, as nVidia didn't care much about them up to recently, the AMD open source drivers are to a huge extant written by AMD employees, what also explains why they work very well, even better than the closed source drivers (which are actually ported over from their Windows drivers, which aren't that great either...).

I used to set that variable some time ago, but the support for it was removed in mesa and it doesn't work any more.

You're right! Sorry for giving outdated information. This variable has actually been removed in Mesa 10.3. As I haven't been using it recently, I didn't notice.

OK tried to install Mint on my PC, boot from DvD then ... black screen with white square on the top left and nothing happens ..... Quick search on the internet gave me 2 solutions : nomodeset on the welcome screen, and maybe disable secure boot from BIOS if I have it.

A bit off topic : why is linux always giving hard time for the most basic things (ie. installing ...), or is it that we have been used to too much easyness from 'crosoft ?

On exotic hardware installation can be difficult. Quite often there are firmware bugs that don't affect Windows (as manufacturers of course test Windows) but cause other operating systems to fail to boot. A typical example would be a faulty ACPI table, but there can be severely worse firmware bugs as well. While the Linux developers tend to include so called quirks to work around those bugs, of course they first need to know about the issues, and it might take some time to figure how to deal with a certain problem.

What might help to diagnose your issue would be if you booted up with a custom kernel command line (the thing where the nomodeset option would go), without the "quiet" and "spash" options. This way you'll hopefully see some text output of what the system is doing, and where it stops. If even that doesn't work, try the nomodeset option in addition (don't worry too much about it, proprietary GPU drivers don't support kernel mode setting anyhow, and if you're using an nVidia card, you'll definitely want to install the proprietary drivers.). Another option you could try would be "noacpi", but beware that this disables most power saving features and should only be a temporary workaround until you find a proper fix for your issue.

;2040481']As already mentioned -

Installing Linux AFTER the windows as second boot - is not a very good variant...

If you want a quick solution - grab additional HDD and install Mint there' date=' then reconnect windows HDD to make it dual boot.

But as you are not experienced with that, I would suggest first trying to install Linux on clean PC without Windows to try yourself.

Also, make sure to make proper partition of HDD for Linux - reformat partition to FHS, split to boot sector, home sector and swap file sector... Well... I suppose you'd better find a guide on Linux installation... [/quote']

In my opinion, for dual boot it's the smarter thing to install Linux after Windows, as most Linux installers will detect the presence of Windows and assist you setting up a dual-boot system. Windows will install its own bootloader without caring for other systems, and one would have to manually set up another bootloader afterwards to boot Linux again.

On partitioning, I can recommend Appendix C of the Debian installation manual. This does not only explain the FHS, it also gives hints on suitable partition sizes and layouts. Anyhow, while Debian might not be the easiest distribution to set up, it has excellent manuals, and therefore it's the Linux distribution I personally recommend for beginners.

I'm surprised no-one suggested Gentoo

Well, Gentoo is one of the two distributions I recommend for advanced users, the other one being Arch. Gentoo is rolling release as well, but it's by far not bleeding edge, as long as one stays within the stable branch. Nevertheless, as Arch it requires some knowledge about how a Linux system works, therefore it's definitely not suitable for beginners.

[steve_v]

On partitioning, I can recommend Appendix C of the Debian installation manual. This does not only explain the FHS, it also gives hints on suitable partition sizes and layouts. Anyhow, while Debian might not be the easiest distribution to set up, it has excellent manuals, and therefore it's the Linux distribution I personally recommend for beginners.

Oh, that FHS. Thought it applied more to filesystem layout than filesystem selection and partitioning, but I guess it applies there too.

I'd recommend Debian also, If you stick with the stable release and Don't Break Debian (this applies to most Debian derivatives too), even a total noob should be fine.

The forums can be a little scathing if you aren't willing to read the documentation first... but that is what it's for after all, and it's pretty complete.

Edited June 25, 2015 by steve_v

[pxi]

Well, Gentoo is one of the two distributions I recommend for advanced users, the other one being Arch. Gentoo is rolling release as well, but it's by far not bleeding edge, as long as one stays within the stable branch. Nevertheless, as Arch it requires some knowledge about how a Linux system works, therefore it's definitely not suitable for beginners.

There's a very small but important distinction that I'd throw in with this. As a newcomer to Linux, it massively depends what you plan on getting out of it.

If you want to learn Linux; Arch, Gentoo and Slackware are fantastic places to start.

If however, you just want to use Linux, any of the Debian derivatives are ideal.

[FredGarven77]

OK tried to install Mint on my PC, boot from DvD then ... black screen with white square on the top left and nothing happens ..... Quick search on the internet gave me 2 solutions : nomodeset on the welcome screen, and maybe disable secure boot from BIOS if I have it.

A bit off topic : why is linux always giving hard time for the most basic things (ie. installing ...), or is it that we have been used to too much easyness from 'crosoft ?

In order to be able to see the install screen for Linux Mint, I had to disable the onboard Intel graphics card in the system BIOS, which then forced the system to use my GTX970. It was defaulting to the onboard display.

You can test if this is happening to you by plugging your monitor into the onboard graphics controller on your motherboard.

It might be worth a shot.

[PB666]

So what is a good drive partition, is 50 Gb oK, I have a 500 ssd and win 10 is hogging up its fair share. I made the mistake on my old system that win 7 would be happy on 64. Every software in the world tries to force install on the primary or tries to place its data files in the user directory.

I can go to 100 GB or even 150.

[steve_v]

Depends... I have GNU/Linux installs at <500MB, and one at <1.44MB .

For a 'general purpose' desktop you're probably going to want at least 6GB for the OS, + enough for whatever you intend to install later.

FWIW, my current Debian desktop has a 16GB root partition and the the remainder of the 250GB SSD is /home.

Partitioning options are somewhat more flexible in *nix, you can always rearrange later or mount extra drives into the filesystem.

[PB666]

Depends... I have GNU/Linux installs at <500MB, and one at <1.44MB .

For a 'general purpose' desktop you're probably going to want at least 6GB for the OS, + enough for whatever you intend to install later.

FWIW, my current Debian desktop has a 16GB root partition and the the remainder of the 250GB SSD is /home.

Partitioning options are somewhat more flexible in *nix, you can always rearrange later or mount extra drives into the filesystem.

In complete ignorance, lol, i chose 100 GB. The Unetnookin install on the USB is 1 gb, so that im thinking that the OS and whatevers will be a little bit more. I suspect KSP, unity 5 and blender will go on simply because dealing with Windows hideous file structure, it will be alot easier to go on. Office 2010 and the windows programming suite wiil go on windows. I have a terrabyte green drive that i will move over, so i have alot of space available, just the oS and most used programs are on the Ssd and images and other data on the physical disk.

[selfish_meme]

In complete ignorance, lol, i chose 100 GB. The Unetnookin install on the USB is 1 gb, so that im thinking that the OS and whatevers will be a little bit more. I suspect KSP, unity 5 and blender will go on simply because dealing with Windows hideous file structure, it will be alot easier to go on. Office 2010 and the windows programming suite wiil go on windows. I have a terrabyte green drive that i will move over, so i have alot of space available, just the oS and most used programs are on the Ssd and images and other data on the physical disk.

I think Unity 5 is only experimental on Linux, but blender and kspblender mod work

[PB666]

T

In my opinion, for dual boot it's the smarter thing to install Linux after Windows, as most Linux installers will detect the presence of Windows and assist you setting up a dual-boot system. Windows will install its own bootloader without caring for other systems, and one would have to manually set up another bootloader afterwards to boot Linux again.

On partitioning, I can recommend Appendix C of the Debian installation manual. This does not only explain the FHS, it also gives hints on suitable partition sizes and layouts. Anyhow, while Debian might not be the easiest distribution to set up, it has excellent manuals, and therefore it's the Linux distribution I personally recommend for beginners.

Sorry for the piggy here. This is the problem, clean fresh 10 install, repartition 100gb for linux. The usb did not want to be recognized by bios, but after fiddling and a dozen or so reboots was recognized, but the ubuntu install showed no OS , came back to OS and Os was corrupted and had tonreinstall. Think one more time and it looks like 10 and ubuntu are not a marraige to be.

[xtoro]

Is Linux ab... YES!

But can I... YES!

And will it... YES!

What if I... YES!

Linux, the only opera... YES!

[PB666]

Recognize NTFS poartitions, No

recognize win10, No

Thinks the drive is empty, yes

Wants to clean install over existing windows partition, Yes

good idea, no

alternatives, hard to find.

/dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table. However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should. Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table?

I like the valid fake msdos part

Edited September 9, 2015 by PB666

[selfish_meme]

Linux does recognise NTFS partitions and can read them out of the box

[PB666]

Linux does recognise NTFS partitions and can read them out of the box

oh, that is true, i can read the hard drive, but the installer apparently cannot. lol. Sine the website says it uses GParted to set up the linux partition and this is the error message G Parted gave then i would have to say that either the prevoius attempt to install linux has confounded Gparted, or that Custom installs of Windows10 confound the program. Of course it could not recognize the OS in the previous install either but did recognize the partition, so its amnesia appears to be selective.

I think maybe i will contact the ssd manf and see it they recommend a disk image to default the hdd to its original state.

Edited September 9, 2015 by PB666

[selfish_meme]

oh, that is true, i can read the hard drive, but the installer apparently cannot. lol. Sine the website says it uses GParted to set up the linux partition and this is the error message G Parted gave then i would have to say that either the prevoius attempt to install linux has confounded Gparted, or that Custom installs of Windows10 confound the program. Of course it could not recognize the OS in the previous install either but did recognize the partition, so its amnesia appears to be selective.

I think maybe i will contact the ssd manf and see it they recommend a disk image to default the hdd to its original state.

I'm unsure what problems you are having, usually the installer can see NTFS and even resize it, Windows 10 may be the issue, I have no experience with it.

[Renegrade]

I like the valid fake msdos part

GPT partitions start at sector 1, leaving sector 0 alone. Sector 0, in classical x86 systems, is the 'MBR' (Master Boot Record) - a combined boot sector and itty-bitty partition table. GPT systems are supposed to put up an MBR with values that tell older software that the entire drive is allocated (or as much as possible).

I think maybe i will contact the ssd manf and see it they recommend a disk image to default the hdd to its original state.

The original state of the drive is probably a long string of zeroes, you don't need any image for that (and a drive's size is queried from unchangeable hardware calls such as SCSI's READ CAPACITY command).

You could simply zap the first 35 sectors of the drive to get rid of any weird partition information (this will obviously zap any OSes installed. it would be something like dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=35; changing bs to match sector size (if needed- in theory GPT supports 4K sector devices) and sda to the correct drive).

[uglyduckling81]

GL with your Linux install. I spent every spare moment I had for 4 days before I went on holidays and 3 days when I came home 2 weeks ago trying to get and variety of Linux distros working with my GTX 970.

I read hundreds of pages of advice and tried absolutely everything I could find and in the end, no dice.

A week of pain and frustration.

Before the 970 I had a GTX 570 and was actually able to get Linux Mint running after 4 days of trial and error. I found KSP to crash even more often as on windows but instead of crashing for memory limit it crashed for a whole range of different problems.

I ended up just going back to Windows anyway.

I thought I would give it another go now on 1.04 hoping it would be more stable and be able to use more RAM. Like i said earlier though I was unsuccessful.

I now fully understand why Linux has such a tiny user base. I would say I'm a fairly advanced PC user as well.

[PB666]

GL with your Linux install. I spent every spare moment I had for 4 days before I went on holidays and 3 days when I came home 2 weeks ago trying to get and variety of Linux distros working with my GTX 970.

I read hundreds of pages of advice and tried absolutely everything I could find and in the end, no dice.

A week of pain and frustration.

Before the 970 I had a GTX 570 and was actually able to get Linux Mint running after 4 days of trial and error. I found KSP to crash even more often as on windows but instead of crashing for memory limit it crashed for a whole range of different problems.

I ended up just going back to Windows anyway.

I thought I would give it another go now on 1.04 hoping it would be more stable and be able to use more RAM. Like i said earlier though I was unsuccessful.

I now fully understand why Linux has such a tiny user base. I would say I'm a fairly advanced PC user as well.

i can get the mubuntu running off of a memory pin and i have a 64 gb memory pin. I prolly coukd find a USB3 memory pen an just use that, then its off the original partition, or have a second Ssd drive of say 64g. Its not just because of KSP. I dont actually like the direction windows has been turning since 98 and i think the peak was with XP, which is one reason so many people are reluctant to give it up. The other thing is that when I retire I woukd like to start programming agian, i'de like to learn C++ fully and write aplets for variuos and sundry things.

The windows 10 GUI IMO sucks, i like the ability to control my desktop with 10 the closest i can get is a black screen. The other thing is that there are things that i have that are RS232 that windows vista or higher do not like. This is because old RS 232 did not interface with dos, programs gathered data directly from the com ports. RS232 devices are rather simple electronics that you can tinker with but are rather powerful, slow, but powerful. The irony here is manfs are still making Rs232 ports on machines, but most modern computers cannot interface anymore except a few that can convert to usb.

[steve_v]

I too need to interface with RS232 (and 485/422) devices (industrial automation gear), but I haven't found anything DosBox or 2K/XP in VirtualBox couldn't handle.

Of course that's assuming old proprietary software, raw serial isn't particularly difficult to do on Linux.

And yes, the Windows 8+ GUI sucks hard. Which is one of the reasons I use KDE.

[PB666]

I too need to interface with RS232 (and 485/422) devices (industrial automation gear), but I haven't found anything DosBox or 2K/XP in VirtualBox couldn't handle.

Of course that's assuming old proprietary software, raw serial isn't particularly difficult to do on Linux.

And yes, the Windows 8+ GUI sucks hard. Which is one of the reasons I use KDE.

In XP single core is rather criplled, its best to have dual core if you are going to run dos emulation mode. Yeah even XP stumbles around if you are going to run VT100 or 220 virtual.

[steve_v]

Meh, for DOS stuff I use DosBox on GNU/Linux. XPs "DOS emulation mode" is pretty hopeless IME.

[PB666]

Meh, for DOS stuff I use DosBox on GNU/Linux. XPs "DOS emulation mode" is pretty hopeless IME.

Yep in single core systems its a psuedo lockout when data is incoming.