Running in Linux FIXES THE SOUND BUG on my computer (also it runs in 64 bit)

[annallia]

I tried Ubuntu but I couldn't find the drivers I needed so I couldn't really use it to play KSP.

I do wish I could though... Would be nice to be able to use all of my mods + B9. As it stands now it is either/or as even with the reduced texture pack for B9 I am running into the memory cap.

[Seret]

You should forget Linux then.

Its really not that painful, but you'll have to crack open a terminal session to get it done.

The only time you should ever have to touch a terminal window in a modern Linux distro is if you've got some weird config problem you need to fix.

Most people will find that like the OP they don't need to mess about. It really depends on your hardware though. Download it and boot it up from a DVD or USB stick. If everything seems ok you should be good to install it to the hard drive.

Linux is actually pretty easy. I use it because I find it much less hassle to wrangle than Windows, and when you do have trouble there's loads of support and the fixes are straightforward. I find Windows difficult to deal with, because you don't have access to its innards, and much of the advice out there is low quality.

[kookoo_gr]

a quick question. can i run Ubuntu from a cd and play ksp without installing ubuntu at my hard drive?

[Seret]

Technically yes, but performance would be lower than if you installed it. Obviously you'd also want to make sure you saved your game somewhere persistent.

[noebl1]

I've been using Linux for years (and run a mixed Windows/Linux environment on my systems at home...) and I made the switch to Ubuntu on my primary desktop last year after being disgusted with Win8. I also started playing KSP in x64 pretty much as soon as I bought the game (with no issues from what I can tell with video or audio.) For the average person, I think the only time you may need to hit the command line is if you want to run the bleeding edge NVIDIA drivers for example (instead of one's included provided by Ubuntu or from a PPA.) Other than that, pretty easy to use and much better than it used to be. Now, that being said, I use it pretty heavily at work (actually Redhat/Centos), so pretty comfortable with Linux as whole, so I may be a bit biased... With the additions of 3rd party repos via PPAs, it's pretty easy now to install software. Plus with Steam supporting Linux, it's amazing how many games are starting to support it. Unless I want to use something *really* obscure... I haven't had to compile *anything* at the command line thanks to 3rd party PPAs. When I say obscure, I mean very specialized apps that I'm building source out of Github (only one in the last year that comes to mind was an SDR app to play with ham radio and an app to play with decoding date from a USB DVB tuner.) I've also never bother installing Wine, though except for a few games, I'm not an avid gamer anymore.

On a side note, I put an SSD in my desktop (it's an Ivy Bridge i7 I built last year), and it booted from hitting the power button to login screen in well under 8s with Ubuntu (it's now a bit longer as I added a bunch of remote network storage that slows the boot process down a bit while stuff mounts up.) Also if you have add'l Windows machines, it's not to hard to integrate like it used to be. I use PBIS Open (formally likewise open), so I can log my Ubuntu box into my Windows domain at home. I can also connect to Windows shares very easily. If for some reason I absolutely need a Windows box, I have VMWare WS and it runs Windows (with USB support) in a VM wonderfully.

Edited November 23, 2013 by noebl1

[Epthelyn]

Well I'm not feeling adventurous enough to go to a Linux based OS. But if it's only a Windows 7 issue with the sound does anyone run Ksp under Windows 8? Any better?

I've not noticed anything wrong in Windows 8, or at least nothing significant.

[Mulbin]

I've not noticed anything wrong in Windows 8, or at least nothing significant.

The sound bug only happens on some computers. When it does happen it seems to only be windows 7... but not every windows 7 computer has the bug.

[Jim DiGriz]

No offence, but you clearly haven't installed Ubuntu recently. By far the easiest OS I've ever installed, just put the disk in the drive and it sets everything else up for you very simply... drivers included. Was far simpler installation than windows.

I'm using 13.10 right now, although I don't use Unity and I'm running cinnamon on top of a Lubuntu install.

And yes, its very easy compared to decades past, but the first piece of advise I would have to give someone is to crack open a terminal window and add the xorg-edgers PPA to get the nvidia-331 driver -- which I'm finding very stable and fast -- but if never opening a "cmd script" and doing everything from the GUI is a requirement, then really, no, stick with windows. There are still issues you can hit where there's no GUI button to press to fix the problem, and you have to type.

[Mulbin]

I'm using 13.10 right now, although I don't use Unity and I'm running cinnamon on top of a Lubuntu install.

And yes, its very easy compared to decades past, but the first piece of advise I would have to give someone is to crack open a terminal window and add the xorg-edgers PPA to get the nvidia-331 driver -- which I'm finding very stable and fast -- but if never opening a "cmd script" and doing everything from the GUI is a requirement, then really, no, stick with windows. There are still issues you can hit where there's no GUI button to press to fix the problem, and you have to type.

The bottom line is I have done nothing with this command line you speak of. Ubuntu is running ksp better than windows... end of story.

I'm sure your optimisation points are valid but they arent really relevant to the fact that stock, unaltered ubuntu id definitely (I'm not a liar) running ksp better than windows and has been the easiest operating system I've ever set up (you just put the disk in the drive). Prhaps your drivers would be even better... but I dont care, its an improvement on windows for me already so why wouldnt I use it?

I'm sorry to hear you have had trouble setting it up but that doesn't mean everyone else will. It does no harm at all for people to try it for themselves so not sure why you are so keen to put them off... working for bill gates?

Anyway people, dont listen, give it a go, if it doesnt work for you no problem just go back to your windows install which will still be safe and sound. Chances are likemost people you wont need to do anything technical to see the sound bug fixed ans possibly a better frame rate from the 64 bit.

Edit - I shoul mention though that I fully intend to take your advice on that driver and see if I get further performance... but my point is its not essential to do so to run 64bit ksp

Edited November 23, 2013 by Mulbin

[Mmmmyum]

Honestly I found that while Linux was interesting Windows didn't like it's partition and I missed most of the stuff I usually run (Wine basically exploded with iTunes)

[Mulbin]

Honestly I found that while Linux was interesting Windows didn't like it's partition and I missed most of the stuff I usually run (Wine basically exploded with iTunes)

I use windows for everything except ksp. Ksp sucks on my windows install.... it runs great on my ubuntu. Everything else runs fine on windows so I dont bother trying on ubuntu.

I think people are missing my point, im not suggesting linux is "better" than windows... I'm offering a way to fix the sound bug IF YOU HAVE IT this will fix it. You will also get to use your memory. If neither of these are an issue for you dont bother with linux... simple.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Mulbin

[Mmmmyum]

I'm just trying to throw a word of caution into the wind, quite a few people won't know how to repair their Windows bootloader if they want to get rid of Linux, for instance

[Savage117]

I tried this yesterday and it does work, kind of, I installed it using something called Wubi, part of the digital download and install. My experience was anything but user friendly, performance was horrible right out of the gate, it booted up quickly but ran like I had 5 system heavy programs running at the same time, and it had no drivers installed at all, had to do all of them manually.

I then ran into the driver support problem, you will find that most big peripheral companies, Logitech, Plantronics, Microsoft, ect. don't have drivers that work with Linux, in other words my mouse, keyboard, and headset don't have proper drivers, meaning they are all defaults of those devices. The one I miss most is my headset, I don't know about others but going from 7.1 surround sound to stereo sounds pretty bad to me. I can deal with a normal 4 button mouse and without my G15 Keyboard LCD screen and media keys, but I need that impressive directional sound.

I did have to do a lot of the terminal stuff my first time out, to get Java to work, several of my drivers, and to get things running smoothly. If you don't know how to use the command prompt in windows or don't want to try, then don't get Linux. After a day of figuring these things out, surfing the web for answers on my issues, and getting it to a usable level, I found you will very likely have to use the terminal at least once.

@Mulbin, there is no need to get defensive, I highly doubt anyone is calling you a liar, what they are saying is that their experience was less than satisfactory with Linux, while I'm happy yours worked so well, ours did not. To a long time Windows user Linux is pretty different, its either missing a lot of features that Windows users are used to or those features are in different places, or hidden. This leads to a lot of frustration, people just want to click and go because that’s how its done in Windows, almost everything is literally at the push of a button. Linux is a lot like KSP, its a sandbox, it doesn't have a lot of hand holding, its basically a Beta product, and some things you learn from failure. If you like that from your operating system then Linux is for you, but if you want everything installed hassle free, including annoying security measures, at the push of a button like Windows then it's probably going to be a bit frustrating.

Linux does have some good points, its nearly virus and malware safe, it's probably not immune, but I found that most viruses and malware that do get in, can't do much damage and are easily found and deleted. It's very customizable, if you don’t like that pesky security message popping up every time you try to install something, then turn it off, no questions asked, you can pretty much turn off and on anything you like, no matter how damaging to the OS it might be. While Windows wines and complains every time you turn something it deems essential off, Linux just says "sure, why not? It's your computer". This can also be a bad thing if you don't really know what your doing, so be careful, read everything.

Oh, and the greatest advantage for Linux......IT'S FREE!!!!

TL:DR After all that, KSP does work better for me and it is working in 64 bit, so nearly no mod limit. But I don't have surround sound, have to deal with bugs in both KSP and Linux, Linux is taking up 18 gigs of space, and I have to re-install the games I want to play on Linux again, so now I have KSP installed twice for two different OS's taking up double the gigs worth of space. In my case I'm not sure it was worth all that just to play one game smoother and with no mod limit. Your results may vary.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Will this work with Windows 8...?

Nevermind, someone alterady beat me to it.

[toric5]

MAC FTW!

i know that not everyone likes mac, but i have mac for most stuff and linux for the more configurable stuff. i have had no problem with my macbook and can remain lag free until about 300 parts. pretty awesome ream to. but i can understand if you don't want to buy an expansive computer, jus throwing out the second unix based OS out there.

[Mulbin]

I don't know about others but going from 7.1 surround sound to stereo sounds pretty bad to me.

I fully agree. However this thread is here to advise people who have no usable sound on windows. Working sound is definitely better than not working sound.

In my case I'm not sure it was worth all that just to play one game smoother and with no mod limit.

I fully agree. However this thread is here to advise people who have no usable sound on windows. Working sound is definitely worth it.

Lol anyway, just wanted people to know about this fix, not really up for a debate on linux vs windows... I use windows for everything except KSP. Changing the title of the thread to make it a bit clearer for everyone what it is I'm actually trying to get across.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Mulbin

[Seret]

I then ran into the driver support problem, you will find that most big peripheral companies, Logitech, Plantronics, Microsoft, ect. don't have drivers that work with Linux, in other words my mouse, keyboard, and headset don't have proper drivers, meaning they are all defaults of those devices. The one I miss most is my headset, I don't know about others but going from 7.1 surround sound to stereo sounds pretty bad to me. I can deal with a normal 4 button mouse and without my G15 Keyboard LCD screen and media keys, but I need that impressive directional sound.

I've spent quite a bit of time helping out people new toLinux and find that "driver issues" tends to boil down to two things:

1) Non-standard hardware

Linux comes with drivers for about 99% of anything you'll find installed or plugged into a computer (either preinstalled or available in the repos). However, some manufacturers do insist on both not opening up their drivers so they can be included and then only releasing Windows drivers. This is quite rare for most stuff, but some "gaming" peripherals do suffer from it. Quite why you'd need drivers for something like a mouse is a bit incomprehensible. A simple config file would work on any platform. Discovering you have non-Linux friendly hardware can be an unpleasant shock when you first switch. Luckily the nightmare hardware is actually quite rare, and it's normally simple to switch to something supported.

2) Trying to do things the Windows way

People often bring their Windows troubleshooting preconceptions over to Linux. Generally this means they try to do things the hard way, when the solution is actually simpler than they realise. Graphics drivers are really bad for this, loads of people have ended up tearing their hair out after downloading from the manufacturers' website and installing on their command line. They don't realise they can get it straight from their distro with a couple of mouse clicks (better distros will alert them that drivers are available and ready to install).

I did have to do a lot of the terminal stuff my first time out, to get Java to work

What distro? You shouldn't need the command line to set up Java. Your distro should have a free Java implementation that you could just install from their repos.