LINUX users thread Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

This thread is open from all users playing the mod on LINUX-based mashines. Please post your impressions and advices here. Happy huntin!

Guys, Zac (zax1150) already sent me some very brief and quick info on this subject. Awaiting his approval to share that text on this forum while he gets some more info together.

Please stand by.

btw mp5lng, that watchman/hair_monster would be funny in Misery.. cool though.. I wonder what would it be a mutation of?

Edited by: CDIA

Been getting more & more frustrated by WinBlows over the years & 8.1 was the last straw as the complete system management is appalling,

I've worked this along the idea that most ppl have a pretty tight budget for their pc's.....so am using my 5 year old pc .....(can be built for less than £500 including 24"monitor)

after trailing quite a few variants of linux ....& settling on the daddy of the lot, LinuxMint

(the other reason for mint is its 400mb resource overhead)

Installation is pretty straightforward ....using Rufus to make a bootable usb from the mint iso image file

if you're not sure just boot from the image & try it ......the nvidia prime drivers put the garbage they pump out to the winblows users to shame, network & Hdd management is also hugely improved

(getting 98.8down & 96.8 up off my 100/100mb line compared to nearly 20mb less on winblows)

If you want to keep your winblows setup you can just run dual boot,

Now basics you will NEED play on linux which can be installed via the main menu under administration then software manager ...click on install ...done!

this is the key in configuring s/w to run under linux, this alllows me to run other windows programs that simply will not run under linux.........

Ok after a LOT of hunting found this Stalker cop on linux install guide & with a few minor tweaks to the initial setup runs nicely ....when installing the wine Version use 1.7.48 (less hassles)

The biggest thing to do afterwards using Play on linux you can use install a non listed program to install Misery into the current virtual drive containing stalker this will apply misery

Taz 1.7.4 is the same as installing under winblows just installing into a virtual drive so no real difference there

Biggest thing afterwards is adjusting video settings as the increase in colour depth is a bit of a shock.......even on the old pc with a nvidia 650 mainly for smoother running of the game, either that or have @ least 8gb ram then its more just fine tuning really.....

If requested I will run a more detailed breakdown of just what to do

this is pretty basic as the newer Versions of linux are Way more user friendly than red hat ever was...

NB: tried this with DVD version & DL version even razor 1911's crack all with no hitches

MajorNote of import; If you're anything like me & like a few of the mods that aren't compatible you can use POL to install multiple copies of the same game ......found it a great way to test other mods ....this way I have

Stalker Cop + Misery ....

Stalker Cop + Misery 2.1.1 + Taz 1.7.4

Stalker Cop with Complete..(for when I feel nostalgic)

...all running in separate virtual drives...

I find this a lot less hassle than having to reinstall everything when I'm not sure about a mod.....

Any questions do not hesitate to ask .....

Edited by: zax1150

Thank you Zac!

Linux noob here

First question: when downloading Wine v1.7.48 directly from the website does one select the Debian/Ubuntu version or which one? I thought Mint employed the Debian distribution.

Second question: with regards to AMD/ATI drivers, are these less of a priority than NVIDIA when it comes down to Linux Mint support? Or are both technologies equally supported?

Third question: POL stands for Play On Linux, correct?

Fourth question: virtual drives do not need to be created manually since POL does it when installing the software, correct?

Sorry for the obvious questions but I just wanted to confirm these things both for me and others who may be too shy to ask.. lol

Again, thanks very much.

Manny

OK

firstly play on linux (POL) manages wine as it is part of the mint package ...so no need to download ...

as wine is already installed you are asked through POL if you want to install a different version to run a program that simple....just pick & choose....

Video drivers are all supported with relevant Prime drivers ....not the rehashed to fit into a different s/w & to allow a ton of backdoors into your system type of thing ....ie: geofarce experience.....which checks if you have "legal copy" .........or winblows messy copyright garbage

little wonder network bandwidth is down under winblows.

& yes POL handles the virtual drives ......like I said before this is a lot more user friendly than the old days ....

wish OS2 warp had been this user friendly then It wouldn't have died off, still then microfloppy wouldn't have NTFS......so nice of them to steal the source code for OS2's HPFS....& then cock it up

Thank you very much for those starter pointers, Mr. Zac. With that out of the way, I will get to build a Mint machine for Misery Mod this coming weekend. I'll post about my experience with it.

Wish me luck.

Can an image be made of a complete Linux Misery Installation with the core OS, plus programs necessary for running COP and Misery on Linux installed?
Is anything special needed to install & run the Steam version of COP? I've got a spare SSD I want to throw in my rig to try this out.

Actually jasper nothing special, steam already has a linux support app out, has had for some time now

& yes will be working on full step by step this weekend ......

I posted in comments on front page, reposting it here too:

For people that have legal game copies with DRM protection and have new hardware that no longer works well enough with DRM, GoG offers to grab game for free if you send them valid CD key. That could be important for Linux users, without DRM checks you will encounter less compatibility issues. Also, you can save your DVD from damaging if you have one in DVD reader all times.

More info about it, I don't know how I have missed it: Rockpapershotgun.com

Or direct link: Gog.com

There is no info about expiration dates, I think that GoG offer is still valid.

EDIT:

@Zax, have you tried it with Ubuntu distribution. I have tried few years ago, can't even recall what issues were back then, I think it was due to lack of driver support for my GPU back then. Didn't have time to try it again, I get used to have dual boot, Linux for job and important stuff and windows for legacy support, mostly for games.

@ zax Sounds good. I'm looking forward to playing around with this. I would guess Mint has Trim support for SSD's.

Apologies for the delay in posting RL got in the way .....(who would intentionally forget about 3 root canals....)

Jasper,...ssd's supports there,

under winblows 7/8.1 I found my old hdd's thrashed in the boot sector & the created bad sectors still used regardless...........& little improvement with the sshd's for the low budget build.....as this is dual boot for the winblows addicted........I've found in this format 8.1 is still a painful boot time wise, compared to mint which has taken to the sshd Very happily, (trying to stick to low budget....the 4tb sshd was £100)

the SSHD has sped up boot time in mint which admittedly seriously fast anyway difference being 8secs atm....winblows is still just as bad as before & seems to be ignoring the solid state part of the drive, while it tries to ruin the boot sector......

Will update sooner.....only 1 more visit to the dentist to go

Don't worry Zax, health care comes to first place, you will not be able to provide much support for community if you are getting sick.

Take care of real life issues first, only when RL issues are solved you can fully enjoy playing games. All members of this community will certainly understand this.

I tried a hybrid SSD/HD too and found almost no diference. I made it my #2 drive and Use an SSD for my Operating system. Getting my dental work started this morning - small world

OK for those of you that have a suspect drive & no budget to replace, there is a way to test & lockout the bad blocks (sectors) so the file system does not use them

badblocks will identify bad sectors (blocks) & generate a txt file of these bad areas ......which can then be input into e2fsck to lock them out....

handy for when you want to use an old drive for storage.....as well....

(Drop me a line if you need a step by step!)

(jasper I use my SSD's for storage as they are slow compared to the M.2)

Oh & for the non-fiscally challenged you can create a ram drive to load the stalker virtual drive into, seriously reducing drive R/W lag

(about 4x the speed of the M.2)

the ram drive s/w comes std as part of mint/ubuntu package.....so if you have extra ram take advantage of it......

Edited by: zax1150

Beautiful!

I managed to create the bootable usb drive with iso on it. I can and have installed onto a spare SSD mint 17.2 x64 Mate. When I boot to that SSD all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor about an inch down on the top left side of screen.

I tried the following when booted to USB drive in compatibility mode:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-352 nvidia-settings

It says it can't find that package.

I tried booting to compatibilty mode by holding down my left shift key during boot from SSD with no effect.