Oolite Bulletins

Posted: **Mon Feb 17, 2025 7:57 pm**

No worries - I'll wait out before attempting anything further

*I definitely don't have an option (cog) to choose a different desktop environment!

Posted: **Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:56 pm**

Apologies... it's not a cog on the Debian login screen.. rather a spanner.. top right near the clock.

Either way. My latest concoction is brewed. Please open an XFCE Terminal (no need to be in XFCE DE), as I know it should work.

In the code block below, use the "select all" function (where it says CODE: SELECT ALL), no need to actually copy, you should just be able to use the middle button on your mouse to paste into the terminal, then hit return.

In the absence of a middle button, use the select all function, right click, select copy from the context menu, then right click into the terminal, select paste, hit return.

Code: Select all

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/OoMrFlibble/oolite/releases/download/1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764/OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run
chmod +x OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run
./OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run

The paste action may invoke a sanity check, as you're pasting multiple lines into a terminal. Accept and continue, hit return in the terminal if nothing seems to happen after the text is pasted successfully.

You could instead download manually from https://github.com/OoMrFlibble/oolite/r ... 17-968f764, right click the file, make executable, drop it on an XFCE terminal and hit return.

Either way, if it won't run from your DE's Application menu, try this in a terminal (copy and paste if you like)

Code: Select all

~/GNUstep/Applications/Oolite/oolite

Hint: If you're used to ctrl-c and ctrl-v for copy and paste, you need to add shift to do that in a terminal, as those keys are used for other things there. In a terminal, ctrl-shift-c will copy, whereas ctrl-c would send any task running in that terminal a request to hang-up (quit).

Posted: **Mon Feb 17, 2025 11:22 pm**

So, believe it or not, I am in the game!

It never really went as planned, and there are issues(!), here is what transpired!...

I don't have the Debian log on screen - just the regular Chrome log on screen. There are no options to log into a different environment etc?

I thought "do i need to have my machine in "Developer Mode"? I had a search around for info regarding starting my machine in Developer Mode - but found nothing useful (either suggested hot-key combinations did nothing, or scary modes were entered on start-up which were requesting full back-up activity as risk of losing things etc) - so I never continued that investigation!

I don't have the XFCE Terminal on my machine. When I installed the XFCE DE yesterday, the only Terminal I can see within the 27 Linux Apps installed was the previously mentioned LX Terminal.

So, just for fun(!) - I opened the >_Terminal app and copied/pasted in the...
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/OoMrFlibble/oolite/r ... x86_64.run
chmod +x OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run
./OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run

I then copied/pasted in the...
~/GNUstep/Applications/Oolite/oolite

and after around 10 seconds the game window opened and the revolving Cobra appeared with the dramatic music!

I closed the window down, and then tried opening the game using the icon I had previously installed, and again, after around 10 seconds the game window opened etc.

*to confirm - I never went back and downloaded the game file - am I right in guessing the version you have been working on came from the 3 lines of code I entered into the Terminal initially.

The game is however EXTREMELY unresponsive (not playable) - cursor movements track around 5 seconds behind actual mouse movements and keystrokes around 10 seconds so I need to find a way of addressing that?

However, this is progress!!!!

I apologise again for my ignorance in the details here - I can only hope this helps somehow in the continued support/development of the game for others!

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 12:26 am**

jlager wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 11:22 pm
So, believe it or not, I am in the game!

It never really went as planned, and there are issues(!), here is what transpired!...

I don't have the Debian log on screen - just the regular Chrome log on screen. There are no options to log into a different environment etc?

I thought "do i need to have my machine in "Developer Mode"? I had a search around for info regarding starting my machine in Developer Mode - but found nothing useful (either suggested hot-key combinations did nothing, or scary modes were entered on start-up which were requesting full back-up activity as risk of losing things etc) - so I never continued that investigation!

I don't have the XFCE Terminal on my machine. When I installed the XFCE DE yesterday, the only Terminal I can see within the 27 Linux Apps installed was the previously mentioned LX Terminal.

So, just for fun(!) - I opened the >_Terminal app and copied/pasted in the...
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/OoMrFlibble/oolite/r ... x86_64.run
chmod +x OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run
./OoliteInstall-1.91.0.7672-250217-968f764-linux-test-x86_64.run

I then copied/pasted in the...
~/GNUstep/Applications/Oolite/oolite

and after around 10 seconds the game window opened and the revolving Cobra appeared with the dramatic music!

I closed the window down, and then tried opening the game using the icon I had previously installed, and again, after around 10 seconds the game window opened etc.

*to confirm - I never went back and downloaded the game file - am I right in guessing the version you have been working on came from the 3 lines of code I entered into the Terminal initially.

The game is however EXTREMELY unresponsive (not playable) - cursor movements track around 5 seconds behind actual mouse movements and keystrokes around 10 seconds so I need to find a way of addressing that?

However, this is progress!!!!

I apologise again for my ignorance in the details here - I can only hope this helps somehow in the continued support/development of the game for others!

Glad you're getting somewhere at least.

Yes, the wget line grabbed my latest version.

I'm fascinated to hear that your /etc/os-release shows debian and yet you don't have a normal lightdm/gdm/whatever-display-manager login.. Ah!! Just glanced at wikpiedia. Seems Chrome-OS effectively runs Debian as a VM, and allows use of apt to install stuff now. It used to be far more closed. I'd been under the impression you'd jail-broken it and installed proper debian. It may be that it'll never be close enough to the metal to run nicely.

I must find me one to play with

I'll ponder a couple of simple prods I can ask you to do to further illuminate my understanding of your setup. One thing you can do in the interim to give me a quick grip on the hardware is to tell me the model of the Chromebook in question. If I know that, I can quickly establish if it 'might' be possible to get it running smoothly.

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 7:00 am**

Good morning!

Its an Acer Chromebook 714
CB714-1W-390Y
Model No: N18Q10

Have a good day!

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 9:43 am**

jlager wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 7:00 am
Good morning!

Its an Acer Chromebook 714
CB714-1W-390Y
Model No: N18Q10

Have a good day!

8th Gen Core i5 with ample ram and reasonable graphics. Sweet! It has the gumption.

So it's the container/VM issue that's bogging down things. ChromeOS is getting in the way.

I hope we can find a workaround.

I'll have to think about it... For a while.

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 10:26 am**

Its a slightly older model.

This is the spec....

https://www.acer.com/gb-en/chromebooks/ ... .HAYEK.007

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 11:59 am**

jlager wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 10:26 am
Its a slightly older model.

This is the spec....

https://www.acer.com/gb-en/chromebooks/ ... .HAYEK.007

i3, not i5.. Still 8th Gen with 8G RAM. Still perfectly adequate.

Please from a terminal type "glxinfo -B" and paste the result. You may need to "sudo apt install mesa-utils".

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 1:04 pm**

MrF - see below (I did have to input the "sudo apt install mesa-utils" detail - or the "glxinfo" returned nothing)

jonwoolrich@penguin:~$ glxinfo -B
name of display: :0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
Vendor: Mesa/X.org (0xffffffff)
Device: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.6, 256 bits) (0xffffffff)
Version: 22.3.6
Accelerated: no
Video memory: 6608MB
Unified memory: yes
Preferred profile: core (0x1)
Max core profile version: 4.5
Max compat profile version: 4.5
Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.2
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa/X.org
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.6, 256 bits)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 22.3.6
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.50
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile

OpenGL version string: 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 22.3.6
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.50
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile

OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 22.3.6
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 2:52 pm**

This is not what we hope to see.

jlager wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 1:04 pm
Accelerated: no

So the CPU is doing all the graphics work.

This may just be a sign that the Debian bits are running in something like a qemu VM, so they don't have access to the hardware.

You may find the ArchWiki article interesting reference. It mentions that acceleration works out of the box on Pixelbooks starting with Chrome OS 77. This may be limited to that product range, but your hardware is capable.. maybe it'll happen, or perhaps it's down to the way you're container is set up.

If I'm grasping things a bit better, you should be able to set up another distribution, or another Deb12 in another container alongside the default 'penguin'.

Finally (for this post), and perhaps most importantly, this article https://beebom.com/enable-microphone-gp ... hromebook/ hints at how you might be able to turn on GPU acceleration for the Linux containers. It's not the most up to date, but should help, Key point for Chromebooks is Chrome OS 81 or higher. You can probably ignore the references to Debian Buster (Debian 10), as you're way ahead of that on Bookworm (12), however doing the updates as described is no bad thing.

I hope your next post will be to tell me that glxinfo -B shows "Accelerated: yes"

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 6:41 pm**

In case the plethora of reference above is a bit much, here's what I guess is the least you need to do to enable hardware accelerated graphics for the linux container on your Chromebook.

Open Chrome and enter this address: chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support
Enable GPU support
Click restart
After the reboot, open a Linux terminal and check with glxinfo -B

If it doesn't work, let me know what version ChromeOS you're running please.

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 10:14 pm**

MrFlibble wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 6:41 pm
In case the plethora of reference above is a bit much, here's what I guess is the least you need to do to enable hardware accelerated graphics for the linux container on your Chromebook.

Open Chrome and enter this address: chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support

Enable GPU support

Click restart

After the reboot, open a Linux terminal and check with glxinfo -B

If it doesn't work, let me know what version ChromeOS you're running please.

Can confirm This worked for me [TM]
In a qemu VM with latest ChromeOS "reven_recovery_stable" and virgl GL support, I installed as a result of this thread.
Although I didn't go for the sound, the graphics of the installed archive -- with no extensions -- were smooth. The linux distro I used was the default one grabbed by ChormeOS -- with the penguin terminal. Needed to install some other dependencies (libGLU, libxslt, libcaca, etc.) but once all were in, it worked nicely.
The VM was configured with 2 cores/4 threads. Virgl was used on the AMD Ryzen 5700g integrated graphics I have locally.

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2025 6:49 am**

Apologies for delay to update (inconsiderate work commitments!)

Will attempt the detail above later today and feedback.

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:11 pm**

Here goes...

Followed the instruction to enable GPU Support

Typed the "glxinfo -B" command into the (penguin) Terminal - Accelerated: YES

NOTE: On startup, a DEBIOO window opened briefly - I minimised it - and it disappeared?

I tried opening Oolite (from the previously installed icon) and it opened instantly - at normal/playable speed (YESSSSSSSS!!!)

However...

I did a quick launch from the SS and flew about a bit - just to check for lag etc - all seemed to work great (actually got vaporised as accidentally fired on SS - oops)

So decided to exit game and close down window etc - to check stability.

On trying to re-open the game - nothing?

Checked that GPU Support still enabled? - Yes.

Opened Terminal to try retype "glxinfo..." - now the terminal has an error, and will not reach a point where I can type commands:

[=\ ] Checking the virtual machine image Error starting crostini for ter
Launching vmshell failed: Error starting crostini for terminal: 71 (CREATE_DISK_IMAGE_NO_RESPONSE)

Have tried the following...

Restart machine - no change - all detail stated above the same (except no DEBIOO window opening?)

Tried opening a different Terminal (XTerm and LXTerm) - neither will open?

NOTE: On startup, a "Flags" window automatically opens? - (This has the Crostini GPU Support option (enabled) at the top of the list)

*The Chrome OS version I have is: Version 132.0.6834.206 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:54 pm**

jlager wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:11 pm
Here goes...

Eeek! Sounds scary.

So. I'd try disabling the acceleration to start with. Obviously not optimal, but it'll let us know if that's causing (reversible) issues at container startup.

If that doesn't get it I'll look into how to sanity check the penguin container.

Might be time for me to conjure up a ChromeOS VM on my libvirt/qemu setup. Any gotchas Commander_X ?

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Re: Oolite + Chromebook

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