Cube boot CD

by why wont it let me log in??? on 08/22/2004 05:51, 26 messages, last message: 12/20/2004 20:18, 6949 views, last view: 05/18/2024 07:56

Hey!

I had an idea. A while ago, i heard that America's Army had a boot CD version of their game in Linux. You would just go to the lan party, and everybody would boot their PC's from the CDs.

This was also handy for people who didn't wany to install it on their computer, or didn't have the 200 Mb left on their HD because of all the other games they had.

I am not a coder, but it doesn't seem veyr hard to make a linux boot CD. As a matter of fact, you don't need to make one, just add Cune to the .iso of an existing one...

What do you guys think? you could have a Cube Boot CD, in well under 50 MB, which is conveniently small enough to fit on one of those silly little business card CD-R's.

Also, one could make a Linux boot CD, but also include Cube in a folder in the main section of the CD, not compressed like the rest of it. Then, if the people were adventurous, they could run it in windows without re-booting.

My first experience with cube was from a cd, my only suggestion is that before you play a match, you walk all the way around the level first, making sure it is copmletely loaded into RAM. Then playing it becomes just like playing from the HD.

What do you guys think?

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#1: Damn Small BIg Cube

by j.c.d.p.c. on 08/22/2004 13:32

This idea has already been brought up... we were going to put all the maps and mods and content made for and with cube onto one boot disk. I was the one "in charge" of gathering up all the maps, but due to circumstances beyond my control (Loss of Data, and my parents taking away my internet for a for a few months) I was un able to complete that project, I may decide to try again...

But i am a stupid windoze user so someonme else will have to go through the part of putting it on a bootcd.

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#2: DSBC - Boot ISO

by D.plomat_webcafe on 08/22/2004 21:53

Yep, We already discused this, there are many options for making boot-CDs: the Knoppix packaging system, the one of Damn Small Linux, Gentoo Catalyst, the only thing that isnt already ppresent is 3d support for a wide variety of hardware, adding auto-detection scripts and moldules for GFs Radeon´s Voodoo´s etc is probably not too hard once you have a working boot CD, the most fastidious part ll be tailoring a manual build of XFree W/ DRI etc, and auto-generatethe XF86Config depending on what you autodetect in /proc or lspci

it´s probably ok on a 50Mb CD-card, but to include a decent set of hw support + musics/maps/content it d be better using a 200Mb 80mm CD

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#3: ..

by why wont it let me log in??? on 08/22/2004 22:37

mmmm, I dunno. There are small versions of Linux that suppurt large varieties of hardware.

example: The new Mandrake Kernel is only 19 MB, with ALL drivers Linux has to offer. No modules disabled.

there are tutorials online, all you have to do is search for: Linux Live CD, or linux live. There is a guy, who made Slax (slackware Linux live), and he has a set of downloadable scripts.

I tryevery boot CD i can find, and the best ones I found were Knoppix and Gnoppix.

The vast majority of newer live CDs are based off of knoppix, so it must be the best. I reccomend MandrakeMove, but it doesn't have nice laptop screen suppport. If that could be fixed, it would be as good as Knoppix.

you guys really should look into that. And while you're at it, find some other net linux LAN party games like BZ Flag and such and put them on too, they don't take up much space.

You coul dmake the ultimate LAN party CD.

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#4: Re: ..

by D.plomat on 08/22/2004 22:41, refers to #3

Yes, when i said hardware support, i´m talking about 3D acceleration... most of them are using standard VESA driver for the desktop

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#5: ..

by innovati on 08/23/2004 17:36

it wouldn't be *that* hard to get some 3d drivers fomr the net. Just put them on, under the appropriate video card, and if it autodetects your video card, it'll apply the drivers as well.

Also, what you could do, is set theconfig to run on start-up.

Plus, if I can run Cube on a Riva TNT2, barely 3D acceleration, I'm sure just a regualr standard driver will work fine for Cube.

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#6: Re: DSBC - Boot ISO

by RealNitro on 08/24/2004 11:43, refers to #2

It _is_ possible with gentoo. There are a few gaming-live-cd's out there. But I'm only a linux beginner.

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#7: ..

by staffy99 on 08/24/2004 13:04

could you chuck this http://www.morphix.org/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=15

and cube together and then delete all of the useless stuff?

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#8: ..

by innovati on 08/24/2004 20:48

oh, I know it IS possible with gentoo. It's possible with anything, icluding your ownn custom Linux build, right formt he kernel up. It' possible.

But, Knoppix is the leader, and many many liveCD's are made fomr it.

I have no clue why, but Gentoo seems to be the leader in Linux gaming, even though they all run the exact same games...

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#9: Re: ..

by D.plomat on 08/28/2004 00:58, refers to #8

Gentoo and Debian are the two best distros and leaders in every domain. Probably because they are the only ones providing easy package management with nearly perpetual upgradability and no dependencies hell. Except for commercial applications where their vendor certify them only for X.X version of RedHat and IT staffs won't take the risk to see 'if this XXXXX$ app might run correctly on another distro.

On those two distros, installing source packages is very easy, and they are very up to date on libraries (that makes a great difference compared to trying to compile some very recent games on a 1yr old RPM based distro and playing with upgrading RPMs). So i think the two viable options for a Linux hardcore gamer are Gentoo and Sid.

Maybe most gamers aren't techs so the word 'unstable' can afraid them, and they are also attracted by the little % of performance given by compiled source, even if that doesn't make a difference for games because the share of CPU cycles in the libs isn't very much for 3D apps, as all happens in the game engine itself and the OpenGL drivers... In fact i think many people chose Gentoo for this hypothetical little performance gain, which is the worst argument to choose it and nothing more than an anecdotic side effect of source-compiling. Also if it wasn't for fun and knowing a bit more how it works, i wouldn't have bothered with the huges compiles, simply installed the precompiled GRP version of Gentoo and recompiled the 5-10 packages/libs for which the default compile-time options doesn't suits what i want to do/interoperate.

I know very few Debian but i think those 2 are exactly as adapted for gamers. I'm very satisfied of Gentoo (in fact the first distro that gives me full satisfaction) and probably i'll also be very satisfied of Debian when i'll test it too.

IMHO the best distro is LFS but no one have time for that ;)

About the live CD, i checked a bit Catalyst, Gentoo system for making live CD's and i find it not enough straightforward, i think i'd find it easier making an LFS one, so probably Knoppix is much more mature and adapted.

Tested Knoppix and sure it rocks, but it's more a complete distro than a one-purpose tiny distro.

The thing that gave us the idea of a Cube live CD was Damn Small Linux, a credit-card bootable CD based on Knoppix. Probably the best thing to start from, except that we have to make a full recompile+repackage of the X server with DRI and scripts etc, but probaly adding this will fit in the available space.

If this project gets real, i think that the tool chosen will only be the favourite one of the one who makes it and/or the one closer to the goal of a bootable Cube CD.

Didn't knew this Morphix thing. Will give it a try, if it really has a robust autodetection of 3D hardware it's probably a good thing to start from. Then to check if it can really be reduced to the point that it + Cube will fit in 200Mb.

Or at least to take appropriate parts from each of those systems, looks like all of them has some aspects we're looking for, but noone really fits.

In fact all we need is:
-recent kernel
-minimal shell (busybox?)
-GLibc
-other libs required for Cube
-autodetection scripts to load the modules and generate the XF86Config
-X Server with GLX,DRI,modules for many types of hardware
-ALSA sound

Or better, some system to package the whole thing while keeping te dependencies to the strict minimum.
I dont think Gentoo Catalyst is appropriate/can build a system with a minimal environment.

For Knoppix, searched a bit and found this:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12261&highlight=

...as they say: "It is still experimental and won't install X"

but looks very promising, i read the whole thread, probably when they'll have it working with basic X, it'll just be a matter of adding some commands after the
apt-get install x-window-system-core...
to add the modules for various cards and the script for the XF86Config auto-generation

Well if they get that close to the goal, indeed Intellibuild will be that tool :)

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#10: date?

by innovati on 08/28/2004 15:46

Yeah, I don't care what they said in MARCH! That was a long time ago for a project like Knoppix, and by the way, were they talking about the stab;e release, or the unstable one?

I have used about 4 bootCD's made from Knoppix (not knoppix itself), one of which was only 34 MB. This was enough to put you into Blackbox, with things like AbiWord and such. I would like you to reconsider your thoughts on Knoppix, all one would have to do really, is add Cube to the .iso and burn, mind you, it wouldn't put it on the desktop or anything...

Is there a way you can open an iso and make changes to it, then save it again, I'm talking like, run the OS, make some shortcuts, Cube wallpaper, that kind of thing, then save it again?

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#11: I think there is even no need for a desktop

by D.plomat on 08/28/2004 16:27

even if blackbox or IceWM are very light...

Cube itself is the only and first thing launched by the X server.

Off course we might need to add a minimal desktop if we want to give things like some OS configuration menus

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#12: yes

by innovati on 08/29/2004 02:28

You're right, like maybe have the graphics card/monitor configuration window autostart when they log in. Then, the only other icons on the desktop would be a link to this here site, a shortcut to cube, and the config menu. It could work.

Also, what you might wanna consider would be a sound mixer, so they can test and adjust their volume before entering the game.

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#13: Re: yes

by D.plomat on 08/29/2004 14:30, refers to #12

About the autodetect script, i tested the Morphix and it does a pretty good job on a GeForce to detect and enable the nvidia module. Later will test it with a Radeon and an Intel card to test if it has wide support. For the resolution, it would be cool to have just before starting Cube, some app to only set the resolution and #colors. The ideal thing would be to have all (and minimal) configuration in only one screen, and a big button "Launch Cube" on the bottom right of the screen :)

About the sound, i think the minimalist and simplest solution is setting it to the max (or 80%) at startup with alsamixer and then use Cube's internal commands soundvolume and musicvolume to let the user adjust. Or eventually if we have a config screen, have a Cube ogg playing on the background and a volume slider.

Coding this config screen isn't very hard, if i manage to have an adapted 200Mb bootable CD (first test will of course be fixed resolution, colordepth and volume), then i'll add this config screen.

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#14: Another option

by EnragedTux on 08/29/2004 17:46, refers to #13

ANother option for you to look into is Morphix. It was created to be a more configurable version of Knoppix.

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#15: Re: Another option

by D.plomat on 08/29/2004 19:19, refers to #14

I've already checked a Morphix version specially designed for games. Will test a bit more the video hardware auto-detection but i think we'll use this one.

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#16: ..

by why wont it let me log in??? on 08/30/2004 07:06

mmm, getting the Nvidia drivers is the easy part, Nvidia releases linux drivers. The hard part will be getting ATI drivers. As much as i like ATI, they sure are dumb when it comes to Linux drivers...

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#17: Re: ..

by pushplay on 08/31/2004 01:46, refers to #16

Don't confuse dumb with just ignoring a niche market.

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#18: New KNOPPIX-Live CD with CUBE!

by kmaus on 12/15/2004 23:48

Have a look at this page:
This is a full CD with KNOPPIX-Live CD and a pack full of games - inclusive Cube!

http://games-knoppix.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/

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#19: Re: New KNOPPIX-Live CD with CUBE!

by Grogan on 12/16/2004 23:35, refers to #18

I downloaded and tried that last night, and I don't have Cube. I searched the entire filesystem and there's no evidence of it. Nor do they list cube as being included.

I can, however, mount one of my Linux filesystems and play cube while booted with that CD.

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#20: Re: ..

by Mephisto on 12/17/2004 11:53, refers to #17

@pushplay:
Since when is Linux is niche market? It has a bigger desktop share then Mac already, and its still growing.

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