Newbie question on Doom Legacy

[TheDoctor]

Bear with me everyone. I'm a highly experienced user of Windows but know nothing of Linux. I've had Ubuntu for a few days now and I aint going back to Windows, but I need help.

I've done a few things now: installed a modem driver, added applications, but one thing eludes me.

I want to play Doom on Ubuntu. I downloaded Doom Legacy and upacked it into a folder in my Home folder. But, er, how do I "run" it? Clearly, as I've seen mentioned so many times, Linux does things very differently to Windows. Was I meant to install this zipped file somehow? If so, how? If not, what do I do next?

[Yagisan]

I suggest you try The Doomsday Engine instead (easier to get running, and looks pretty). There are packages available here http://eyagi.bpa.nu/eyagi/community-projects/yagisan-s-doomsday-for-debian-ubuntu/ with detailed instructions. It will install a menu item for you to play it. (I assume you are on breezy. If you are on dapper, the breezy package should work)

I don't know what zip file you downlaoded from the doom legacy site, but the binary download (which may not work depending on differences in linux systems) is at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/doomlegacy/legacy_142_linux.tar.gz?download they usually have a README file with instructions on how to install it inside the tar.gz file.

Alternatively, prboom is in universe, that is another good doom engine.

[TheDoctor]

Erm, yeah, I'm running Breezy. That first link hangs, and I have the same problem using the zip file from your second link. Although I can unpack the contents, then what? How to I start the binary?

I tried prboom which is nice (except I have a tiny window and I can't work out how to change the resolution).

[TheDoctor]

Okay. Forget that last comment. I got Legacy to work. It seems to start a binary from the terminal I add the prefix "./" (and the fact you're supposed to add an original Doom WAD). But Legacy won't start. It goes to start musserver and then stops saying it cannot find /dev/sequencer. What gives?

[DoktorSeven]

As stated by Yagisan, it's better to try Doomsday over Legacy; Legacy has some problems like you describe. Though if the link he gives hangs, I'm not sure where to get binaries. I just compiled mine from source as usual and run it using a shortcut to a commandline (doomsday -game jdoom -file /path/to/doom2.wad -userdir ~/.doomsday/jdoom/ -maxzone 128 usually is sufficient).

Search around for Doomsday binaries if you really need them, and there are a couple of frontends for it as well if you look.

[Yagisan]

Though if the link he gives hangs, I'm not sure where to get binaries.The link doesn't hang, although I admit it's not the quickest. It does have links to faster mirrors for downloading the .debs though.

I just compiled mine from source as usual and run it using a shortcut to a commandline (doomsday -game jdoom -file /path/to/doom2.wad -userdir ~/.doomsday/jdoom/ -maxzone 128 usually is sufficient).Based on your commandline you must be using the old 1.8.6 release. We removed -maxzone in the 1.9.0 betas. 1.9.0beta3 (which I packaged for Ubuntu) performs much better.

Search around for Doomsday binaries if you really need them, and there are a couple of frontends for it as well if you look.We (myself and the other doomsday developers) would suggest that you either use the provided .debs from my site (which is the only "official" release), or that you build it yourself. I plan to release the snowberry launcher with the beta4 release, until then, beta3 makes menu entries under games.

[DoktorSeven]

Based on your commandline you must be using the old 1.8.6 release. We removed -maxzone in the 1.9.0 betas. 1.9.0beta3 (which I packaged for Ubuntu) performs much better.

Ah, really... never saw anything about -maxzone being depreciated, and the output doesn't say it's invalid. Neat.

We (myself and the other doomsday developers) would suggest that you either use the provided .debs from my site (which is the only "official" release), or that you build it yourself. I plan to release the snowberry launcher with the beta4 release, until then, beta3 makes menu entries under games.
I hated the Snowberry launcher in Windows. It was completely unintuitive and much less straightforward than the older GUI launcher. I'd rather see a continuation of the Kickstart for Linux Doomsday (http://forums.newdoom.com/showthread.php?t=23529) program started on the Newdoom forums.

[Yagisan]

Ah, really... never saw anything about -maxzone being depreciated, and the output doesn't say it's invalid. Neat. Yep. We ignore options we don't understand.

I hated the Snowberry launcher in Windows. It was completely unintuitive and much less straightforward than the older GUI launcher. I'd rather see a continuation of the Kickstart for Linux Doomsday (http://forums.newdoom.com/showthread.php?t=23529) program started on the Newdoom forums.
I don't think Kickstart for Linux is being developed anymore, in any case, I won't include snowberry in the same .deb as deng. I do agree that snowberry may need a bit of work (it still is alpha software), but as far as I can see, it is the only laucher still being developed, and as most packs are moving to snowberry format, I think it would be prudent of me to at least make it available.

[DoktorSeven]

Understood. Myself, I've never needed anything really complex out of Doomsday -- the ability to run DOOM/II/Final/Heretic/Hexen, and add in pwads when desired. Simple launcher programs serve that need just fine. :)