HowTo: BzFlag on Ubuntu 5.10

[flight_master]

What is BzFlag:

BzFlag (or Bzfs for short) is a:

BZFlag is a free multiplayer multiplatform 3D tank battle game. The name stands for Battle Zone capture Flag. It runs on Irix, Linux, *BSD, Windows, Mac OS X and other platforms. It's one of the most popular games ever on Silicon Graphics machines.

Why NOT to Use APT-GET:

The version which is in the Breezy repositories has two issues. Firstly, it is version 2.0.2, which has issues with high latency spikes. And secondly, (very important!) You can't shoot anyone Seriously, bullets will go right through the other tanks, 100% of the time!

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the latest version of BzFlag (2.0.4)
2. Now, we'll need to install some missing packages;
   

   sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev
   sudo apt-get install libcurl3-dev

3. Unpack it; open a k/console, and 'cd' to the directory where you downloaded. I'm assuming Desktop/ here.

    tar zxvf  bzflag-2.0.4.20050930.tar.gz

4. You will now have a folder called 'bzflag-2.0.4.20050930'. You will want to change into this directory, again using 'cd'.
5. Now, comes the fun part; Ubuntu is using the GCC version 4.0 compiler, which causes certain issues (bugs) with BzFlag. These issues are caused by a very high optimization level. To solve this issue, type into your console:

    export CXXFLAGS=-O1

6. Now, You will need to run:

   ./configure

   . The output from this should say BzFlag Client at the very bottom.
7. If all is right, compile it by typing:

   make

8. Finally, you'll need to install it; do this by entering:

    sudo checkinstall

9. This step is optional, but always a good idea; after installing it, clean your source directory - that way, when you compile the next time, you'll be using fresh sources. Do this by entering:

   make clean

   .
10. Your done! Test out BzFlag by entering:

    bzflag

    in the console.

Have fun, and watch out for Guided Missiles!

I hope this helps ya'll!
-Christian

[flight_master]

*fixed a few typos, and updated package name

[durand]

It might be better to do

sudo checkinstall

instead as this creates a deb, installs it and it also means u can dpkg -r packagename or apt-get remove packagename it to remove it. It would probbly be a better method.
Nice HowTo by the way.

[durand]

It might be better to do

sudo checkinstall

instead of

sudo make install

as this creates a deb, installs it and it also means u can dpkg -r packagename or apt-get remove packagename it to remove it. It would probbly be a better method.
Nice HowTo by the way.

[johannes]

Nice guide! Thanks.

I also think checkinstall is a better option.

[flight_master]

@durand: Thanks for the input - I've updated the HOWTO to use checkinstall instead

@johannes,

Thanks

-Christian

[pianoboy3333]

Great guide!

[CallsignBaron]

Wonder if you can help me. I am a newbie to Ubuntu and especially new to command line functions. I have followed this tutorial and seem to have run into a snag at about step #7. Here is the error:

configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
todd@24-176-84-202:~/bzflag-2.0.4.20050930$ sudo checkinstall
sudo: checkinstall: command not found
todd@24-176-84-202:~/bzflag-2.0.4.20050930$ make clean
bash: make: command not found
todd@24-176-84-202:~/bzflag-2.0.4.20050930$ bzflag
bash: bzflag: command not found
todd@24-176-84-202:~/bzflag-2.0.4.20050930$

I obviously do not have something installed or installed correctly to allow me to install a program in this manner. If you would be so kind as to let me know what I need to do from here it would be greatly appreciated. I was so close and as you can imagine was disappointed to see this error. I had bzflag in suse and I miss it greatly. I ran into the same problem with the version I got with apt-get, it ran wonderfully but I couldn't shoot anyone. Thanks for your help.

[flight_master]

Hello and welcome to Ubuntu!

I'm guessing you are using a very clean system, right out of the box, so you are going to need a few extra tools (compilers, and build-tools)

open a console and type in:

sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc g++

If you do this, and still get errors, please post the output of the ./configure command. When doing this, though, make sure to put it inbetween code tags

Regards,
Christian

[CallsignBaron]

Thanks for your quick reply flight_master. You are correct this is a fresh install, very clean and I figured I was missing something. I will give this a shot and let you know the outcome. If you can tell me what "put in between code tags" means I will be more than happy to comply.

Thanks,
Todd