Q I've been trying to get the Argonium game working on Ubuntu 5.10 but for some reason it won't. I've extracted it and gone into the directory but when I run ./argonium it gives the following errors among its output:
couldn't exec config.cfg
/dev/dsp: Broken pipe
LoadLibrary("./refresh.so")
ref_gl version: GL 1.0
./libGL.so: cannot open shared object
file: No such file or directory
Segmentation fault
Now, being new to Linux I have little to no idea what's going on. I looked for config.cfg but I couldn't find it. I don't know if this is the problem but please, please help!
A There are a number of errors and warnings here, not all of them critical. The first, about config.cfg, has no effect. It just means no config file has been found, because you haven't run the game and changed the settings yet. When you do, this file will be created in .argonium/data in your home directory. The next one, about /dev/dsp, is a little more important. The warning means you won't have any sound, as /dev/dsp is the sound device for OSS, the old sound system still used by some programs. ALSA, the current sound system, can emulate OSS. For this to work, the relevant module has to be loaded with
sudo modprobe snd_pcm_oss
To do this automatically when you boot, add the module name to /etc/modules with
echo snd_pcm_oss >>/etc/modules
The next error is more significant. Argonium is trying to load libGL.so from the current directory, when it is actually in /usr/lib. A symbolic link will fix this - see the Quick Reference box on page 95 for more information.
ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 libGL.so
This should get you past all the errors and warnings you have seen. Note, however, that you will need a graphics card with 3D acceleration and suitable drivers, such as an Nvidia card with the drivers from www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html.