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Hi,

I just started using PlayOnLinux yesterday, and I am really impressed how much (even newer) games can be run on linux - at least in theory ;)

I did my first tests yesterday on yaVDR which is an PVR/XBMC distro based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 Bit and rechecked it today on a clean installation of a "standard" Ubuntu 12.04, using of course the latest version of PlayOnLinux from your repository as described on your download page.

I started my tests with some games from GOG.com, and I ran into problems when I "restarted" Dosbox based games. "Restarted" means: When I installed the (free) Tyrian 2000 or Wing Commander 3 using the installation scripts (direct download does not seem to work because of wrong MD5s, so I chose the installation from file) and selected "Run Game" from the windows installer, both games started without (major) problems. But when started those dosbox based games for a second time, I got the following error messages:

[POL_System_CheckFS] Message: Checking filesystem for tyrian.exe

[POL_Wine] Message: Running wine-1.4-dos_support_0.6 tyrian.exe (Working directory : /home/xyz/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/Tyrian2000_gog/drive_c/GOG Games/Tyrian 2000)

[POL_Wine] Message: Notice: PlayOnLinux deliberately disables winemenubuilder. See http://www.playonmac.com/fr/page-26-Winemenubuilder.html

Dosbox front-end for PlayOnLinux

[PlayOnLinux] Working in /home/xyz/.PlayOnLinux//wineprefix/Tyrian2000_gog

[PlayOnLinux] Detecting program directory to run: C:\\GOG Games\\Tyrian 2000

cat: /home/xyz/.PlayOnLinux//wineprefix/Tyrian2000_gog/drive_c/autoexec.bat: File not found

[POL_LoadVar_ScreenResolution] Message: Screen width: 2880

[POL_LoadVar_ScreenResolution] Message: Screen height: 1280

DOSBox: error while loading shared libraries: libFLAC.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

However, libFLAC.so.8 is installed on both systems. I also did a manual installation of Giana Sister - Twisted Dreams (GOG version including update) and Trackmania Nations Forever (windows games), and both games started without error messages about missing libraries.

Thanks a lot in advance!

JK1974

Hi,

I started my tests with some games from GOG.com, and I ran into problems when I "restarted" Dosbox based games. "Restarted" means: When I installed the (free) Tyrian 2000 or Wing Commander 3 using the installation scripts (direct download does not seem to work because of wrong MD5s, so I chose the installation from file)

Keeping track of over 200 games is not an easy task, I updated those two scripts. It seems to have gotten a bit worse recently, because GOG seems to have decided for "silent upgrades" (files changes, but keep the same version number), including those two; So I can't rely on versions to detect changes.
And as I can't redownload them all, all I can do is rely on users' reports...

Maybe something can be done with lgogdownloader, but it will take a while to setup because I didn't start by using it, so I'll probably have to rename things around to avoid redownloads, things like that.

and selected "Run Game" from the windows installer, both games started without (major) problems. But when started those dosbox based games for a second time, I got the following error messages:

That makes sense, by running the games from the installers (something you should never do by the way) you're using the Windows version of DOSBox bundled by GOG with the games. PlayOnLinux shortcuts use Linux DOSBox.

DOSBox: error while loading shared libraries: libFLAC.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

However, libFLAC.so.8 is installed on both systems.

But do you have the 32bit version of this library? That's most likely the reason.

 I also did a manual installation of Giana Sister - Twisted Dreams (GOG version including update) and Trackmania Nations Forever (windows games), and both games started without error messages about missing libraries.

Same reason probably, you must have used the Windows DOSBox bundled with them.

I created a bug report for that: http://www.playonmac.com/en/issue-2216.html

Edited by petch

Hi,

thank you very much for your fast reply. You were right, the 32 bit libraries were missing, so a simple sudo apt-get install ia32-libs did the trick.

Concerning my side note about the wrong CRCs, is there a way to change the installation script (changing md5 values) before the setup is being started? I thought that the latest version of a script is downloaded right before the installation is being started, or are they being cached anywhere?
Maybe you could update the scripts to allow installation even if the CRC is wrong.
But if GOG and other download sources continue updating installation files from time to time and you want to keep the CRC check functionality, maybe a CRC database would be best. If somebody downloads setup files with wrong CRCs, he might get the option to redownload the setup files. If the redownload has the same CRCs, they could be added to the CRC database. If a second (or third or fourth) person downloads the files with the same CRCs, the database entry might be set to "verified". Or you simply display how many people have downloaded the files with the same CRC ("CRC verified by x users"), so people can decide themselves if they trust the setup files.
Just some ideas...

Scripts are never cached, so you always run the latest version available.
If we allow to install with wrong hashes, we'll both never get any feedback about them (not that we get much anyway), and support will become harder because we'll have to deal with both installations from failed downloads and installation using newer versions than what we tested.
Indeed one can think of elaborate mechanisms, but I'd prefer to try the lgogdownloader way first; It uses extended APIs of the gog.com site to get hashes (not MD5 though).