Linux installer HOWTO.

Ryan C. Gordon ryan at epicgames.com
Wed Oct 2 02:28:02 EDT 2002


(zakk: If it isn't there yet, here's more-or-less complete instructions 
for the lgfaq).

I've lost track of who is having problems with the Linux installer on 
the ut2003 retail discs, and who has resolved their problems. So here's 
a quick HOWTO if you're still having trouble:

1) THE LINUX INSTALLER ASKS FOR THE WRONG DISC NAMES. This was the 
results of an unfortunate miscommunication right before we went gold. 
The installer will ask for "play disc", "disc 1", "disc 2". What it 
SHOULD ask for is "disc 1", "disc 2", "disc 3". This is obnoxious, but 
it is NOT fatal, as the text is just used in the user interface, and is 
NOT used in detecting the disc. Just put in the disc it wants, not the 
one it asks for.  :)

2) MAKE SURE YOU'VE GOT JOLIET SUPPORT IN YOUR KERNEL.
The game will NOT install without it, since you won't get the long 
filenames on the disc. This is easy to determine. Mount disc 3 and see 
if there's a file in the root directory called 'linux_in.sh' ... this 
file should be called "linux_installer.sh", and it's a clear sign that 
your kernel is missing driver support. Most, if not all, Linux 
distributions should include this by default, but you might not have it 
if you built your own kernel. The option you want (as far as my 
2.4.19-based system is concerned) in the kernel configuration is under 
"Filesystems". Enable "ISO 9660 CDROM file system support" and then 
"Microsoft Joliet CDROM extensions". If there is a "Rock Ridge 
extensions" option, enable that too.

3) Do NOT sit on the mountpoint, or you won't be able to switch discs. 
So if you do this:

     mount -t iso9660 -r /dev/cdrom /mnt
     cd /mnt
     ./linux_installer.sh

You won't be able to unmount the disc when the installer asks for the 
next one in the series, since your shell is sitting on the mountpoint. 
It is better to do this:

     mount -t iso9660 -r /dev/cdrom /mnt
     cd /somewhere/else
     /mnt/linux_installer.sh

The installer copies itself to $TMPDIR before running, so it shouldn't 
be sitting on the mountpoint. If this STILL isn't working, copy the 
installer yourself, to make _sure_ it is not blocking your unmount:

     mount -t iso9660 -r /dev/cdrom /mnt
     cp /mnt/linux_installer.sh $HOME
     umount /mnt   # make sure the disc is unmountable
     $HOME/linux_installer.sh

4) Disabling automount, supermount, and other things like that can help.

5) If you get a bunch of errors to the console for each file installed, 
talking about different devices in your /etc/fstab, they can (usually) 
be ignored. If they are causing trouble, temporarily comment those lines 
out of fstab.

6) If you are SURE you've got the correct disc mounted and the installer 
seems to disagree, export the environment SETUP_CDROM before running the 
installer, and you might be able to fool it (this is untested):

    export SETUP_CDROM=/where/i/mounted/the/cdrom
    /where/i/mounted/the/cdrom/linux_installer.sh

The installer doesn't care if it's really a CD, so if you get really 
desperate, you can copy it to your harddrive or mount an ISO on a 
loopback device, etc. The installer just looks for files in a directory 
tree to decide if the CD-ROM is mounted.

7) The installer will seem to install some stuff very fast, and then 
really REALLY slow down, taking a long time for individual files. THIS 
IS NORMAL. Files that are compressed into Epic's "uz2" format take a 
long time to uncompress. This is the bulk of the installer's work. This 
game takes a LONG time to install (you are, after all, uncompressing 
about 2.5 gigs worth of data).

8) Read this: https://bugzilla.icculus.org/show_bug.cgi?id=147

9) and this: https://bugzilla.icculus.org/show_bug.cgi?id=145

If you did all of that and _still_ can't get it to install, please email 
me directly, and we'll try to sort you out.

Hey, who said Linux wasn't user friendly?  :)

--ryan.





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