Trying to run on steam

[jojo]

I've gotten myself another SSD and intend to install STEAMOS onto it.

I've downloaded the Zip file and extracted it to a 4GB pen drive.

Restart, set pen drive to first BOOT. But no OS is recognised.

The instructions say somehting about to enable UEFI support in your BIOS setup.

I don't have that. I have never upgraded my BIOS mainly because I am an utter chicken.

Any suggestions? Be really grateful.

store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

[vikingken]

If you haven't got UEFI support in your BIOS, I dont think flashing them will do any good. Modern BIOS can be flashed within Windows and isn't as dangerous as it used to be. Even doing it the old way wasn't that bad; but if you did make a mess of it, bang went your motherboard. I've only wrecked one and it was an old one I wasn't too bothered about.

[mikkh]

I looked at the site and the instructions and they seem to have forgotten a step - like making the USB stick bootable!

Forget UEFI unless your motherboard is pretty new, it doesn't apply

I suggest you do it the old fashioned way with an ISO and burn it to DVD or straight to USB if you've got the right software like Rufus, Unetbootin or similar

distrowatch.com/?newsid=08767

[jojo]

Apr 30, 2015 23:33:49 GMT mikkh said:

I looked at the site and the instructions and they seem to have forgotten a step - like making the USB stick bootable!

Forget UEFI unless your motherboard is pretty new, it doesn't apply

I suggest you do it the old fashioned way with an ISO and burn it to DVD or straight to USB if you've got the right software like Rufus, Unetbootin or similar

distrowatch.com/?newsid=08767

Thanks mikkh.

So Steam get the initial instructions wrong? Hmmm.

I had a feeling somehting wasn't right.

OK I'll give Rufus a try, see if I can make the USB drive bootable.

[jojo]

I have managed to get the USB Drive to BOOT.

The menu asked if I wanted a European or US Keyboard then went to DOS.

Searched around but couldn't find any indication of how to run the menu.

Quite frustrating really.


And thanks Ken for your input.

[mikkh]

Did you use the DVD ISO on the link I posted? I'm installing it now on a spare machine (via a DVD) and the only options I saw were 1) automatic (will erase the disk) and 2) expert mode

That PC has a weak graphics card, so it's not really suitable for games. I'm just doing an experiment to see what problems you might be facing

I picked the automatic because it's a spare drive (and machine) I'm not bothered about, but I would have picked expert if installing it on my main PC

Looks like it's going to be a 15 - 20 minute install judging on it's current progress. I'll post later when it's finished

[jojo]

No,

Sorry sir. Really am.


I will pay attention.
I will pay attention.
I will pay attention.
I will pay attention.
I will pay attention.
I will pay attention.
I will pay attention.

[jojo]

One thing I wanted to ask, but this may be the wrong section, I have W7 on a 220Gb SSD. I recently bought a 120GB SSD and want to transfer W7 to that. I hardly use it only 30 Gb so far.

Is there a way to copy it over? or will the size difference make it useless?

It would be a lot easier if I could simply transfer it.

[jojo]

Tride every which way I can but installation fails.

It may be a lack of drivers for my USB DVD/CD player or it may be that my destination drive, at 220GB is too small.

Anyway, for now, on hold.

I can't do USB because I don't have the correct BOOT support.

[mikkh]

The hard drive requirements are way over the top, I think they're expecting you to install hundreds of games afterwards
Normal people will only need room for half a dozen or so, which should fit easily on 100 GB or less. The actual OS shouldn't be a lot more than 10 GB

I did install it on a spare machine and it seemed to go alright, till I re-booted and it just sullenly sulked and refused to complete the loading process.
I transferred the drive to my main PC hoping it would reconfigure itself to the new hardware, which it normally does in most Linux's very well
It coughed and spluttered and attempted to right itself, but the change from an AMD/ATI graphics card to an Nvidia one was a bridge too far and I was left with a massively oversized mouse pointer on a blank screen.

It was at this point I lost interest pretty quickly. I was going to try it in Virtualbox, but that seemed pretty pointless given it uses virtual graphics and sort of defeats the object

[jojo]

I got those impressions as well. OTT HD requirements. But otherwise, designed for the designer's hardware. (With the oft said caveat, Well Most Of Our Customers/Users Prefer it That Way)

Still it is only beta. I won't be contacting Steam, they are a little too self important for my tastes and will probably just ignore me. (Which is the second most annoying trait of modern tech companies.)

I took a bit of time because I wanted to be sure no problems would emerge from my transfer of W7 to the smaller drive. I'm mostly back to XP now but went into W7 last night and all was just jim dandy I'm pleased to say.

Since Steam is planning to put out a Debian based OS eventually, I might load a version of Debian into my now spare drive and give it a whirll.

Thanks for your support, as always mikkh. You're the best.

[mikkh]

Debian based being the operative word, 'pure' Debian is a pain - rock solid but not exactly beginner friendly and it's one of those distros that shoves it's totally free ethos on people, which I find annoying and totally impractical in a modern OS. I suspect it's to appease American complicated media laws in a sue everything that moves culture, more than a genuine belief.

distrowatch.com/?newsid=08757

That's SparkyLinux game over edition with steam and lot's of other stuff

The next version is due out in the not too distant future, but it's worth a look at, to see if it fits your needs

[jojo]

Giving it a try right now. Thanks mikkh

[jojo]

OK, first an apology and a very red face.

The reason I was unsuccessful burning to disc was because I was trying to use CDs, with a 700Mb capacity.

On the up side, I now have several rather handy vanity mirrors and who doesn't need another vanity mirror? I know I do.

I decided to go for the Sparky, mainly because the Steam is in Beta and Sparky does Steam anyway.

The version of Firefox is Iceweasel, which is nice. CIT is, of course quite easy to find, Type Computer Interested Types into Google and it's first on the list. (Quite right too I say!)

I'm going to have to play about with this before I dive in too deep. I'd like to find a version of speed fan for a start. But my machine still seems to be accessing the DVD each time I ask it to do something. There's a button titled System Upgrade, which I'm not sure of, (but so much want to press).

I was asked for a log in name and password while the thing was initially loading. I sadly missed it. Not sure what that means.

But so far so good.

Another linux user here, signing off for a few.

[jojo]

It seems the installation hasn't loaded.

This is an image of the error screen




Suggestions?

[jojo]

I've burned SteamOS onto a DVD and loaded that.

It seems to run fine for what that's worth.

You are first met with the Steam interface, which appeares to be entirely designed around a single type of games controller, which I don't have. There doesn't appear to be any facility to change that. More over, the response to the keyboard is patchy at best. Not sure what to do about that.

There is a facility to access the Steam store, where for a price, a selection of games is available. Since I don't have a controller, I can't teat those, though price is another factor.

By default, access to the desk top is turned off, but if you look carefully, it can be turned on.

The desktop is very limited by Linux standards. It seems to have access to the Documents folder and the assigned sub folders. But few practicle programs. It is possible to find some sch as Iceweasel, which I'm using now.

The keyboard is the US. I can't yet figure out how to change it, though I was very careful to say I was in the UK when I first installed the program.

It's very early days. I'll need to play about with this a lot more. I must say, I'm pleased it is actually working and do like the limited access to functions which I frankly don't understand and for which there is little or no information.

Watch out for the next thrilling episode.

[mikkh]

The steam installer is available in PClinuxOS now, probably was before but I never checked.

I installed it and searched the free games available, there weren't many via one method of searching, but when I searched all games and put them in price order, a lot more suddenly appeared!
I didn't need a controller but the few I tried had very strange default keys, which you can change in some luckily. It's obviously a money making exercise with a lot of the free stuff crippled till you part with some dosh.

For Linux users desperate to play mainstream games, it works - I'm not that bothered nowadays and quite happy to play games via Facebook or online in general, so it's of no real use to me.

What was it you were looking for originally? A way to play games not handicapped by Windows security problems, or just a proof of concept project

I ask because Steam obviously works in Windows without resorting to an unfamiliar OS

[jojo]

It was both and a few more.

I play a couple of games myself, one I know is on Steam, the other is planning to be. Neither has been featured in this version, so I assume they haven't been converted to Linux.

I was and am very interested in the concept. If you look at the tools menu for example, the tools are right there. It's actually a second desktop menu. While I was looking at it, and photographing it, I had the browser playing a video. I obviously couldn't see it, but could hear it, showing the two screens operate symultaniously.

I've seen similar concepts. But within Linux it does avoid the long list of meaningless names in the start menu, some of which can do pretty drastic things. That's the big issue I have with Linux frankly. Names and operators are simply too obscure. It isn't clever or traditional, it's just stupid and seeking to cause problemms for the unwary.



A major criticism is finding things. The icons at the top are not labled but are the main access to tools and options, not to menion, turning the OS / computer off.

I intend to play about with the tools a bit. I was thinking of possibly doing a write up for CIT. This is BETA of course. It may get a lot better.

The controller issue is important though. The one they have is a sort of Xbox clone type.

I probably won't be sticking with this though. I don't like paying for somehting that I can get free elsewhere. I did buy a game a while ago, which looked interestring and different. from Amazon. It came in the stadard package, a DVD. But the DVD was just a Steam Loader and the game was about as intersting as waiting for a bus. That cost £20. I later discovered from someone who uses Steam that it is available direct from Steam for less than 10!

Now that's funny.

I am doing a lot more surfing around these days so will eventually be opting for a Linux that is stable, quick to load and for general stuff. Sad about my Game, Lord of the Rings Online. I have made quite a few onscreen friend on there. I still have XP though.

[mikkh]

The naming conventions in Linux are not deliberately made to confuse, although some do get carried away - it's to avoid complaints/lawsuits I assume from big commercial program makers

In your screenshot I see 'Brasero' which is a CD/DVD burner, it's a bit close to Nero but otherwise makes no sense - it does have a clue in the icon though. Linux has many desktops, most with their own default programs like Brasero is associated with a Gnome desktop (generally) and K3B is the default in KDE desktops. That's also a CD/DVD burner, although it's not exactly obvious from the obscure name. K is attached to most KDE apps/programs and in a world of multiple desktops that can be useful to know, especially if KDE is not your preferred desktop and would require lots of extra KDE specific dependencies on a non KDE desktop. The 3? no idea unless you assume B = burner and the original program had 3 main methods of burning?

Some are straightforward acronyms like the GIMP ( GNU Image Manipulation Program ) which opens another can of worms explaining the GNU ethos, but that's not important right now

I know I've been using it for over a decade, but it didn't take long for such strange names to become commonplace and easily recognisable

Your hopes for any great change in a beta version are going to be dashed I'm afraid. The look/feel of any Linux program rarely changes from beta through to RC (release candidate) and finally to full release. It's usually just a case of testing and ironing out any last minute bugs rather than any cosmetic changes.

I'm still not sure what you mean by the controller issue, it's an option in the version I tried not a must have. The games I played all had keyboard alternatives

[jojo]

My estimation is not exactly helped by the docovery, this morning, that the OS wouldn't load. Several attempts each led to a screen freeze at the same spot.

C'est la vie

[jojo]

Read an article which describes how some players have managed to get LOTRO to run using Wine.

Dowmloaded and burned a copy of Mint Cinnamon. Sadly, each time I try to load it, it seems to turn off my graphics card then stops.

Perhaps Linux just won't work on older machines.

Just had a look at the drive from W7, seems nothing was written to it at all!

For some reason, though the drive has been properly formatted NTFS, it isn't visable from XP. Not sure what's going on there.

This is the error I have after attempting to install Mint. I have done a quick format from W7 and though the disc shows as blank, this error still appears if I attempt to BOOT from it at startup



Veyr strange.

[mikkh]

I use PClinuxOS not because it's the most geeky and only suitable for Linux veterans like me, it's because it's the easiest and most reliable.

distrowatch.com/?newsid=08746

Download the KDE version and try that

I presume you're using the whole disk, so just pick the relevant option in the installer and go make a cup of tea while it weaves it's magic

It may be you have some strange hardware combination that Linux just doesn't like, but I have never failed with PClinuxOS on dozens of different PC's and laptops

[mikkh]

... and don't even think about WINE for games, it's a nice little emulator for office type programs, but anyone who says they're running Windows games on it smoothly are basically liars

[jojo]

May 19, 2015 14:30:05 GMT mikkh said:

... and don't even think about WINE for games, it's a nice little emulator for office type programs, but anyone who says they're running Windows games on it smoothly are basically liars

That's a shame.

The LOTRO people seem to be quite positive. sites.google.com/a/lordoftheringsonline-wiki.com/wiki/guides/technical-guides/running-lord-of-the-rings-online-with-linux

www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?535737-Playing-In-Linux-Under-Wine

I'll give it some thought.

[mikkh]

I can only assume those who have even got it working at all, never mind smoothly, are using excessively over the top hardware to make up for the shortcomings of the emulator.
What I did notice from those links, was that WINE is DirectX 10 maximum compatible and Linux is apparently only capable of displaying a maximum of 24 bit colour (16 million+ colours) The human eye is only able to distinguish 10 million, so that's why I've probably not noticed my poor OS being inferior!

I'm perhaps being a bit harsh, it's a long time since I attempted to use WINE for Windows games and I had pretty average hardware back then too. I was hankering after playing C&C Generals once and found it doesn't like Windows 7, even with the patches and supposed fixes I found on the net. It would be slightly ironic if it worked in WINE

[mikkh]

I went looking for my C&C the first ten years DVD to have a dabble with WINE again, needless to say I couldn't find it and then I vaguely remember lending it someone! No problem, the slightly less than legal side of the internet should be able to help me out here so I went looking for a C&C Generals torrent. The first one looked promising until I tried to extract the RAR archive and it was password protected with a message to go to a web site to get the password. Do I look like I was born yesterday, I shouted at the screen - delete that rubbish! Next one turned out to be a Max OSX version, which luckily I noticed before wasting too much time with the download. OK abandon that idea, let's see what other legal games I've got in my boxes of junk

Ah Unreal Tournament, happy days of mindless violence and repeating 'headshot' in a deep voice at the appropriate time. With a minimum requirement of a 233 CPU and 32 MB RAM and a recommended 500 CPU and 128 MB RAM, this should be a nice easy task for WINE.....

... hmmm, maybe not so easy and definitely not playable. It installed easily enough and I watched the intro video with a nostalgic grin. Pressing escape to play the game left me looking at a familiar screen but the mouse pointer was so unresponsive, it took me ages just to navigate to the quit option.

So maybe I wasn't so harsh, it's still a pile of junk even with my quad core CPU and 8 GB of RAM and I have to wonder how people are getting much more modern games to work via WINE
Just looking at the game box, I notice it was made for Windows 95/8 and the default setting for WINE is Windows XP! Ah well too late, I've already uninstalled it and made a mental note not to start projects late at night in future

[jojo]

Understand.

But look at this little hobbit. Cute as you like. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Can you really imagine him being involved in anything mindless? (This one insidently is a rather nifty pick pocket and likes to attack from behind with a knife).

I loaded in PC LinuxOS to have another look.

Did the updates, a load of those.

Still won't run videos. Tried to update Firefox, but that didn't work either.

It also takes a while to load and asks for passwords and repeated confirmation at every step.

I'm sure there are ways around all this. Though it seems to take an expert to know what they are.

[mikkh]

Won't run videos? Let me take a guess you mean web based ones like youtube?

OK, lets try and get Windows habits out of your head first

1) Forget looking for updates via the web, or trying to update from within the program itself, it doesn't work like that in Linux - you use the inbuilt package manager instead to get distro specific updates

2) Forget Firefox or any non Chrome related browser. It's a long story so I won't bore you with it, but basically Firefox and a lot of other Linux browsers are handicapped by only being able to use the last 'official' Adobe Flash which was 11.something. If you use Chrome and various close relatives like Maxthon (for Linux) and Slimjet, you get the latest version (built in) instead.

PClinuxOS uses the Synaptic package manager normally associated with Debian based distros, and luckily it's the easiest to use - even easier than Debian based ones

It can be accessed quickly from the taskbar shortcut and yes it will ask for the administrator (root) password before you can proceed

First you must press the reload button (top left) to fetch the latest updates from the server

Second you either press 'mark all upgrades' assuming the orange clad exclamation mark (bottom right) is telling you some are available and then click apply. This will need to be done several times a week, but only takes seconds up to a few minutes depending how many new things are there. That is how Firefox etc get's updated. Or you use the search button to look for new things to install.

Because of the flash restriction with Firefox in Linux, like it or lump it, you've got to use a Chrome based alternative if you want videos to work

Go to Synaptic, press reload, press search and type in Chrome, Maxthon or Slimjet - all are available within Synaptic

You can install all three if you like, and probably should to familarise yourself with the process of installing new things and to see which one you like best.

There's an excellent downloadable monthly magazine on their website with hints/tips tutorials etc It's the only Linux distro that does this as far as I know and shows their attention to detail and commitment to the users. They're actually celebrating the 100th edition this month

[jojo]

I used Synaptic. That was one of the mistakes I made last time I tried this OS.

Your words of disapproval then, still ring in my hobbit ears.

The browser was built in, but I take your point. I'm pretty sure Chrome is there as well, but I'll check.

[mikkh]

It's a fairly recent development in the Linux World, but long enough ago for distro makers to have done something about it.

I just don't understand the reluctance to make Chrome the default browser - are Google hated that much? It seems ludicrous to supply a browser that only partly works because of an outdated Flash

What is more incredible, is that I see little or no complaints about it, or much mention of it by so called Linux users writing in magazines/blogs etc

Maybe they don't use Youtube, iPlayer or the thousands of other sites that require the latest Flash. Or maybe they forgo the pleasure of such sites to keep within the free ethos boundaries they self impose upon themselves to feel superior. The whole situation annoys the crap out of me. It's like they don't want Linux to be more popular