Failing to install Mint 18.2

[Skybird]

The stunning thing is how many of those DVDs failed to install. We downloaded on four different machines with 4 different burners and CPUs in four different places and all the b urning done by four different people, and two versions of 18 were done - and all DVDs failed in normal mode and three quarters failed in compatability mode.

Thats is more than just a curious singular event. Its a pattern.

On games under Linux, some unexpected titles like ArmA 3 and Subnautica, are running under Linux, but then most of the games I play and that really consume my time, are simulators like Assetto Corsa or Steel Beasts or FSX with many and complex addons, and many of these thigns need special hardware (wheels, pedals, HOTAS) and drivers. That alltogether is no ground Linux can present as its shinign side. Its not for that. And driver support for such hardware is a mess, I learned. These programs also are so demanding on hardware that keeping all that - and controllers and drivers - in a VM, is not working well, if at all.

Chess also is a sad sight under Linux. There are chess programs, yes. But none that compares to the interfaces and capabilties of Arena GUI, Fritz GUI or Chessbase database, not to mention the many top engines you have under Windows and Android.

Yes, Android is better equipped with chess software, than Linux. Its surprising a bit, at least for me it was.

And then there is VR. I am tempted to try AC and RR in VR. In my AC forum they all say its a blast in VR.

Boy, all that poor money of mine. I would treat it so badly if I really go that way...

[BarracudaUAK]

AC and RR?

I know of a few games with those "initials"... you'll have to expand a bit on that so I know exactly which you are talking about.


I did some digging for joysticks that are supported, and I came across several that are having trouble.

However there was one bright spot.
It seems Kernels newer than 4.10 have better joystick support. I'm not sure which kernel you are running, but you might check it out.


I know that Ubuntu LTS was running 4.4, and that the Ubuntu team was simply "back-porting" security fixes rather than updating the LTS to a newer kernel...


As far as my Fedora install is concerned...
Since I currently have a 4GB boot partition (which is beyond "overkill") I set "dnf" (the update program) to keep ~20 (I think) kernels at a time. Instead of the standard 3.
I've got kernels all the way back to the default 4.8.6, so If at any point something goes wrong, I can always go back to a previous kernel.
I used this when SH4 started flickering a few months ago. I was able to confirm that it wasn't exclusively WINE that was causing the issue.

So here I sit with a boot screen full of kernels... and no pop-corn.

If you have time one of these days, you should try one of the Live-DVDs for Fedora, and see if it recognizes your Joysticks, etc.
It might surprise you.

And yes, you can get Cinnamon Desktop on Fedora too.

Barracuda

[Skybird]

AC = Assetto Corsa
RR = Raceroom

I do not use just any ordinary joystick or wheel. Fanatec stuff is quite the creme de la creme on the public consumer market. There is more expeisnve stuff, but then you talk several thousand coins. These need their own dedicated drivers. fanatec does not provide linux drivers. FFB under Linux by many sim drivers is said to be lousy to nonexistent anyway.

Then there is CH manager software for CH joysticks, throttles etc. Not for Linux.

You see, I do not want to play something I am not interested in just becasue that is what is avialable under Linux. I want to run that stuff I am really interested in. Only very few games at Steam which I bought, have Linux support. And none of them I play too often. Subnautica. ArmA3. Rarely Tennis Ellbow 2013.

Assetto corsa pushes the CPU to the limits. Raceroom will benefit from beefier hardware as well once they mplemented the planned new graphics engine in two or three years. On a weaker notebook than my main PC, with weaker graphics card and then under Linux in a VM, and with no FFB support for my Fanatec cockpit - forget it. Playstation 4 is th eonly altwernqative there, the wheels and pedals I picked are compatible.

Its not just some random opportunistic joystick choice of mine, Barracuda. Its stuff costing as much as a whole computer. There are games at Steam that run under steam OS and Linux, and its becoming more, i know. But that usually are not to the kind of games I am interested in.

And then, after all: I know Windows 7 quite well now. Under Linux, I am still a newbie, just a user wnating to switch stuff on and stuff then is running. I cannot need problems under Linux that I could solve under Windows. Because under Linux, I cannot. Thats the reason why I planned since two years to either keep a gmae Wndows PC and a Linux station for evertyhign else, or replace the PC with a console, loosing 90% of my gaming. But I feel i do not want to give that up so easily.

And then there is VR. Assetto Corsa in VR. Hehehe.

If going for a new system, its better to spend a little more and have no regrets one years later already, than to save some money, and hitting the limits already after this one year. I would make it dual boot again.

[BarracudaUAK]

I completely forgot to mention in my previous post...

If all the the DVDs were burned from ISOs downloaded from the same mirror, that could cause all the bad installs... As they would all have the same corruption....


---



I just tried my Saitek X52, and Linux can "See" it and even list exactly what it is...

So the Fanatec, and CH drivers may very well get there soon.
I can't say for sure, as I'm not sure which kernel you are running.
Although I did a quick search and it appears that MINT 18.2 has kernel 4.8 by default, and 4.10 as an update.

By comparison, I'm running 4.12. and have been on 4.11 for a few months now. 4.13 is currently a "release candidate". And it takes an average of 2 months for a new kernel.
Fedora 25 was released with 4.8.6, November of 2016. That means there are about 10 months worth of "new stuff" available (6 at the least, if you go with the 4.10 kernel).
So your kernel may be as much as 10 months "behind".

I'm not saying it *WILL* work, but many times some here have mentioned a difficulty with running a certain program...
For example, RR mentioned in a (much) older post that a program, S3D I think, didn't work in WINE.
But I had been running it since I installed Fedora 20 in Oct. 2014. Over a year at that point.

*THEN* he mentioned that he was running WINE 1.6. And Suddenly it made sense.
I was running WINE 1.7.30-44 on that PC.

So somewhere between 1.6 Stable (which was 1.5 development) and 1.7dev something was added (or fixed) that enabled it to work.

That may very well be the difference in what works for you and what works for me.
I'm running much newer kernels and WINE versions.

To clarify, I'm not trying to tell you "It works" when it actually doesn't.
I'm simply saying that *MANY* of the games that I've tried work for me as of wine 2.13 (current development/staging/testing series).
(Only 2 of the games I've tried recently don't work for me, Space Engineers, and Fallout 4. But, I haven't tried Space Engineers in a few months.)

The advantages of an LTS is just that, a Long Time between needing to upgrade.
But at the same time, it's a long time between new "features", because sometimes those "features" can/might cause regressions and bugs. Nobody's perfect, after all.

I'm sure that somewhere, there is a programmer with Fanatec hardware, tirelessly coding drivers, possibly without help from Fanatec.
However, if he has to buy each one before working on the drivers, that could take a while!

Also, Fanatec may not even be aware that there are Fanatec users that run Linux and want to use their controllers in Linux... (I didn't do any checking on this point. Just something I thought about.)

As for the CH control/remapping software... IF it runs under WINE, then all you need is Linux to "see" the controller, and then run the program through WINE.
WINE will "fake" all the Windows input for the CH Manager "remapping" functions.

WINE could then run the program "on startup" (wineboot), and all games run after that, would get the benefit of the CH Manager.

If the game was a Linux native program, then this wouldn't work. As it would look straight at the joystick drivers for input.
However this isn't necessarily a problem, Linux and Windows handle joysticks differently.


For the Saitek X-45 (possibly others), according to a forum post I read over a decade ago... Saitek set the "HAT" switches to be an "axis".
Linux followed this and viewed them as an "axis". Windows viewed them as a "button".
I think this continued on the X-52... On more than one occasion, when I didn't have the Saitek software installed,
Windows XP would show that I had a 4 axis joystick, with 50+ buttons.
When it actually has 8 Axis, 3 HAT switches, and 17 buttons.
Linux Shows 11 axis currently...

Anyway, you might check and see what is the newest kernel you can run.
That may open a few doors that have been closed so far...

Barracuda

[Skybird]

Thanks for all that input, Barracuda, but you overestimate my Linuxarian skills. I do not touch level 4 and level 5 ugrades and changes because they root too deep into the system and I have no clue how to repair something when it breaks. Stability and safety first, Linux is no playground for me. I only want it to run stable and safe, and provide me with a protected environment from which to browse, email, write texts, edit photography, and rarely do some shopping or banking stuff. This has absolute priority. Kernels I do not manually touch as long as a Mint version upgrade does not do it by itself.

As I described, the ISO came from several different sources, and all these sources were tried by severla different systems, and people, so we had for exmaple 18.0 from source A done by person A, then person B on his system, then person C on his, they tried them amongst themselves later and swapped disks, and I tried them as well, on my device.

Think of it. The result really is a punch in Mint 18's face. In most cases it did not work for anyone of us. My problems, stealign my breah for ten days, result from this inherent unreliability. I tried several ways to install, several versions, DVD as well as stick. When you have five, six different ISO tried and none works, you do no longer think that the problem might be hidden there, and go searching elsewhere.

BTW, the cooking party has been cancelled, I got a call. Maybe this guy twice as old as they are started to beocme eerie for them. When I offered that as a way to say thanks, I was surprised anyway that they accepted the idea, it was not really meant too serious by me. There is semester break holidays over here, and it is Friday night, think young guys have better things to do then. Its okay. Hm, a relief even, maybe. But it was a curious event, a curious way to meet, and they really were extreemely helpful. I keep a pleasant memory.