4 This is a short description of the things I had to do to get
5 FlightGear up and running under Linux.
9 Linux (of any Flavour), a 3DFX-card (Voodoo1 in my case). 3D
10 operations without hardware support can force even the fastest PII to
11 its knees.... To make use of the accelerator board you need
13 - the GLIDE library installed. Grab it at:
15 http://www.3dfx.com/software/download_glidel.html
17 and install. There is even an install script contained that will do
18 things for you. The canonical place for GLIDE is /usr/local/glide, if
19 you prefer another location, you'll have to edit the Makefile for
20 FlightGear by hand. Be sure to read and understand the file
21 /usr/local/glide/README.
23 - the MESA library version 2.6 (or greater) installed. I used 3.0 to
24 be on the safer side...
28 ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa
30 unpack it and run "make linux-glide" in the Mesa directory. Follow the
31 instructions in the README file, take a close look at README.3DFX and
32 play with the demo programs. Relax, rejoice :-)
34 - the GLUT library version 3.7 (or greater, aka GameGLUT) installed.
38 http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glut3.html
40 Note: glut-3.7 is included with Mesa 3.0 so if you've already
41 grabbed the latest version of mesa, you should have everything you
46 You will need the following files:
48 FlightGear-x.xx.tar.gz
52 to get started. Sound is optional.
56 Unpack FlightGear-x.xx.tar.gz using :
58 tar xvfz FlightGear-x.xx.tar.gz
60 and cd info FlightGear-x.xx. Run:
64 and wait a few minutes. configure knows about a lot of options. Have a
65 look at the file INSTALL in the FlightGear source directory to learn
66 about them. If run without options, configure assumes that you will
67 install the data files under /usr/local/lib/FlightGear. Assuming
68 configure finished successfully, simply run
72 and wait for the make process to finish. Now become root (for example
73 by using the su command) and type
77 This will install the binaries in /usr/local/bin. Notice that the name
78 of the FlightGear binary is "fgfs".
80 Another problem with Linux/Glide is permission-related. All programs
81 accessing the Accelerator board need root permissions. The solution is
82 either to play as root or make the /usr/local/bin/fgfs binary "setuid
83 root", i.e. when this binary is run root priviledges are given. Do
84 this by issuing (as root)
86 chmod +s /usr/local/bin/fgfs
88 A solution for this problem is upcoming, keep an eye on the 3Dfx
91 3. Install the data files
93 Change to /usr/local/lib/FlightGear and unpack the data files:
95 tar xvfz WHERE_YOU DOWNLOADED_THE_FILES/base-x.xx.tar.gz
96 tar xvfz WHERE_YOU DOWNLOADED_THE_FILES/textures-x.xx.tar.gz
102 If everything went ok, simply type
106 at the prompt. You should see the FlightGear splash-screen and a few
107 seconds later you'll find youself somewhere in the desert, ready for
110 5. Strange things happen...
112 A note on the behaviour of Voodoo boards:
114 Your card comes packaged with a loop-through-cable. If you have only
115 one monitor, then the Voodoo will take it over when used. This means
116 that all the applications on your desktop will continue running but
117 you'll only see the FlightGear screen. If your window manager uses a
118 focus-follows-mouse policy, don't move the mouse. If you lose the
119 focus, there's no way to shut down FlightGear graciously! Better
120 solution: Use two monitors, one for your desktop, connect the other
121 one to your accelerator. You'll then get a window on your desktop
122 which manages all keyboard events and you're still able to see your
129 I hope this document provides some help. If it does, send virtual/real
130 beer to me, if not flame me!
133 <buckel@wmad95.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de>