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.
27 ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa
29 unpack it and run "make linux-glide" in the Mesa directory. Follow the
30 instructions in the README file, take a close look at README.3DFX and
31 play with the demo programs. Relax, rejoice :-)
33 - the GLUT library version 3.7 (or greater, aka GameGLUT) installed.
37 http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glut3.html
39 Note: glut-3.7 is included with Mesa 3.0 so if you've already
40 grabbed the latest version of mesa, you should have everything you
45 You will need the following files:
47 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 "fg", so simply typing "fg" at the prompt
83 since fg is a shell internal. Use the "runfg" script instead! Later
84 versions of FlightGear will be named "fgfs", so watch out!
86 Another problem with Linux/Glide is permission-related. All programs
87 accessing the Accelerator board need root permissions. The solution is
88 either to play as root or make the /usr/local/bin/fg binary "setuid
89 root", i.e. when this binary is run root priviledges are given. Do
90 this by issuing (as root)
92 chmod +s /usr/local/bin/fg
94 A solution for this problem is upcoming, keep an eye on the 3Dfx
97 3. Install the data files
99 Change to /usr/local/lib/FlightGear and unpack the data files:
101 tar xvfz WHERE_YOUDOWNLOADED_THE_FILES/az-patch-x.xx.tar.gz
102 tar xvfzWHERE_YOU DOWNLOADED_THE_FILES/base-x.xx.tar.gz
103 tar xvfz WHERE_YOU DOWNLOADED_THE_FILES/textures-x.xx.tar.gz
109 If everything went ok, simply type
113 at the prompt. You should see the FlightGear splash-screen and a few
114 seconds later you'll find youself somewhere in the desert, ready for
117 5. Strange things happen...
119 A note on the behaviour of Voodoo boards:
121 Your card comes packaged with a loop-through-cable. If you have only
122 one monitor, then the Voodoo will take it over when used. This means
123 that all the applications on your desktop will continue running but
124 you'll only see the FlightGear screen. If your window manager uses a
125 focus-follows-mouse policy, don't move the mouse. If you lose the
126 focus, there's no way to shut down FlightGear graciously! Better
127 solution: Use two monitors, one for your desktop, connect the other
128 one to your accelerator. You'll then get a window on your desktop
129 which manages all keyboard events and you're still able to see your
136 I hope this document provides some help. If it does, send virtual/real
137 beer to me, if not flame me!
140 <buckel@wmad95.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de>