Q3Test for Gnu/Linux-systems
by Treatment

Disclaimer: I am sharing with you my experience running Q3Test-linux on my own computer. You can use this article as a help-guide to installing Q3Test-linux on your own linux-box. As with overclocking, your mileage will vary.

Intro

Most everyone in the computing-press and the computing-industry regards Gnu/Linux systems (Linux for short) as a server operating-system and, as such, does only server-stuff and requires server-admins to appreciate and work with. Well, what if I tell you now that Linux is an excellent gaming-platform as well? Don’t believe me? One word: Q3TEST.

Read on.

Gone were the days when linux-enthusiasts shout in joy "Wow! My box is actually doing something now!". General software-applications have been and still being ported to the Gnu/Linux-platform, but the most important applications to a regular PC-user is still shy of the Gnu/Linux platform: GAMES. There are companies that are porting popular Win32-games to the linux-platform, such as Loki (Civilization) and Bungee (Myth) software houses, but the linux-gaming world has been jolted and given a much needed boost from a major PC gaming-powerhouse and its upcoming highly-anticipated new game: ID Software and the Quake3 Arena.

The venerable IdSoftware has graced the PC and MAC platforms with the beta-test version of their upcoming Quake3-Arena. It’s called Q3Test and is available for download at a number of gaming-sites. It’s a radical program in that Quake3 is gonna be available and released for the Gnu/Linux-platform at the same time with the Win32 and Mac versions. So far, my experience with Q3Test under Linux has been excellent. There’re a number of people who have reported and have posted bug-reports and run-arounds with Q3Test-linux. Mind you, this is a new ground for the general linux-user and Q3Test does have its quirks. I’m here to report to you my own experiences with it.

Q3Test requires a 3d-accelarator card, and the Linux-version currently supports only 3dfx-cards. To put it another way, Q3Test for Linux will only run on GLide-based video-cards such as the Voodoo lineups (voodoo-1, rush, voodoo-2, banshee, voodoo-3). That’s what it said from the README.Q3TEST file. I have not tested Q3Test on a TNT/TNT2 and other cards, as I only got a Banshee and don’t have enuff clamshells to secure other cards.

I am gonna share with you my Q3Test-linux experiences and possibly help you with playing Q3Test on your own linux-box. I’m not gonna cover Linux-101 here nor am I gonna cover connecting online using PPP. I’m only gonna cover Q3Test and 3dfx glide-server installations. I will be assuming that the linux-reader/s are familiar with basic Linux commands and XFree, fairly knowledgeable about their video-card and monitor, have a fast internet-connection already in place, know how to play Quake-games, and have the spirit of adventure in them. Linux is not for the fainthearted.

Systems specs

The following are the relevant hardware-specs of my computer running Q3Test under linux:

• Celeron 464a (overclocked 300a) retail
• 64mb RAM PC-100
• Three old 2gb EIDE Seagate hard-drives (linux is on the 3^rd drive /dev/hdc1)
• 14" Mag monitor
• Guillermot Phoenix Banshee
• SoundBlaster-32 isa
• Linksys Etherfast 10/100 pci nic
• @home cable-modem service
• Microsoft Ergo Keyboard and PS/2 mouse

On the linux software-side:

• Redhat 5.2 with Linux-kernel 2.2.10 stable-release
• Gnome 1.0
• Xfree 3.3.5 with 3dfx Glide beta-server extensions
• Netscape v4.61

That’s pretty much an average PC, I guess. J

That’s it. Most of the other software we need for Q3Test needs to be downloaded and are easily installed.

Linux-level of user

You either have to be pretty smart or pretty crazy to put and use linux on your own PC alongside Win9x. I belong to the, gulp, crazy-group. Actually, it’s pretty easy to have both Linux and Win9x existing on your computer. I always recommend to install Linux on a separate hard-drive, since hard-drive prices are cheap nowadays, and installing it last. However, I’m not gonna cover Linux-installation here right now, but I can recommend Matt Welsh’s "Running Linux" book to anyone who wants to install Linux on their computers.

Q3Test Installation

Some *nix commands

I’m gonna assume that the reader has a working Linux-system and knows some basic *nix stuff. There are, actually, only a few *nix-commands that you will need to install and play Q3Test. These are:

• ls ß - list-command. Equivalent to dir in the DOS-world, which is actually used as well in linux.
• cd ß - change directory. Same as in the DOS-world
• ./<program-name> ß - the way to run an application-program from a command-prompt or a an xterm window
• su ß - super-user logon. Usually invoked when you need to be root or need root access-permissions to do any installation or whatever.
• cp ß the COPY command in *nix
• mcopy ß - part of the built-in mtools-package in linux that mimics regular DOS-commands. This one functions the same as the dos copy-command.
• chmod ß - this is the command to change mode or access-rights to certain files and certain devices in *nix.
• rpm ß - a common package-manager installer first used on Redhat-systems.
• startx ß - regular command to start xwindows. Kinda like "win" from a dos-prompt.
• / ß - forward-slash. Standard *nix directory-separator or traversing. Similar to DOS’s "\" backslash.

We will use these commands in action further down this article. Don’t worry. I’m not gonna overwhelm you with *nix stuff. This is an article about installing and playing a Q3Test in Linux, not Linux-101.

What you’ll need to download

I have to tell you that the current stable-version of Xfree windows system for *nix platforms do not have an official native driver for 3dfx-cards, as well as other whiz-bang 3d-cards such as TNT2, et al. However, there are smart individuals that already hacked a 3dfx-server driver for use with the latest Xfree windows system.. These hacks are free and hopefully will be included in the next version-release (4.0) of Xfree. We will be using Darryl Strauss and Scott Berlin’s 3dfx-server for Xwindows and glibc. You can get 3dfx-server driver at:

• http://glide.xxedgexx.com/3DfxRPMS_vb_glibc.html
  

It is very important that you follow Darryl’s instruction on the above url. Foremost, you need to know what version of glibc version your linux has. Here’s a tip:

• type the following at the command-prompt or any xterm-window:
• ls –l /lib/libc*
  

• If it shows 2.0.7, you will need to download Glide_V3-2.60-5.i386.glibc20.rpm
• If it shows 2.1.1, you will need to download Glide_V3-2.60-6.i386.rpm

The reason you need to know this is to prevent downloading/installing the wrong glide-3d driver, which usually results in black-screens when trying to run Q3Test.

Here’s another site that pretty much covers 3DFX-howto, especially running Q3Test:

• http://www.netroedge.com/~phil/3dfx-howto.html

This is a direct quote from the site:

This is an attempt to show how (in theory) one could use their 3dfx card to use some OpenGL based end product like Quake 3 Test under Linux. Notice, Q3T has a problem with it's default configuration which makes it not work 'out-of-the-box'

(as of version 1.05), so replace the config file with the one below. I'll be assuming that you have a Voodoo3 (this may work with a Banshee as well), and a semi-recient Linux installation with access to the usual tools.

The site deals heavily on Mesa-stuff. For our purposes, the only things you will need from this site is read about test3dfx command and to download/copy is their Q3CONFIG file to your Q3Test directory. More on that later.

Finally, you need to download Q3Test for Linux. You can get it from http://www.quake3arena.com main-site, or at the mirrors listed from http://www.bluesnews.com. The Q3Test for Linux comes in both tar-gzipped format and rpm-format. I used the rpm-format.

So, fire up your Linux-system and please download the stuff mentioned above from the sites/urls mentioned above, and we will go the Installation-phase.

3dfx-driver Installation and testing:

For this phase, you will need to su as ROOT, since these phase requires root permission-levels. I prefer doing this phase outside of Xwindows. Recall that you will need Darryl’s 3dfx-driver for Xwindows in order to get Q3Test running on your linux-system. If you already downloaded the relevant files from the site and followed Darryl’s instructions, you’re set to go. If you got lost there, here are some guidelines: