Quake 4 crashes on startup.

[Mako]

Hey, I'm new here and all that. I'm also a tad new to Linux, though I'm learning fast.

I'm trying to get Quake 4 to run on Ubuntu 6.10 x86, but when I attempt to run it my screen resolution changes and it kills my mouse. I don't exactly know what's going on and I can't paste the terminal information because the mouse stops functioning.

My system can run Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory fine, so I know at least my drivers work. If I can just find some way to paste what the terminal says you might be able to help me more.

I tried searching everywhere for this issue, as far as I know at least one person has the problem but they too couldn't get it fixed. I've come accross the SDL Packages problem many times during my searching, but I can assure you that isn't the issue.

Does anyone know what's going on here? Or at least how I can grab the log from the terminal?

My specs are as follows:
Ubuntu 6.10 x86
ATi Radeon X800 PCI-E
-(drivers: 8.34.8-x86)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
AMD Athlon64 3000+

- thanks

[techieMoe]

Try launching Quake 4 from a terminal window to begin with. That way when you crash to the desktop you've at least got a log of what it attempted to do. Have you updated your client to the latest point release?

Another thing you might try is piping all the output from Quake 4 into a file you can then read later. You can do this like so:

./quake4 > someTextFile.txt

The greater than character says "pipe all output this way->". In this case it's a text file. Since ET is working for you, I'd wager a guess right now that it's a video configuration issue with Quake itself. You might need to fiddle with your .quake4/quake4.cfg file.

[Mako]

Try launching Quake 4 from a terminal window to begin with. That way when you crash to the desktop you've at least got a log of what it attempted to do. Have you updated your client to the latest point release?

I always launch it from the terminal. Unlike ET it didn't install a quicklaunch icon. Yea, I have the latest version (v1.3.2), the newest version (v1.4) is still beta.

Another thing you might try is piping all the output from Quake 4 into a file you can then read later. You can do this like so:

./quake4 > someTextFile.txt

The greater than character says "pipe all output this way->". In this case it's a text file. Since ET is working for you, I'd wager a guess right now that it's a video configuration issue with Quake itself. You might need to fiddle with your .quake4/quake4.cfg file.

That seems like a good idea, I'll try that right now.

EDIT: Sweet, it worked. I have the file attached. I have no idea what's going on with it, there's a darn lot of "WARNING" messages. Most of them seem to refer to missing files, which is odd because I followed install instructions precisely.

EDIT2: I noticed the "could not create" error on the very last line, so I tried starting it as a super user. The file is attached; the only difference I can notice is the absence of that last line.

[techieMoe]

At this point I'm curious what steps you went through to install it, because it seems to be missing a lot of files. Can you run me through what you did, step by step?

[Zelmo]

Sorry to jump in the middle here, but I noticed in your log file that the game has found (and loaded) pak013 through pak020, but there's no mention of pak001 through pak012. Aren't those some of the files that needed to be copied over from the CDs/DVD?

On the other hand, the zpak_english files are found, and as I recall, those also had to be copied from the discs. So I'd guess one of three things went wrong:
1. You forgot some of the pakXXX files when you were copying.
2. The files in question ended up in the wrong place.
3. The files got copied over with a wrong set of permissions (as often happens when working with optical media).

Can you check that the other pakXXX files are in the install directory (/usr/local/games/quake4/q4base)? And check the long listing (ls -l "pak*") to see if they're missing read permissions, or something funky like that.

[Mako]

At this point I'm curious what steps you went through to install it, because it seems to be missing a lot of files. Can you run me through what you did, step by step?

I followed some instructions I found online, after which I discovered it was just a direct cut/paste from the .txt file found after the installer is executed:

Quake 4 (TM) GNU/Linux
==================

Installation instructions:
--------------------------

A licensed copy of Quake 4 (TM) retail for Windows(r) is required.
You will copy the assets files from it and use the CD key.

PLEASE NOTE: The Linux version of Quake 4 (TM) is NOT supported by
Activision Customer Support.

The following files must be copied from the install CDs [1]
to your q4base/ directory ( md5 sums provided as reference ):

If you copy them before running the installer you will need to
create the paths, by default /usr/local/games/quake4/q4base
If you copy after running the installer, make sure not to
replace any paks the installer might have provided.

a9f6a2e4bf8e193591954f75d1d39f85 game000.pk4
b201b914167f47061fa5f975af527122 pak001.pk4
dabe2c88e004198947431250e3f4ca1d pak002.pk4
8573f05af4c9568880cc464d06292079 pak003.pk4
12ff4006a7f7181ac16835d05c59905f pak004.pk4
3576213f4e00f06baf3cd5de089a538a pak005.pk4
aec7bb418b9a86256f9e5daee894dee2 pak006.pk4
0f53b4fb4df2c14fcd10012baf8b2f87 pak007.pk4
b099d75869f0ffcbcb8e5166374af345 pak008.pk4
cb2b44bf573559dc19b488d9e1e5bec3 pak009.pk4
d024073349dc917b4feab49e6abc417b pak010.pk4
98c854d94ce1da5272952b77821823df pak011.pk4
e77a2fda6656495d38773e05bbffda33 pak012.pk4
669d6d9a30b798d19434972475b98c53 zpak_english.pk4
2cabddd692e214c78c20a464da43f1ef zpak_french.pk4
4ee7eb637cde6bcfe3a9ffac5e4579dd zpak_italian.pk4
36eee38e6c2dce12986f7192a5a996e5 zpak_spanish.pk4

Note: the Linux installer will reinstall the game*.pk4.

Note: the German version of the game uses a completely
different set of assets. See the FAQ ( URL below ) for
details.

Start the game with the command: quake4
Start the SMP-accelerated client with: quake4-smp ( new in v1.2 )
Start the dedicated server with the command: quake4-dedicate

I did everything it said, and the files are there.

Sorry to jump in the middle here, but I noticed in your log file that the game has found (and loaded) pak013 through pak020, but there's no mention of pak001 through pak012. Aren't those some of the files that needed to be copied over from the CDs/DVD?

On the other hand, the zpak_english files are found, and as I recall, those also had to be copied from the discs. So I'd guess one of three things went wrong:
1. You forgot some of the pakXXX files when you were copying.
2. The files in question ended up in the wrong place.
3. The files got copied over with a wrong set of permissions (as often happens when working with optical media).

Can you check that the other pakXXX files are in the install directory (/usr/local/games/quake4/q4base)? And check the long listing (ls -l "pak*") to see if they're missing read permissions, or something funky like that.

That doesn't make any sense... as far as I can tell, pak013-pak020 don't even exist. That said, pak001-pak012 are in the proper directory. What you said about the permissions is possible, though. Checking the long listing of one of the .pk4 files outputs this:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1706451 2007-03-19 13:03 game000.pk4

EDIT: Ugh, I feel like an idiot. After fiddling around a little more, I realized that I had those .pk4 files in the wrong directory. After moving them and trying again, it didn't work. However, trying it as a super user did work. The game runs fine now, thanks for your help.

That aside, I have two more related questions. Firstly, how do I make a quicklaunch icon for Quake4 and run the game as a normal user? And how would I properly uninstall it if I wish to do so? I got installing most things down pat, but I still don't know how to properly uninstall software using Linux.

[Zelmo]

I'm going to guess that installing the game as root is what's preventing you from running it as a normal user. If you run the installer as your regular user, it'll install (in your home directory) with the right permissions for you to play it as a regular user. There are ways to install it to /usr/local/games by fiddling with groups and permissions, but it really doesn't matter where it installs.

As far as uninstalling, one of the beautiful things about id games is how self-contained they are. You can just delete the directory where it installed, and that's it. (You can also move the directory wherever you want, including to another computer, and it'll still work fine.) There's a .quake4 directory in your home directory where all your personal settings are kept (plus any pk4 files you care to add for just your user), so you can delete that if you want a really complete uninstall, but it's best to keep that directory around so you don't lose your settings.

The quicklaunch icon depends on what desktop environment you're using. I can't help you with Gnome, but for KDE you just right-click on the K menu icon, start the "Menu editor", and a nice GUI comes up where you can add programs to your launch menu.

[Mako]

I'm going to guess that installing the game as root is what's preventing you from running it as a normal user. If you run the installer as your regular user, it'll install (in your home directory) with the right permissions for you to play it as a regular user. There are ways to install it to /usr/local/games by fiddling with groups and permissions, but it really doesn't matter where it installs.

The problem was that I could only install it as root. If I tried to do it as a normal user I would get "COULD NOT WRITE" errors and it would stop. Of course, I could always have installed it to my home directory instead of /usr/local/games instead. I never even thought of it.

As far as uninstalling, one of the beautiful things about id games is how self-contained they are. You can just delete the directory where it installed, and that's it. (You can also move the directory wherever you want, including to another computer, and it'll still work fine.) There's a .quake4 directory in your home directory where all your personal settings are kept (plus any pk4 files you care to add for just your user), so you can delete that if you want a really complete uninstall, but it's best to keep that directory around so you don't lose your settings.

Wow, that's all? Not having a system registry seems to be a good thing. If you "uninstall" just by deleting the directory in Windows you're considered a heathen.

The quicklaunch icon depends on what desktop environment you're using. I can't help you with Gnome, but for KDE you just right-click on the K menu icon, start the "Menu editor", and a nice GUI comes up where you can add programs to your launch menu.

Hmm, I think GNOME has something similar. I'll mess around with it, thanks.

[techieMoe]

The problem was that I could only install it as root. If I tried to do it as a normal user I would get "COULD NOT WRITE" errors and it would stop. Of course, I could always have installed it to my home directory instead of /usr/local/games instead. I never even thought of it.

Bingo. If you try to install to /usr/local/games (or anywhere other than your home directory) as a normal user Linux won't let you. I generally install Id's games into my home directory and all is well.

Wow, that's all? Not having a system registry seems to be a good thing. If you "uninstall" just by deleting the directory in Windows you're considered a heathen.

Not all programs install or uninstall exactly the same in a Linux system. In the case of Id's games (and some other commercial games like Neverwinter Nights and the Unreal Tournament series) they're self-contained and all you have to delete is the main directory and your local preferences. For programs you install with an RPM or through apt-get, the install procedure is a bit different. Not necessarily harder, but different.

[M.e.M.O.]

Bingo. If you try to install to /usr/local/games (or anywhere other than your home directory) as a normal user Linux won't let you. I generally install Id's games into my home directory and all is well.



Not all programs install or uninstall exactly the same in a Linux system. In the case of Id's games (and some other commercial games like Neverwinter Nights and the Unreal Tournament series) they're self-contained and all you have to delete is the main directory and your local preferences. For programs you install with an RPM or through apt-get, the install procedure is a bit different. Not necessarily harder, but different.

i can confess for UT2k4 .

installing it as root makes a lot of problems. i installed using my home dir and as no root. its works fine.