How do I play FreeSpace 2 Open

Question

I went to the download-page downloaded the fs2_open_3.6.16.tar.bz2 package, extract it. runned it like so ./fs2_open_3.6.16 but i get the below error:

./fs2_open_3.6.16: error while loading shared libraries: liblua5.1.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

(The liblua5.1-0 package is installed)

I tried

ln -s ./liblua-5.1.so.5.1.x liblua-5.1.so

But it didn't work, same error.

Question: How do i fix this error and play the game

Note: I am using Ubuntu 12.10

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The output of: ldd ./fs2_open_3.6.16

linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fffa22cc000)
libSDL-1.2.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libSDL-1.2.so.0 (0x00007f0566c3e000)
libvorbis.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvorbis.so.0 (0x00007f0566a11000)
libvorbisfile.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvorbisfile.so.3 (0x00007f0566808000)
libtheora.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtheora.so.0 (0x00007f05665b7000)
libogg.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libogg.so.0 (0x00007f05663b0000)
libopenal.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libopenal.so.1 (0x00007f0566156000)
libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so.1 (0x00007f0565e39000)
libGLU.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLU.so.1 (0x00007f0565bba000)
libpng12.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng12.so.0 (0x00007f0565993000)
liblua5.1.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblua5.1.so.0 (0x00007f0565766000)
libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so.62 (0x00007f0565541000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f056523d000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f0564f41000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f0564d2b000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f056496b000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f056474e000)
libasound.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libasound.so.2 (0x00007f0564464000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f056425f000)
libpulse-simple.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpulse-simple.so.0 (0x00007f056405b000)
libpulse.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpulse.so.0 (0x00007f0563e13000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6 (0x00007f0563ad8000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXext.so.6 (0x00007f05638c6000)
libcaca.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcaca.so.0 (0x00007f05635f9000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f05633f0000)
libnvidia-tls.so.304.51 => /usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/tls/libnvidia-tls.so.304.51 (0x00007f05631ed000)
libnvidia-glcore.so.304.51 => /usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/libnvidia-glcore.so.304.51 (0x00007f0560e03000)
libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f0560beb000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f0566f05000)
libpulsecommon-2.1.so => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/pulseaudio/libpulsecommon-2.1.so (0x00007f056098e000)
libjson.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjson.so.0 (0x00007f0560784000)
libdbus-1.so.3 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdbus-1.so.3 (0x00007f0560540000)
libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007f0560322000)
libslang.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libslang.so.2 (0x00007f055ff91000)
libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007f055fd64000)
libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007f055fb3c000)
libwrap.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwrap.so.0 (0x00007f055f931000)
libsndfile.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsndfile.so.1 (0x00007f055f6cb000)
libasyncns.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libasyncns.so.0 (0x00007f055f4c5000)
libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXau.so.6 (0x00007f055f2c0000)
libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXdmcp.so.6 (0x00007f055f0ba000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnsl.so.1 (0x00007f055eea0000)
libFLAC.so.8 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libFLAC.so.8 (0x00007f055ec53000)
libvorbisenc.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvorbisenc.so.2 (0x00007f055e784000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007f055e568000)

I downloaded fs2open3616_1.0-1_amd64.deb insalled it with the software-center, and I also installed the missing lib files(i386) which it needed according to the ldd ./fs2_open_3.6.16 command, like so sudo apt-get install liblua5.1-0:1386 (After installing the i386 lib I updated the output of ldd ./fs2_open_3.6.16)

here is the error:

ERROR: " Web cursor bitmap not found. This is most likely due to one of three reasons: 1) You're running FreeSpace Open from somewhere other than your FreeSpace 2 folder;

2) You've somehow corrupted your FreeSpace 2 installation, e.g. by modifying or removing the retail VP files;

3) You haven't installed FreeSpace 2 at all. (Note that installing FreeSpace Open does NOT remove the need for a FreeSpace 2 installation.)

Number 1 can be fixed by simply moving the FreeSpace Open executable file to the FreeSpace 2 folder. Numbers 2 and 3 can be fixed by installing or reinstalling FreeSpace 2." at graphics/2d.cpp:645

Answer 1

Introduction

There can be a number of complications when setting up FreeSpace 2 Open (FS2Open) on an Ubuntu system. The original retail Freespace 2 game data is still needed, as the FS2Open files in part provide a way of playing the game on modern Linux based (and other) systems. As the official game forums is the place to go for a more general guide on running the game, I will concentrate on addressing how to compile the launcher and then how to start the game on Ubuntu.

A compiled binary of FS2Open (but not the launcher) is hosted at the official site and also here, though these links will change for later versions.

Initial Problems

1) We have already partly solved some problems in the comments:

• If you have problems with shared libraries, run ldd ./name_of_fs2_binary to see if everything is being found. If not, and if you are on a 64 bit system, you may need to install the i386 version of the package, with, for example,

  sudo apt-get install liblua5.1-0:i386
  

• The first run of the FS2Open binary (whether errors are encountered or not) will create ~/.fs2_open/fs2_open.ini, where important graphics settings will be stored, and can be edited manually or set with the wxlauncher (see below). They must be set properly by one or the other method however.

Main Problem

However, to solve the final issues with the game not starting up, it is probably easiest to compile and use wxlauncher, rather than manually creating a startup script.

If the launcher is to work after compiling and installing, you must have:

• installed the original Freespace 2 data files from your retail copy of the game correctly and ensured that the permissions are correct. For more information, see the official game forums. It is important to say that all files must be lowercase or the game will not find them and you will get errors.
• moved the downloaded FreeSpace 2 Open binary to the top level of the game folder (/home/$USER/games/FreeSpace2 for example).

• installed openal; however, if you decide to configure the game setup manually and not use the launcher, you will still need to install openal with

  sudo apt-get install libopenal1
  

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Compilation and Installation

Now, to the compilation and installation of the launcher. Download the appropriate source code package from the official site and check the sha1 signature with sha1sum.

As usual, quite a few dependencies are necessary. The usual packages can be installed with:

sudo apt-get install cmake build-essential checkinstall

The specific packages that are necessary can be installed with:

sudo apt-get install python python-dev python-markdown libwxgtk2.8-dev libwxbase2.8-dev libopenal1 libopenal-dev wx2.8-headers wx-common wx2.8-examples wx2.8-i18n libsdl1.2-dev libsdl1.2debian

These are the package names on 12.04, but they should be the same for 12.10. The readme included with the download notes that the version of wxWidgets should be 2.8.10+, but not 2.9.x.

Using terminal, cd to your download folder and run

tar -xzvf wxLauncher-0.9.1.tar.gz

Now, cd to wxLauncher-0.9.1 and, because this is a cmake build, we usually now create a build folder and move to that:

mkdir build && cd build

Next configure the build with

cmake .. -DUSE_OPENAL=1

(For a debug build add, -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug)

I found that another compile flag specified in the readme included with the download wasn't necessary, as when the program was installed with checkinstall and then run, that particular error did not occur and all the launcher's files were being found correctly.

Now, run make to compile the program, and then from the same directory (build), run

sudo checkinstall --pkgname=wxlauncher --provides=wxlauncher

and keep pressing return to accept the other defaults.

Now type wxlauncher and you will be able to specify the path of your FreeSpace 2 main folder with the game data and with the downloaded FS2Open binary. You can also set your options and launch the game (screenshots below):

Make sure that you select the correct freespace 2 folder; the options will appear when the binary is detected. Click refresh and click the box again if it isn't detected.

Answer 2

I solved this problem by installing the lua.i386 package. Then, I made a link to liblua-5.1.so in /usr/lib, named liblua5.1.so.0.

sudo apt-get install liblua5.1-0:i386

Then, run

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/liblua-5.1.so /usr/lib/liblua5.1.so.0