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I installed Dwarf Fortress on my Linux VPS to use with dfterm. It's running Ubuntu 10.04 Server x86-32. I'm fairly certain I have all the dependencies:

I've installed:

  • ncurses
  • ncursesw
  • libsdl
  • libsdl-image
  • libgtk
  • libglu
  • libopenal1

I had to turn sound off or it will instantly segfault, and I set the display mode to text. I've made no other changes to the config.

However, even before I go near dfterm, it won't run properly. It just displays a blank screen. What could be causing this? Is there a dependency I missed? Is there something else I should have changed in the config?

Given that it is a server, there is a good chance that if there is a missing dependency, it's something that the devs went "Sure, everyone has that" and didn't bother to list.

Other ncurses applications (vim, irssi use it, I think?) work fine.

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  • I originally asked this on gaming, but people there suggested to ask here: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/4716/…
    – Macha
    Aug 7, 2010 at 22:27
  • Huh, what an interesting idea. Can you tell if the game is trying to do anything? Run 'top' from another terminal and see if it's using any CPU.
    – Nicholas Knight
    Aug 8, 2010 at 2:54

4 Answers 4

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I was able to recreate the segfaulting by running df on a regular Ubuntu install with X turned off.

...
(Dwarf_Fortress:5346): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_new: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (parent)' failed
Segmentation fault

I suspect the problem is that this game expects to have a functioning GL driver available. And for that you need X running. But a VPS doesn't have X!

Instead, use Xvfb, which is a "fake" virtual X. You'll need to install xvfb and whatever dependencies it wants (probably xorg-server-core and a bunch of other stuff that may not be installed on Ubuntu Server).

Start the fake xserver up like this:

 $ Xvfb :1 -screen 0 1024x768x16 &

Then make sure your DISPLAY variable is pointed to it:

$ export DISPLAY=:1
$ ./df

I also needed to disable sound and run in TEXT mode, but it worked this way, with no X running. I hope it works for you.

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4
  • The segfault is gone, but when I run it, I get "Fallback: Opened libncurses, output may be broken. Symbol not found: waddnwstr.", and gives no more output, which can be exited with Ctrl-X but totally messes up the ssh session. (makes the width 80+the prompt rather than 80 inc. the prompt). This is the closest answer I got, so I'm giving you the bounty anyway, before it expires, but I hope that this new problem can also be solved also.
    – Macha
    Aug 20, 2010 at 17:45
  • Right, I was missing a symlink there. Fixed that. Now all I get is grey output (not the black of my terminal, but a different grey colour).
    – Macha
    Aug 20, 2010 at 18:07
  • I got that symbol not found error, and installing lib32ncursesw5-dev and lib32ncursesw5 (I'm on 64-bit) solved it.
    – Bryce
    Aug 21, 2010 at 23:21
  • I am using 32 bit. I had to create a symlink for /usr/lib/libncursesw.so -> /lib/libncursesw.so.5 for the symbol not found error.
    – Macha
    Aug 24, 2010 at 16:16
2

You need to edit your init.txt. Look for a setting for [PRINT_MODE:2D] and change it to [PRINT_MODE:TEXT]

You probably want to change to [SOUND:NO] as well.

You'll only run at 80x24 unless you run inside of screen or tmux though.

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1

Have you seen this DFTerm article on the DF Wiki? It lists some dependencies that you don't seem to have listed above....

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1
  • Those dependencies are to compile dfterm, which I have done. It is Dwarf Fortress that won't run.
    – Macha
    Aug 20, 2010 at 17:26
1

You could try to use ldd to see if there is a shared object missing.

For example, something like:

ldd /usr/local/bin/df

Everything that ldd lists as "not found" is missing.

You should also try to look at all the *.so files (with ldd) if any in the game folder. You can find the *.so files by using this command: find . -iname '*.so' -type f

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7
  • It's Dwarf Fortress itself, not dfterm, that won't run.
    – Macha
    Aug 8, 2010 at 20:26
  • Then use ldd on that executable, I don't know the program so I don't know the name of it. I don't even know if it is in the /usr/local/bin folder...
    – LasseLuttermann
    Aug 8, 2010 at 22:09
  • ldd gives: "Not a dynamic executable."
    – Macha
    Aug 10, 2010 at 19:23
  • Oh, there's two, one just runs the other. How will I tell what's a missing shared object?
    – Macha
    Aug 10, 2010 at 19:38
  • everything that ldd lists as "not found" is missing ;)
    – LasseLuttermann
    Aug 10, 2010 at 19:46

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