Installing eve on linux

So, it came time for me to install a newer version of linux. I had been using ubuntu 8.something and its' support cycle ended a while ago. Security updates stopped at some point, and more recently the software repositories were taken offline. The system still worked, of course, but upgrading at some point was inevitable and I finally got around to it this weekend.

The most recent ubuntu version is 10.10, but I went with 10.04 because it's a "long term support" version and is actually supported for a year past the end of 10.10's lifecycle. I hate upgrading.

It's come a long way in the past few years. Nonfunctional alpha-quality tools from old version now Just Work. .config files I had mastered writing have been replaced by graphical tools. The UI is extremely responsive, which had been a problem in a few older releases. In mplayer subtitle errors have been fixed, and running the 64-bit version means CPU use is lower. Flash now works, even on 64-bit, without video stuttering. It isn't installed by default due to being non-free, but can be installed via the ubuntu software installer ('non-free' refers to software which is not open source).

Oh, and my frame rate in eve tripled.

The biggest issue I encountered was the astonishingly ugly default splash screen and theme, but this was easily fixed.


How to install eve on linux:

Tools:
Computer which can run eve
NVIDIA graphics card
(apparently ATI actually works now, but I can't guarantee that)

Step 1:
Install linux. This is ridiculously easy: Download a disk image, burn it to a CD, boot from the CD and click through the fisher-price graphical installer. You can use a distro other than ubuntu of course, but this guide is partly distro-specific.

Step 2:
After booting into your new system you will need to enable the non-free nvidia driver. There will be a little icon at upper right with a circuit board and a padlock. Click it, select install drivers and activate the recommended driver. A restart will be required.

Step 3:
Download the eve installer.

Step 4:
Install wine by running 'sudo apt-get install wine' in a terminal (applications->utilities->terminal I think). Many of the steps here which use terminal commands can be accomplished with clicky stuff too, but it's easier for me this way.

Note: Pasting text into the terminal may require you to use ctrl-shift-v rather than ctrl-v.

Step 5:
Run winecfg. Go to graphics and set it to run in a virtual desktop. You wouldn't want to run eve in fullscreen mode, would you? Would you? Why do you hate everything that is good in the world?

You actually might, in which case knock yourself out, but windowed mode is safer -- linux has a sketchy history when it comes to switching resolutions and using fullscreen graphics acceleration, and at some point in the distant past alt-tabbing away from fullscreen eve caused it to crash.

Note that the client can change the size of the virtual desktop by switching the resolution in the client's graphic settings.

Step 6:
Run the eve installer. You'll have to right click, go to properties->permissions and set it as executable before it will run.

Step 7:
The eve installer doesn't work, unless you downloaded the offline installer, in which case the patching tool doesn't work. The repair tool, however, does work and will happily construct an up-to-date client from whatever it starts with. Let it do its thing.

Step 8:
Eve is missing its' fonts. They are actually present in a default 10.04 installation, but are not in wine's fonts folder. Run "cp /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/* ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/Fonts/"

Step 9:
Disable the new jukebox service, as it is said to cause crashes. Run "mv ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/CCP/EVE/res/audio/Jukebox/ ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/CCP/EVE/res/audio/_Jukebox". The splash screen music will still work, but in-game music won't. If you want the eve music you can open the jukebox folder and drag the songs to your music player of choice. You can use ctrl+h to reveal the .wine folder in your home directory.

Step 10:
Run eve from the desktop icon or applications->wine->programs.

Step 11 (optional):
Anti-aliasing cannot be enabled by default. It can be made enableable if you like, but cannot be used at the same time as either HDR or bloom. If you wish to enable it, open ~/.wine/user.reg and paste the below registry entry at the bottom:

[Software\\Wine\\Direct3D]
"Multisampling"="enabled"

Once this is done restart the client, disable HRD and bloom and anti-aliasing will be useable.