FFXI Running on Linux! (Ubuntu 8.04)

[Galkarion]

Finally have FFXI running under Linux. I've only heard of some people getting it to work in WINE, Cedega, CrossOver, CrossOver Games etc etc but have never seen a screen shot. If you have found a better way to get this running, please post with screenshot and share your experience!

So for the setup I'm using VMWare Workstation 6.5 Beta, with the debug mode hacked out. It's running Windows XP Pro and is simulating 1GB RAM with 128MB VRAM. All sound works, FPS ranges from 20-30 depending on menus etc (AGP Texture Acceleration not implemented in VMWare yet) but overall it's extremely playable!

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/8171/ffxicz7.th.png (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ffxicz7.png) http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/305/chocoboyo8.th.png (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chocoboyo8.png) http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/9407/raisesf5.th.png (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=raisesf5.png) http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/4330/sandoriamc9.th.png (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sandoriamc9.png)

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

[Ellipses]

Nice! What kind of hardware have you got? Does it not work with debug mode left in, or was that just incidental information? Have you found anything specific that doesn't work?

[Mhurron]

So its not running on Linux at all.

"Hey everyone, I have X running on Linux, all I had to do was buy a copy of Windows!"

[Sabaron]

So its not running on Linux at all.

"Hey everyone, I have X running on Linux, all I had to do was buy a copy of Windows!"

Why would you need Windows to run X?

...or are you referring to X as a variable rather than as the most popular GUI service for Unix-based machines.

[Mhurron]

X11 for Windows XP and Vista (http://mediakey.dk/~cc/x11-for-windows-xp-and-vista/)

But yes, X there is a place holder, as properly it is not simply called X but X11, X.org or the X Windowing System.

[Kittyneko]

X?

Isn't this just typically running FFXI on Windows? (In VMWare)

Wasn't this already possible? (With VMWare)

[Mhurron]

X?

Isn't this just typically running FFXI on Windows? (In VMWare)

Wasn't this already possible? (With VMWare)
X Window System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11R6)

Yes, this is exactly what it is.

Sort of, but only with Fusion 2 and possibly Workstation 6.

[Kittyneko]

I don't see why X is important in this matter? I don't know X.

I read the wikipedia article, you mean it's running on a different computer?

[Mhurron]

X11 is the (most popular) windowing system on UNIX and unix like OS's. It manages how things are drawn on the screen. It is the layer above the Kernel and device drivers. X11 runs under KDE, GNOME, AfterStep or whatever your window manager of choice is.

[Ellipses]

In an alternate universe, Mhurron uses "Y" or "$program" or something in his initial post, and the thread stays on topic for two whole hours.

[Mhurron]

Where's the fun in that?

[Galkarion]

Wow people sure get off-topic. :thumbsup: But to answer the initial topic-tosser; although FFXI is running in a virtual machine, the code to run that machine is on Linux. Thus, FFXI is 'technically' running in Linux. Also, VMWare hasn't had 3D Acceleration until now, so it was not possible before.

Nice! What kind of hardware have you got? Does it not work with debug mode left in, or was that just incidental information? Have you found anything specific that doesn't work?


System Specs
Manufacturer: Custom
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ 2.4GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Hard Drive: 1 TB
Video Card: Dual NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX SLI 1024MB
Monitor: 27" Magnavox
Sound Card: Speakers (Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM))
Keyboard: ZBoard
Mouse: Mx510 Logitech Gaming Mouse
Mouse Surface: Mouse Pad
Operating System: Ubuntu (8.04, Hardy Heron)

As far as things not working, I haven't seen any issues anywhere. Here's how to get it setup for anyone who's interested.

To get started, make sure you're downloading VMWare Workstation 6.5 Beta (http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/workstation6.5) and you have a copy of Windows XP.

Next, download the vmware-any-any-update116 patch (http://vmkernelnewbies.googlegroups.com/web/vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz?gda=oFVHGU4AAACoS1kp-oDJJryEOs2M4vP_Mi3WfeJPizd4k3PMBcSlomG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDSGXdvV5n_wsDUmPsx7kjwlI6ntQuOhZp5frm-yOmhQvw).

Then, open your favorite terminal and enter the following commands:
tar -xvzf VMware-workstation-e.x.p-84113.x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xvzf vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
cd vmware-any-any-update116
rm vmmon.tar
cp ../vmware-distrib/lib/modules/source/vmmon.tar ./
sudo ../vmware-install.pl
Do not run vmware-config.pl when asked to. You need to do one more command before vmware-config.pl:
sudo ./runme.plRun vmware-config.pl when asked.

Now we have to remove the debug mode, or you will have some major performance issues:

cd /usr/lib/vmware/bin
cp vmware-vmx-debug vmware-vmx-debug-old
sudo cp -a vmware-vmx vmware-vmx-debug


I do want to point out you will have a VMCI Socket error, it's fine. Now you can open VMWare Workstation (With Ubuntu 8.04 it should be in Accessories > System Tools.) and set up the Virtual Machine. Use your preferences, but you want to make sure you have at least:
Hard Drive Space: 15GB+ You may not have enough space to install FFXI with the expansions if any lower.

RAM: 1024MB+ If you have 2GB, use 1GB. 4GB, then 2GB. Use what you can, but don't pass the threshold.

Video RAM: 128MB You are going to want at least a 256MB video card, and I haven't been able to change the size yet.
Before you power on the virtual machine, make sure 3D Acceleration is NOT CHECKED.

Turn on the machine, and start the install for Windows XP. Luckily the process is pretty much automatic in VMWare 6.5, so just sit back and wait. Once Windows is installed, install the VMWare Tools and shutdown the virtual machine. Now enable 3D acceleration, then power the virtual machine on again and install DirextX 9.0c. Now on the Guest OS (Windows XP), click Start > Run and type dxdiag. Test out directdraw and direct3D. If everything looks good, then start installing FFXI!

I will make a note that because of the lack in AGP Texture Acceleration, POL's Menus will bog performance. Just bare with it and get it installed. After FFXI is installed and patched, do not start FFXI. Restart your actual computer, then start VMWare. Before you start FFXI, go to the FFXI Settings and set everything as low as possible. It will be ugly, but if that works then you can slowly increase settings to your liking.

Good luck and welcome to Vana'diel, Linux!

[Mhurron]

although FFXI is running in a virtual machine, the code to run that machine is on Linux. Thus, FFXI is 'technically' running in Linux.
No it's not. It is running in Windows. Windows is running on virtual hardware. You could take that virtual machine and run it on Workstation 6.5 Beta for Windows or Fusion 2 Beta on OS X and the VM would continue to run as if nothing happened, because as far as the Guest is concerned, nothing did.

VMWare is doing the magic, it's not anything to do with the host OS.

BTW, the any-any patch isn't needed for WS 6.5 yet.

[Galkarion]

Yes VMWare is doing the 'magic', but your examples are poorly chosen. Workstation 6.5 Beta for Windows runs Windows horribly (how ironic) and could not run FFXI by simply using the same virtual machine. You wouldn't need to anyway, since Windows XP can already run FFXI. VMWare Fusion (Mac) is completely different from VMWare Workstation 6.5 Beta for Linux. Fusion is much more advanced, can already run FFXI, and again it's running on a Mac, not Linux.

And yes, the any-any patch is needed for 6.5 on Linux to get the network and vmware-config.pl working.

[Mhurron]

Fusion couldn't run FFXI until Fusion 2.

Once Workstation is out of beta, there will be little difference in the performance of Workstation on Windows or Linux.

Fusion 2 and Workstation 6.5 are the same level virtual Hardware.

All VMWare hosted products use the same codebase, they are not 'completely' different.

The any-any is needed? Well shit, I better shutdown my VM's and install it right away.

But you go ahead and believe what you want.

[Galkarion]

Any reason you need to come trolling? Cause ya know....I haven't seen you post anything about getting FFXI working on Linux. But please, if you know a better way do post it. I'm posting from my experience, what I had to do to get it working. Doesn't matter what your opinion is about how I did it, unless you can do it better. If you can't do it better, then try to be supportive/helpful instead of pompous.

[Mhurron]

I haven't seen you post anything about getting FFXI working on Linux
Not possible at this time, and I have said that several times.

Oh, and your 'revelation' that 'suddenly' it worked on VMware:
http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/computers/71685-vmware-fusion-2-beta-1-a.html

And yes, I can do better. I could partition that drive, install windows on it and FFXI in that and been playing the whole time without that layer of virtualization.

Oh, and for future reference, trolling does not mean being told you're wrong.

[Galkarion]

Well you're correct about VMWare Fusion 2 Beta (don't use a Mac, so I could care less). But FFXI is running in Linux, whether it's in a virtual machine or not. How am I wrong about that?

[Feba]

But FFXI is running in Linux,

No, it isn't. FFXI is running in Windows XP, same as it always has. There's a virtual machine that's capable of running FFXI within XP. Yay. But you're still not running it in linux.

Three reasons:
1- This (legally) requires a Windows License (and I believe a VMware license for long term use)
2- Due to being in a virtual machine, this is going to be much slower than if it was actually running on linux (be it native or Wine)
3- Linux is running the virtual machine, and not ffxi specifically (as would be the case if it were native or using wine)

This might be nice for you, but it's not FFXI running on linux. This is like saying "I found a way to use Linux and still run <favorite program here>", and then revealing that you set your computer up to dual boot.

EDIT: Better analogy. This is like saying "I found a way to run <> in linux!", and then showing us how you have two computers.

[Galkarion]

Well I'm happy with it anyway and have posted how to do it for those who want to as well.

[Sabaron]

Agree with Mhurron. If you're running a licensed copy of XP in a virtualized hardware environment hosted in Linux, you're not running FFXI in Linux. What you are doing is:

Running FFXI in Windows XP and
Running Windows XP in Linux (through some form of abstraction software).

I would still need to own/steal an XP license to run the software, so you haven't "defeated" Micro$oft by doing this.

Call me when you can run it without any software licensed through Microsoft and I won't /yawn.

[Galkarion]

Agree with Mhurron. If you're running a licensed copy of XP in a virtualized hardware environment hosted in Linux, you're not running FFXI in Linux. What you are doing is:

Running FFXI in Windows XP and
Running Windows XP in Linux (through some form of abstraction software).

I would still need to own/steal an XP license to run the software, so you haven't "defeated" Micro by doing this.

Call me when you can run it without any software licensed through Microsoft and I won't /yawn.

You're right. I would much rather get it working with WINE, Cedega, or CrossOver Games, guess I was just overly excited that it worked. I guess I'll focus on getting it to run with the native solutions. Oh well. :worry:

[Feba]

I would still need to own/steal an XP license to run the software, so you haven't "defeated" Micro by doing this.

It's not even a matter of not supporting MS, really, it's a matter of being able to run FFXI in a decent OS; which this does not. Last time I tried running a virtual PC, on my setup, it took minutes to start up. Compare that to running as a native or wine application, which has no OS boot time, and only needs to start the program itself.

Anyway, wine got to 1.0 release candidates lately, and they're working on bugs, so if you really want to help get ffxi running on linux go over to winehq.org and start reading.

[Kitalrez]

Wine will work with OS-X Leopard, right? Because I really don't want to run bootcamp if I don't have to, and that's my next OS upgrade.

[Feba]

There are apparently problems with OS X's X11, but there is Darwine, which is a project that ports Wine to OS X, although it's not nearly as active. I've heard some of compiling Wine on OS X, but you'd have to look into that yourself, and it's probably not too smooth a process.

FFXI will not run in Wine yet, anyway, so you're going to have to keep running Windows.

[Galkarion]

Here's a YouTube video I made of the VMWare playability. Damn UI is so laggy.

YouTube - FFXI in Ubuntu 8.04 (VMWare Workstation 6.5)

No luck with WINE or CrossOver Games yet =\

[TheGrandMom]

Looks like how my computer is currently running FFXI, in fact, add in some graphical glitches and thats my PC. I have grid lines underneath my character or anyone near me and jagged background blotches, etc. Dynamis/HNM'ing/etc is absolutely insane. I threw up after Dynamis once because it was so bad. LOL But with 3 computers down at the same time, I have to wait my turn before I can buy parts for mine.