[I promise that I won't become a "linux only advocacy blog." However, as I'm in the process of converting, there may be a few more articles about it than normal -- it is my current bright and shiny object!]
I took the plunge and reloaded my home machine to be an Ubuntu Linux machine this week. I went with the 32bit flavor and, in general, the install and initial setup were both quite positive. No drivers issues, no hardware challenges. Everything just worked.
Once I was up and productive, I decided I should tackle getting good Ol’ EverQuest working. I started by installing my free(!) copy of CrossOver Games which was a very simple process. Next I installed EQ and fired up the patcher. That all worked well too.
However, once the game launched I had a major issue: Invisible characters. Or even odder, invisible characters but with armor “floating” where the char should be. As you might suspect, a rather surreal experience!
I checked for compatibility notes and read through some tips and suggestions that, ultimately, didn’t result in any progress. Now, I had this working many years ago with Cedega, so I know it’s possible… so I began several hours of web searches and lots of trial and error.
Ultimately, the solution was pretty simple: copy in a “hacked” DirectX DLL [link and more details]. No other changes were necessary — In fact, I copied over my original EQclient.ini file to get all my custom keyboard commands and settings and everything worked as expected.
But wait, there are still some “opportunities.” I played for about 10 minutes this morning and quickly recalled an annoyance from my last experiences with EQ/Linux: Lost Mouse Clicks. While the mouse moves around fine with no “lag” it seems like a large percentage of my clicks are … lost. Nothing happens. I have to click things repeatedly to select them or activate them. Not always, but frequently. Distressing!
Sure, I use the keyboard for a lot, but some things in-game are just easier/quicker to do with a click.
Guess I have some more tweaking to do… and maybe I’ll try the Cedega flavor — unfortunately, my brand-new trial membership immediately expired there (weird…). So they want money before I can even check out the support forums to see what folks are saying about EQ. Ugh.
Only other issues I have are the initial license agreement and patch message screens tend to be hopelessly borked (see above). Usually they display garbage or video artifacts — or, when they work, the html formatting is pretty weird. That, however, is not a big deal to me. The mouse thing though? That’s going to drive me nuts!
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November 8th, 2008 
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