I have a problem with Linux, wine and URW.

Start with the story: I installed URW with wine, patched it to full version and all. I start it for the first time, works fine (apart from being slightly laggy due to age of computer *grin*). I disabled the sounds, which, of course, didn't work in the first place. Then I start to create a character. I end up with a character I deem fit (you should've bloody seen him, Spears skill 80%!), then on to create a map. After a short while I find one I like and choose no scenario and no specific starting scenario. And into the game. This is where I find the first problem. Wine, or the game, either one, seems to think that I am constantly pressing Alt. This alone makes the game almost unplayable, as you can probably imagine.
So, I think: "Hey, the problem might go away with the game being restarted." So I do this. But after this, the game won't start. Wine only complains about "fixme" and something about keyboard layouts.

Anyone know about this? I remember someone saying something about URW303 working fine on wine.

-Loimu

actually, I've had a recurring problem with the game randomly thinking that the alt key is stuck.
I always fix it by actually using an alt combination, then it behaves normally until the random occurrence occurs again.

Then how about the game not starting thingy? I actually installed a new URW303 on my Linux comp to no avail, even the newly installed one won't start. Anyone, anything?

Since I'm not big on Linux, can't really help ya.
Never had it not start in windows, but I *do* have that occasional stuck-alt problem, so that problem's not just a Linux/WINE problem.

Re: it not starting again in Wine... I've seen this cause by a couple of things.

1) I'd changed URW to run full screen, which my X-window server didn't like, so I deleted SETUP.URW and it worked.

2) I'd been using different versions of WINE/DARWINE/CROSSOVER without properly uninstalling previous versions. I removed ~/.wine and was able to start again. (Be careful if you are using the defaults, since your C drive will be in ~/.wine... Luckily I had urw installed elsewhere so it did not mean re-installing



I know this is a late reply, but hopefully someone will find it useful.

deleting that setup.urw actually relates to a lot of possible problems with bad configurations.
the reason it worked for you isn't the same reason it's not working for Loim, but the fix could be the same.

installing new versions without removing the old ones is generally problematic when patches aren't used.
it's possible that's a factor as well.

being that linux users aren't common, any troubleshooting from one of those users for another of those users is always helpful.

FWIW, I've noticed that the Alt key gets stuck on Windows XP, not running under a Windows Emulator.

It typically happens when I Alt + Tab away from UrW, and then back.

Actually, it ALWAYS happens.... :rolleyes:

Mmm, I'd say try tapping one or both Alt keys the next time you have that problem, and see if that works.

it's not just alt-tabbing, since I never bother alt-tabbing to it because it works just fine as an inactive window (I don't do full screen if I have a choice for any game, since very few will cooperate with two monitors)

Already pointed out a more specific fix that always works Chief ;)

I don't know if this is an off-topic comment, but I think it would be awesome if URW worked on Linux or at least sufficiently well for me on one of those programs like DosBox or Wine.

I'm thinking of getting one of those little Eee PCs for typing on the go, and it would be the best thing ever to get to play URW on a long, otherwise boring airplane ride (without lugging an extra carryon for a laptop, an Eee PC can fit in my backpack.) I can also picture myself playing some Dwarf Fortess as well. I'd probably get some weird curious stares from people sitting behind me trying to decipher the seemingly-convoluted collection of letters, symbols and numbers on my screen.

The only problem is that the character files can be up to a gig in size and these little laptops only have like 8gigs on the higher-end ones, I think.

Yay for portability! It's teh awesome.

it does work, as well as any other windows proggy under Wine (and I don't know if you'll be able to find a legit copy of any DOS version..) but it's not specifically ported, if that's what you're asking/saying.

as for size, just compress the folder the saves are in, assuming your filesystem supports it.
if not... well, worst case, you can zip/unzip the saves before and after playing.
if you find yourself doing it a lot, I'm sure you could write a simple batch program to zip/unzip the whole UrW folder when you run it.

Thanks n9103! I hadn't thought of that, zipping the files, feels like I just had one of those duh moments when you said that. I guess I'll worry about it later when I actually get a laptop, which could be months or even a year from now.

Well, remember, DOSBox only runs DOS programs, not Windows programs.

UrW, as far as I can tell, has gone totally Windows native, and DOSBox will not be of help in this situation.

And what's an eee pc?

my impression is it's just a named palmtop computer. (not to be confused with PDAs)

basically, if you've seen those phones that flip open longways with a keyboard and very wide screen, that's a smaller version of a palmtop.

you could probably fit a palmtop in a cargo pocket, but probably not in a regular pocket.


also, AbNo, when I said legit DOS copy, I guess more specifically, I was referring to an older version of UrW that runs in DOS, and can still be registered.

Okay, I actually solved the problem I had. It just took some time to think, and quite a many test runs, successes and fails. But well, the problem was.... I wasn't running the urw.exe with wine while being in the URW folder. Yes, it was this simple. Seems like wine somehow messes up most "not-that-supported" games by not really running them from their own folder, but from the folder you're in while trying to run the game. But now that that's "fixed", better get to new problems. Not that I have any, except for the occasional "Stuck Alt-key", which is easily fixed by using an Alt based skill. I suppose just pressing Alt will do... Well, anyways.

Oh, and for the point that someone made about how cool it would be if we could get URW to work on Linux: I know it's a long time to get even close, but I'm starting to code games using python language, and am somewhat interested in seeing if it could be possible to code URW to Linux. As said, it's a long shot, but I'm going to think about it when I get to the point...