Valve Pushes Out Half-Life For Linux

[ronybeck]

When steam updated I started getting the missing executable error. But the 'hl_linux' executable file doesn't exist anywhere in my steam folder? Just have to keep hitting check for steam client updates!

So I found it in ~/.steam/root/SteamApps/common/Counter-Strike. Have a look in there.

I noticed that there were folders for many of the other Counter-Strike mods in there too but I couldn't get them working. I could be just doing it wrong though.

[kickback999]

I could swear my Linux client has done one
I know I have seen stats on steam Linux usage though.

You cannot find hl_linux in the counter strike folder because steam has just moved it all into the Half-Life folder.
I think they're all on the list now in Linux Steam client but 4 hours ago I extracted the gfc files for all the games with folders in the Half-Life folder and moved them in. All apart from bshift and ricochet worked fine (using the command mentioned to run cstrike, but from the Half-Life folder this time, just replace cstrike with e.g. dod or tfc etc).

[ronybeck]

Indeed, that fella's got a piss poor attitude.

Oh, you didn't like my opinion? Ah well. Maybe you would like to fight it out? Choose your weapon! Serious Sam 3, Killing Floor, Counter-Strike, Half Life.........

I am quite excited about Valve's strategy including Linux as a first class citizen but I don't share people's excitement every time I see pre-historic game ported to Linux. 15 years for a linux port of a game is a piss poor effort. The demand has been there since I started using Linux more than 13 years ago. That demand drove a tremendous effort into the wine project and similar off shoots. I held a Cedega/WineX subscription just so I could play my favorite games on Linux until Transgaming showed they weren't interested in giving back to the wine community. The Quake series made it's way onto Linux in that time, even Quake I and Quake II courtesy of OSS developers. Unreal Tournament put in a reasonable appearance until UT3. Half Life was in that same league but we never saw a port. Remember all the polls we voted on to bring Half Life to Linux going back as far as 10 years ago? I certainly didn't have to wait over a decade for Tribes 2, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Soldier of Fortune II, Never Winters Nights, Enemy Territory Quake Wars and Doom 3. When they arrived on the Linux seen, it was truly great. But where were Valve games? Valve's attitude (at least in 2011) was very much Linux games would be nice......if we weren't so busy doing more important things. The demand for Linux games didn't just materialize instantaneously when Microsoft turned up metro-drunk for the Windows 8 launch. It has been there for a while and, I would bet, in greater proportions than the publishing houses realized. So yes, piss poor.

For me, the true Linux gaming greatness is in the arrival of the tier one games which Valve is known for. But not just Valve's own titles but also games from the other great studios. Steam is an enormous step in that direction and a great contribution. But Half-Life on Linux is great? Not 15 years after it was released. Hard core gamers today don't get excited about stocking fillers like the original Half-Life but rather for Linux versions of games that we are currently forced to play on Windows. But maybe Entropy really does currently play and enjoy the original Half-Life regularly, so for him that is wonderful. I don't and nether does ANY gamer I know (hardcore or otherwise).

Apologies to Entropy if he took my comments to heart. Nothing against you mate. But I do have plenty against the corps that didn't see value in me and the thousands of other Linux customers until the Windows 8 catastrophe happened. I think that Microsoft's recent failings are a greater catalyst than people here would like to admit. No matter how grateful we might be that Steam is here.

[Hamish Wilson]

Not to be a dick, but it was only Soldier of Fortune 1 that got ported.

[Kraut]

Only on Windows and Mac. Linux has no hardware survey functionality enabled in the Steam program at this time.

In the last survey I actually participated with the Linux Client.

I think they're all on the list now in Linux Steam client but 4 hours ago I extracted the gfc files for all the games with folders in the Half-Life folder and moved them in. All apart from bshift and ricochet worked fine (using the command mentioned to run cstrike, but from the Half-Life folder this time, just replace cstrike with e.g. dod or tfc etc).

So mods are already running?
I still play svencoop from time to time. I have to test if it works.

[AnAkIn]

I installed it just now. But steam complains the executable is missing. If I check the steam directory from the shell, I can see the executable there. So no problem, I just run it manually with: ./hl_linux -game cstrike

Seems to work fine like that so far.

That happens if you installed it before Valve officially released it, so you have a "bad install".

They moved all of the "Counter-Strike" content into the "Half-Life" folder.
For CS to work correctly in Steam, this is what you need to do:

1) Close Steam
2) Go to your SteamApps folder, and delete appmanifest_10.acf
3) Reopen Steam
4) Reinstall CS, it will now install correctly into the Half-Life folder and you will be able to launch it through Steam

You can then remove your "Counter-Strike" folder, it is no longer used.

[TheLexMachine]

Anyone try "They Hunger" yet? That mod is a classic!

[ChrisXY]

Anyone try "They Hunger" yet? That mod is a classic!

Hm. I tried it just now.

First downloaded http://www.moddb.com/mods/they-hunge...nger-1-2-and-3
"Installed" it with wine. Just created a new drive in wine with a:\ pointing to my ~/Steam/SteamApps/common/Half-Life directory and then installing to a:\ (what kind of installer doesn't have a file chooser? srsly?)

Then I didn't see anything and running hl_linux -game hunger seemed to start just half life I renamed the /Hunger directory to /hunger and installed this:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/they-hunger/downloads/they-hunger-steam-fix

into "a:\hunger\"

Then I see the entry "They Hunger Trilogy" in steam, but trying to start it does nothing. Terminal from which steam was started says:
/bin/sh: /home/XXX/Steam/SteamApps/YYY/Half-Life/hl.exe: Permission denied

The real hl executable is in Steam/SteamApps/common/Half-Life. So I went into
/home/XXX/Steam/SteamApps/YYY/Half-Life/
and tried
ln -s ../../common/Half-Life/hl_linux hl.exe
But for some reason this overwrites my original hl_linux with a windows executable every time I try to launch they hunger from steam. Wat. When you don't remove the symlink and let steam check local files, steam segfaults, but if you remove it, it restores hl_linux.

I then tried to start it from the command line with
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:. ./hl_linux -game hunger
from the Steam/SteamApps/common/Half-Life directory. It starts and it displays the they hunger start menu.

Starting a new game prints
Host_Error: Couldn't get DLL API from om.hp2!
the first time and segfaults the game the second time you try to start a game.

[TheLexMachine]

Well, I hope it works sometime in the next 12 months but I guess we'll be lucky if we get the core HL game working properly in that time-frame.

[Rhone]

Mods

Unfortunately 3rd party mods must also be ported individually. The engine may be there but each mod author would have to recompile their mod into a .so instead of a dll. There are many mods which are long since dead that will never be ported.