Linux Gamers and Final Count Down

Yes it is the final count down to Linux 100 and curtain would be down soon and me looking for other academic activities with firm base on Linux utilities.

I have decided to devote on Linux Games when I retire (if that will ever happen) and because of that I am yet to download a games DVD.

Games in Linux, that is the only area it is lagging behind.

Now that the downloading of Gamers Linux DVD is in progress by dawn of Bakmaha Poya Day, Linux Gamers DVD (4.4 GiB) would be ready barring power failure due to thunder and lightening in Kandy.

We had a very big shower today and by midday computer which was cooking at 95 F was switched off.

My hard disks are chockablock with Linux images and it is high time I quit this adventure of mine.

All night and till early morning (best time to download) I was configuring all my Pendrives with Puppy Linux 4.2 (from biblio), DSL 4.4.1 (from Australian University), Parted Magic and engineered method of PCLinux KDE on Flash Drives with UNetBootIn as Linux Utility was the penultimate step.

Yes, UNetBootIn has some teething problems which I have stated elsewhere, no need of repetition, here.

Long holiday was blessing in disguise!

Little over 3 years ago my interests were to have a Linux on a Pendrive (Puppy Linux), the latest SuSe DVD, latest Mandriva DVD and Linux Gamers DVD (Knoppix in particular with kids in mind) to play with in Christmas 2008.

I used to get somebody in Kandy to download these and after months of perseverance I get a badly burned (with Nero) DVD.

That also in 64 bits version which I cannot use.

The other ploy was to get the DVD from a chap who comes once a month to deliver pirated copies of all Microsoft utilities and few Linux CD/DVDs.

It is very often, me coming down to Colombo and searching either in Liberty Plaza or Majestic City the DVDs in Linux and never for pirated copies of Microsoft utilities.

I had made a firm decision that I will not use pirated copies (it is stealing) which even some Buddhist monks who are preaching virtues are violating in this Buddhist country.

So entry into Linux was with a firm base and not by anyway accident.

Then the guy who used to bring Linux DVDs got married and I never heard of him since then.

The one who used to do some downloading lost his business place (owner raised the rent).

One of my favorite Linux students went to Colombo and another went abroad.

I was left high and dry.
Nothing was in my favour.

One I trained in Linux in the University has become incorrigible and he would be downloading only Movies but not Linux CDs interestingly using university lines (resigned from computer committee on the pretext of migrating full time to Linux).

No wonder I was bitten by the D.I.Y. BUG (Do It Yourself Bug) and I took a short holiday and went abroad (had some medical work abroad too) with a list of items to buy and convert my house into a little network (with lot of secondhand items all over the place in my house).

Last World Cup Cricket in 2007 with war in rampaging spirit made me to realize what a lot of things we were missing in this country.

If the university cannot do it or if the entire Kandy City has no way of offering me a solution, only way I can accomplish my dream without being a pest and a scrounger was to do it myself (D.I.Y).

With a little head start by December 2009 and the year of elections in 2010 (as a diversion of my intellectual capacities) with no worthwhile activity happening in academic spheres, my decision to divert intellectual energy for Linux was a right one.

In that process I said good bye to Fedora, Mandriva, SuSe and warmly embraced all the up and coming Linux distributions with somewhat academic criticism of the way of dealing with the common issues and problems.

I am none the wiser, now.

I do not need to repeat what I have already stated in the wider web and suffice is to say that response form the Linux Community was almost instantaneous and outrageous.

Linux has gone beyond the threshold of suppression mindset of the business vultures, it will emerge stronger and brighter and nothing can steam roll it now.

Yes, I can get involved in Linux Games now and little respite for Linux utilities and their virtues.

I have waited solid 3 three years for Linux Games (by design and not by default) except the little ones that come with some distributions which I often play when I am bored when downloading.

Next I will be downloading the Supreme Super Gamer which is 8.4 GiB that needs a double layer, double density DVD. May take a week or more but that is how the work get done in this blessed country.

Like a little kid I am not going to share them. If somebody asks me for a copy I would say with firm conviction, "It is free go and (do it yourself) download it yourself".
I have no time for lazy window seekers (no offense to the musicians)!

Funnily enough I could not find a good double density DVD in Kandy before New Year holiday.

I still have two out of many I bought for Cricket World Cup in 2007 but never have the opportunity to use (not 2011 World Cup - my worse fears that they will be eliminated before round robin stage was spared but the way we exited was like a bad dream) them.

I think I deserve a little play time now if not cricket which is spoiled by internal politics (not external or Indian).

Update on UnetBootIn and PCLinux Live USB Creator

I have tried to install a Linux distributions not supported by UNetBootIn in its list and were in my hard disk already downloaded but could install them into the USB drive but would not boot as usual.

When I looked at the files two files were missing with my shortcut.

Those five files are
1. unkernel
2. uninit
3. Systemlinux configuration file
4. Menu file
5. IdLinux file

Other reason is that live file is on a folder unlike in UNetBootIn files which are out in the open in the fat partition.

I wanted to cut and paste these files into the USB but tried a different method which did the trick.

For parted magic which was a zip file I had to cut and paste those files and that also did the trick but one has to have one Flash Drive prepared by downloading the full quota of files and kernels to copy later to another Pendrive.

What I did was to install DSL which is 50 MiB first (took half an hour of downloading) and tested it to see whether it was booting.

It did boot and then installed PCLinux from my hard disk to save time of the download of PCLinux.

When it asked whether to overwrite the files already there, I chose no to all, so that init and kernel files were not erased.

Menu file was also left intact.

I did this because PCLinux USB Creator install its image on a ext file partition and not on fat partition.

My BIOS does not read ext files at boot time which I tried several times. It is usual for the BIOS to read DOS files or GRUB and not other formats.

So I got PCLinux on FAT partition and it booted OK.
The down side was I could not boot DSL and that was the price I have to pay for fiddling with UNetBootIn.

The problem with UNetBootIn is when I copy it from my hard disk it omits two files.

I hope in its future version it will rectify this minor anomaly and verify before exiting that both uninit and unkernel are there for it to boot when an image is copied from the hard disk.

I have to do this to save time of the downloading of the Iso (I have all the Isos I downloaded over the last two years).

For the time being if you want it to boot do not skip or try shortcuts like what I did.
Longer method of course work but do not overwrite the files written on the first run.
I have tried to install from the downloaded (by UnetBootIn) temporary image but that time also the the two booting files were missing.
I have to pen this since part magic I am downloading takes a long time even though it is 156 MiB.