Second Life - Linux Alpha README -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This document contains information about the Second Life Linux client, and isn't meant to serve as an introduction to Second Life itself - please see . 1. Introduction 2. System Requirements 3. Installing & Running 4. Known Issues 5. Troubleshooting 5.1. 'Error creating window.' 5.2. System hangs 5.3. 'Shiny' and client performance 5.4. Audio 5.5. 'Alt' key for camera controls doesn't work 5.6. In-world movie playback 6. Advanced Troubleshooting 6.1. Audio 6.2. OpenGL 7. Obtaining and working with the client source code 8. Getting more help, and reporting problems 1. INTRODUCTION -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hi! This is an ALPHA release of the Second Life client for Linux. The 'alpha' status means that not everything is implemented yet and we're still hard at work on this version of the client, but many residents find that it already works well 'out of the box' for accessing Second Life. We encourage you to try it out and let us know of its compatibility with your system. Be aware that although the client itself is provided for testing purposes, any changes you make within the Second Life world are permanent. You will have either obtained this client from secondlife.com (the official site) or from a third-party packager; if you encounter any problems then we recommend trying the latest official builds from secondlife.com which are updated often. Please enjoy! 2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Minimum requirements: * Internet Connection: Cable or DSL * Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better * Computer Memory: 256MB or better (strongly recommend more!) * Linux Operating System: A reasonably modern 32-bit Linux environment is required. If you are running a 64-bit Linux distribution then you will need its 32-bit compatibility environment installed. * Video/Graphics Card: o nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better o OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better (nVidia cards are strongly recommended for the Linux client) **NOTE**: Second Life absolutely requires you to have recent, correctly- configured OpenGL 3D drivers for your hardware - the graphics drivers that came with your operating system may not be good enough! See the TROUBLESHOOTING section if you encounter problems starting Second Life. For a more comfortable experience, the RECOMMENDED hardware for the Second Life Linux client is very similar to that for Windows, as detailed at: 3. INSTALLING & RUNNING -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The Second Life Linux client entirely runs out of the directory you have unpacked it into - no installation step is required. Run ./secondlife from the installation directory to start Second Life. For in-world MOVIE PLAYBACK, you will need GStreamer 0.10 installed on your system. This is optional - it is not required for general client functionality. If you have GStreamer 0.10 installed, the selection of in-world movies you can successfully play will depend on the GStreamer plugins you have; if you cannot play a certain in-world movie then you are probably missing the appropriate GStreamer plugin on your system - you may be able to install it (see TROUBLESHOOTING). User data is stored in the hidden directory ~/.secondlife by default; you may override this location with the SECONDLIFE_USER_DIR environment variable if you wish. 4. KNOWN ISSUES -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- These are the most commonly-encountered known issues which are specific to the Alpha release of the Linux client. * VISUAL EFFECTS AND PERFORMANCE - many Linux graphics drivers are not as robust as their counterparts for other operating systems, so some advanced Second Life graphical features have been DISABLED by default to aid stability. See PROBLEM 3 in the TROUBLESHOOTING section if you wish to turn these on to possibly enhance your experience. * MISC - The following features are not currently fully implemented on the Linux client and are therefore known not to work properly: * Movie recording * Full Unicode font rendering * Auto-updater * UPLOAD / SAVE / COLOR-PICKER DIALOGS - These only appear when the client is in 'windowed' mode, not 'fullscreen' mode. * UPDATING - when the client detects that a new version of Second Life is available, it will ask you if you wish to download the new version. This option is not implemented; to upgrade, you should manually download a new version from the Second Life web site, . 5. TROUBLESHOOTING -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The client prints a lot of diagnostic information to the console it was run from. Most of this is also replicated in ~/.secondlife/logs/SecondLife.log - this is helpful to read when troubleshooting, especially 'WARNING' lines. PROBLEM 1:- Second Life fails to start up, with a warning on the console like: 'Error creating window.' or 'Unable to create window, be sure screen is set at 32-bit color' or 'SDL: Couldn't find matching GLX visual.' SOLUTION:- Usually this indicates that your graphics card does not meet the minimum requirements, or that your system's OpenGL 3D graphics driver is not updated and configured correctly. If you believe that your graphics card DOES meet the minimum requirements then you likely need to install the official so-called 'non-free' nVidia or ATI (fglrx) graphics drivers; we suggest one of the following options: * Consult your Linux distribution's documentation for installing these official drivers. For example, Ubuntu provides documentation here: * If your distribution does not make it easy, then you can download the required Linux drivers straight from your graphics card manufacturer: - nVidia cards: - ATI cards: PROBLEM 2:- My whole system seems to hang when running Second Life. SOLUTION:- This is typically a hardware/driver issue. The first thing to do is to check that you have the most recent official drivers for your graphics card (see PROBLEM 1). SOLUTION:- Some residents with ATI cards have reported that running 'sudo aticonfig --locked-userpages=off' before running Second Life solves their stability issues. SOLUTION:- As a last resort, you can disable most of Second Life's advanced graphics features by editing the 'secondlife' script and removing the '#' from the line which reads '#export LL_GL_NOEXT=x' PROBLEM 3:- Performance or graphical quality are not as high as I expect. PROBLEM:- 'SHINY' doesn't work. PROBLEM:- I can't turn on Anisotropic Filtering, Ripple Water, or AGP. SOLUTION:- Some graphics performance features in Second Life are disabled by default for the Linux version due to stability issues with some common Linux graphic drivers. You can re-enable these features at the slight risk of decreasing system stability. To do so: * Edit the 'secondlife' script. Comment-out these lines by putting a '#' in front of them: 'export LL_GL_BASICEXT=x', 'export LL_GL_NOEXT=x', 'export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=abcdefghijklmno'. * Now start Second Life. Some advanced performance features will now be automatically used, and some new options in Preferences will now be available to you; there is no guarantee, however, that they will positively affect performance! SOLUTION:- If you are not running an official Second Life client obtained from secondlife.com, you should consider doing so as you may find its performance to be superior to third-party versions. PROBLEM 4:- Sound effects seem to 'lag' a fraction of a second behind actions. SOLUTION:- You may uncomment the 'LL_BAD_ESD' line in the 'secondlife' script to get more responsive audio. However, if you do this then you may encounter audio issues or a hang during login, so beware. PROBLEM 5:- Using the 'Alt' key to control the camera doesn't work or just moves the Second Life window. SOLUTION:- Some window managers eat the Alt key for their own purposes; you can configure your window manager to use a different key instead (for example, the 'Windows' key!) which will allow the Alt key to function properly with mouse actions in Second Life and other applications. PROBLEM 6:- In-world movie playback doesn't work for me. SOLUTION:- You need to have a working installation of GStreamer 0.10; this is usually an optional package for most versions of Linux. If you have installed GStreamer 0.10 and you can play some movies but not others then you need to install a wider selection of GStreamer plugins, either from your vendor or an appropriate third party. 6. ADVANCED TROUBLESHOOTING -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The 'secondlife' script which launches Second Life contains some configuration options for advanced troubleshooters. * AUDIO - Edit the 'secondlife' script and you will see three audio options: LL_BAD_ESD, LL_BAD_OSS, LL_BAD_ALSA. Second Life tries to use ESD, OSS, then ALSA audio drivers in this order; you may uncomment the corresponding LL_BAD_* option to skip an audio driver which you believe may be causing you trouble. * OPENGL - For advanced troubleshooters, the LL_GL_BLACKLIST option lets you disable specific GL extensions, each of which is represented by a letter ("a"-"o"). If you can narrow down a stability problem on your system to just one or two GL extensions then please post details of your hardware (and drivers) to the Linux Client Alpha Testers forum (see link below) along with the minimal LL_GL_BLACKLIST which solves your problems. This will help us to improve stability for your hardware while minimally impacting performance. LL_GL_BASICEXT and LL_GL_NOEXT should be commented-out for this to be useful. 7. OBTAINING AND WORKING WITH THE CLIENT SOURCE CODE -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= We're pleased to have released the Second Life client's source code under an Open Source license compatible with the 'GPL'. To get involved with client development, please see: 8. GETTING MORE HELP AND REPORTING PROBLEMS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- For general help and support with Second Life: For problems and discussion concerning unofficial (not secondlife.com) releases, please contact your packager or the SLDev mailing list: In-world help: Please use the 'Help' menu in the client for various non-Linux-specific Second Life help options. In-world discussion: There is a 'Linux Client Users' group inside Second Life which is free to join. You can find it by pressing the 'Search' button at the bottom of the window and then selecting the 'Groups' tab and searching for 'Linux'. This group is useful for discussing Linux issues with fellow Linux client users who are online. Linux Client Alpha Testers forum: This is a good place for discussing Linux-specific Second Life problems if you find that the Troubleshooting section in this file hasn't helped. When reporting problems here, please include information about the Second Life version you are running, your graphics card, graphics driver, and Linux distribution.