OpenSource projects and their donations

Today I checked out a video, which was recorded at the LFNW 2011 and presented by Bryan Lunduke.
Most of you people will know about Bryan from “The Linux Action Show”, but he also is presenting the “Why Linux sucks” at the LFNW every year.
So, I don’t want to repeat the whole video now, but I want to go further with some (in my point of view) very important things, which the video has brought to me to think about:

1. Programmers have to eat: Well, this is just true. Bryan comes here to the point, that the OpenSource developers also have families and just want to have a roof over their head. I’m totally agree to that!

2. We as Linux users have to understand that makeing software costs money: Also just true. If we look only at the time which the development is devours the costs getting really high for some projects (e. g. GNOME). At least, there are more points which are comeing with that, for e. g. the planning and design, test phases and so on.

3. We should buy propietary software for Linux or donate money to OpenSource projects (or both) which comes nearly to the licence costs of a proprietary software for another platform: Well, this is a little bit tricky. Bryan says in the presentation that he doesn’t mean with that, that the people now should go out and donate 5000$ to LibreOffice, but he just want that the people honour the work, even if it’s free and OpenSource. Additionally, buying software on this way or makeing donations, shows other developers and companies, that there is a market for Linux and at least, there is a reason to develop for it!

After the video, here the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukd-Am2bbDo , I started to think a short time about his words. Also, I made a little conclusion for me, which “donations” I made for openSource projects in the last time:

- I bought the openSUSE boxes from OpenSource Press
- I bought the Ubuntu boxes from OpenSource Press
- I made a “one time” donation to WINE
- I have a CrossOver subscription, which I’m also renew every time, after the subscription isn’t valid anymore

Also, I bought a software which is called “moneyplex” which allows me to handle my HBCI online banking on a easier way on Linux. This software is propietary, but it works just nice, fast and it’s stable!
Well, overall, that isn’t that much. Because of this situation, I started to check, how much money I can donate for now and which projects I want to donate.
My first donations will go to the GNOME project and to LibreOffice. This two peacies of software are just awesome, and I want, that they will never stop there work! So, I have to donate
Also, I want to donate a few bucks to the VLC Player. Also, just a awesome piece of software which never should be missed at a new fresh OS installation

My recommendation for you is, watch the video. Bryan is right in many cases. Think about the words and if it’s possible (or if you want) donate to your favourite projects at the OpenSource scene. Even if you just have 5 bucks available for a donation … donate it!

League of Legends back on WINE

Since several patches, League of Legends does not work with WINE anymore or better I say, League of Legends does not work acceptable with WINE anymore. If you look at the FPS while playing you will see a maximum of 15 FPS at all.

Since yesterday I have a solutions found for that. I am a active board member of the ACE Client and a disscussion someone wrote, that we just have to set the WINE version to “Windows 7″ and make some overrides for some DLLs.
Well, the DLLs always crashing the game for me, but the “WINE Windows 7 Version” hint gave me an awesome FPS boost from 15 to 40 FPS at all! In Teamfights it can drop down to 20-30 FPS.

So, what do you have to do now, to get League of Legends working with WINE again? Here are the steps you have to take:
1. Just simply install the game (best option here is to make fresh installation).
2. Install with winetricks the following requirements: d3dx9, vcrun2005
3. Navigate in a terminal to your League of Legends install directory and then switch to the subdirectorys rads/system (for example /home/$USER/.wine/drive_c/Riot Games/League of Legends/rads/system/).
4. Now, just use the following command to start the League of Legends launcher (please don’t forget to set the WINEPREFIX for League of Legends if you have one): wine “rads_user_kernel.exe” run lol_launcher $(ls ../projects/lol_launcher/releases/) LoLLauncher.exe

That’s it! The game should be working now, with an acceptable framerate! Tested under openSUSE 12.1 with WINE 1.3.35 and 1.3.36!

I’m actually thinking about to make a script for PlayOnLinux to bring you the easiest possible install and usage for League of Legends with WINE, but actually I have to learn their syntax

Greetings
ReCon

Amazing 3D performance in VMWare Workstation 8

Yesterday I’ve downloaded the new test version of VMWare Workstation 8 for Linux. After a short installation I was able to create a Windows 7 32-Bit VM with 4 Cores and 3GB Ram.

After this, I played a little bit around and was suprised at the very good performance while using more than only onre core in the VM. I can remember, that in VMWare Workstation 7 the VM was getting slower when I was using more than one core at all.
Because of the new problems with WINE and League of Legends (actually it is possible to get LoL running with WINE again, but the performance now is horrible) I’ve started to test LoL under this Virtual Machine … and I was totally blown away from the performance.
As in VMWare Workstation 7 I had only like 30 FPS when I was on low details, in VMWare Workstation 8 I get automatically the highest possible settings (expect from shadows) and get a stable 60 FPS Framerate. Even in teamfights my FPS never drop under the 30 FPS sum.

For me it is amazing what VMWare has done here! These days, I will test some more games and will come back here if I have some new informations … stay tuned

Greetings
ReCon

Read user input in Java

Actually I’m playing around with Java after more than 3 years of development with C#. The reason is the easy and flexibel crossover platform development possibility.
I like C# as a language, but I dislike the .NET Framework. For me as a Linux user, .NET is useless. Sure, there is Mono, but in my opinion, Mono have to prove oneself before I would go with this solution.

Because of this reason, I searched at the Internet for some other languages, which I can choose as an alterantive and the most people said that there is Java at the nearst alternative to C#.
I’ve made some “Hello World” tests and than I came to the point, which I wanted to read out some user console input. With C# you easily go with “Console.ReadLine”, but with Java, you have to do some more. For everbody who has the same problem as me (to find a short an easy example to do that) here is a short code snippet of what I have done:

BufferedReader bin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

String foo = bin.readLine();
System.out.println(“You said: ” + foo);

As you can see, there is also an “readLine” function available under Java, but you have to create an object with an InputStreamReader so that you can use it.
Now, when you try to compile the whole thing, you will get an error message, that the IOException is not handeled. This is necessary and so we have to add this to the main function:

throws IOException

The Complete main function will look like this now:

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException

At least don’t forget to import the needed libs:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

Now, you should be able to enter something and get an output of your entered sentence / word.

Greetings
ReCon

The pain of an Realtek (RTL8111/RTL8168) ethernet card

The most of the Realtek ethernet cards are working out of the box on a Linux machine. But some of them, for e. g. the RTL8111/RTL8168, making some troubles.

In the last three Ubuntu Versions (11.10, 11.04 and 10.10) and the latest Debian testing, you will have the problem, that the noticed ethernet card above will only work with round about 200kb/s and after a while the whole network connection will break down for more than a minute and than you will be back with your 200kb/s again.

So, this is really annoying and it’s nearly impossible to work with your machine. To solve this problem you have to use the official Realtek (r8168) driver instead of the r8169 driver, which is included in the Linux Kernel.

This tutorial will show you in a few steps, how you can build the official Realtek driver for the RTL8111/RTL8168 ethernet card for Ubuntu or Debian:

1. Get root privileges
Get root privileges, while typing “su” or (when you use Ubuntu) “sudo -s” in a terminal.

2. Get the requirements
To build and install the driver, we need the kernel headers and the build tools like gcc. To get them, just easily type in a terminal:

apt-get install build-essential

3. Get the driver
Now, go to the official download page from Realtek for the Linux/UNIX Driver for the RTL8111/RTL8168 ethernet card and download the latest driver version.
Link: Realtek Download Page

4. Untar the archive
The driver is compressed to an archive. So uncompress it with the following command:

tar xfvj r8168-8.025.00.tar.bz2

NOTE: Please do not forget to replace the “r8168-8.025.00.tar.bz2″ with the driver version which you have downloaded!

5. Blacklist old driver
We have to blacklist the old driver (r8169) to prevent the system to load it. To do this, easily set a new entry in “/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf” which is called:

blacklist r8169

or just enter in the terminal again

echo “blacklist r8169″ >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

to do this in only one command.

6. Build and install the new driver
Now, the whole requirements to install the new driver are done. Let us now change in the driver directory, which we have uncompressed in a few steps before:

cd r8168-8.025.00

NOTE: Again, please do not forget, to change “r8168-8.025.00″ to the version which you have downloaded.

The only think we have to do now is, to build the driver and install it. To build it, just type:

make clean modules

after a few secondes (depending on your CPU), the driver is build and you can install it with:

make install

7. Welcome r8168
One of our last steps is, to let the system know about the r8168 driver. With the command

depmod -a

you rebuild the kernel module dependencies and with an

insmod ./src/r8168.ko

you insert the new kernel module (the driver) into the kernel.

8. Make it available for boot
To always use the new module, you have to make a new initrd boot file. Just do

mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r` `uname -r`

in a terminal. Here we make the initrd file with the help of the “uname -r” command, which allows us to get the version of the actually running kernel.
At least, you have to add in the “/etc/modules” file a new entry, which is called “r8168″, to get the driver automatically loaded after boot. As an alternative you can do the last step again with only one command:

echo “r8168″ >> /etc/modules

That’s it! After a reboot you should have the best possible performance with the RTL8111/RTL8168 and additionally no other network problems should be available anymore (no break down).
After the reboot you can check if the right driver is loaded with this command:

lspci -v

with this command you should find your RTL8111/RTL8168 network card in a list and the additional command “Kernel driver in use: r8168″.

Greetings
ReCon

Actually no more winelol packages

Dear Blog readers,

at the last weeks, I got a lot of feedback from many people, which want to know if winelol still is / was in “development” and if there will be a release vor the new Ubuntu 11.10.

Shortly, no! Actually there is no way to get League of Legends working under WINE anymore (even with the ACE Client, which is actually crashing when you try to play).

So, you can still try testing the official Riot Client and the new ACE Client releases. I recommend to you, to use my first guide ( ), to make your own “winelol” version.

 

At least a litte “Thank you” to every person, which gave me a lot of feedback to do the previuosly released versions. – Special thanks goes to K1773R!

Greetings
ReCon

Small update for winelol-1.3.25

For german translation, scroll down

Greetings Summoners,

I have made a small update for winelol-1.3.25 while recreated the wineloldeps Script.

So, just easily update your winelol Version to the newest one and you are able to get the requirements for LoL with the command “wineloldeps” again.

Greetings
ReCon

German translation

Grüße Beschwörer,

ich habe ein kleines Update für winelol-1.3.25 durchgeführt, welches das wineloldeps Script wieder enthält.

Also, updatet eure Version von winelol auch auf die neuste und ihr könnt die Anforderungen für LoL wieder ganz einfach über den Befehl “wineloldeps” installieren.

Grüße
ReCon

winelol 1.3.25 released

For German translation, scroll down

Greetings Summoners,

few weeks are now gone since the last update, but today I’m happy to say, that winelol 1.3.25 ist out.

I readed in some blogs and webplattforms, that some users can’t connect to a game, while their Windows Version in WINE is set to win2k (Workaround for the freeze in game, while chatting). With this update you can set your WINE Windows Version to XP and the chat also works fine and a connection to the game is possible, too.

The update is now available for Ubuntu Version 11.04 (Natty), 10.10 (Maverick) and 10.04 (Lucid) at Launchpad / PPA from here: https://launchpad.net/~s-elser/+archive/winelol
This means, everbody who has actually add this PPA to the system will get it automatically while he update

So, this is all for now. For questions use the comments section below

Please, don’t forget, that you have to use the ACE Client (ace-client.net), because the Riot Patcher does not work with WINE actually.

Greetings
ReCon

NOTE: A “thanks” fly to RoosterCockburn, for his very nice tutorial. See here for a full guide to get this WINE Version running with LoL

German translation

Grüße Beschwörer,

einige Wochen sind vergangen seit dem letzten Update, aber heute habe ich winelol in der Version 1.3.25 veröffentlicht.

Ich habe auf einigen Blogs und Webplattformen gelesen, dass einige Nutzer, welche die WINE Windows Version auf 2000 gesetzt haben (Workaround für das eingefrorene Spiel Problem beim Chatten) keine Spiel beitreten können. Mit diesem Update ist das Problem Geschichte, den nun kann die WINE Windows Version auf XP gesetzt und trotzdem gechattet werden. Ebenso ist es mit “XP” möglich dem Spiel ganz normal beizutreten.

Das Update ist ab sofort für die Ubuntu Versionen 11.04 (Natty), 10.10 (Maverick) und 10.04 (Lucid) über das PPA verfügbar: https://launchpad.net/~s-elser/+archive/winelol
Das bedeutet, dass jeder, der aktuell das PPA seinem System hinzugefügt und das Paket bereits installiert hat, dieses Update beim nächsten Systemupdate automatisch miterhält

Das ist erst einmal alles für diesen Moment. Für Fragen und Probleme, benutzt den Kommentarbereich.

Bitte vergesst nicht, dass ihr den ACE Client (ace-client.net) für das Spielen von League of Legends mit WINE benützen müsst, da der offizielle RIOT Patcher aktuell nicht mit WINE funktioniert.

Grüße
ReCon

ANMERKUNG: Ein Danke geht an den User RoosterCockburn für sein gutes Tutorial mit diesem PPA. Das Tutoial kann hier (Englisch) eingesehen werden.

winelol 1.3.19 released

For german translation scroll down …

Greetings Summoners,

today, I have the release of winelol 1.3.19 for you. This version contains the actually development release of WINE and the ole patch for the League of Legends Patcher.

This release is gonna be shipped with launchpad, so you have to go to this homepage to get your release: https://launchpad.net/~s-elser/+archive/winelol

After you added the PPA to your repositorys you can easily do

sudo apt-get install winelol

To get the actually winelol version. Future versions will also be shipped over launchpad and can be easily upgraded with apt or synaptic.

Please note, that Riot released a new patcher, which actually does not work with WINE. A solution is already found and can be grabbed at the official League of Legends forums. For more informations look at his post here at my blog:

http://unixblogger.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/league-of-legends-wine-patcher-problem-solved/

Also, I pleasure you to look at the improvements tips to get the best performance out of League of Legends with WINE:

http://unixblogger.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/improfe-the-performance-of-lol-in-wine/

http://unixblogger.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-ultimative-performance-boost-for-league-of-legends-with-wine/

Greetings
ReCon

German translation:

Grüße Beschwörer,

heute habe ich den Release von winelol 1.3.19 für euch. Diese Version enthält die aktuelle WINE Entwicklerversion 1.3.19 und den ole patch für den League of Legends Patcher.

Dieser Release wird über Launchpad verteilt, d. h. ihr müsst auf diese Hompage besuchen um die aktuelle Version zu erhalten:
https://launchpad.net/~s-elser/+archive/winelol

Nachdem ihr das PPA zu euren Paketquellen hinzugefügt habt, könnt ihr mit dem Befehl

sudo apt-get install winelol

ganz einfach die aktuelle winelol Version herunterladen. Zukünftige Versionen werden ebenfalls über Launchpad verteilt und können außerdem einfach mit apt oder Synaptic geupdatet werden.

Bitte beachtet, dass Riot einen neuen Patcher verwendet / veröffentlicht hat und dieser aktuell nicht mit WINE funktioniert. Eine Lösung hierfür ist jedoch bereits vorhanden und kann im offiziellen League of Legends Forum gefunden werden. Für weitere Informationen beachtet meinen Post hier auf meinem Blog:

http://unixblogger.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/league-of-legends-wine-patcher-problem-solved/

Außerdem bitte ich euch die Tipps zur Verbesserung der Performance zu beachten um das Beste aus der Kombination WINE / League of Legends herauszuholen:

http://unixblogger.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/improfe-the-performance-of-lol-in-wine/

http://unixblogger.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-ultimative-performance-boost-for-league-of-legends-with-wine/

Grüße
ReCon

League of Legends WINE Patcher problem solved

For german translation scroll down!

Greetings Summoners,

the problem with the patcher and WINE is solved now, there is a temporarily solution, which can be found here: http://eu.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=188568&highlight=linux

You have to easily download the file and overwrite your actually patcher with it and it is working again.

Special thanks flies to Daniel! He post this link yesterday here at my blog

In the next hours, the release of the winelol PPA will be available for 32 and 64 Bit.

Greetings
ReCon

German translation

Grüße Beschwörer,

das Problem mit dem Patcher und WINE ist gelöst. Es existiert eine temporäre Lösung, welche hier heruntergeladen werden kann: http://eu.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=188568&highlight=linux

Ihr müsst lediglich die Datei herunterladen und mit dem aktuellen Patcher überschreiben, anschließend funktioniert alles wieder.

Ein besonderes Dankeschön geht an Daniel! Er hat gestern den Link hier auf meinem Blog gepostet

In den nächsten Stunden werde ich außerdem das winelol PPA für 32 und 64 Bit veröffentlichen.

Grüße
ReCon