New to linux

Hi guys im new to using linux need some help installing runnung games on my pc!

1. Name (Brand) of Computer Tower/System, Notebook Brand and model [Notebook = misnomer of 'Laptop' ] = custom built

2. Amount of available Memory (RAM) =16 gb

3. Whether Zorin is the only OS on the computer or dual-boot (e.g. Windows [and which version of Windows!] and Zorin). only Zorin

4. Hard Drive partitioning. = 2 TB

5. Graphics card make and model, or Graphics chipset in respect of Notebooks. saphire radeon 7950HD

6. Wireless Dongle or PCI Card, or Wireless chipset. = usb Wireless

7. Whether you ran Zorin Live first to check it worked before installing. =Full install it is working

also not sure if i need any hardware updates ect

8. Which version of Zorin you have installed/have in mind to install. +Zorin OS 9

i like to game alot on pc and i am looking to get away frtom using windows thanks in advance!!

Hi,

what games are you trying to run?.

Have you heard of PlayOnLinux?. (You must also have Wine installed!).

https://www.playonlinux.com/en/

http://wiki.winehq.org/

Let us know if this helps.

hi wolfman thanks for the reply i have tried playonlinux and have wine i got rift to open its a little glitchy and aion i am still eorking on i have seen some people say something about the DirectX but not sure what

also is there a popular chat such as skype that linux users prefer??

Hi,

after you install PlayOnLinux or Wine, (pre-installed in Zorin OS) you should also install the package "mono-complete", this is basically "NetFrameWork" for Linux!. You can do this via a terminal command (Ctrl + Alt + t):

Code:

sudo apt-get install mono-complete

When you install a Windows game, it should say something like "Do you want to install DirectX" to which you should say yes, even if you have installed it for other games!. Under normal circumstances, if you follow that advice, you won't have problem with DX.
if you didn't say yes, open the DirectX folder in the game disk and look for the DirectX folder, find the setup.exe file and right click > Open with > Wine and install it.

Let us know if this helps.

See also:

http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ

http://www.mono-project.com/

Rift seems to be working better mostly aion and guildwars 2 still having troubles installing i installed mono-complete but dont see the directX files anywhere also do i need to do updates for hardware???

Hi,

you should install DirectX when asked whilst installing a game, check out the Wine website for more details about that, see 8.1 here, you can post install it as I described, but it is not recommended:

http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-c4c7315 ... 27da27ffbd

You can run a full system update with the following terminal command (Ctrl + Alt + t):

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247

Going back to your earlier question about Skype you may also want to give jitsi a try - and not monitored by M$ like Skype!

https://jitsi.org

For gaming, I like to use mumble for voice, however you can also use skype.

So we can get more info about the computer can you run this, and past the ouput in here. (I don't think we really need it right now, but when you have issues it will be very helpful)

Code:

sudo lshw -sanitize

This will give us alot of useful data for your machine.


Some tips for you,
If possible run games in opengl for best performance, sometimes DX9 works better than DX11 or DX12.

Steam has a native Linux client, I suggest using it if possible.

Make sure your version of WINE is as up to date as possible

Code:

wine --version

I'm using 1.7.x at the moment,

Make sure you have up to date graphics card drivers, personally I like to get it from the maker if possible, but keep in mind kernal updates normally break these installs, so keep the needed Graphics card drivers on the machine.

One present issue in linux is that updates tend to break things, so after running updates, test everything, and document results (this way you always know when and what updates could have broke what) The way I do this is pretty simple.

Code:

script "update-$(date).txt"
sudo apt-get update
#Enter your password when/if prompted
sudo apt-get upgrade
#Confirm yes for the updates
exit


and when you get done you should have a file in your (most likely home dir) of all the updates you did, what version you upgraded to, and when you did them. It helps for finding those off the wall issues.

I tend to avoid nvidia drivers altogether on my rig (GT620) as it just screws up in terms of 'true colour' and videos with a 'blue hue' - from personal experience I stick with the GNU/Linux drivers (Nouveau).
I tried updating wine to the latest version and broke my Zorin but can't remember if that was 7 or 8 (Zorin that is), so usuall play safe and sometimes install earlier versions of wine too!

thank you all for the replies sorry i have been absent i am working away from home and only come back on the weekends i will try your suggestions thanks again

computer
description: Desktop Computer
product: To be filled by O.E.M. (To be filled by O.E.M.)
vendor: To be filled by O.E.M.
version: To be filled by O.E.M.
serial: [REMOVED]
width: 64 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.7 dmi-2.7 vsyscall32
configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=To be filled by O.E.M. sku=To be filled by O.E.M. uuid=[REMOVED]
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: M5A97
vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
physical id: 0
version: Rev 1.xx
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: To be filled by O.E.M.
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
physical id: 0
version: 1605
date: 10/25/2012
size: 64KiB
capacity: 4032KiB
capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
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bus info: cpu@0
version: AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: Socket 942
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configuration: cores=8 enabledcores=8 threads=8
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slot: L2-Cache
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capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
*-cache:2
description: L3 cache
physical id: 7
slot: L3-Cache
size: 8MiB
capacity: 8MiB
clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 26
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 16GiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: Array1_PartNumber0
vendor: Manufacturer0
physical id: 0
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: DIMM0
size: 4GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: Array1_PartNumber1
vendor: Manufacturer1
physical id: 1
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: DIMM1
size: 4GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:2
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: Array1_PartNumber2
vendor: Manufacturer2
physical id: 2
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: DIMM2
size: 4GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:3
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: Array1_PartNumber3
vendor: Manufacturer3
physical id: 3
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: DIMM3
size: 4GiB
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clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-pci:0
description: Host bridge
product: RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port B)
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port B)
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:52 ioport:e000(size=4096) memory:fea00000-feafffff ioport:c0000000(size=268435456)
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Tahiti PRO [Radeon HD 7950/8950 OEM / R9 280]
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 00
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=fglrx_pci latency=0
resources: irq:82 memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:fea00000-fea3ffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:fea40000-fea5ffff
*-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: Tahiti XT HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7970 Series]
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 0.1
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
version: 00
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
resources: irq:81 memory:fea60000-fea63fff
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port D)
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 4
bus info: pci@0000:00:04.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:52 ioport:d000(size=4096) ioport:d0000000(size=1048576)
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 06
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 10Mbit/s
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl8168e-3_0.0.4 03/27/12 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
resources: irq:80 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:d0004000-d0004fff memory:d0000000-d0003fff
*-pci:2
description: PCI bridge
product: RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port G)
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 7
bus info: pci@0000:00:07.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pm pciexpress msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:53 memory:fe900000-fe9fffff
*-usb
description: USB controller
product: ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller
vendor: ASMedia Technology Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 00
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi msix pm pciexpress xhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:50 memory:fe900000-fe907fff
*-storage
description: SATA controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 11
bus info: pci@0000:00:11.0
version: 40
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: storage ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ahci latency=32
resources: irq:19 ioport:f040(size=8) ioport:f030(size=4) ioport:f020(size=8) ioport:f010(size=4) ioport:f000(size=16) memory:feb0b000-feb0b3ff
*-usb:0
description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 12
bus info: pci@0000:00:12.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master
configuration: driver=ohci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:18 memory:feb0a000-feb0afff
*-usb:1
description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 12.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:12.2
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:17 memory:feb09000-feb090ff
*-usb:2
description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 13
bus info: pci@0000:00:13.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master
configuration: driver=ohci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:20 memory:feb08000-feb08fff
*-usb:3
description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 13.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:13.2
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:21 memory:feb07000-feb070ff
*-serial
description: SMBus
product: SBx00 SMBus Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 14
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.0
version: 42
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
configuration: driver=piix4_smbus latency=0
resources: irq:0
*-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 14.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.2
version: 40
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=32
resources: irq:16 memory:feb00000-feb03fff
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 14.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.3
version: 40
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-pci:3
description: PCI bridge
product: SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 14.4
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.4
version: 40
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci subtractive_decode bus_master vga_palette
*-usb:4
description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 14.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.5
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master
configuration: driver=ohci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:18 memory:feb06000-feb06fff
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description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 16
bus info: pci@0000:00:16.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master
configuration: driver=ohci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:22 memory:feb05000-feb05fff
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description: USB controller
product: SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 16.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:16.2
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=32
resources: irq:23 memory:feb04000-feb040ff
*-pci:1
description: Host bridge
product: Family 15h Processor Function 0
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
physical id: 101
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:2
description: Host bridge
product: Family 15h Processor Function 1
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
physical id: 102
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.1
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:3
description: Host bridge
product: Family 15h Processor Function 2
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
physical id: 103
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.2
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:4
description: Host bridge
product: Family 15h Processor Function 3
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
physical id: 104
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.3
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=k10temp
resources: irq:0
*-pci:5
description: Host bridge
product: Family 15h Processor Function 4
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
physical id: 105
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.4
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=fam15h_power
resources: irq:0
*-pci:6
description: Host bridge
product: Family 15h Processor Function 5
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
physical id: 106
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.5
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-scsi:0
physical id: 1
logical name: scsi0
capabilities: emulated
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: ST1500DL003-9VT1
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: CC3C
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 1397GiB (1500GB)
capabilities: gpt-1.00 partitioned partitioned:gpt
configuration: ansiversion=5 guid=2047ac9b-0bf9-4cc3-b111-081f28aa753e sectorsize=4096
*-volume:0 UNCLAIMED
description: Windows FAT volume
vendor: mkfs.fat
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
version: FAT32
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 510MiB
capacity: 511MiB
capabilities: boot fat initialized
configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat
*-volume:1
description: EXT4 volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
logical name: /
version: 1.0
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 1380GiB
capabilities: journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
configuration: created=2015-01-11 05:06:22 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/ modified=2015-01-31 10:02:45 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered mounted=2015-01-31 10:02:45 state=mounted
*-volume:2
description: Linux swap volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 3
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,3
logical name: /dev/sda3
version: 1
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 15GiB
capacity: 15GiB
capabilities: nofs swap initialized
configuration: filesystem=swap pagesize=4095
*-scsi:1
physical id: 2
logical name: scsi3
capabilities: emulated
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
product: iHBS112 2
vendor: ATAPI
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/sr0
version: PL04
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=ready
*-medium
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
bus info: usb@1:5
logical name: wlan0
serial: [REMOVED]
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800usb driverversion=3.13.0-45-generic firmware=0.29 ip=[REMOVED] link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

this is my computer

15 Gb seems an awful lot of swap space! However, depending where it is (I always put it at the end of the drive) you could shrink it to 4 gb or even 2 gb but you could not expand the unused space on other partitions - GNU/Linux allows you to shrink but not expand partitions!