Gentoo install

Linux Setup Guide < Gentoo install

For packaging requests or complaints, please contact the packagers.

Installation

An overlay to use with layman is provided. If gentoo overlays and/or layman are new to you, read about them, as they are an essential part of gentoo.

This example assumes you never used layman before.

Install layman

### install layman (with git support)
### you don't need to if you used layman before, obviously
echo "app-portage/layman git" >> /etc/portage/package.use
emerge layman

### Note: for Layman version 1.3.0 or later use:
echo "source /var/lib/layman/make.conf" >> /etc/make.conf

### Note: for Layman version <1.3.0 use:
echo "source /usr/local/portage/layman/make.conf" >> /etc/make.conf

Install Spring Overlay

### add spring overlay to layman
layman -f -a Spring -o http://springrts.com/dl/overlays.xml

### allow installation of unstable versions
echo "games-strategy/spring ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords/spring.keywords
echo "games-util/springlobby ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords/spring.keywords

### Note: for Layman version <1.3.0 use:
echo "games-strategy/spring ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
echo "games-util/springlobby ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

emerge eselect-wxwidgets wxGTK

### make sure wxWidgets has been activated, springlobby will fail without it with error:
### Could NOT find wxWidgets (missing: wxWidgets_FOUND)
eselect wxwidgets list 
# Available wxWidgets profiles:
#   [1]   gtk2-unicode-release-2.8 *

# if none set, select one with e.g.:
eselect wxwidgets set 1

### install game and lobby
emerge spring springlobby

Upgrading

### update the repository and check for new versions
layman -S

### to auto update layman with `emerge --sync` do:
mkdir -p /etc/portage/postsync.d/
echo "layman -S" >> /etc/portage/postsync.d/layman
chmod +x /etc/portage/postsync.d/layman

### upgrade existing installations
emerge -u spring springlobby

Your paths are: Spring executable in /usr/games/bin/spring and read-only data in /usr/share/games/spring.

Finalizing installation

Now you have Spring installed along with SpringLobby. You are now ready to start springlobby for the first time.

Maps & Games

Since Spring is only an engine, you need to download games/games for it, and the maps that go with those games.

Springlobby will automatically do this for you using bittorrent when you attempt to join a game with a map or mod that you don't currently have.

See the Games & Maps page for how to get a game up and running

Linux specific Troubleshooting

Ingame

Slow Mouse

Run:

echo '# Slow fullscreen cursor fix for Spring' >> ~/.xsessionrc
echo 'SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE=0' >> ~/.xsessionrc
echo 'export SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE' >> ~/.xsessionrc

And log out and log in again.

The mouse should now be as fast as in windowed mode.

Rotating Buildings

You can rotate a building before you give the build order, but the keys that do this do not work in Linux by default for some users. Issue the following commands in the beginning of the game:

/bind keycodex buildfacing inc
/bind keycodey buildfacing dec

Keycodex and keycodey above are just placeholders. What you want to write depends on which key you want to use. To see what keycodes any keys have, do:

/keydebug yes

And then hit the keys you want to use, and spring prints the keycodes in the message buffer.

If you want to save these keys you have to edit the uikeys.txt.

Problems with Audio

The engine needs at least OpenAL Soft 1.6 for its sound. If you still have the old openal-0.0.8 installed, you should update it.

Additionally, pulseaudio causes lots of issues, so try to disable it for spring if you have sound problems.

Desync in game

Spring only send the commands and not the result over the network, so it needs to run all math in a repeatable manner, so all other clients in a multiplayer match get the same results. So some CPU specific features have to enabled/disabled. If you desync, you either have a CPU that is not SSE1 capable, or you set the wrong -march/-mtune compiler flags. If you compile Spring via CMake, remove CMakeCache.txt, and leave the march flag at the default.

See also

• IRC