Anyone successful with BlitzMax on Linux/Mac?
Archives Forums/Linux Discussion/Anyone successful with BlitzMax on Linux/Mac?
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| The Linux forum seems really dead so I'm asking here: is anyone successfully compiling and running BlitzMax games on multiple platforms? I can't get ANYTHING, including the samples, to work on Linux. Every single program (after I finish fixing the intermediate compiler and linker errors) generates an "Unhandled exception: appstub.linux signal handler 11". I see other people have had the same problem, but none of their solutions seem to relate to my problem. I haven't even started trying to port to Mac. I'm wondering if maybe I should go with Torque for my cross-platform game building needs, after all. Does Torque really work as smoothly as advertised when going from Windows to Mac and vice-versa? If I can't find a solution for this signal 11 problem soon, I'll probably just move on to Torque, so I'd like to hear opinions on it. Thanks, SpaceAce |
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| Try to port BlitzMax on a Mac before you commit to using Torque. I think you'll find that it's much easier than compiling on Linux. I highly doubt that Torque is as smooth as advertised, there are always a few things that must be changed. |
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| I am only using Mac for BlitzMax since I don't have Windows or Linux and have not had any problems at all. It runs very well, the OpenGL is great, and everything has been nice and smooth. I think maybe your issues are Linux only. Linux is the smallest user-base (i am guessing) and therefore perhaps hasn't received as much attention that would lead to discovering bugs and such. But I'm sure BRL does their best to make sure it all works correctly after all there'd be little point supporting the platform in a half-baked way, it'd have to be all or nothing since there is quite a bit of work involved. I have compiled stuff on Windows on other computers and found my BlitzMax code to, for the most part, work first time without any changes needed. I only found I needed to make changes where I had some code that referred to windows-only API stuff. I know the Mac forum isn't much more active than the Linux one but there are people developing for Mac, it's on the increase. I always have my eye out for PPC Mac demos/games that people post here. I haven't collected that many so far but there's a few. |
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| BlitzMax is working fine for me for easy porting between Linux and Windows. I'm developing in both at the same time, in fact! Just be sure to have your file paths all written with the write case :) For the larger applications like games it is important to keep in mind that Linux has some fancy desktop application standards that are not handled automatically by BlitzMax or its IDE. (Packages, .desktop files and the like are very good things to have, but as far as I know so far they must be created manually here). Of course, if you are having a problem there... have you double-checked that all the dependencies are met? Recompiled all the modules? What distro are you running? |
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| Thanks for all the replies. As usual, after endless heartache and failing to make things work, I fixed the problem within an hour of making this post. You know how that goes. In fact, I got such a rush of inspiration that I even got fixed Grey Alien's framework so that it works properly on my SuSE install. Yay me! Picklesworth, I am doing the same thing... developing on Linux and Windows simultaneously. At least, I am now that I've actually got BlitzMax working on Linux. Not that it matters now that I have everything working, but since you asked I'm running SuSE 10.2 (I've been a loyal SuSE user since the low single-digit days). Thanks again to everyone who replied, at the very least you all have me dreading the Mac port a little less :) SpaceAce |
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| If it's going on Linux, Mac should be quite easy now. Linux distros and Mac OS are quite similar thanks to Mac OS's Unix underbelly and Linux's Unix style. |
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| This might be a bit of a noob question. But do Windows and Linux programs run at the same speed? |
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| Picklesworth, That was exactly what I was hoping for when I decided to develop on Linux (my partner is using Vista and XP). I was hoping that if I got everything working well on a Linux machine that Mac wouldn't be too big a step. H&K - I am developing this current project inside the Grey Alien game framework which has a FixedRateLogic setup that should give reasonably similar performance on both Windows and a properly configured Linux machine. Today, I ported my previous project (which also uses the game framework) from Windows to Linux and I have not noticed a significant difference in the way the game runs. The biggest worry performance-wise in my opinion is improperly installed or configured graphics drivers on Linux; those can lead to massive performance issues. SpaceAce |
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| I couldn't get BlitzMax to compile anything on Linux, let alone compile and run. Mac and Windows is fine though. |
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| Max on the Mac is fine. I actually never really used the Windows version. On Linux, you should use Ubuntu in -exactly- the configuration as it is described in the setup guideline posted somewhere in the forum. No two Linux systems are the same, and the dependency problems are still one of the biggest showstoppers for Linux on the desktop. |
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| works on ubuntu 4 me, out of box!! after following instructions ö (gasp!) (Although you do need some deps first, which i already had) |
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| Actually, I originally intended to be working on Ubuntu because I kept hearing such good things about it. So, I tried it. Turns out I don't care for Ubuntu Linux. So, back to SuSE I went and it seems to be working fine, now. Sadly, I am stuck with the default IDE, though. I wonder if JEdit ever got a really complete BlitzMax plugin. I think I shall look into that... SpaceAce |
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| I use Bmax on linux Fedora5 and it works very well, I use Linux 99% of the time. I supose that if you are a Windows user and you only use Linux to port your games, you may run into trouble. Solving dependencies with a package manager like Yum should be very easy, and if you follow the instalation guides, you should be sailing. Setting up Bmax to work in linux is far easier than coding even the simplest game. Not being used to an OS can lead to all sorts of odd problems, like when I click on an icon to launch a program (on the rare occassion I have to use a Windows machine) go make myself a coffee, come back and wonder why the program hasn't started. Then I remember you have to double-click on windows :D |
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| I got it working a charm on SuSe Pro 9.2! :) Dabz |
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| Once you get your game working on Linux, lets say Ubuntu, do you have to compile it on other distros to make it work on them? I am going to try to port Runes of Avalon this week and am wondering how much hassle I'll have with different distros. cheers Roman |
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| No, it should run fine on another distro. You just need to make sure that distro has the required "runtime" libraries installed. I've built GUI apps on Ubuntu (5.10) and ran the binaries on SuSe 9 and Fedora Core 5 without problems. |
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| What "runtime" libraries may I need? How to check it? I am a totall newbie on linux. thanks Roman |
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| Check that thread, it summarize pretty much everything http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=54592 |
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| SpaceAce: Really interesting to hear you converted the framework! Any idea what tweaks you needed to make? I'd love to hear them so I can make them "official" for V1.4, thanks! |
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| Hi guys, I am so happy that I just have to say that. I just played Runes of Avalon on Linux. Had some issues compiling it (FASM out of memory), but when I managed to compile and fixed all ?Linux stuff game runs better than on Windows (with sound & accellerated gfx). Ubuntu 7.04 working from partially CD-ROM and partialy from HDD (1.2GB so it didn't fully fit on HDD). best Roman |
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| Congrats anawiki, Linux is an awesome OS and it's good to see developers supporting it! |
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| @Grey, good to see your 1.4 (may) incorporate linux considerations. Good luck with it, I'm running linux sporadically via VMWare... not delved into getting BMax running within it (yet) - but your 1.4 release might just make me give it a whirl. |
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