New installation option for BMS
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I was surprised to read in one of the sub-forums here that BMS runs on linux. I assumed that BMS would be hard to install on linux and that it wouldn’t really work very well.
I decided to give it a try just for fun, despite my low expectations. I tried installing BMS on the most popular current version of linux, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It wasn’t that difficult (see detailed installation instructions below.) BMS runs on Ubuntu with no problem! The frame rate was a little lower than what I’m used to, but that’s probably because I have Ubuntu installed on an old PC.
So why would you care that BMS runs on ubuntu linux? Three reasons:
1. Cost. After a while, PC’s often become unusable because of an outdated or broken version of Microsoft Windows. Rather than buying a new PC or laptop to run BMS, you could retrofit an old PC with Ubuntu and run BMS on that. Ubuntu also runs lots of other Windows games, including big names like (gag) League of Legends and Overwatch.
2. Maintainability. In the 20 years since Falcon 4 was first released, our favorite sim has outlasted Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 8, and now runs primarily on Windows 7 and Windows 10. Will BMS run on whatever version of Windows is available 20 years from now? Even if it doesn’t, you will still be able to run BMS on linux. This gives BMS staying power.
3. Quality assurance. If you work in software engineering or software quality assurance, you may appreciate the benefits of having an entire windows installation of BMS, along with the corresponding Windows registry in text file format, in a regular directory tree under the .wine directory. Want to do a crude first test of whether a new alpha version of BMS works on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 10? Switch from one to another with a single mouse click in the winecfg dialog.
–-- installation instructions ------
To run BMS on Ubuntu linux, follow these steps:
1. if you don’t have linux, download the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ISO and load it on to a memory stick such that the ISO is bootable
2. find an old PC or laptop you don’t need anymore, then boot from the memory stick to install linux on it. (Ubuntu 18.04 is a modern operating system with a macOS look and feel.) All this takes about 20 minutes. There’s no need to reboot multiple times as with a Microsoft Windows install.
3. download BMS 4.33 U1,2,3,4,5 into your Downloads directory
4. make sure you have the right graphics card device drivers, e.g. open a terminal and type:
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
5. Install the windows emulation package:
sudo apt install wine-stable
6. put your Falcon 4 CD in the disk drive
7. cd to the CD directory and run
wine Setup.exe
click through the Falcon 4 setup screens just as you would with a Microsoft Windows installation
8. unzip BMS 4.33 U1 to your .wine directory
unzip Falcon_BMS_4.33_U1_Setup.zip -d ~/.wine/dosdevices/c:
9.
cd to ~/.wine/drive_c/Falcon BMS 4.33 U1 Setup, then run
wine Setup.exe
click through the install screens as with a Microsoft Windows install
10. Go back to your downloads folder and run each update, e.g.
wine Falcon_BMS_4.33_U2_Incremental.exe
and so forth. Click through the install screens just as you would in Microsoft Windows.
11. bring up the windows emulation configuration dialog via the command
winecfg
Then select the Graphics tab and check “Emulate a virtual desktop”. (I suggest setting the desktop size to the maximum resolution of your monitor and leaving it there, although it may be that the graphics setting within the BMS setup dialog overrides this.) Exit by selecting “OK”
12. right-click on the BMS launcher icon on your desktop; select “Properties” at the bottom of the menu that pops up. Locate the Command text box, scroll to the end of the string that begins with “env WINEPREFIX= …” and add “-window”. This is the BMS command line option that causes BMS to appear in a window rather than full screen. If you want to start ACMI automatically every time you enter the BMS 3D world, add the command line option “-acmi” as well.
13. set your monitor to its maximum resolution in the ubuntu settings/Devices/Displays screen.
14. Click on the BMS launcher icon on the desktop to run BMS
15. (optional) If you want to increase your frame rate, reduce your resolution in the BMS Setup screen Graphics view. Then exit BMS and set your monitor to the same low resolution in the ubuntu settings/Devices/Displays screen. (Set BMS resolution first, monitor resolution 2nd so the BMS setup graphics screen “Apply” and “OK” button remain visible.) When you set both BMS setup and ubuntu settings/Devices/Display to a low resolution, you can play BMS in full screen mode.Steps 11 and 12 prevent a situation in which BMS runs, but fails to render on the screen when you get into the game. Also, taking these two steps causes BMS to run on one monitor in a multi-monitor system, rather than straddling the game display across two monitors.
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It’s good to see more and more games playable on linux (Arma 3 is working also very good even on my 9 yr old pc!).
I guess I will stay a while with windows for playing games, but having in mind that Win 10 might f*ck up one day and become a ‘Service’ to be payed periodically,
(jeah I know they sweared not doing so but tbh, we all know how much worth such statements are), it feels very good to know that there are options! -
I’ll try this on the weekend on my Ubuntu 18.04 puter! Thanks for the simple instructions!
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What about input devices?
Like joysticks and trackir and output devices like 3xmonitors or using softth…Anyway good to know thanks for the detailed post.
This option besides BMS it’s self can be used for other things like extra displays on a spare PC or even awacs or other programs.Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk
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What about input devices?
Like joysticks and trackir and output devices like 3xmonitors or using softth…The Warthog HOTAS runs out of the box (as did my now-retired HOTAS Cougar) as two separate dx devices, I can also use my Thrustmaster MFDs (basically just button boxes) and my Thrustmaster T500RS pedals (from my racing wheel) as a “poor man’s” set of rudders for NWS and rudder input. Same goes for my G25 shifter converted into a single USB device using the Leo Bodnar adapter. Multiple Monitor setups have been supported on Linux for a looong time, though I don’t know how these perform in a WINE environment (I get slightly better FPS on Linux in WINE than I do on Windows 7 natively).
Head tracking already works great using the Delanclip (or any other) and freetrack / Linuxtrack.
Many of the support / utility programs also work on Linux, such as TacView (even already has its own Linux build coming), MC, VMT and so on. Didn’t spend too much time on WDP but I see no special reason why it shouldn’t work (last I tried it it crashed upon launch).
Many folks also run their dedicated BMS servers on Linux using WINE which saves you the windows tax.
I’d like to repeat my plea for a dedicated Linux subforum here within the (mostly) cozy BMS community. I realize the devs won’t officially support Linux (yet), but a meeting place for folks migrating to Linux from a windows setup would be a very welcome addition IMHO.
Thanks for your report Tank, it’s much appreciated.
All the best, Uwe
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Thanks for the information, Hoover. What’s your recommendation for linux headtracking? Is the delanclip best, and if so what software works with it on linux? Could I use TrackIR hardware with linux?
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I am with Hoover that this should rate a sub forum also. I have just started to run Linux Mint and think it would be great to find information for this in one central location.
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I need to make a correction to the instructions in my post above. The windows emulator program in linux, wine, stores its files in the .wine directory under your home directory. Thus the command in step 8 should read as follows
unzip Falcon_BMS_4.33_U1_Setup.zip -d ~/.wine/dosdevices/c:
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I need to make a correction to the instructions in my post above. The windows emulator program in linux, wine, stores its files in the .wine directory under your home directory. Thus the command in step 8 should read as follows
unzip Falcon_BMS_4.33_U1_Setup.zip -d ~/.wine/dosdevices/c:
it would be better if you update your first post so one can find all is needed there.
thank you for this guide -
I’d like to repeat my plea for a dedicated Linux subforum here within the (mostly) cozy BMS community. I realize the devs won’t officially support Linux (yet), but a meeting place for folks migrating to Linux from a windows setup would be a very welcome addition IMHO.
Thanks for your report Tank, it’s much appreciated.
All the best, Uwe
+1.000.000.000.000.000
I already made a section for linux in the hot list but sure a forum section for this would be nice.
Many ppl would benefit if not for actual BMS execution with 3rd party apps like yame or any other display extraction app or wdp or mc or Awacs or runing in same lan BMS as server or ivc server or whatever helps in the falcon experience. -
Thanks for the information, Hoover. What’s your recommendation for linux headtracking? Is the delanclip best, and if so what software works with it on linux? Could I use TrackIR hardware with linux?
Hello Tank,
the TIR clip should work fine with Linuxtrack, I think there’s even a pre-defined config for it. The DelanClip also works great and is of higher build quality (full metal outfit, can’t remember the number of drops to the floor it has aready survived without a scratch :))
There’s a helper program called GUCQview or similar that lets you play with the tracking camera settings (I’m using the ps/eye cam which also works nicely on Linux) like contrast and brightness to ensure the best tracking smoothness. I’ll check the exact names later when I have access to my gaming rig.
All the best, Uwe
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Just to add to the list of utilities, the ones I’m currently missing the most in my Linux BMS setup and which didn’t work OOTB are the following:
- YAME64
While native display extraction works nicely on Linux using the BMS internal functions, I’ve really come to appreciate all the extra stuff & comfort that YAME provides.
- Android ICP / DED / MFD server by komurcu:
I haven’t played with this yet on Linux but I’d think the windows Server part should work without too much trouble on Linux, but I have no idea if the inter-process stuff works at all, like reading BMS’ internal memory section from another wine instance.
There’s a lot left to be explored I think
All the best, Uwe
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Has a new forum section for linux been added?
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Can anyone explain to me:
1 - How to get Falcon 4.0 so that I can then:
2 - Download Falcon BMSI’m getting into Flight sims after a 30 Hiatus and having issues finding the “Downloads” tab on this forum and also where to get the Falcon 4.0 EXE file.
Thanks in advance for anywone willing to do a little “Hand Holding” to walk me through this process.
IronClaw
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Welcome to BMS, IronClaw. I guess this isn’t a question related to Linux specifically, right?
Your best best for Falcon 4.0 would be steam or gog.com (good old games).
You only need to install falcon 4.0, it doesn’t have to work or anything, but BMS looks for a legit install during setup.
Once you’ve got that completed, download & install BMS as per instructions. Make sure to keep the BMS 4.33 setup folder after installation as possible future updates will refer to that folder.
Cheers, Uwe
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As Falcon 4.0 is now distributed through several online stores, any of those would be suitable. You could try Steam, or GOG.com.
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I’ll try this on the weekend on my Ubuntu 18.04 puter! Thanks for the simple instructions!
The instructions worked perfectly! I installed Wine according to these instructions:
https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu
Furthermore, since I used the GOG.com installer of Falcon 4.0, I had to install three additional libraries (Wine asks for these automatically, you just need to accept installing them) on running the Falcon 4.0 installer with Wine.
BMS installed and ran smoothly.
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Thanks for checking my linux installation instructions, Johku. Note that you can back up your BMS install by copying the .wine directory to a safe place, such as a memory stick. If you ever need to wipe your hard drive and reinstall ubuntu, just (1) install ubuntu and wine again and then (2) put your saved .wine directory under your home directory. That’s all you need to do to get BMS running again on the clean ubuntu install.
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And since iirc Linux can boot from a USB stick, u can always have your OS and full falcon set up at your pocket and be ready for whenever and wherever. Maybe slower start and run times but it will fire up.
The last post tank did could also be a good practice for theater devs and modders. Copy it and u have it there ready full install ready.
With my suggestion u just need a PC to run and test bypassing the hastle of ohhhh I must get home to test it.Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk