I assumed this was apart of the Unity Exporter, not so sure now on how to export my Linux games .
Hey Keith,
Is this a more advanced question about repackaging Linux builds for distribution, or the more simple how do I get a build to run on Linux?
Been playing around with Linux for the last few days as a Linux noob. Gotta be said, not the most new-user-friendly OS. I’ve given up on Ubuntu in favour of Mint which is the most popular. But the Unity export seemed to work pretty well. I’m not sure how gamer-friendly right clicking on the executable and under permissions marking it as executable is, perhaps a Linux guru could comment on that?
Repackaging Linux builds for distributions .
Don’t know where you got your data from , but Mint is FAR smaller market share wise then Ubuntu . Mint is actually a derivative of Ubuntu , Ubuntu actually has a market set up . But for that you need to package a .deb, since the packing tools are open source i assume Unity would of included this .
For all my fellow Linux users we should hop on this Linux market asap . I plan on making a small game very shortly and releasing a limited free version and a cheap full version .
When installing a .deb you give it permission to install , so once you upload your game to the market someone can download and install it just like the Mac App store or the windows 8 store .
Linux actually invented this type of package management .
The source data is from:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity
http://www.zdnet.com/the-5-most-popular-linux-distributions-7000003183/
I’ve amended the post to most popular from market share quoting the source.
We could use some documentation on packaging builds for the different platforms.
Hmm,
But anyway mint and Ubuntu share the same base, although mint is being annoying by not sharing the Ubuntu app marketplace , once many moons ago they did share the same marketplace .
I want Unity to build in the deb packager though . It shouldn’t be too much extra work and I’d venture to say Ubuntu might even help out if UT reached out for help .
Probably best we avoid getting into the academics of sample sizes and data as that leads off topic.
Hands up, Linux is entirely new to me, and I look forward to learning. If my new-user experience over the last few days is anything to go by, there’s some headaches for many of us to go through before being able to test our Unity games on Linux. So far mine include VirtualBox not using hardware acceleration and unable to install Guest Additions, inability to install driver updates into virtual builds ( probably just a lack of knowledge ), lack of EFI support during installs, AMD dropping support for GPU series currently available at retail. Time I bought that minimum-spec test machine for nuking.
Once we actually get 3D-accelerated drivers running properly, the next question for us relates to your OP: how to build distribution packages. Sounds like there’s fragmentation in marketplaces to further complicate things. Hopefully the Linux users from this community can shine a light for us all?
While I’m by no means an expert , with linux the fragmentation comes from its open source nature, if I wanted to I could go and make Keith’s awesome linux distro tonight . Plus you have 3 competing philosophies right now .
- The desktop should be easier as possible , Ubuntu and Linux mint( use .deb)
- The desktop should kinda be easy, but powerful , Fedora ( use rpm )
- The desktop should be difficult and wide open , command line folks ( want to compile from source )
My plan is to upload free and paid for versions in the Ubuntu store and warn people NOT to buy the full version before testing it out .
Ubuntu has the most mature distribution system in place at the current time .
You should set the executable permissions correctly before distributing. If you’re using OS X to make a build, then the permissions are already set.
–Eric
That seems like a very sensible approach to reduce support incidents, and one I’ll keep in mind.
There look to be plenty of articles on creating .deb files so I’ll try following those once we’re up and running with a proper test box.
I’m not really equipped to properly run any QA right now . But i’m going to do a test run with a very simple scene to see how my cheapo I3 dell laptop runs a Unity game under Ubuntu( I have mint too , but from my experience they should act the same .)
Got some info , had no problems with a very small level on Linux mint 13, Ubuntu 12 and here’s my dxdiag
Had some screenshots, but I forgot to copy them back to my flash drive before rebooting .
DXDIAG
Time of this report: 11/22/2012, 03:27:27
Machine name: ******
Operating System: Windows 8 Pro with Media Center 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron N5040
BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/23/09 11:58:43 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 390 @ 2.67GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3894MB RAM
Page File: 2098MB used, 4995MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.02.9200.16384 64bit Unicode
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics (Core i3)
DAC type: Internal
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key:
Display Memory: 1696 MB
Dedicated Memory: 64 MB
Shared Memory: 1632 MB
Just popped out to buy a minimum spec retail machine to nuke with Linux, but they are all over-priced and way over-speced for what our min-spec will be. Time to trawl the second hand listings.
I did get Folk Tale running on Ubuntu 12.10 on a mid-spec machine, just not 3D-accelerated so it ran at a fixed 10fps and Water4 didn’t render, but that’s probably the lack of proprietary drivers. Gives me a lot of confidence that complex projects will work. Let us know if there are any features you spot not working when you do get chance for a spot of QA.
What I got running was actually a stripped down version of the example scene . Get at me if you want someone to test on a low spec machine .
Whats your target min spec ? If its too low your best not pulling your hair out over it
Very kind, but we have broad test coverage planned through a Linux journalist and would need an NDA. As a minimum we’re going to try to target the following but it’s likely to be too low and need revising upwards:
CPU: Dual Core 2.33Ghz
Memory: 2GB Ram
GPU: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c
The GPU isn’t going to cut it . Everything else seems OK .
Already applied to the beta , looking forward to playing your game .
What’s with the Intel HD Graphics card showing 1.5GB RAM? I thought Intel HD integrated gpu’s sucked?
Yeah, I’m inclined to agree with you on the 256MB GPU. I look at the minimum specs listed on some AAA titles and I find it hard to believe that a worthwhile play experience could be achieved.
Wandered slightly off topic, sorry. Back to .deb packages 
Just cause it has lots of memory does not mean it is good.
TBH the intel HD 4000 is actually rather good… I just use that for everything as it uses much less power then my nvidia one.
I’m guessing thats the max it can steal from the RAM , although an upgrade is cheap enough i’m scared to death i’ll accidentally destroy my laptop . Desktops are so much easier to work on
The only problem with this, is .deb isn’t always the easiest to use. Look at Debian, the one’s who made it. It’s not the easiest there. Fedora’s RPMs are more powerful than .deb, and can do more, and Fedora isn’t necessarily hard. Command Line is… well… yeah. Difficult. I use linux a hell of a lot, but I don’t compile nearly as often as I could. It just takes too long to install the program.