If you only run the X and GL versions of Quake, QuakeWorld or Quake II,
you don't need to run them with root permissions. SVGA is the only mode
that must be run as root. The X versions just need access to
/dev/dsp, the sound device. The GL versions need access to the
3Dfx card as well as to /dev/dsp.
/dev/dsp needs to be readable and writeable by Quake. Most
distributions give it 662 (rw-rw--w-) permissions by default. The
simplest solution is to just chmod 666 /dev/dsp. On most systems,
the ability to read from the sound device will not pose a significant security
threat. If this approach is unacceptable for your system, create a group that
owns /dev/dsp and make your Quake players members of that group.
You need the /dev/3dfx driver from Daryll Strauss' glide page
(
http://glide.xxedgexx.com/3DfxRPMS.html) in order run glide
applications (like GLQuake) non-root. Download the Device3Dfx.xxx.rpm
package and install according to the instructions on the web page.
After you've installed the driver, make sure /dev/3dfx has
666 permissions (chmod 666 /dev/3dfx).
When /dev/dsp and /dev/3dfx are properly set up, you can
remove the setuid bit from your Quake/QW/Q2 executables. Just do
(as root) chmod 0755 XXXXX, where XXXXX is either glquake,
quake.x11, or quake2.
If you've been playing as root prior to making these changes, many of your Quake files (like savegames) may be owned by root and inaccessible to a normal user, so remember to change the files' ownership before you attempt to play the game non-root.
The GLX Quakeworld and Quake II clients are native X
applications, but since they use Mesa rather than the 3Dfx
mini-driver, they're slower than the lib3dfxgl.so
versions. For this reason, you may still favor this way of starting
games from X over using the GLX clients.
This is based on a Linux Gazette 2 Cent Tip by Joey Hess ( joey@kite.ml.org) The original is at http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue20/lg_tips20.html#squake
Yes, it's possible to run the Quake games from X if you're root, but such behavior is naughty, and you still run the risk of having Quake crash and leave the console unresponsive. With a little work you can make it possible for a regular user to run SVGA and GL Quake from X AND automatically switch back to X when the program is finished, regardless of whether it exited normally or not.
Note: when I say "Quake" in the text below, I really mean "quake, glquake squake, qwcl, glqwcl, qwcl.x11 or quake2".
make;make install to compile and install
it. Once it's installed, you need to make the open and
switchto executables setuid root. So do this:
cd /usr/local/bin
chown root open switchto
chmod 4755 open switchto
getvc.c:
/* getvc.c
* Prints the number of the current VC to stdout. Most of this code
* was ripped from the open program, and this code is GPL'd
*
* Joey Hess, Fri Apr 4 14:58:50 EST 1997
*/
#include <sys/vt.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
main () {
int fd = 0;
struct vt_stat vt;
if ((fd = open("/dev/console",O_WRONLY,0)) < 0) {
perror("Failed to open /dev/console\n");
return(2);
}
if (ioctl(fd, VT_GETSTATE, &vt) < 0) {
perror("can't get VTstate\n");
close(fd);
return(4);
}
printf("%d\n",vt.v_active);
}
/* End of getvc.c */
$PATH:
gcc getvc.c -o getvc
strip getvc
mv getvc /usr/local/bin
runvc:
your $PATH:
#!/bin/sh
# Run something on a VC, from X, and switch back to X when done.
# GPL Joey Hess, Thu, 10 Jul 1997 23:27:08 -0400
exec open -s -- sh -c "$* ; chvt `getvc`"
$PATH:
chmod 755 runvc
mv runvc /usr/local/bin
runvc command to start Quake. Continue to use
whatever command line you usually use to start your game, but put runvc
at the beginning:
runvc ./quake2 +set vid_ref gl +connect quake.foo.com
I'd like to point out that some people may find that this doesn't work. If your /dev/ttyxx devices do not let you write to them by default (a good idea), then the open command won't be able to switch to them. In that case, you need to chown the next tty that is free after you start up X. I do this in xdm's Xtartup_0 script, as follows:
# Set up tty8 as a console that is writable by the current user, so # open -s commands can be used to run stuff there. # Tty8 is used becuase it's the next free tty after 7 where X runs, # and so open tries to use it. chmod 640 /dev/tty8 chown $USER.root /dev/tty8 # This does open up a tiny security hole: # user_a logs in with xdm, then logs out. # user_b logs in at console. # user_a can now redirect user_b to tty9 via the open command, # and plop them down into some program that, perhaps, tries to # persuade them to enter their password.
You may have seen or heard mention of ways to "tweak" Quake's OpenGL performance by setting various environment variables. These variables are equally valid under Linux. You just set them slightly differently. If a Windows/DOS "tweak" guide tells you to:
SET SST_GRXCLK=59
Under Linux, do it like this:
export SST_GRXCLK=59
Joe S. ( jszabo@eden.rutgers.edu) suggests:
a trick I do with qstat:
I make a file of my favorite servers, then do
qstat -f /C/quake2/file.txt | less
hit control z to suspend, then copy the ip address or hostname I want with gpm to a command line like:
./quake2 +connect expert.eqclans.com
lib3dfxgl.so for Quake I
You can use the 3Dfx mini-driver (lib3dfxgl.so) from
Quakeworld or Quake II with glquake too. Simply copy
the glqwcl.3dfxgl or quake2.3dfxgl
scripts to a new file, say glquake.3dfxgl. Then edit the
glquake.3dfxgl script so it runs glquake instead of
glqwcl.
The same restrictions about running as root apply here, as do
the differences between running under glibc and libc5.
See the
Quakeworld or
Quake II sections for more information on
lib3dfxgl.so.
If you're sick of seeing that useless message every time you press the space bar
in GLQuake, execute the following command from your quake directory and you'll
never have to deal with it again. This little piece of Perl code just replaces
the first character of the message with a null character, which signifies the end
of a string in C programs. Now when GLQuake thinks it needs to tell us about
a possible scan code error, it outputs an empty string instead! Oh, and your
original glquake binary gets automatically backed up to glquake.bak
too.
perl -i.bak -0777pe 's/P(ossible unknown scancode)/\0$1/g' glquake
Thanks to Andrew Chase ( fixy@fixy.org) for this.