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Linux installation HOWTO 
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
Here are the installation steps (in this example, for v1.28.2.24):

  • First, download the viewer from the website. In our example, the package is named: CoolVLViewer-1.28.2.24-Linux-x86_64-Setup

  • You then need to make the downloaded package executable (because the file permissions are alas not preserved with web downloads). There are two ways to do this: either via the command line in a terminal, or from your preferred file manager.
    Since there is a gazillion of different file managers for Linux, I'll assume you know yours or can find out how to make a file executable with it...
    Let's show here the (old fashioned but universal) command line way:

    Image

    As you can see, the key command is "chmod +x CoolVLViewer-1.28.2.24-Linux-x86_64-Setup", after which you can launch the installer with "./CoolVLViewer-1.28.2.24-Linux-x86_64-Setup".

  • Once the installer is launched, you will go through the following dialogs:

    Image Image
    Note that since, in this example, this is the "root" user doing the installation, the installer suggests to install the viewer in "/usr/local/". For a normal user, it would suggest the user's home directory (but you can install the viewer anywhere provided you got file creation permission for the directory you choose).
    Whatever the directory you choose to install the viewer into, it will be automatically remembered by the installer as the default installation directory for future updates.



    Image
    Nothing to say about this simple, progress dialog... Just watch and relax ! :)



    Image
    And we are done !... Note that if the viewer was installed by "root" (like in the above example), the menu entry is created system-wide (and will be available to all the users), while when installed by a non-root user, only that user will get the entry in their menu.

    Before clicking the "Finish" button, and if it is the first time you install the viewer, you might yet want to check for the proper presence of all the system libraries dependencies. To do so, press the "Verify libraries dependencies" button and you will get something like this:
    Image
    In the event a library is missing, use the software manager of your Linux distribution to find and install the corresponding package.

    If you wish to use voice, and even if (like in the above example) you got all the 32 bits libraries needed by the deprecated 32 bits voice client, you yet might want to install the up to date Windows client, that will be ran via Wine. The "Install Wine SLVoice.exe" button is there for this purpose (it launches the installed install-wine-SLVoice.sh script); note however, that this is a per-Linux-account installation (in our example, and since we installed the viewer as root, only the root user would have the Wine voice client installed), and in such a case you should instead run the install-wine-SLVoice.sh script directly from the Linux account(s) you will actually use the viewer with.

IMPORTANT:
  • With recent versions of some Linux distributions (e.g. Fedora 33), the OpenAL libraries are not installed by default any more, and since they are not distributed with the viewer, this would cause a failure for the latter to start. Simply make sure that OpenAL is installed on your system (you may also use './cool_vl_viewer --check-libs' to check for any missing dependencies).
  • Make sure you installed all the gstreamer v1.0 and gstreamer plugins packages ("good", "bad", "ugly", "libav", "ffmpeg", etc) of your Linux distribution if you wish to be able to play streaming media.
  • The old Linux SLVoice client is a 32 bits application: you need the proper 32 bits support libraries to be able to run it under 64 bits Linux. See this message for using a newer voice client.
  • See also the README-linux.txt file, in the installation directory, chapter 3 (INSTALLING & RUNNING), especially about the checking option for missing libraries, and, for sound issues, chapter 5 (ADVANCED TROUBLESHOOTING)


2009-06-02 18:16:02
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
Unattended/silent/GUI-less installations are possible with the Cool VL Viewer installer: just type "--help" in the installer command line to list the various options.

A typical silent installation would be performed with:
Code:
./CoolVLViewer-1.28.2.24-Linux-x86_64-Setup --mode silent
In which case the viewer is installed in the default directory or, when another destination directory was specified during the installation of a former release of the same viewer version, the installer then installs in that directory.

You may also specify the destination directory in the command line with, for example:
Code:
./CoolVLViewer-1.28.2.24-Linux-x86_64-Setup --mode silent --destination /usr/local/games/CoolVLViewer-1.28.2


2011-11-12 18:26:13
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
Uninstalling can be done by simply executing the "uninstall" program present in the Cool VL Viewer installation directory.

"uninstall" removes all the files part of the Cool VL Viewer installation, the menu entry, and the file used to save the destination directory of the installed viewer (~/.secondlife/.CoolVLViewer-1.28.X.installdir). It won't uninstall any supplementary files that you would have added to the viewer installation directory.

Please note that you do not need to uninstall a release (e.g. v1.28.2.23) before updating to a newer release (e.g. v1.28.2.24): simply install the new release in the same directory as the old one if you don't want to keep the old release, or choose another destination directory to install the new release if you wish to keep the old release at hand.


2011-11-12 18:29:54
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
The Cool VL Viewer is capable of using "static" UI sounds instead of UI sounds downloaded from the grid asset server. This has several advantages:
  • Static UI sounds play without delay (they do not require a first download, and they are pre-decoded).
  • Static UI sounds can play at the login screen (i.e. before the viewer connects to the grid).
  • Static UI sounds prevent the UI sounds mix encountered when you log in different grids (since non-static UI sounds are stored in the viewer asset cache and are different in SL and OpenSim grids but yet share the same UUID, you can get a mix of them when you log in various grids).
Alas, Linden Lab does not allow TPV developers to distribute SL's default UI sounds together with their viewer (this is pretty stupid, since they allow to distribute all the other UI components, such as the icons... but LL does a lot of stupid things, alas !).

So, to take benefit from the static UI sounds feature of the viewer, you will have to install them yourself via the following procedure...

Proceed as follow:
  • Log in and in the "Advanced" -> "Caches" menu, select the "Clear asset cache (after restart)" entry: this is only required to get rid of the sounds that have already been cached (possibly from other grids).
  • Log off/close the viewer and launch it again/log into SL.
  • Make sure the master audio and UI audio are not muted and their level set so that UI sounds are audible (else they won't play at all and therefore won't get decoded).
  • Go to the "Advanced" -> "User Interface" menu, and choose "Decode all UI sounds". You should hear all the UI sounds playing in sequence.
  • Once all UI sounds have been heard (this may take a few seconds for the viewer to download them all), still in the "Advanced" -> "User Interface" menu, click the "Save decoded UI sounds" entry.

Done ! From now on, the Cool VL Viewer will use the (now static) decoded sound files present in the ~/.secondlife/user_settings/ui_sounds/ directory instead of fetching them from the asset server of the grid you are connected to.


2011-11-12 19:01:10
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
A long time ago, Linden Lab and Vivox stopped providing updated voice clients for Linux.

The "last known good" Linux voice client is bundled with the Cool VL Viewer, but it is not guaranteed to properly work any more (in particular, it may fail to connect, fail to update the speakers list in a timely manner, or fail to do peer to peer voice sessions with a resident using a newer voice client). It also requires 32 bits libraries (glibc and a few others, usually found in an "ia32-libs" package of Linux distributions).

If you do need voice under Linux, I recommend that you install Wine (either of the 32 or 64 bits versions will do) and fire the provided install-wine-SLVoice.sh script in order to let it setup SLVoice.exe support for the viewer (this is a per-Linux-user-account installation that needs to performed only once and for all, but for each Linux user account from which you are using the viewer); the script gives all the explanations about what it is doing. Once the Windows version of the voice client has been successfully installed, the viewer will use it instead of the deprecated Linux SLVoice client...

EDIT: install-wine-SLVoice.sh also now accepts the "-c" (or "--config") and "-r" (or "--regedit") options, which launch, respectively, winecfg and regedit for the ~/.wine-slvoice prefix. This allows to reconfigure and/or fine-tune your Wine SLVoice installation.


2020-11-21 10:57:56
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
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This post is about how to install the viewer for ARM 64 bits (aarch64 CPU) Single Board Computers (SBCs) such as the Orange Pi 5, Raspberry Pi 5, Radaxa Rock5, etc...

  • Make sure your Linux distribution is using glibc v2.35 or newer; while it would be possible to compile the viewer for older distributions, it would require recompiling the third party libraries as well.

  • Make sure your Linux distribution got the 3D accelerated OpenGL Mesa drivers installed: they are called "Panfrost" or "Panfork", for most SBCs. This is, by far, the trickiest part and might require fiddling (manual configuration or compilation), or (simpler) using a specific distribution (e.g. Armbian) with native support for those drivers (beware: even with Armbian, not all "flavours" got support for Panfrost/Panfork; e.g., for the Orange Pi 5, you must use exclusively the Ubuntu Gnome variant, even though you can afterward install and run something else than Gnome on it).

  • Download the viewer ARM64 tarball binary and extract it.

  • Make sure you have libopenal and gstreamer v1.0 installed. From a terminal opened inside the viewer installation directory, use ./cool_vl_viewer --check-libs to verify you have all the necessary dependencies installed.

  • If you need voice support (untested), install Wine (the 64 bits flavour is best for this purpose: install "wine", "wine64" and "box64" for the x86_64 emulation), then run the install-wine-SLVoice.sh script (see the post above).

  • Since there is no dedicated VRAM (no discrete GPU) on SBCs, you need to specify the amount of RAM you wish to let the viewer use for graphics. This can be easily done (as root or using sudo), system-wide with: echo "export LL_VRAM_MB=512MB" >>/etc/cool_vl_viewer.conf (if you got 8GB of RAM on your SBC, you may increase this number to 1024MB, and 2048MB for 16GB RAM). Alternatively, this can be done (on a per-Linux-account basis only) from the "Graphics" tab of the "Preferences" floater, "GPU/GL features" sub-tab ("Available VRAM" slider), once the viewer has been started.

You are all set now... :D

Hints about the viewer configuration for ARM64 SBCs:
  • Do not try and use the ALM or PBR rendering modes: Panfrost/Panfork is just too buggy/incomplete for now to use deferred rendering... Keep the viewer in forward rendering mode (which it will default to).
  • Do not enable the "OpenGL worker threads" feature: here again Panfrost/Panfork got bugs that would cause it to deadlock within a few seconds of rendering.
  • When using a distribution with Wayland desktops enabled/selected by default (this is usually the case for GNOME-based distros), be sure to instead start the Xorg/X11 flavour (with lightdm login screens, such options are available by clicking on the small icon above the login/password input line); while it may run under Xwayland, the viewer will suffer from glitches and bugs in the latter and is much happier with a genuine X11 environment !


2023-11-22 11:52:56
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