Neverwinter Nights 2 Tips

To test if Neverwinter Nights 2 will run in Linspire 6.0 I installed CrossOverGames_7.0.0-1_i386.deb using apt-get -install instead of Linspire's CNR Warehouse. Linspire 6.0 appears to be an Unbunto flavor of Linux. The install of CrossOver Games went smoothly. I Installed Neverwinter Nights 2 first in a unsupported Win2000 bottle, then in a unsupported Winxp bottle. Both installations had the same results: 1) Update selection on opening menu will not connect ot server; 2) When I tried to play the game I got the "Could not find any compatible Direct3D devices" message. My first thought on the matter was that Linspire comes stock with XFree86 and xorg nv video drivers for Nvidia video boards. The video board in the computer is a Nvidia GeForce FX5900XT. The Neverwinter Nights 2 manual calls for a Nvidia 6600 or better, so that is also a problem It has been my experience that to run Windows 3D GL games in Linux, you need a Nvidia Linux driver from Nvidia's web site, so I downloaded the latest driver, NVidia-Linux-x86-173.14.09-pkg1.run. Before I could install the driver, I had to do a search on CNR to find the correct source and header files that matched the running kernel. Stock Linspire 6.0 doesn't come with source files installed. With source files installed, I was still unable to install the driver until I created a root password, so that I could log on in the console mode. You can get to the console mode from the login screen under the system pulldown menu. When you get logged in as root, cd to your driver file location, and install the driver using "sh NVidia-Linux-x86-173.14.09-pkg1.run". That starts the installation process that installs the Nvidia driver and also gives you a choice to let the installation program edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, so you don't have to do it manually. Usually this gets things working. To do a reboot from the console mode type "shutdown -r now ". The computer booted normally in to Linspire, so I again tried running Neverwinter Nights 2 by clicking on the desktop icon that was created when I installed it in CrossOver Games. The program loaded , but when I tried to play it, I got the "Could not find any compatible Direc3D devices". This is even with DirectDraw disabled in the CrossOver Games Configuration Menu for that bottle. I checked the /var/log/xorg.o.log file for any errors loading the driver, and that the NVIDIA Unified Driver was the one loaded, and everything looked OK. In order to run 3D games using Nvidia drivers, you have to have these five device files: nvidiactl; nvidia0; nvidia1; nvidia2; and nvidia3. Of the five needed, there was only nvidiactl, and nvidia0 present in /dev directory. I tried creating the missing device files using makedev, but I was denied access. I am not familiar enough with Unbunto or Debian Linux yet to be able to create the missing device files. This is a work in progress for me, and I will be updating this when I get the device file problem solved.
Michael Wilson