Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

You can get help here if Freeciv doesn't start on your computer, or if you keep getting fatal errors while playing etc.
Farthingham
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 3:47 am

Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by Farthingham »

I've been trying to play the FreeCiv that came preinstalled on Linux Mint and the 1st thing is that I can't play single player at all. It says "Couldn't connect to Server" and "We probably couldn't start it from here" and "You'll have to start one manually, Sorry... " which is fine except how do I do that? Start one "manually"? What does that even mean?

The most recent version is 2.5.1 and I can't find a guide on how to install it. I have the .tar file in a directory, but have no clue what to do next. I don't care about team play, I'd just like to be able to play vs. the AI.
cazfi
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Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by cazfi »

Farthingham wrote:I've been trying to play the FreeCiv that came preinstalled on Linux Mint and the 1st thing is that I can't play single player at all. It says "Couldn't connect to Server" and "We probably couldn't start it from here" and "You'll have to start one manually, Sorry... " which is fine except how do I do that? Start one "manually"? What does that even mean?
You have to start program named 'freeciv-server' first, and then you should be able to 'Connect to Network Game' in the client with 'localhost' as the server to connect to.
Farthingham wrote:The most recent version is 2.5.1 and I can't find a guide on how to install it. I have the .tar file in a directory, but have no clue what to do next. I don't care about team play, I'd just like to be able to play vs. the AI.
We don't release executable programs for Linux, only the source code (the tarball you've got is probably that). Linux distributions take it forward from there.

The tarball contains documentation (mainly the INSTALL file in the root directory) how to compile freeciv, if you want to do that.

In short:

Code: Select all

> tar xjf freeciv-x.y.z.tar.bz2
> cd freeciv-x.y.z
> mkdir build
> cd build
> ../configure
> make
> make install
Instead of "../configure" you may want to check "../configure --help" first to see what options you can pass it (what features to enable/disable in the build you're making). First time setup probably also involves installing a lot of dependencies (from your distribution), as configure checks that everything needed for the actual build process is available.
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JTN
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Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by JTN »

Farthingham wrote:I've been trying to play the FreeCiv that came preinstalled on Linux Mint and the 1st thing is that I can't play single player at all. It says "Couldn't connect to Server" [...]
This shouldn't happen, of course.
What version of Linux Mint, and what version of Freeciv does it come packaged with, do you know?
(I don't know Mint but I understand it's Debian/Ubuntu-derived, so I'm a bit surprised if its packaged Freeciv doesn't work out of the box.)
Ruin
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Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:59 pm

Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by Ruin »

I'm having the same problem with Linux Mint Mate 17.2. I installed it from here: http://www.playdeb.net/software/FreeCiv

It installed 2 programs, Freeciv and Freeciv (gtk3)

When I choose either and start game, I get "Starting local server..." followed by "Couldn't connect to Server" and "We probably couldn't start it from here" and "You'll have to start one manually, Sorry... "
cazfi
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Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by cazfi »

Ruin wrote:I'm having the same problem with Linux Mint Mate 17.2. I installed it from here: http://www.playdeb.net/software/FreeCiv

It installed 2 programs, Freeciv and Freeciv (gtk3)

When I choose either and start game, I get "Starting local server..." followed by "Couldn't connect to Server" and "We probably couldn't start it from here" and "You'll have to start one manually, Sorry... "
So, does it work if you do what it suggest? Try to start freeciv-server and freeciv-gtk3 separately, and connect client (freeciv-gtk3) to that locally started server: "Connect to Network Game" -> server: "localhost"
Ruin
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:59 pm

Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by Ruin »

It didn't seem to install a server. I uninstalled it and downloaded client and server (of an older 2.4 version) from Mint's "software manager". Then was able to get it going in single player mode by running both client and server at the same time. Not sure if there is a way to update it automatically to latest version? Honestly, whole thing is kind of a hassle.
Joschua
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 1:35 pm

Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by Joschua »

Hi everyone,
Problem : I had the same problem (Linux Mint 17.1 & 17.2 & 18.1) with the prepacked package.
"Can not connect to server, you need to start the server manually.".
Solution : Install the package "freeciv-server".

Reason : The Software Manager does not install the server component automatically. It only installs the client. When you then try to start the client, no server can be found. Once you install the package "freeciv-server", the client automatically finds the correct binary and starts it when starting the client and "connection" to the local server.

Joshua
ivuzwmv3po
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:41 pm

Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by ivuzwmv3po »

I'm having a different problem than above. I am not able to find out how to start a revolution, and can't seem to find any other instructions with the game. It did not come pre-installed, I had to choose to download it along with the server software. Works ok other than that.
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Corbeau
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Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by Corbeau »

Menu tab, Civilization -> Government.

On the other hand, I recall that with one (older) version of 2.5 my Menu tab wasn't visible. Could this be the case?
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ivuzwmv3po
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:41 pm

Re: Help Playing FreeCiv on Linux Mint

Post by ivuzwmv3po »

My version is one downloaded through the Linux Mint 17.2 or 3 through the package manager. It is version 2.4.2, gui-gtk-2.0 client. I don't see a menu dropdown anywhere when I play. Is there a shift-'key' or something like that that would force the 'Menu' choices to drop down that you know of?
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