FIGURE 9.4 Based on the popular Doom 3 engine, Quake 4 pits you against the evil Strogg. Get out there and frag 'em!
After you download the file, drop down to a command line and type in
#sh quake4-linux-1.0*.run
and then press Enter. The installer starts up and asks you a couple of questions. After you answer these, the installer creates the necessary files and folders. All you need to do is to copy several files from the /quake4/qbase directory on the DVD to /usr/local/bin/quake4/qbase. You can start the game by typing quake4 at a command prompt.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Whereas the earlier Return to Castle Wolfenstein was both single- and multiplayer, the freely available Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is multiplayer only (see Figure 9.5).
FIGURE 9.5 Teamwork is the key to victory in this lush but hostile graphical environment.
Available in Win32 and Linux native versions, you can download it via http://www.SplashDamage.com/. After you download the 260MB file named et-linux-2.55.x86.run, install the game by entering the following:
# sh et-linux-2.55.x86.run
Then accept the defaults. A symlink exists in /usr/local/bin to the script that loads the game. When using the KDE desktop, we had difficulty with sound because of a conflict with the KDE sound daemon artsd. The fix prepended a line to the et script that read killall artsd.
Battle for Wesnoth
Of course, games for Fedora are not all first-person shooters like those described in the previous sections. For the more cunning among you, there exists a strategy game called Battle for Wesnoth (see Figure 9.6). In this classic turn-based strategy game, you set out to conquer your foes through a set of increasingly complex scenarios. If you have played the Windows game Age of Empires, you will feel instantly at home with Wesnoth.
FIGURE 9.6 Flex your strategic brain by playing Battle for Wesnoth, a rich and bountiful land of fantasy and adventure.
Battle for Wesnoth is simple to install. All you have to do is enter the following command:
# yum install wesnoth
Fedora takes care of the rest. A new entry will appear in Applications, Games that will enable you to launch Battle for Wesnoth.
KDEedu
There are other games available for Fedora that fall under the term "edutainment." These types of games attempt to aid learning with often simple games. All of them are available through the meta-package kdeedu, so all you have to do is use yum to retrieve this package.
You can probably tell by the name that KDEedu is a KDE-based package. As a result, when you install KDEedu, you also need to install several KDE components, enough in fact to allow you to run KDE. See Chapter 3, "Working with GNOME," for more information about KDE and how to access it.
Among the games are hangman (see Figure 9.7), an anagram game, a tool to learn about the periodic table of elements, and a great stargazing tool called Kstars. There are others for you to explore and that can provide hours of learning and fun for your children.
FIGURE 9.7 Enjoy a game of hangman with your kids and learn some language in this colorful part of KDEedu.
Playing Windows Games with Cedega
As mentioned earlier, the key to mass-market appeal of an operating system is in the applications available for it. A group of developers saw that the vast majority of the computing world was using Windows-based productivity and gaming software and decided to develop a way to run this software on Linux, thereby giving Linux users access to this large application base. The developers came up with a program called Wine, which has been updated regularly and forms the basis of the gaming variant called Cedega. This is a commercial product available from developers TransGaming Technologies (http://www.transgaming.com/), so you cannot retrieve it by using yum.
However, Cedega is a very popular and up-to-date product with support for recent releases such as Elder Scrolls IV and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Because the state of Cedega is constantly changing, TransGaming Technologies has a subscription service which means that you get updates for the code when they are released — ensuring that you are able to enjoy not only the games of today, but also those of tomorrow.
So, if you can't wait for Linux to become more popular with game developers, use Cedega as a stop-gap until they can be persuaded to support Linux directly.
The keys to successful gaming in Linux are to always read the documentation thoroughly, always investigate the Internet resources thoroughly, and always understand your system. Installing games is a great way to learn about your system because the reward of success is so much fun.
Reference
► http://www.transgaming.com/ — The official TransGaming Technologies website provides details of games that are directly supported under Cedega.
► http://www.linuxgames.com/ — A good source of up-to-date information about the state of Linux gaming.
► http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/doom/ — Includes a complete how-to and troubleshooting guide for running Doom 3 under Linux.
► http://www.unrealtournament.com/ — The official site of Unreal Tournament.
► http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=14 — The Official NVIDIA Linux driver support forum.
► http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html — Home page for the NVIDIA Linux drivers.
► http://tinyurl.com/3pm2v — Home page for the ATI Linux drivers (courtesy of tinyurl.com).
PART III
System Administration
CHAPTER 10
Managing Users
One of the most important things you need to learn while using Fedora is effective user administration. Whether you are setting up a system for use just by your self, sharing it among a family of five, or even working with a machine that has to handle several thousand different users, it is important that you understand how to effectively assign user permissions and lock down the areas you want to protect. Equally important is the ability to fine-tune user access rights, to enable people to do what they need to do, and not necessarily what they want to!
Managing users includes managing home directories and settings that are unique to each user. You also have to examine how much of the overall system to which you want to give the users access, as well as establish good pass word practice. This chapter covers all these tasks, as well as others that teach you how to effectively manage the users of your system. It also takes a look at the super-user account so that you can understand why it is so important and also how to let others access some, if not all, of the super-user's power.
User Accounts
Every Fedora installation typically contains three types of accounts: the super user, the day-to-day user, and the system user. Each type is important in its own right, and you must know what each is responsible for. If they didn't work together, Fedora would have a hard time doing anything!