Hello, all!

My BG1 Linux install will not boot. Console says that it cannot find libssl1.0.0. I placed a copy of it from Steam into the /game directory but there was no change.

How are you other Linux users playing BG1?

I would use the Windows version through Wine (which by itself works fine) but most mods will not install due to parsing errors. These are hardcoded and not worth trying to remedy.

The simplest fix is getting the Linux version to work.

Thanks for any help!

I love how you say Linux like there is only one kind... for what its worth my copy of Ubuntu 20 runs it just fine

I thought this might be a common problem, not one distinct for Pop!_OS. If I had been specific maybe you wouldn't have written me because you're using Ubuntu. And you've give given me useful information, thank you! If people using other distros tell me they aren't having issues I can narrow things down more.

Are you using the 2.6.6 version of BG? Ubuntu 20.10? Installed through Steam or Lutris? Or directly through console?

Thanks!

I own the game on Gog and also on Beamdog but the copy running on my laptop is from Gog

laptop = https://valid.x86.fr/uh81mr
Ubuntu = 20.04 LTS installed to its own special drive so Windows can't get it grubby hands
I assume the Linux copy from Gog is 2.6.6 but it could be an older one

good luck to you

Maybe it's an Ubuntu 20.10 issue or really is Pop! specific. Argh.

Windows is getting crazier, isn't it? Last time I installed it I had to uncheck and uninstall all kinds of trackers. Then go into registry, etc. And some of the stuff is viral and keeps reinstalling!!!

I'll go straight to the GOG customer support.

Thanks!

yes the good news is Windows 11 puts a stop to most of that as you don't have permission to remove the trackers ;)

This works great, but install to root. How do I direct install to the /Home/ directory?

avoid using dumb solutions to non-existent problems

There is a --prefix option you can pass when building the packages to change the path the game is going to be installed to. An example of usage could be:

OSM, what version of Linux and BG are you using? What vendor? Do you really suppose I would invent a problem? Of course not. I would be happily playing if the game worked straight up.

Alright, the solution was so simple not a single person recommended it. Drop the libraries in the /usr/lib/x86... directory as root user. The game really will not look for the libraries within its own directory/ies. Thank you for the play.it recommendation! If it weren't for modding, I would use it. I don't like placing programs in my /home folder because it gets cluttered. That is one reason I've been using Wine for my other games: it keeps them nicely tucked away.

GOG customer support told me where to put the libraries. I'm new to Linux and don't know the file architecture. What's funny is that they didn't mention the need to become root user. There really is a need for technical writers. I really might consider it for work.

Any book recommendations to learn Linux?

It's not a problem in the sense it is how software operates. Be it on Linux or Windows.
Learning by using - AND reading quality material as opposed to the stuff put out by smoothie gen (usually as proficient as those it's aimed at), pandering to n00bs.

Eg our good samaritan vv221 input here is *not* quality. Harmful actually. Tho it's friendly and stuff like his is actually widespread, unfortunately. You choose.

ppl think that Windows somehow understood by human beings naturally while Linux is SO COMPLEX. ffs
"it's all learned - even the nipple" (c)

That’s because it’s not really good advice ;)

By putting these files in a system path you make an old unmaintained library, related to network encryption, available to all software on your system. In most cases it will not cause any issue (especially if you only use software from your distribution repositories) but some badly coded software could use it instead of the more up-to-date library provided by your distribution.

What ./play.it does, and that you can reproduce manually, is to put it in a directory in the game path ("libs", but the name could be anything) and tell the game where to find it by exporting an environment variable prior to calling the game binary: ---

Older versions of ./play.it used to have basic support for assisted modding, but it was before the release of the Enhanced Editions. I was not really satisfied with how we handled that, so I dropped it until we can find some user-friendly way to allow Baldur’s Gate modding again. And since I mostly play without mods, this stalled ;)

To avoid confusion: Baldur’s Gate modding is doable on a ./play.it installation, as it is on a "regular" one. But it is clunky and undocumented, so I do not recommend using ./play.it if you plan to play with mods.

As vv221 said above, this solution is simple and wrong. You should revert it. Please share exactly what GOG customer support wrote to you. The cynical interpretation of what you wrote here is that they gave you actively bad advice, in which case someone needs to explain to them that their instructions were wrong. The optimistic interpretation is that they gave you vague advice that you interpreted in a way that led to a bad outcome.

vv221 provides a good explanation of why putting the library in global scope was wrong, and of how to provide these libraries in a way that is isolated to the program that needs them. No, but lurking on Linux-related technical forums may be helpful. Some Linux distributions have forums that are quite good in this regard. Others have forums where the average quality of advice is poor to terrible, and you should do your own research before following anything you find there.