Hello all ..

Back some years ago (when the Penumbra games came out) I was using Linux about 80% of the time. I decided to buy the Fractional Games "Linux" versions of the 3 games - https://www.gog.com/game/the_penumbra_collection

I purchased them directly from the Fractional games web site and received download links with registration keys.

I was using ubuntu linux and as hard as I tried, I could not get the games to work. When I run them, I would always get white blotches / spots on my screen and audio that sounded like loud typing on an old type writer. I visited the forums and tried their suggestions and applied patches and fixes. Still, nothing worked to fix the problem and get them operational on my system. So, I gave up and moved on. This year I was digging in my old wooden cabinet and found those games and the registration key codes. I decided to try them again and made sure I had the latest patches and installed them on my Linux (ubuntu) laptop and fired up the games. Guess what .. White flashing and blotching and typing sounds.

Just awhile ago I signed up to STEAM on my Linux laptop and purchased a few games that were advertised to work in Linux. At this point, you would think I would have had enough of fractional and their penumbra games. Some one on Steam suggested I ask STEAM to honor my Key Codes for The Penumbra Collection, so I did ask. Long story short, the answer was No and go ask Fractional Games for Steam Keys for your original keys. I did, but just got pointed to the downloads area to get the keys I already own. Steam wanted like around $10.00 per game. At this point, I'm wondering if the steam games might work, but I wasn't going to pay nearly what I paid Fractional Games originally. I found out from a person on Steam that humble bundle site was having a sale and the Linux (steam) versions was available for about $10.00. Did I buy them. Darn right I did .. I'm a sucker for punishment. Did they work? Yes, I'm playing the first one and I'm about halfway through. It's a scary game and pretty difficult to solve at times. So, to date I have purchased the games 3 times. Yes, I bought GOG's The Penumbra Series on sale (the fall sale) I haven't downloaded them yet, because they are on the bottom my downloads list. I have a slow connection and it takes forever to download stuff. I don't think I'll ever download my games that are 20+ Gigabyte, it would take almost a week to download them at full-speed and that would mean I wouldn't be able to do anything else online. Yes, I could slow it down, but then it would take much longer. I wish I could just trade off some of these larger games and get different / smaller games, even if they are older.

Anyway, I never did ask GOG about my keys, maybe I should have and maybe GOG would have honored my key codes, I don't know? ... Just saying.

Contact support.

Edit: What drivers are you using on your Linux distro? What GPU, do you have all the dependencies the game requires, or are the dependencies included with your versions? What distro? What version? So many variables

It was like 2008 and I think I was using Ubuntu 8.10 at the time and some nvidea card, but I forget what now. That computer died and I got another one.

The last time I tried it was on my laptop and on this box. Dual booting Windows 7 and Linux Ubuntu 14.04. Later I
changed this box over to MX-14 32 bit. I also tried it on my laptop (Ubuntu 14.04) and the games did the same thing. I re-downloaded the newer versions of the games and it didn't make any difference.

Here is what this box is: I no longer have Ubuntu installed.
Linux Ubuntu 14.04 (Now MX-14.4)
AMD Athlon II X4 635
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GT-UD3H
4GB DDR3 Kingston sdram
ATI Radeon HD 4200 [GIGABYTE] 483.0 MHz. / 512 MB ddr2 sdram
Seagate 1TB 7200 HD

On Linux Ubuntu I had the all latest drivers that could be had for 14.04.

I now use the Steam versions on my Galago and the first game is working good so far.

During that time of the old Ubuntu Ati drivers were literal shit.
Now they aren't supported anymore by newer kernels (officially) and the open source ones are so-so for gaming.
DOesn't Steam download dependencies for games? Maybe that's what the problem was all about. Did you run the games through console/terminal before? You usually get a readable error message there.

Just a tip:
Nvidia and Intel GPU-s are far better for Linux usage.

What does this even mean?

GOG policies are that if the game doesn't work you eventually get refunded. They will never give you Steam keys though. And I have no idea if the GOG versions are Linux compatible. If not, then not running on Linux would never be reasons for a refund. Also your network download speed likewise would not be reason to refund. Lastly, and maybe more likely, GOG would not activate non GOG keys, if that's what you were wondering. So it would depend what Fractional sold you, and I doubt they sold you GOG keys.

It may have been the problem (dependencies) I don't know? I wasn't much of a Linux gear head type back then. I'm not now, but I am getting better. One person told me that they was pretty sure the game had issues with refresh rates and other things.

I might try them again sometime .. Perhaps on this box (changing soon to MX-15-beta2) or on a lenovo laptop that I bought off my sister for $60.00. :)

Oh and Thank You for the Tip! ... I'll keep that in mind.
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I was just saying I didn't bother to ask gog because .. it was nothing to gog, I didn't buy from gog, they were not gog keys and so on. Yea .. I got games in my library that are well over 20 Gig. I wasn't thinking refund, I was thinking swap / trade.

I doubt the penumbra games from gog are linux versions. I don't remember seeing the linux icon when I purchased them.

I'm happy to have both. (Linux & Windows versions). My Steam account is for Linux games only. If gog's galaxy was also for Linux, I wouldn't be on steam at all.

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