Installing Eve on Ubuntu 8.10 64bit

Since writing this, CCP have unceremoniously dropped support for a Linux client citing that fact that the user base was so small it wasn't worth the investment. The fact that the Linux client was crap obviously didn't register at CCP Towers. That's why people went for the WINE solution instead of the Linux client and therefore didn't show as a Linux client. I know this, as I used the WINE solution as a preference as the Cedega solution below was sub par. None of my accounts received the "we are quitting Linux" email CCP sent out. Anyway, rant over.

I had an interesting diversion recently. I haven't logged into the game for a while as I'm just taking another of those small breaks, as you do. So anyway, my mind started to wander a bit and I thought I'd reformat my drive, get rid of Windows XP and install a Linux distribution... namely Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid.

Links you might be interested in up until this point:
http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download
I chose 8.10 64bit version as I have an AMD64 3000 CPU.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

Installation Issues:
I tested Ubuntu by installing it within Windows and it worked fine. It was at that point I decided to boot the PC up with the Live CD and do a full installation that would wipe my Windows XP partition, it was at this point I had errors. SquashFS errors were all over the place but burning a new CD (using another PC) at a slower speed (x1) and checking the MD5 checksums was fine. I rebooted with this new CD and the installation proceeded well.

Drivers:
Ok, once I had Ubuntu installed I had a crappy display, as you normally do with intial OS installation. My graphics card is an Nvidia 7900GS and Ubuntu kindly offered to activate version 177 of the drivers and before long I had a decent screen resolution.

A notification icon popped up stating there were new updates available for various parts of Ubuntu so I installed them all. After all, I trust my PC now.

I could go through the other bits I did but they are a bit boring and irrelevant. So I'll get straight on to the Eve installation now.

What wasn't obvious to me at the time were the consequences of using a 64bit version of Ubuntu. Explanation soon!

Ok so I went along to the Eve site and downloaded the .DEB version of the client installer and double clicked it:
http://www.eve-online.com/download/linux.asp

I then followed some of the instructions on the CCP Eve Knowledge Base page:
http://support.eve-online.com/Pages/KB/Article.aspx?id=387

But basically what I did was this:
Go to Applications tab —> Games —> EVE Online Configuration. What caught me by surprise was the next dialog box, asking about downloading the data file for EVE-Online. I used “Single-User Install” then chose “Download from the Internet”. This took some time.

Basically, the installation went great and following those instructions it looked like it had installed. Be patient going through the installation as a lot of the time it appears that nothing is happening! Just wait and the dialog boxes do appear.

Navigating to Applications>>Game>> Eve Online Configuration and running tests revealed that something was wrong. The graphics tests were failing and so too did one of the audio tests.

I tried launching Eve but nothing would happen. Until I went browsing around the net and discovered that Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit is missing some 32 bit dependencies.

I am unsure if I used the right command, however from the console/terminal I typed in:
getlibs usr/bin/eve
and what happened next is below. Now Eve works like a dream although it can be a bit slow to start up. Also, I don't know if this is specific to my installation or not but after the initial splash screen it goes dark until I move my mouse then the login screen appears.

That's it! One happy pilot free from the clutches of Microsoft...at least as far as Eve Online is concerned. Roll on client improvements, c'mon Cedega!