Experiences with new Angband 4.2.5 and questions about Identifying and Variants

[Michaelyx]

This means you don't have the correct sdl2 packages. I believe you need SDL2_image and SDL2_ttf, and SDL2_mixer if you want sound.

THX for your help!
How do I get the correct sdl2 packages?

I'm trying to install a version of Angband for Ubuntu that looks and feels similar to the Windows version.
When I start "Angband" from the terminal, it currently only runs with a single window and I can't find any way to select graphics. What's going wrong?

[backwardsEric]

If you're compiling from source with configure, it will build the curses and X11 interfaces by default as long as the necessary libraries are available, but neither of those interfaces support using graphical tiles. It will build the SDL2 or SDL interfaces if requested but the necessary libraries also have to be installed. When you run configure, it will list the interfaces that will be built near the end of its output. For compiling the SDL2 interface, the packages you would need to install before running "configure --enable-sdl2" are: libsdl2-dev, libsdl2-image-dev, libsdl2-ttf-dev, and libsdl2-mixer-dev (the last one is only necessary if you want sound). From the command line those could be installed with

sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev

if sudo access has been set up for the account (if not you could use

su root
apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev
exit

). The SDL2 version does support graphical tiles but the interface is not much like the Windows interface. You could install Wine (the package is wine) and then download and unpack the prepackaged Windows executable for Angband, for instance https://github.com/angband/angband/r...-4.2.5-win.zip for 4.2.5. Then you would run

cd <directory with the unpacked Angband for Windows files>
wine angband.exe

to have the Windows interface you're familiar with.

[Michaelyx]

Hello, I tried to install the suggested libraries and then carried out the compiling process again.
I'm not sure about starting Angband installed like this. Is it correct: /src/angband or is it also possible: ~/angband?

In order to use graphics in the game I would need more information:
Are graphics possible with -x11, -msdl or just -msdl2?
How are they selected in the game?
Thank you for your help!

[Nick]

If you have compiled as I said with

sudo make install

you should be able to just run

angband -msdl2

If you did as in the compile instructions in the help, it should be ./angband from the directory which also contains the lib directory; if your executable is in src, copy it one directory higher and try that.

x11 doesn't allow graphics; both sdl and sdl2 do, and they can be selected from menus once the game has opened.

[Michaelyx]

Hi! THX for your help!
I compiled as you said.
1. Load angband-4.2.5.tar.gz from https://rephial.org/
2. Unpacked in Finder under Downloads by double-clicking.
3. Next in the terminal: cd ~/Downloads/angband-4.2.5
4. sudo apt-get install automake libtool
5. sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev
6. ./configure --enable-sdl2
7. sudo make
8. sudo make install
9. cp -a ./src/angband ./angband
9. angband -msdl2

Angband starts but the menu doesn't work. I can't switch to fullscreen, select tiles, or do any of the options provided here.
Seems to be a similar issue to this one: https://github.com/angband/angband/i...ssue-867970884

[Michaelyx]

In previous post I made a few mistakes - here is the corrected procedure as I did it.

1. Load angband-4.2.5.tar.gz from https://rephial.org/
2. Unpacked in Finder under Downloads by double-clicking.
3. Next in the terminal: cd ~/Downloads/angband-4.2.5
4. sudo apt-get install automake libtool
5. sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev
6. ./autogen.sh
7. ./configure --enable-sdl2
8. make
9. sudo make install
10. cp -a ./src/angband ./angband
11. angband -msdl2

Angband starts but the menu doesn't work. I can't go to full screen mode, select tiles, or do any of the options it offers.
I hope someone can give me a hint as to why this isn't working properly:

[PowerDiver]

I never played with tiles, and you inspired me to give it a shot. I got the same behavior. Clicking on the menu choices does nothing. The only difference was that I used --with-no-install.

You have configured for a system installation. Your #10 should be irrelevant.

[backwardsEric]

Michaelyx or PowerDiver, details about what desktop environment is in use might help diagnose what's going wrong. In the past, there was some concern that this sort of behavior came from SDL2 using Wayland so if you can tell whether Wayland is in use, that might also help. Details about the graphics card likely don't matter since this is an input problem, but if you want to pass that information along go ahead.

Probably should have a way for SDL2 front end to spit out what renderer implementation, video driver, and if there's a way to get it, details about the mouse and keyboard handling so it is easier to troubleshoot this kind of problem.

[PowerDiver]

I tested in an old ubuntu maybe 16 that failed the upgrade process, years ago, so it's hardly clean, on an old laptop whose built in graphics was problematic for linux when it was new. It hardly seems worth the effort to debug, but if you want me to run any diagnostics just let me know. I noticed Michael was doing things that do not go together, system install but copying the executable up, so I tested the simple build but got the same results. The next time I boot it up I'll try to see if Wayland is running and if I can disable it.

[Michaelyx]

Thx for your hints!

The problem that the menu doesn't respond at all only exists with the version from Refial.org.
With the current version of github the menu works and grafics too.

[Nick]

Excellent. Quite a bit of work has been done on it since 4.2.5 came out, mostly (all?) by backwardsEric.

[PowerDiver]

I just tested the latest version from github, and the menus worked for me as well. It appears that Wayland is enabled on my distro.

[Egavactip]

There is no mushroom effects that are than temporarily inconvenient, and the same goes for potions, scrolls, etc. This doesn't mean that there aren't bad times to try a new one

Oh, were that only so. A mushroom of purging can kill you in the wrong circumstances, while getting a potion that raises a stat and lowers another one can be extremely damaging if it affects your strength in the early game. Similarly, deep descent can be very dangerous, etc.

[Michaelyx]

I try to use my old char save files in the new compiled Angband.
In the .configure output for the installed version I found: “private save and score files in ~/.angband/Angband/”
Is there a way to use save files if angband was created --with-no-install?

[Nick]

If configured --with-no-install, savefies should be in lib/user/save/ .