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Introduction

Eternal Lands is a free, massively multi player on-line role playing game (MMORPG). The game is free to play and the client is open source. The basic aim of this page is to help you install the game.

Ubuntu packages are available from the Launchpad Personal Package Area (PPA) of Paul Broadhead, one of the official developers for the Eternal Lands client. The client (eternallands), data (eternallands-data), sound (eternallands-sound) and music (eternallands-music) are packaged separately to simplify updates.

How to install Eternal Lands

The quick way - Install Ubuntu packages using an install program

  1. Left click this install program link. When prompted, save to your desktop.

  2. When saved, right click the icon and select "Properties".
  3. From the "Permissions" tab, set the execute flag then click "Close".
  4. When that is done, double click the icon and click "Run in Terminal".
  5. Follow the instructions provided.

Or, for newer versions of Ubuntu that support add-apt-repository

  1. Start a terminal using the menu option Applications->Accessories->Terminal then enter the following commands:

  2. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pjbroad/ppa
  3. sudo apt-get update
  4. sudo apt-get install eternallands

Or, the step-by-step way - install Ubuntu packages using GUI tools

  1. Save the PPA authentication key to a file: From the PPA main page, follow the link to the key text or go directly using this link. Select the text from the page and copy/paste into a new text file then save the file.

  2. Launch the GUI tool "System->Administration->Software Sources".

  3. Register the authentication key for PPA: On the "Authentication" tab, click "Import Key File" and select the file you saved earlier. The new key will be added to the "Trusted software providers" list; confirm the new key is listed as "Launchpad PPA for Paul Broadhead".

  4. Add the new software source: On the "Third Party Software" tab, click "Add" then enter "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pjbroad/ppa/ubuntu hardy main" in the dialogue and click "Add Source". NOTE: substitute your Ubuntu release name if you are not using hardy (all recent revisions are supported).

  5. You can now close the "Software Sources" GUI, allowing it to reload your sources.

  6. Now launch the GUI tool "System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager".

  7. Install the packages: Click the "Origin" button at the bottom left of the window, then select "ppa.launchpad.net/main" from the list at the top left of the window. The packages from the PPA are displayed in the main window, right-click and mark each file you want to install (the sound and music packages are optional) then click the "Apply" icon.

Debian packages

Packages built for debian stable are also available. To set up the package source open a terminal and used the following commands:

  1. su -
  2. cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

  3. wget http://www.twinmoons.org.uk/debian/twinmoons.org.uk.list

  4. apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com D8BEADBEB10E30F2
  5. apt-get update

This will change to the root user, add the package archive to your package sources, add the gpg key required to authenticate the packages and then update your package list.

Now, to install the game, from the same terminal as the root user:

  1. apt-get install eternallands

And if you want the music:

  1. apt-get install eternallands-music

Issues with unmet/unresolved dependencies in Ubuntu

If the installation fails with an error message about unmet or unresolved dependencies for a package, e.g. libcal3d12, you will need to enabled some additional software sources. To do this launch the software sources GUI tool from the menu entry "System->Administration->Software Sources". On the "Ubuntu Software" tab, tick the "Community maintained Open Source software (universe)" option then close the GUI. This will update your software sources. Once enabled, retry installing the game packages using your prefered method.

eternallands.jpg

Playing Eternal Lands

How ever you install the packages, once the installation has completed, you will have a new "Eternal Lands" icon under the "Applications->Games" menu.

If you have played the game before from your current Ubuntu login account, your game personal settings may need to be updated to point at the new installation. When you launch the game, you will be given the option to automatically fix any personal settings.

Using an alternative configuration i.e. server

By default the installed icon will launch a configuration/server selection GUI. The first time you launch the game you will be given the option to disable this GUI for future sessions. If you disable this GUI, the "main" configuration will be used by default. This will connect you to the main server. You can easily use other configuration settings (e.g. for alternative servers) by specifying the configuration name as a parameter for the launcher. Note: if you specify a configuration name that does not exist, the game defaults to the "main" configuration.

Example, creating a new icon for the pk server

Create a copy of the game icon by dragging it from the "Applications->Games" menu and dropping it on your desktop or on a desktop panel. Then right-click the new icon and select properties. In the command box of the icon properties (which is under the launcher tab for a desktop icon), add " pk" to the end of the command, i.e. a space and the letters "pk" without the quotes. You can also change the icon text to remind you which server will be used.

Example, connecting to the pk server from the command line

Open a terminal and type "eternallands pk", again without the quotes and press return.

Custom Maps (tab-maps)

Various unofficial packs exist that contain additional and replacement map images (i.e. tab maps). These files are normally installed in the "maps" sub-directory of the game data; doing this could cause issues when updating or removing the install packages. However, these tab-maps can also be installed in your user settings directory, in the "updates/<version>/maps" sub-directory; e.g. "$HOME/.elc/updates/1_9_2/maps". Installing tab-maps here will not cause issues with installed packages and will also be preserved during updates.

Development Versions and Release Candidates of Eternal Lands

The Eternal Lands client is under constant development. Often, the development version has nice new features that will not be available in the release version for several months. It is perfectly fine to play the game using this development version. In fact, if you find and report bugs, you are actively helping improve the game. Almost always, this development version is stable and can happily be used for normal game play.

Note: The development version is available from a different package repository that needs to be added in addition to the standard one.

To install on Ubuntu, open a terminal window and use the following commands:

  1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pjbroad/testing
  2. sudo apt-get update
  3. sudo apt-get upgrade

To install on Debian, open a terminal window and use the following commands:

  1. su -
  2. cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

  3. wget http://www.twinmoons.org.uk/debian/twinmoons.org.uk.testing.list

  4. apt-get update
  5. apt-get upgrade

CategoryGames