Saturday, June 08, 2013

Streaming audio on 64-bit Linux with 32-bit client

OK. You know that I've been urging LL to come out with a 64-bit Linux build for their client/viewer. In the past, I've been able to run the 32-bit client, but streaming media have not worked, and that precludes some of the wonderful things one can do in Second Life.

Today I had the good fortune to talk with Susyn Stenvaag, a wonderful lady--and she mentioned that she had LL's client working, with streaming audio, on 64-bit Ubuntu Linux. She pointed me at a thread in the Second Life forums, "Getting Second Life to run on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit". There you will find the following instructions, which she also gave me, namely to run the following commands from a terminal window:
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch
sudo apt-get install i386 lib32gcc1
sudo apt-get install libc6-i386
If you have the urge, you can do just one command, namely
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch i386 lib32gcc1 libc6-i386
In any case, you will have to have sudo capabilities and enter your password when asked for it at the first (and only, if you choose to do it all at once) command. It will download and install a bunch of files...

...and then you can run the 32-bit client and hear streaming audio!

I would go add a comment to the JIRA entry that asks for a 64-bit client, but it doesn't provide me that option.

In any case, many thanks to ever-gracious Susyn, and to Mark Lock, who posted the commands in the SL forum thread. If. for whatever reason, you prefer to run LL's client rather than a third-party SL viewer, you can now do so on 64-bit Linux without cutting yourself off from the world of SL music.

Busted 3rd Anniversary Issue

Remember how I would periodically write about the new Busted being out, and that it was, despite my thinking it impossible, better than before? Well... my not having written that for a while doesn't mean it hasn't continued to be the case, and the new third anniversary issue takes my breath away.

Amazing photography. Fine articles. It's all there. Go read it.

Hello again, hello...

I've been away, figuratively, rediscovering the joy of programming (and new skills, which are particularly important for a programmer, though I think that's becoming more generally true; the days of spending one's life at one company doing one job are long gone, save, alas, maybe in the government). Having taken that plunge, I think I can proceed with a little less obsession and a little more time for other things, including Second Life. It will be good to be back.