Features/GamesSpin

Fedora 11 Games Spin

This is in the process of being moved to Games_Spin.

Summary

To provide a Fedora Games Spin (livedvd) as part of the Fedora 11 release.

Owner

• Name: Bruno Wolff

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 11
• Initial kickstart file exists in the spin-kickstarts package in F10.
• Three games have been identified for removal.
  • starfighter - Removed from Fedora because of license issues.
  • vdrift - Only works with binary blob video drivers which won't be on the games spin DVD.
  • uqm* - uqm-data was removed removed from Fedora because of license issues and is 100+ MBs of data that would need to be downloaded before the game could be played.
• The base kickstart has been changed from fedora-live-base to fedora-livecd-desktop to get a display manager.
• The original kickstart file doesn't specify a large enough build partition.
• I have committed a modified kickstart file to the git repository. This will eventually find its way into rawhide.
• Test iso images were being produced using F10 + Updates + Updates-testing that worked with casual testing. Initial rawhide and recent F10 builds have the squashfs file system image just over 4GiB and require using udf instead of iso9660. (Unless some packages get dropped.)
• F11 testing has been problematic with different things breaking builds at different times.
• Space is very tight. Some packages from fedora-livecd-desktop may need to be removed or livecd-creator may need to be changed to work with a squashfs file system over 4 GiB. The latter would add over 300 MB of compressed space while still fiting on a DVD. The patch has been applied to the git copy with some minor changes. Note that the F10 livecd-tools is actually later than the F11 version currently. It isn't in rawhide yet, but the git version can be used if needed for the alpha release. During a discussion about this it was pointed out that vfat files are limited in size to less than 4 GiB and iso images larger than that won't be usable by many people. Other feedback on this issue suggested that people running XP or later would be using NTFS not vfat for their file systems. The exception would be for usb flash drives, But since the isos are intended to be burned on DVDs that doesn't seem to be a big problem. I'll look at both options for the time being.
• We are down to nethack being the only game showing dependency problems.
  • 475925 (nethack) - This will probably result in some problems with fonts until it is fixed.
• I am also seeing an error with the solar plymouth plugin scripts.
• I am going to need help testing as I won't be able to personally fully execute all of the steps in the test plan below.
• It looks pretty good for a games spin for the alpha release. I'll be showing up at the January 16 FESCO meeting to answer questions about this whether it is for feature approval or just following up to make sure it gets included in the alpha release as an exception.
• Percentage of completion: 75% (based on most of the work having been composing the game list that was done before I started working on the feature).

Detailed Description

Fedora 8 had a games spin, which unfortunately was not maintained for Fedora 9. There were problems building it for Fedora 10 that were not resolved in time for the release. This is an attempt to revive this spin for Fedora 11.

Benefit to Fedora

I think a games spin is more likely to get people to try it out than most other spins. As such it makes it a nice candidate for one to be handed out at events focusing on introducing people to Fedora. While the games are not going to be impressive for hard core gamers, there is a nice variety that is likely to have something of interest for most people. A liveusb based on the spin could be even better as that allows people to play their games on other people's computers while keeping their saved games and high score lists with them.

Scope

• We will include many games that are not installed by default in the desktop spin. Since the total set of games will not fit on a single DVD, we will try to include the more polished games available, including those that require 3D graphics support and network play.

• I only plan on testing an i586 version of the spin.

• Trying to allow for builds with a squashfs file system greater than 4 GiB (~ 4.3 GB). (4.7 GB is the capacity for the common formats for DVD burners using 12 cm disks.) This will be done by making changes to livecd-creator to choose a format (iso9660 or udf) based on the size of the squashfs file system image. (Some feedback has suggested that going over 4 GiB for the iso should be avoided.)

Test Plan

• Release alpha and beta releases in sync with Fedora 11

• Test that the Applications->Games menu has the correct subcategories

• Test that each game starts when run from the Application->Games menu

• Test a sample of 3D games to ensure that they work on supported 3D hardware (How do we get coverage of the various video cards?)

• Verify that sound (music, sound effects) work in a sample of games

• Verify that network games work with the livedvd networking out of the box (I may not have an easy way to do testing of this feature.)

• Verify that automatic screen mode switching works for games in fullscreen mode (I may not have access to a machine with kernel mode setting enabled for purposes of this testing.)

• Verify that using the new feature of livecd-creator works on the vast majority of systems. This should be done even if the games spin seems to be small enough not to need it as the space requirements are very close to the limit and updates in parts of Fedora not directly related to this feature could bump it over very late in the process. A simple way to go over 4 GiB is to uncomment the entries for uqm* and vdrift.

• Verify that live installs work both with and without udf being used.

• Verify that there isn't an impact on live usb installs (or document the impact) based on this spin. I may need help with this test as currently I don't have a usb flash drive with more than 4 GiB on it. (That may change before the F11 release.)

User Experience

A similar experience to the default desktop spin, except that the Applications->Games menu will be populated with a large number of games split into subcategories.

Dependencies

• This spin depends on a working -desktop and/or -xfce spin.

• There is not a lot of interdependency between the individual games, so the final list of games that will be included will likely continue to change as new games are added before F-11 is released.

• Changes to other parts of Fedora may raise the size of the spin enough to require needing a new feature of livecd-creator or dropping of packages from the spin (either from the desktop spin or games).

• Getting an OK from the Spin SIG to produce DVD Spins with a squashfs file system over 4GiB even though the spin still fits on a DVD. As this requires using UDF instead of iso9660 and could potentially prevent some people from using it. (I don't know if machines that can boot off of pure iso9660 DVDs, but not udf ones are common.)

Contingency Plan

• Don't provide a downloadable spin. (The kickstart file will still be available in the spin-kickstarts package.)

• Remove release note entries referring to the games spin.

• Remove any other created documentation indicating there is a games spin for F11. (I am not aware of any other documentation at this time. But anything that gets created should be noted in the feature page so that we can find it later.)

Documentation

• We can provide a list of all of the games included in the spin, but will not include a description and documentation for each and every game. Some brief documentation of some games is being maintained at: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Games

Release Notes

• If the Spin ends up needing udf, that should get mentioned in case someone has a problem caused by that.
• Instructions for how to make a liveusb device with persistant saved games and and high score files, would be a nice touch.
• A pointer to a list of games included, so that people can check if games of interest to them are included before downloading the game spin. It would be nice to be able to point directly to the version of the kickstart file (in say the git repository) used to build the official spin. If this can't be protected from updates during the life time of F11 (or F12), then a copy should be used.

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/GamesSpin

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