So, I play one computer game – Nethack. I have a page on the blog if you want some information about it. I just finished building a 32 bit Linux virtual machine running on VMware player for the purpose of compiling Nethack. I used the latest version of Oracle Enterprise Linux and configured it as a software development workstation.
I did this because I wanted to be able to putty into the VM and have the screen look the same as it does when I putty into nethack.alt.org. I got my putty settings working well now with I think IBM graphics for the symbols. But, it is helpful to compile your own copy of the game when you want to figure out how something works. Plus it is fun to dork around with C code every once and a while since my normal job hardly ever requires it.
I used to use Cygwin to compile my own copy and ran it on a CRT monitor on Windows XP as a DOS window. This was the most like the character based terminals that nethack originally ran on when I played it in college. But, now I have a nice 22 inch flat screen monitor at home and I’ve upgraded to Windows 7 which doesn’t have the DOS window anymore. So, I’ve moved to putty as my method of choice for playing Nethack.
I had downloaded the 64 bit version of OEL to use to install Oracle 12c and 11.2.0.3 in virtual machines that I could run from my new 64 bit OS laptop. So, my first choice for a Nethack VM was a 64 bit Linux VM. I was thinking I would use it for both playing with Nethack and other development type tasks where Linux was helpful. But, I was getting grief from the 64 bit environment. Evidently the Nethack code has some places that convert unsigned integers into pointers and vice-versa. On 64-bit OEL these variables are different lengths. So, after messing with this for longer than I intended – all I’m trying to do is get it where I can run the games from putty – I gave up on 64-bit Linux.
But, the question was, does Oracle still have 32-bit Linux because the new 12c download was only on 64-bit – at least the last time I checked. Sure enough, Oracle still supports 32 bit Linux and so I downloaded that version and it worked pretty much the same as the 64 bit install except that the Nethack code compiled without all the pointer to integer conversion warnings.
So, I have a 32 bit Nethack VM and two 64 bit Oracle database VMs. Fun!
– Bobby
