# Second life viewer



## liquidLD (Oct 28, 2017)

Hi. I don't know if this is the right place to post it, but I'll give it a shot. 
How about a second life viewer for FreeBSD? Is there any? (not talking about 8 years old ones that most likely won't even log in) . 

Anyone know how to compile lets say, Firestorm on FreeBSD? Or any recent viewer? 
Thanks


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## ronaldlees (Oct 28, 2017)

Welcome liquidLD:

Doesn't Second Life rely on OpenGL for viewer rendering?  FreeBSD has never been an OpenGL powerhouse.  I don't know how many graphics card drivers on FreeBSD can do OpenGL. AFAIK it is a smaller number than on Linux, so the resultant smaller potential user base might provide less incentive to do the port build.  Is SL growing or shrinking these days?


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## liquidLD (Oct 28, 2017)

ronaldlees said:


> Welcome liquidLD:
> 
> Doesn't Second Life rely on OpenGL for viewer rendering?  FreeBSD has never been an OpenGL powerhouse.  I don't know how many graphics card drivers on FreeBSD can do OpenGL. AFAIK it is a smaller number than on Linux, so the resultant smaller potential user base might provide less incentive to do the port build.  Is SL growing or shrinking these days?



ronaldlees Thank you . 
I think it does (not sure). But I think FreeBSD performance should be enough for running a viewer, especially on NVidia or Intel, even in windowed mode. The only thing I've found is this http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Compiling_the_viewer_(FreeBSD). Outdated, vague (for me) and that doesn't explain much. Now I have occasionally build my kernel, or some app, or some driver in Linux but on BSD I have little to no knowledge . 

SL is, as always, I think, still around 45K people logged in in peak hour. I need it for uploading mesh and artwork, so I really need it!


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## ronaldlees (Oct 28, 2017)

> "Briefly, the Linux versions of the Firestorm viewer do not provide Mesh upload or pathfinding map editing, and the claimed reason is that this is because Linden Lab no longer pays for a Linux license for the relevant Havok components."
> 
> If this is true, eventually no Linux user will be able to upload Mesh.



  - Quoted from https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/385453-support-for-mesh-upload-on-linux-viewers-clarification-needed

So, before we even get to the possible performance issues with software rendering - SL needs Havok physics engine for your purpose (uploading mesh) - if the poster (in above quote) is correct.  So, licensing issues may make your quest moot.


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## liquidLD (Oct 28, 2017)

I know that, yeah. They even eliminated 32-bit Havok builds from Linux. But honestly, mesh is secondary here. And one could upload mesh even without Havok, as long as you don't need navmesh, pathfinding and stuff. 
A good working SL viewer is required though. 
Thanks for your input in the matter.


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## qsecofr (Nov 14, 2017)

I ran the Firestorm Linux 32-bit on FreeBSD-9.3.  I needed to grab CentOS shared libs and manually install into their proper place til 
	
	



```
ldd
```
 was satisfied.  It ran better than the Windows (seven) version on same hardware via dual boot, minus the media.  I thought around the time of FreeBSD-10 that there was some change in the linux proc table struct and/or some low-level feature in the Firestorm version of the time that made it unusable.  Since then I've switched my desktop from FreeBSD.  If you give it a go on FreeBSD-11, I imagine a few folks would be curious to hear your results.  Theoretically I could have grabbed the source for the viewer and tried to make it work, but time is in too short a supply these days.  If you have the time, then where there is a will there is a way.


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## liquidLD (Nov 16, 2017)

Thanks. I've also switched away for now,I honestly don't have the skills to build that for bsd,not the time. I remember on freebsd 11.1 ,after installing linux compat (linux-c6,if I recall), and trying to run Firestorm from it's folder, it was giving some error,about something not found,if I remember correctly. Didn't follow it up from there. 

I might in winter vacation. For now I'm just hopping : win,bsd,linux,then back to win,then freebsd,always trying,assesing. 
For now, the 'weak' points (for me) in freebsd as a permanent desktop are VERY slow speeds in realtek wifi adapter and no second life viewer.


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## qsecofr (Nov 16, 2017)

Assuming you satisfied ldd, the other thing I can think of asking is had you run the binaries from a linux shell script?

```
#!/compat/linux/bin/sh
... etc
```
IIRC


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## Datapanic (Nov 17, 2017)

I run OpenSim 8.x Grid with 5 servers and 72 (256x256) Regions + Robust and Money on Ubuntu 14.x as that's the most stable platform it runs on.  The MySQL server runs on FreeBSD, for what it's worth...  Shared directories for OAR/IAR and Trees also live on a ZFS export on FreeBSD.  But, for the viewer, CoolViewer 1.26.16 on Windows XP for OpenSim and the latest Phoenix Viewer on Windows 7 or higher for any OpenSim or SL login.  Some stuff is gonna take a long time, if not never, to work on BSD and I think a SL Viewer is one of them.


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## liquidLD (Nov 17, 2017)

qsecofr said:


> Assuming you satisfied ldd, the other thing I can think of asking is had you run the binaries from a linux shell script?
> 
> ```
> #!/compat/linux/bin/sh
> ...



I used ,from terminal 'sh firestorm..' and also, tried to install like in linux with 'sh install.sh' . Didn't used (or know) that it needs special parameters for compat with linux. I might try in the future. Thanks. I'm pretty convinced it won't likelly ,work anyway.


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## liquidLD (Nov 17, 2017)

Datapanic said:


> I run OpenSim 8.x Grid with 5 servers and 72 (256x256) Regions + Robust and Money on Ubuntu 14.x as that's the most stable platform it runs on.  The MySQL server runs on FreeBSD, for what it's worth...  Shared directories for OAR/IAR and Trees also live on a ZFS export on FreeBSD.  But, for the viewer, CoolViewer 1.26.16 on Windows XP for OpenSim and the latest Phoenix Viewer on Windows 7 or higher for any OpenSim or SL login.  Some stuff is gonna take a long time, if not never, to work on BSD and I think a SL Viewer is one of them.


 Thanks for the tip on XP viewer   . Still have a XP around for good ol' times, to remember what efficient and simple windows interfaces were. (Vulnerable too, but as UI/UX, very concise,and functional.
That is too bad that freebsd doesn't have sl viewer, I'm itching to make it my main workstation, but I can't . One sticks with what it gets things done .


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## Datapanic (Nov 18, 2017)

You can get XP security updates until April 2019 if you convert it to Windows POS.  Just google for it - very easy registry hack.  

I did try to get OpenSim running on FreeBSD - supposedly it did work on version 8, but that's so old now that it's impossible to set up and get the ports that worked back then.  I haven't tried the newer versions of Mono on supported versions of BSD, but plan to soon.


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## Alita (May 8, 2020)

liquidLD said:


> Hi. I don't know if this is the right place to post it, but I'll give it a shot.
> How about a second life viewer for FreeBSD? Is there any? (not talking about 8 years old ones that most likely won't even log in) .
> 
> Anyone know how to compile lets say, Firestorm on FreeBSD? Or any recent viewer?
> Thanks



Hi
i know for a fact there was a viewer for second life but i not sure what happened to it as i want to install it as well even if it has to be firestorm.


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