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loughkb
New Participant
February 21, 2015

ubuntu 14.04 64 bit, .4.4 SDK everything on main monitor?

Howdy,

Received my DK2 a week ago. I like to primarily stay under linux and am beginning to work on a game idea. The DK2 works fine booted under windows, but I have a nagging problem under linux.

I have a fairly modern system, with an Nvidia GTX 750 card and the latest native nvidia binary drivers installed on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I downloaded the current 0.4.4 SDK for linux and so far, the only thing that works properly, is the test scene from within the config util. (Although it has a bit of annoying judder when I turn my head more than really slowly.)

Every linux version of anything oculus that I try to run, will open on the main monitor screen, rather than the rift. For example, janusVR. It detects the rift, the IR camera activates, and head tracking is working, but the display is on the main monitor, with only my desktop background on the rift. It's the same with everything I try, always opening their display on the main monitor.

The system settings for displays, and the nvidia control panel both see the rift and know it as "OculusVR, Inc. 6"" in ubuntus displays panel, and "OVR Rift DK2" in the nvidia control panel.

But the test scene is the only program that properly display's on the rift rather than the main screen.

Some programs like Second Life's project oculus linux viewer don't seem to notice the rift is there and does nothing when you ctrl-shft-d or select switch to HMD on the menu.

Most all other programs notice the rift, activate the camera, and respond to head tracking movements, but with their display on my main monitor rather than the rift.

I would try the OVR demo, but it doesn't successfully build. Breaks with an error where ld can't find -lGL

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Kevin

    6 replies

    FictionX
    Participant
    February 21, 2015
    I'm afraid that's just the state of things in Linux right now VR-wise. The Table demo starts up directly on the Rift for me, too, but I think that's the only one. I guess since that one works it can be done with code, but no-one seems to be using it.

    The read-me that comes with the SDK mentions using a separate x screen - but I don't know how many people have been successful in setting that up (viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20228)
    - I thought it was way too cumbersome, since the Nvidia config tool doesn't seem to save the configurations properly, so after a lot of frustration, I gave up on it.

    I'm now using xrandr shortcuts to switch to the Rift: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=19893#p242513

    We're all waiting for an update from Oculus to make things better in Linux... we have been for quite a while.
    loughkbAuthor
    New Participant
    February 21, 2015
    Hello FictionX, and thanks for the quick reply.

    I did try the separate xscreen route. It's pretty easy to do with the nvidia control panel. You just have to launch the control panel with sudo so that it is running as root and can update the xorg.conf file.

    However, that didn't solve anything, and in fact, not even the demo scene would render to the rift in that configuration.

    Honestly, I'd really like to play in second life under linux. I get a better frame rate on the linux viewer than I do on the windows viewer on the same hardware. (which surprised me when I discovered it.) I also noticed that half life 2 beta under linux didn't show the enable VR prompt, yet it did activate the head tracking camera. So it's just weird.
    FictionX
    Participant
    February 21, 2015
    Oh right.. It's been a while, but I did do that (also, the Nvidia control panel asks for pw when saving the xorg configuration, so that should work). It still never did for me either, though.

    Did you try starting the app with DISPLAY=:1 <executable>?

    Regarding Second Life, I don't think they've added support for the Rift in the Linux version. It's not mentioned anywhere, but I never got it to work either.

    I remember someone building a Linux version of ctrlalt viewer (http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer) with Rift support. I was sure it was mentioned in this forum, but I can't find it now.

    edit: oh.. here it is :-) : viewtopic.php?f=42&t=7659&p=104737&hilit=ctrlaltstudio+linux#p104737
    haagch
    Up and Coming
    February 21, 2015
    It's second life's fault. They seem to have zero interest in putting vr anywhere that isn't windows.

    If you have a second life account, there was this: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/RIFT ... tId=422398

    "toggle HMD Mode" does not do anything yet.
    ...
    This is expected behavior at this time. We have not ruled out supporting Linux in the future.


    They don't even care enough about linux users to *tell* them that it's not working. They just put a release release on their website that doesn't work.

    I don't think there is any newer information available, but you can look and maybe ask again here: https://jira.secondlife.com/issues/?jql ... %3D%20RIFT
    FictionX
    Participant
    February 21, 2015
    Exactly.. I spent some time trying to get it to work, too, since the build at that time just said "oculus support" was included.

    It's not just Second Life, though. You see it in Steam, too. Quite a lot of games are sold for Windows, Mac and Linux with VR support - and nowhere is it mentioned that VR support is only in Windows.

    Second Life is after all "free", so I'm not really suckered into anything other than downloading the client (and spending too much time trying to get it to work) - but in Steam, they're taking my money without telling me that the feature I'm buying the game for is not available for my platform. That really ticks me off.
    marchingcubes
    New Participant
    February 21, 2015
    Just be glad you don't have a DK1. Oculus just don't seem to have any support in their current SDK for this.

    So yeah, not only is there no support for actually rendering to a Rift properly under Linux, but for a DK1, there is no support for the head-tracking either. Making it a bit of a paperweight.

    Hopefully we will see non-beta support at some point which fixes all these issues.
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