Playing Id Software classic games on Ubuntu using ZDoom...

ZDoom is, essentially, an advanced source port for Doom. However, it doesn't just support Doom/Doom II... it also has support for Hexen, Heretic, and Strife.

1) Installing dependencies.

$ sudo apt-get install g++ zlib1g-dev libsdl1.2-dev libjpeg62-dev nasm tar bzip2 libgtk2.0-dev cmake build-essential

2) Get ZDoom sources from ZDoom Downloads Page or Subversion Repository (recommended).

3) If you want to use the sources from Subversion, execute the command below

$ sudo apt-get install subversion

4) Create programs folder in your home directory (optional. this is for newbies only)

$ mkdir programs
cd programs

5) To obtain the latest version from the SVN, use the following command

$ svn checkout http://mancubus.net/svn/hosted/zdoom/zdoom/trunk

6) Download FMod package and save it in programs folder created earlier or you can execute the following command.

$ wget http://www.fmod.org/index.php/release/version/fmodapi42608linux.tar.gz

7) Unzip FMod package by using right click and extract here or the following command

$ tar -xvzf fmodapi42608linux.tar.gz

8) Now you will have a folder with a structure like shown below

    /
        /home
            /your-username
                /programs
                    /fmodapi42608linux
                    /trunk

9) Rename folder fmodapi42608linux to fmod-4.26.08

10) Rename folder trunk to zdoom

11) Using terminal (at this point you are still inside programs folder), go to zdoom folder

$ cd zdoom

12) Invoke CMake to parse the ZDoom source and get ready for compiling

$ cmake -DFMOD_INCLUDE_DIR=~/programs/fmod-4.26.08/api/inc -DFMOD_LIBRARY=~/programs/fmod-4.26.08/api/lib/libfmodex-4.26.08.so

13) Compile the code

$ make

14) If all goes well, an executable zdoom and the zdoom.pk3 file will be generated in the directory. To start zdoom, use the following command

$ ./zdoom

15) ZDoom will try to search for the IWAD files from $HOME/.zdoom or /usr/local/share. If you have an IWAD files in a different location, simply edit zdoom.ini located in ~/.zdoom by adding the path in [IWADSearch.Directories] section

# These are the directories to automatically search for IWADs.
    # Each directory should be on a separate line, preceded by Path=
    [IWADSearch.Directories]
    Path=.
    Path=$DOOMWADDIR
    Path=~/.zdoom
    Path=~/programs/id-classic-wads/
    Path=/usr/local/share/

Note:
Installation steps tested on Ubuntu 9.04 and Linux Mint 7
ZDoom SVN revision: 1880
FMod version: 4.26.08