NetHack is broken (edgy, fiesty, gutsy)

[Andrew Fenn]

There are problems with multiple versions of nethack, nethack-gnome, nethack-qt and a possible problem with X NetHack

nethack-gnome
--------------------

NetHack Gnome is broken. You can get to the character select screen and then it crashes with GTK errors...

Gdk-ERROR **: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  serial 6845 error_code 8 request_code 62 minor_code 0

nethack-qt
--------------------

NetHack QT is broken. Attempting to run the game produces no results apart from a cpu load of 90%. (pic included)

nethack-x11
--------------------

There is possibly a problem with nethack-x11 movement can be done fine and then you will encounter a dead end but if you keep spam clicking around where your character is new corridors or doors will appear. Possibly a bug in the display?

Tested using a Samsung R55 and a desktop.
Tested with an upgrade from Dapper to Edgy
Tested with an upgrade from Edgy to Feisty
Tested with a fresh install of Feisty.
Almost certainly in Gutsy as well.

[Freddy Martinez (freddymartinez9)]

Thank you for your bug-report. I will assign it to myself and attempt to reproduce.

 Can you be specific to which package of nethack:

freddy@omg-gnus:~$ apt-cache --names-only search nethack
jnethack - The dungeon exploration game JNetHack (nethack with Japanese l10n)
nethack-common - Common files for Nethack dungeon crawl game
nethack-console - Text-based overhead view D&D-style adventure game
nethack-el - Emacs major-mode for playing NetHack
nethack-gnome - Text-based/Gnome overhead view D&D-style adventure game
nethack-lisp - Text-based overhead view D&D-style adventure game
nethack-qt - Text-based/Qt overhead view D&D-style adventure game
nethack-spoilers - Spoiler files for the Nethack adventure game
nethack-x11 - Text-based/X11 overhead view D&D-style adventure game
nethack-gnome-dbgsym - debug symbols for package nethack-gnome
nethack-common-dbgsym - debug symbols for package nethack-common
nethack-lisp-dbgsym - debug symbols for package nethack-lisp
nethack-qt-dbgsym - debug symbols for package nethack-qt
nethack-console-dbgsym - debug symbols for package nethack-console
nethack-x11-dbgsym - debug symbols for package nethack-x11

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

I have nethack-common and nethack-gnome installed.

Thanks for trying to fix this. Without nethack my life is worthless.

[Rashind (dennis-millarker)]

I am experiencing the same problem with nethack-console, as well as nethack-qt. nethack-qt is mostly playable, but only because of the button/toolbar action-commands.

I still strain my legs every time I try to kick a sink, because I can't remember which nonsensicle letter corresponds to which direction, so I wind up kicking thin air. (Not that I ought to be kicking sinks at level 2, anyway...)

But yes, the arrow-keys all call the inventory command on my system. Feisty final, fully updated as of June 15th, 2007.

I have the following nethack packages installed:
nethack-common
nethack-console
nethack-qt
nethack-spoilers

[Rashind (dennis-millarker)]

Curiouser and curiouser... I tried telnetting into nethack.alt.org, and had the same difficulties. So, I killed X windows entirely, and tried playing from the command line, both on the local nethack-console and telnetting out to nethack.alt.org, and had the same problems. So, I'm thinking that the problem is not in the nethack packages or in gnome or the gnome terminal.

[Rashind (dennis-millarker)]

Still more information... I booted up my XP partition, and tried telnetting to nethack.alt.org (I just wanted to play, at this point), and I was still having the problem with arrow keys giving the wrong input. So, I downloaded the windows binaries to play locally, and THOSE worked.

So,

Feisty local nethack-console: bad input from keyboard
Feisty telnet nethack: bad input from keyboard
XP telnet nethack : bad input from keyboard
XP local nethack tty/graphical: working

This computer's hardware configuration, by the way, is an Intel Core2Duo on an EVGA 680i motherboard with nVidia 8800GTX video card (proprietary restricted drivers), and a USB Microsoft Digital Media Pro keyboard (us layout selected in Ubuntu.)

In the interest of science, now, I dug up my laptop (also running Feisty, Sony Vaio VGN-N130G, no windows partition), installed nethack, nethack-console, nethack-qt, and nethack-gnome.

Laptop results:

nethack-console: bad input from keyboard
nethack-qt: working
nethack-gnome: non-working, all windows close after character-creation, see bug #90511

So, I guess for now I'll be playing nethack-qt on my laptop. I have no idea what the root of the problem is, but hopefully someone with a wiser head than mine (and maybe some programming ability) will figure it out.

[Rashind (dennis-millarker)]

Okay, turns out that this is not a bug. Someone with the necessary powers might want to close the bug report.

From strategywiki's entry on Nethack/Beginning (http://strategywiki.org/wiki/NetHack/Beginning) :

"Some graphical versions of NetHack let you click on squares to move there. Otherwise, you will need to the learn the keys to move around.

If you had switched on the "number_pad" option, then you get to use the number keys [12346789] to move in eight directions. <B>Most ports do not let you use the arrow keys.</B> For the best controls (and also if your keyboard has no numeric keypad), you should leave "number_pad" off and use the [yuhjklbn] keys to move your @ around. This system consists of four "vi" keys to move in four directions (up, down, left, right), and four "diagonal" keys for diagonal movement."

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

I am also having problems running gnome-nethack. Sorry before I meant nethack in the console.

[Rashind (dennis-millarker)]

By way of work-around, you might try using the Vulture's Eye graphical frontend for Nethack 3.4.3.

Ubuntu installation thread here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2865357

Try downloading the fedora core 5 RPM (http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/fedora/extras/5/i386/nethack-vultures-2.1.0-9.fc5.i386.html)
Then install alien, which will convert the rpm file to a debian package ( sudo alien -k nethack-vultures-2.1.0-9.fc5.i386.rpm ) into something that gdebi can use ( sudo gdebi nethack-vultures_2.1.0-9.fc5_i386.deb )

Works well for me using number pad for movement.

[Rashind (dennis-millarker)]

Oh, I should say, if you follow those installation instructions, synaptic will not be tracking the installation. The executable can be found in /usr/games/vultureseye

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

I have vultureseye too but I would rather use either the 2D gnome version or original console.

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

Using num lock makes no difference and I think that nethack is messed up.

nethack-gnome gives me this error.

Gdk-ERROR **: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  serial 6845 error_code 8 request_code 62 minor_code 0

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

nethack-qt is also broken, the following screenshot is after I began running it.

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

Freddy are you still working on this bug? If not could you unassign yourself from it.

Thanks.

[Andrew Fenn (andrewfenn)]

Its been a week with no response please re-assign yourself if you're picking this back up.

[Tabrez Iqbal (tabrez)]

When I run nethack-gnome, it presents dialog boxes lacking text in many places:

http://img9.imagepile.net/img9/39511nethack.png (also attached)

and after taking all the input, the main window just disappears. The game doesn't start at all.

I get this error if I run it from a terminal:
bash# nethack-gnome
Gdk-ERROR **: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  serial 28142 error_code 8 request_code 62 minor_code 0
Gdk-ERROR **: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  serial 28146 error_code 8 request_code 62 minor_code 0
(as also reported by Andrew Fenn)

The console version *seemed* to work fine for the 40 seconds I managed to play it.

[Timo Jyrinki (timo-jyrinki)]

The original bug has been fixed in gutsy since 2007-08-21, see bug 70367.