Gaming linux to run like a program

Austinll

Hey guys. Sorry I'm a complete noob about Linux. I'm looking for a Linux that's great for gaming, but i want to be able to run it like a windows program. I saw that lucid puppy could do so, but how is the OS? also, I NEED it to be able to run like a windows program because i want to run games like fallout 3 at school, but i can install an entire OS onto a computer, get it? also if there is an ability to do this, i need it to be a non high user level type program(like needing to run as ADMIN) because that's not an option. any help would be vastly appreciated. Also it needs to be fully operational off of a flash drive, though i may be able to put a few files onto the computer, but not installing anything to conspicuous.

*edit---

I recently saw that linux OS's arnt able to efficiently run windows based games alone, but i still need the OS. I recently saw that you can dual boot, but every dual boot description i saw required you to install to the computer, and as stated above, i cannot do so. is it possible to dual boot without installing to the computer, possibly by installing to the flashdrive only? and if i dual boot will that transfer over any of the admin setting over to the linux? I need to be admin to play any decent games, and this is the only way i can do so.

mfillpot

Please don't let this discourage you from trying Linux based systems, but I do not approve of your reason and will remind you that your actions taken to attempt to work around established IT policies can easily backfire. With that said you have had some good questions that I will answer in hopes that you will learn something and use it for a positive project.

You are correct that windows based applications generally do not run well under Linux based systems if at all, that is because the binaries and dependent libraries are different between the OSs. There are applications like wine or crossover that emulate a windows environment but the experience on various applications differ.

You can install some distros to USB drives, but they are generally in a persistent state that will not save any files or changes. The performance on a usb medium is lagging because it is being read from a limited medium and must store more in memory. You could look at slax which allows you to choose the specific packages and build a custom usb or livecd based installation, this would be the best option for simplicity.

However, on the computers you are looking to run it from the bios may be locked stopping you from booting from an external device such as cd or usb. So all efforts to accomplish this task may be in vain for that location, but it can still be used on personal computers such as your own computer or family members computers.

In addition, the facility will most likely have tools on the network that are monitoring for unknown patterns such as an unapproved OS or the applications on it, so the act of booting a Linux based system may be enough for them to track you.

Austinll

I appreciate your oppinion and that it did not hinder you from answering my question. Recently I had figured out how to install a linux system to a flash drive( I also figured out how to install to my personal PC). I used ubuntu 12.04 because i figured this out before checking your post. I used universal USB installer and installed it to the flash drive and used Gparted to make a casper-rw file of the whole drive(nearly 30gigs). Everything ran fine(i managed to boot the live version on the computers just fine aswell). But after i had installed wine and playonlinux the flash drive no longer booted, but rather began to hang after giving some messages. I had also created a user on the flash drive aswell if that makes a difference. Is there a special process for working with flash drives or did i screw something up and i should just try again? Your help is appreciated.

PS: After installing Ubuntu 12.04 to my PC it runs great and i rather enjoy it. I can rather see why so many people like linux, but it really does take some getting used to, especially in the file managing.

mfillpot

There are many posts online about making a non-persistent live ISB image, one that references many good materials is at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1980512 . That will allow you to getup writable space on the usb stick.

The lack of rebooting could be due to the usb device overheating, as the flash media on a usb stick gets very hot after a few read/write operations, this is why it is not recommended to use a non-persistent image let alone try to play games from the usb stick.

Austinll

You don't seem to understand my last post. It already is persistent and according to your forum it is best recommended to run with a casper-rw partition, which I did. Since you said the flash drive overheats, is that referring to the flash drive itself, because wouldn't that cause the flash drive to no longer operate at all if that had broken it? the files were still manipulable by accessing it like a flash drive. And the messages it gave as it tried to boot were a problem other people had gotten, though for apparently different reasons.

mfillpot

The flash medium can overheat and loose data including the connectivity data, it will only make it completely unusable if the head causing physical damage else it will be a temporary problem.

Can you please share the error message that you are receiving from the bootloader.

On another note, I am encouraged by the amount of research and work you are doing. If you get this working I highly recommend documenting it on a wiki so others can learn from you. having a stable customized persistent gaming medium that can be used on various machines would definitely interest many people.

Austinll

I never said it was giving me an error because I don't know for sure if it is one, but it says "xor: automatically using best check summing function". Now (as you can tell) im not exactly a Linux master, but to me it does seem rather like its missing a file, so if you know what is causing this please do tell. I will try again to do exactly what i did last time, but at a slower pace. to see if that helps anything. I was in a really big rush last time.

I will do my best to share this if it works because i can see how having an entire personal OS on a flash drive with files could help people.