shipitfish | Tutorial and Instructions for Online Poker with Linux based Systems (Reply)

While I use a dreaded Windows box to play much online poker, I do prefer to use my Linux-based system to play when I can. However, availability of online poker sites that support Linux based system is not particularly forthcoming.

One thought would be to do something similar to VirtualPC in the Macintosh world: emulate a Windows environment on your Linux based system. Of course, for some in the Open Source and Free Software world, this is a Holy Grail, because it means the ability to ditch Windows entirely, even if you need Windows-native applications. The best effort in this regard is the Windows Emulator (aka Wine). I know the fellows who work on this, and they are smart guys and they will get there eventually. I frequently check the status of poker clients in their "Application Status" database. While some report fully functioning poker clients for some sites, it is definitely not an out-of-the-box affair.

Every few months, I try in Wine nearly ever poker site that I know, which includes all of the common sites. And, I can report that in a standard configuration of my Ubuntu system (Ubuntu is a popular, user-friendly distribution of GNU/Linux), there is utterly no luck. Likely, you might get some success by getting the latest development version of Wine, but if you want something to work out of the box or with any easy install, using the Windows-based poker sites on a Linux-based system via Wine is not going to be the shortest path.

One site that has always been very good about supporting all platforms (via a Java-based interface) is Pokerroom and its skins (such as Hollywood Poker and CheckNRaise Poker. This site has been around since 1999, and has basically always worked from GNU/Linux via a Java applet browser interface. It's the best bet for playing online poker on a Linux-based system.

It does require installing a little bit of proprietary software to make it work. Namely, you need the Java Runtime Environment installed in your browser. To do this, first, visit the Java download site and choose to download the "Linux self extracting archive. I suggest just downloading it to your home directory, which is usually /home/USERNAME or sometimes abbreviated ~. When this is done downloading, this will give you a file called (something like) "jre-1_5_06-linux-i586.bin". Start up a shell window (sometimes called a "terminal window"), find that file (by cd'ing to the directory where it was download to, hopefully just your home directory), and run the following commands:

chmod +x ./jre-1_5_06-linux-i586.bin ./jre-1_5_06-linux-i586.bin

You will then be presented with a nasty proprietary licensing agreement, which you will have to (unfortunately) agree to to continue. You will know the install worked when you see lots of files "extracted" and "inflated" and see the word "Done."

Now, you need to tell your web browser that you have installed the plugin. To do this, first, exit your web browser. Then, you must get a little more into GNU/Linux command line work. A command sequence like this should work (I'll explain more after):

cd ~/.mozilla/plugins/ ln -s ~/jre1.5.0_06/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so

A few things to note:

if the directory ~/.mozilla/plugins/ doesn't yet exist (i.e., if you have never before installed plugins), you can created it with mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins/
Make sure the the beginning of the second command matches the version and place you installed JRE -- the example assumes you installed jre1.5.0_06 in your home directory. You can change the beginning part of that path name to match where you did unpack the JR distribution.

You can test that this has worked by restarting your browser and typing: about:plugins in the URL bar. You should see listed somewhere on that page:

Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_06-b05
    File name: libjavaplugin_oji.so
    Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_06

Once you've seen that message, you should able to visit Pokerroom's website, create an account and choose Instant Play. Note, also, that Pokerroom has gotten "skins" in the last six months or so. "Skins", in the online poker world, are other brand names that use the same software and database of players. Since it's exactly the same software, you'll find that you can play the same on sites like Hollywood Poker and CheckNRaise Poker. Enjoy playing online on an (almost) Free Software box!

Note that there was recent article on NewsForge about this that seems to confirm my point about needing a newer Wine install. I'll look into that soon.