ERROR: could not initialise SDL (no available video device)

[coolethan]

what does this mean? help!

[Buginator]

what does this mean? help!

It means what it says.

What is your OS, hardware (video / sound card..and so on)

What drivers?

In short, it couldn't create a screen or window for some reason.

[coolethan]

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10, my graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 with the Nvidia accelerated graphics drivers (version 173) enabled.

[stiv]

I suspect this means you are trying to run WZ at a resolution/bit-depth your display does not support.

[fisk0]

couldn't it be that his user is not allowed to use the video device?
that has happened to me in Ubuntu (9.04) before (but I have not tested warzone 2100 at those times). seems there is some kind of bug in ubuntu that randomly removes the user's permission to use the video card (removing the user from the video user group).
As I said, I haven't seen what Warzone 2100 says when that happens, but when it happened to me I was not able to run full screen or open gl programs.
If that is what has happened, go to the user control panel in the system menu, unlock the root settings and check that your user is in the video and audio groups, otherwise add and reboot, and you'll hopefully be able to play the game again.

[coolethan]

it turns out that my user didn't have 3d acceleration or audio device privileges. after applying these privileges to the user and rebooting i still get the same error. i think it may have to do with the color bit depth and stuff however i can't change my color depth any lower than 24 bit for some reason. i try to in the nvidia X server settings and it won't work so i click on apply what is possible and click on save to xorg.conf but it won't overwrite the backup or something.