ok, I make the copies of the q3.game folders where directed. however when instructed to open oa.game in a text editor on my system it looks like this.
" Press ? for keyboard shortcuts
" Sorted by name (.bak,~,.swp,.o,.info,.aux,.log,.dvi,.bbl,.blg,.brf,.cb,.ind,.i"= /opt/gtkradiant/oa.game/
../
baseq3/
missionpack/
default_build_menu.xml
game.xlink
which looks nothing like the file listed on that thread you've so kindly directed me to, and I guess I have to repeat myself. In linux oa.game is not a "file" it is a "folder/directory" hence it cant be edited like that.
Also I'm sure this is going to be a problem eventually, but the way the linux distro of openarena is packaged it just comes in an executable folder and it runs as is which is fine and dandy for a quick start up. But sadly the game doesnt get registered into my linux system and I"ve tried to do it manually by moving its executable to /usr/local/bin but it doesnt work.
As for installing it I had no problems. I can load up gtkradiant without a hitch, its just that I cant get it to associate itself with open arena.