Homecoming Launcher - Linux Advice

[GM Tock]

  

LINUX METHOD TO INSTALL HOMECOMING LAUNCHER
 

ABOUT LINUX AND HOMECOMING...

As the title states, this is for running Homecoming Launcher only. With that in mind. I'm not going to discuss Tequila or Island Rum past this point.

 

FULL DISCLOSURE - OR, WHAT DOES "COMMUNITY ONLY" SUPPORT MEAN....

This guide is intended ONLY for hobbyists and enthusiasts to give an idea how to approach playing the game on their system.   There is no native Linux client for City of Heroes.  This guide is about using Wine to shoe-horn the Windows client into running on Linux anyways.

 

If you don't know if this is for you or not, consider the following skills required:

• Operating System Installation & Bare Metal Recovery - putting your computer back to normal with a fresh OS install.  You will need to be able to do this at any time if needed.
• Linux Package Management - not ALL of them, just the one specific to your distribution: APT, YUM, RPM, PACMAN, etc.  You should not need to compile anything from source code, however, at worse, knowing how to remove a package and recover your installation from a failed install avoids need for a Bare Metal Recovery.
• ... BASH, in any flavor (Most folks see this as the Terminal app).  YOU MAY BE REQUIRED to edit config files across the file system when needed, especially when installing a video card driver.  Be ready for it.

 

And generally, navigation through a zero-promise, no-guarantees, self-support driven experience that Linux users would basically consider a normal Tuesday...  This is an example of one of these places.  Our assumption is that you know how to do all of the above.  You don't have to be a master at it, necessarily, and we can give pointers. But those three areas listed are completely out of scope for this forum.

 

Finally, a note on bugs and issues in Linux.  To be clear from the start: there is nothing stopping you from running ANY of the patchers on Linux. However, if you find a bug in the client that doesn't work in Linux as it should in Windows or Mac, developers will not fix them.  Turning in tickets for something that doesn't work in Linux will be responded with a form-letter stating that we don't support Linux client issues.

 

Last Chance: If any of the above bullet points are not in your wheelhouse, or if that last paragraph discourages you, please stick to Windows or MacOS.  We CAN help you with that.

PREREQUISITES

Read that?  Good.  If that didn't turn you away, let's continue.  This procedure has been tested with the latest distributions of the following Linux spins during early Phase 1/2 testing:

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - This version is supported by Canonical until April 2025.
• Fedora 33 - This is the current Fedora installation at the time of this guide.  Fedora versions only last as long as the next release.

 

For other distributions based around Debian (APT) and RPM setups, other distributions may work if you're willing to fill in the gaps for what is needed.  For users with other package manager distros, you are encouraged to make guides to help folks along, but if it's APT/RPM, this SHOULD cover it.

 

In addition, this does NOT change the System Requirements.  This is NOT going to work on devices such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ATMEL devices, Chrome OS, Android, iOS/iPadOS, and the like.  Your computer will need to be compatible with City of Heroes in the first place if it's able to play it in Windows or Mac.  Also, Mac systems not under Intel processors (the upcoming Apple ARM processors, etc.) or that couldn't run it in the first place (Intel Core Solo) are not going to work with this guide.  Finally, using these instructions for a Virtual Machine is not advised.  City of Heroes runs best under native execution, with Wine being a close 2nd Place.  (Remember, Wine stands for WINE Is Not Emulation.)

 

VIDEO CARD

This part of the guide works best with recent Video Cards released in the latter half of the 2010s up to today.

A lot of your prep will be concerning your video card in use.  This will determine your path to installation more than any other section.

 

AMD: Radeon 7000/8000 or newer should be used to play COH.  I can't verify personally as I don't have any cards on hand, but the open source drivers have been reported to work on Homecoming by various users with no special effort needed.  So this should be far less of a hurdle to jump.

 

NVidia (and a word about Nouveau):  You will need a NVidia GeForce GTX 400 series card or newer.  The Open-Source video driver, Nouveau, is installed by default on most Linux systems with NVidia hardware.  The game will run on Nouveau, but it will be generally unplayable.  For the best experience, YOU NEED the proprietary driver (Version 440 for the above minimum).  For the two most popular distributions:

 

Ubuntu: open "Additional Drivers" in the Activities pane, pick the version number you need, then click OK and wait a few minutes.  Reboot, done.  (Ubuntu 20.04 is STRONGLY recommended for NVidia users if you're new to Linux gaming.)

Fedora: you'll need to use RPM Fusion to install NVidia drivers as an outside repository.  You can read more on https://rpmfusion.org.

 

This isn't a be-all, end-all for Nouveau, but the current state of affairs.  If for ethical reasons you refuse to install proprietary binary blobs on your system, I'm all ears.  I could not manage to get City of Heroes playable under Nouveau.  I'm willing to learn if someone else figures it out.

 

Intel: You really should use a dedicated card for this game, even on laptops.  Barring that, Intel Skylake and newer does better on COH than prior processor versions of Intel Graphics.  If your system has 4GB of RAM or LESS, you may need to turn down the "3D Resolution Scaling" option in "Graphics & Audio" under Settings to get acceptable performance.  Remember: Intel graphics SHARES system RAM.  It doesn't use a separate RAM bank from other programs like a discrete card does.

 

Unlike AMD and Nvidia, Intel graphics are covered more or less with the Mesa drivers (co-developed with Intel and AMD) which is pretty standard in most Linux Distributions.  Pro: no separate Intel Graphics driver should be needed, which saves time and effort.  Con: like on Windows, expect the heavier post-processing options of Ultra Mode to remain greyed out.  If having all the sliders turned up to full on Ultra Mode matters to you, you'll need different graphics to do that, just like on Windows.

CAUTION: Do not install drivers "by hand".  This includes using a shell script or package from your video card manufacturer.  Using a package manager assures that updates coming down will be recompiled to work on newer kernels, keep any modules in check, and automatically handle your GUI setup.  Otherwise, you'll run into problems when you get updates and the video driver 'breaks', which can result from anything between falling back to Nouveau for video support or failing to start XWindows/Wayland and going to a shell prompt when you boot.  For this reason, if you use NVidia for a Video Card, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to use Ubuntu to simplify things.  (No command line needed to switch drivers, can be done on the fly.)

 

 

PROCESS - SETUP SUMMARY

 

The sequence to get it working goes something like this. 

 

1.) Install Linux.  This process needs to happen in a traditional hard-drive install.  This will not work to put Lutris and Wine on a USB Live stick of your favorite Linux flavor, as video drivers require kernel modules to work.  We're not going to go over this part, as it will vary GREATLY across users.  (Bare metal, dual boot, EFI and Secure Boot signing vs. CSM, GPT vs. MBR... all are past the scope of this guide.)  And ultimately, as long as you can successfully and consistently boot after each step, it doesn't matter.

2.) Update your system.

     Ubuntu/Debian/Linux Mint: "sudo apt update".  Enter your password, then when updating is finished, "sudo apt upgrade" to carry it out.

     Fedora/Mandriva/Suse: "sudo dnf check-update".  Enter your password, then when updating is finished, "sudo dnf upgrade" to carry it out.

     Arch: "pacman -Syu" Enter your password.

     GET USED TO THESE COMMANDS.  You will be running them frequently as once a week or more to keep your system up-to-date.  Finish all pending upgrades before continuing, especially Kernel and Kernel Header updates.  If the system asks to reboot, do it, and check for updates again.  Missing any of these will cause headaches/heartbreak.

3.) Install Video Drivers (required for NVidia.)  See above for advice.  This part will be specific to your operating system and hardware, so I can't make a specific guide for your system.

4.) Install Wine, use the Stable Branch - https://wiki.winehq.org/Download

 

5.) Install Homecoming to the Wine C Drive.  Download the HC Launcher Public Beta here.

• Find the HCInstall.exe file.  Doesn't matter where it is saved, you'll only run this once.
• A first time use window will appear asking you if you want to pick the directory.  The default should be fine.  Click Install.
• IF YOU RAN TEQUILA on your copy of Wine before, it'll ask if you want to import the files.  Say Yes, because this migrates costumes, power customizations, screenshots, and all the Issue 24 files you already have over to the new Installer for use. 
• If this is a fresh system, you'll see the Launcher window.  Press Play on Homecoming to begin installation.
• Once the Launcher says "Ready", close it.  One last part to do...

 

7.) Configure Homecoming Launcher to start from the Wine C Drive.

• Now that Homecoming is installed, depending on your system, locate the Wine C Drive (for a default install, should be /home/YOURNAMEHERE/.wine/c_drive/)
• Open the Games folder, then Homecoming. 
• Follow the instructions for your distribution.  Examples:
  • Ubuntu/Debian, see below on making a .desktop file.
  • Linux Mint, use the Menu Editor to create a launch shortcut in the Games directory.
  • You can also make a .sh script of instructions to load the game.  Make the script executable, and put it somewhere you can find it, like in the Desktop, or in your Home folder.

 

8.) Profit. 

Edited January 7 by GM Tock
Dated guide; removing Lutris as all of the Homecoming scripts have been neglected.

[GM Tock]

EXTRA CREDIT: DESKTOP SHORTCUT

Here is a template "City of Heroes.desktop" file that should be usable across most desktop environments - copy the text below into a file, plonk it into your ~/.local/share/applications/ directory, and it should appear in your applications menu so that you can start it up from there:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=env WINEPREFIX=~/.wine wine /home/[username]/.wine/drive_c/Homecoming/bin/win64/launcher.exe
Icon=homecominglauncher
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
GenericName=Homecoming: City of Heroes
Comment=Superhero MMORPG
Name=Homecoming: City of Heroes
Path=/home/[username]/.wine/drive_c/Homecoming/bin/win64/
StartupWMClass=launcher.exe

You'll need to include this image file (named homecominglauncher.png) to make it have an icon for cosmetic's sake, and place it in your ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps directory:

 

The /home/[username]/.wine/drive_c/Homecoming/bin/win64/launcher.exe and /home/[username]/.wine/drive_c/Homecoming/bin/win64/ section may need modification to point to the right place to start up the launcher.

 

Refreshing your application menu may be required to see this.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to GM Korvin for additional work on this guide.

 

APPENDIX: DISTRO REPORTS

The following distributions have been tested in the community and have been checked by our players.  If there are any catches or special considerations, or if a different guide is needed, a link is available below in Notes.

 

Last Updated: March 2021 - Download links subject to change without notice.

 

Distribution	Version	Tested By	Working?	Notes
ArchLinux*  (Download)	2020.10.01 (Rolling)	GM Korvin	Yes	Wine-staging 5.20 works, both 32/64 bit.  This means you can use the Wine built-in to Arch and skip installing Wine Stable.
Manjaro* (Download)	20.2	Mechahamham	Yes	Slow loading performance on Linux 5.10 kernel on BTRFS disks, resolved in 5.11.
Fedora* (Download)	33	GM Tock	Yes	Fedora 33 comes with DXVK by default, works, both 32/64-bit.  (Using the 2nd method above works if removing DXVK first for older cards.)
openSUSE* (Download)	Tumbleweed (Rolling)	Klypso	Yes	64-bit support on Wine 5.18 has issues with rolling release distros, use 32-bit instead.   64-bit support works on Wine 5.14-2 (Staging) and under, crashes if higher.
openSUSE (Download)	Leap 15.1	Sonarr	Yes	Using Wine Staging 3.7 instead of Stable.
Linux Mint (Download)	19	Archviste	NO	Driver restrictions on 32-bit are end-of-life for NVidia.
Linux Mint (Download)	20	gypsyav	Yes	UsingWine/Winetricks setup, no Lutris.
Ubuntu (Download)	22.04 LTS	GM Tock	Yes	None.
Ubuntu* (Download)	20.10	Klypso	Yes	Using Wine Staging 5.20 instead of Stable.

Linux Decoder Ring (Source) --

Distributions with Installers (as in insert USB/Disk, boot, install):

• Debian Distributions are gold.  (Sorry Ubuntu fans.  Gentoo was purple first.)
• Redhat... well, red.
• Slackware Distributions are green.
• Arch Distributions are blue.

Hard Mode: (Same as above but minimal or no OS installation "wizard" script included in initial setup)

• Gentoo Distributions in purple.  From the lack of user reports, Gentoo fans are especially welcome to report (I tried and gave up, you get points and respect from me if you succeed at this.)
• Independent Distributions (Linux From Scratch, Purpose-Driven Distros like SliTaz, OPHCrack if you're really adventurous, etc.) will remain white.

 

Why does this matter?  Common distributions should have a similar experience in installation.  Debian based distributions, such as Ubuntu means anything downstream of a reported version above (current versions of Pop_OS, Elementary OS, Zorin OS, etc.) as well as the "spins" of different UIs (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, UbuntuMATE, Ubuntu Budgie, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio) should all work as well.  Upstream reports are definitely welcome (Debian Buster, for example.)

 

Distributions with an Asterisk are on a rolling release or non-Long Term Build cycle, so only the latest version will be reported here.  Builds with LTB (Ubuntu Long Term Support, Debian, etc.) are not asterisked.  Reports are welcome for LTB variants for any non-deprecated versions. (No extended maintenance, please: users should not need to pay to get security updates.)

 

I don't see my version listed -OR- I really like "X", make a guide for it!  Use this Linux Distribution Map.  See where your distribution lies and if it's in one of the four major upstreams, give this guide a shot first.

 

Contributing to this table:  Reply below with a distribution you've tried to run HC Launcher on.  Include the following --

• Distribution Name
• Version (Please only report on versions released in the last 12 months.)
• Working?  (Can HC Launcher run using the methods above, or did you get it to work on your own?) 
• Notes: if there's a couple of 'gotchas' concerning installation, name them here.  If it's past two sentences or 50 words, I'll link to your report post.  I also welcome links to a forum thread if you've written a guide (Either Help & Support or Guides work for this purpose.)

This is a "distro report", so issues with Graphics Drivers are not included in the above. (Too many combinations to consider.)  Still, any advice you can give for specific cards that are problematic under Linux is helpful, even if they're not a part of the above table.

 

Edited January 7 by GM Tock
Removing info that doesn't work anymore.

[DoctorDitko]

Lucid, well-written, and dead-on AFAICT!

 

Thanks for the extra effort!

And blessings upon you for including Fedora! So many companies claim their programs run on Linux, then you find out it means "install this Ubuntu PPA and trust it implicitly."

...

Again, many thanks!

 

Edited to add:

I had the fun of following your directions at work on Fedora 32, on a ThinkPad 440T, I believe.

Initially, I got caught out by the fact that Fedora 32 shipped with Wine 5.1.2. This seemed to work, but as soon as the actual game launched, black screen followed by your new crash client. (Nice, btw.)

 

Once I noticed the Wine version, a quick trip to WineHQ to add their repo, followed by

 

sudo dnf erase wine\*

 

(was required, otherwise had conflicts) and a

 

sudo dnf install wine\*

 

soon had me up and running, 64-bits wide and treetop tall!

(Your launcher really, really likes Wine 5.0.2! Do those two want to be alone?)

All told, a stellar job, folks!

Edited October 23, 2020 by DoctorDitko
test results added

[Daggenthal]

Should I delete my guide since there's an official GM guide on how to do it now + the launch of the new launcher?

 

I've tested HC (Tequila) on a bunch of Linux distros / flavors, and they all work(generally w/o fuss) as long as your gcard supports DXVK. The only issue I've had recently in the past few days is on Arch / openSUSE with WINE 5.18 where the game won't run on the 64-bit client, but will on the 32-bit, so that may be something to add to your post.

 

Typically, as long as you have WINE installed and Lutris setup, HC should work without fuss as I've tested it on a bunch of different gcards + CPU combinations from AMD / NVIDIA / Intel. Also, some distros may require Feral Gamemode to be enabled, while the majority don't.

 

EDIT: I've just tested the BETA launcher with a copy of my HC folder, and the game still needs to be set to use the 32-bit client within your new launcher, which should be a given since there's been issues with WINE 5.18 for a while now. I haven't tested this issue on other PCs / Distributions, but I know so far that it mainly pertains to rolling release distros like openSUSE Tumbleweed and Arch, which are on WINE 5.18

 

EDIT 2: Been messing around with your .desktop file, and in order for it to run on Arch, I need to set it to

Exec = wine /home..../Homecoming/bin/win64/launcher.exe

instead of how you have it, as when I use your way, it just crashes right away / doesn't launch, + I can remove the StartupWMClass and it still works.

 

Also, the /win32/launcher.exe works and can run the game, but cannot display shard status, while the /win64/launcher.exe version does. I just wanted to let you know about that, even though it isn't really that big of a deal 🙂

Edited October 22, 2020 by ColdZero
Worked on .desktop file

[GM Tock]

Tequila and Island Rum aren't going anywhere.  Please don't!

And this isn't an official guide, just advice.  If the instructions don't work, forum and Discord pointers is as far as we can go.  In fact, I haven't tried HC Launcher with Linux Mint, and I know that's a really popular distro.  I am willing to update the above with other distro info if other Linux users want to post updates here.

[Daggenthal]

Just now, GM Tahquitz said:

Tequila and Island Rum aren't going anywhere.  Please don't!

And this isn't an official guide, just advice.  If the instructions don't work, forum and Discord pointers is as far as we can go.  In fact, I haven't tried HC Launcher with Linux Mint, and I know that's a really popular distro.  I am willing to update the above with other distro info if other Linux users want to post updates here.

For sure then!

 

I'll give it a shot with Linux Mint, but since it's based on Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is based upon Debian, it shouldn't have any issues!

 

Honestly, as long as WINE is properly installed, the other distros shouldn't have any issues, but I'll continue testing for you 🙂

[GM Tock]

I remember in your last guide mentioning a change upstream in Mint broke Wine gameplay, but that might have been resolved by now.  It was earlier in the year.

[Daggenthal]

Oh man, I'm trying to remember what it specifically was as that was quite some time ago, but I believe that user had an issue with their Kernel + libomesa6:i386. Their hardware was quite dated at the time, and, as far as I know (having been in contact with them to give them support when issues pop up) they haven't had any problems so far. Their Spouses' PC worked just fine, though.

 

Edit: I also remember that the main thing that was causing issues for them is that they were using a different program to burn Mint to their USB, and that was also causing issues.

Edited October 22, 2020 by ColdZero
Etcher issue

[GM Tock]

The above chart look alright?  Arch, I'm assuming it's 2020.10.01 release.

[Daggenthal]

Yes it does! Sorry for the late response as I had to go do something. I'm currently setting up Linux Mint 20.04 that's using wine-5.0.2, and will edit this with an update when the HC installation finishes.

 

Edit: Yep, that's the issue! Rolling release distros' WINE versions are currently unable to run the 64-bit client, so they need to use the 32-bit one (these may just be randomly fixed as they're rolling release). Stable versions of distros that are on WINE 5.0.2 (and slightly above) can launch the 64-bit version of the game AND the 32-bit version without any issues.

Edited October 22, 2020 by ColdZero
WINE

[GM Korvin]

I've actually been staying on Wine 5.14 (Staging) on Arch myself - any versions higher than that cause the 64-bit version of the game to crash for me (I haven't tried the 32-bit version). Could you try confirming that, @ColdZero?

3 hours ago, ColdZero said:

EDIT 2: Been messing around with your .desktop file, and in order for it to run on Arch, I need to set it to

Exec = wine /home..../Homecoming/bin/win64/launcher.exe

instead of how you have it, as when I use your way, it just crashes right away / doesn't launch, + I can remove the StartupWMClass and it still works.

Actually, I can take credit for that! The StartupWMClass is used for associating windows to a specific application. On Linux desktops, that's used to allow for the tracking of application start-ups, among other things. You can read more about it here. Needless to say, most .desktop files will have this, and it can be important for making applications behave as expected - for instance, Latte Dock.

[Daggenthal]

Just now, GM Korvin said:

I've actually been staying on Wine 5.14 (Staging) on Arch myself - any versions higher than that cause the 64-bit version of the game to crash for me (I haven't tried the 32-bit version). Could you try confirming that, @ColdZero?

Actually, I can take credit for that! The StartupWMClass is used for associating windows to a specific application. On Linux desktops, that's used to allow for the tracking of application start-ups, among other things. You can read more about it here. Needless to say, most .desktop files will have this, and it can be important for making applications behave as expected - for instance, Latte Dock.

Hey there Korvin! Sorry for the very late response. I'm currently on WINE 5.18, which I did upgrade from the earlier version of WINE. After downgrading to 5.14-2, I can confirm that the 64-bit client now works 🙂 So you're correct there that that's the last stable one for Arch atm for HC.

 

Also, I didn't know that about StartupWMClass! I'll definitely read about that later tonight! The reason why I removed it is because I already had HC pre-installed and so I just pointed to the old directory with the BETA launcher and it (the Desktop file) kept crashing, so I just ran WINE directly (in said Desktop file) and removed the StartupWMClass as I wasn't using it hahaha. I'll keep working on it if I get more free time though!

 

Edit: Maybe we can append the list from above to add the part about 5.14-2 for openSUSE as well, since that had the same exact problem? 🙂

Edited October 22, 2020 by ColdZero
Added in EDIT for WINE

[GM Tock]

Updated the Appendix from PM feedback, parties credited above as given. 🙂

 

As mentioned, I welcome any reports and feedback, but if somebody uses a Gentoo variant to play please let us know how it's working.  If not, I'll wipe and retry my laptop install of Homecoming from Fedora to Gentoo for completeness-sake.  (All five major versions of Linux tested means offshoots should have similar results.)

 

Also in the works, I might be going back on my own advice at one point... stay tuned.

Edited October 26, 2020 by GM Tahquitz

[Daggenthal]

Launcher runs, downloads, and launches the game perfectly on FreeBSD 12.1 using WINE version 5.0, i386-wine! 

 

So, as I thought, as long as you can run WINE (and can downgrade if the current version has issues), the game will run fine 🙂 Issue is then of just finding out which ones don't work, which seem to be anything past 5.14-2 currently.

 

Edit: Although it isn't Linux... but is Unix... ah, that's a discussion for another day! I just wanted to see if it ran, and it does 🙂 Lutris doesn't exist on *BSD, so you need to use pure WINE to run it. Also forgot to mention that it only runs in 32-bit mode, and it's the only option, but I think that's due to how I installed it with the usual "pkg install i386-wine", but maybe it's fixable? Either way it ran w/o any issues!

Edited October 26, 2020 by Klypso
32-bit

[Daggenthal]

Fedora 33 with wine-5.20 (Staging) works, runs launcher, downloads and installs the game, and can run  both 32/64-bit!

[GM Korvin]

20 hours ago, Klypso said:

Fedora 33 with wine-5.20 (Staging) works, runs launcher, downloads and installs the game, and can run  both 32/64-bit!

Arch Linux works as well - the relevant bug was fixed here, by the looks of it.

[GM Tock]

NTM Fedora 33 packs DXVK by default... this makes it competitive with Ubuntu for newer hardware for sure.

 

List updated above with new versions.  Looks like I need to get out the gas and test Ubuntu 20.10 soon. 😄

[Daggenthal]

On 10/28/2020 at 9:53 AM, GM Korvin said:

Arch Linux works as well - the relevant bug was fixed here, by the looks of it.

Awesome! I just read the commits, glad they got it resolved! 🙂

[Daggenthal]

2 hours ago, GM Tahquitz said:

NTM Fedora 33 packs DXVK by default... this makes it competitive with Ubuntu for newer hardware for sure.

 

List updated above with new versions.  Looks like I need to get out the gas and test Ubuntu 20.10 soon. 😄

 

20.10 works as well, even with the 64-bit client! I tested it before I swapped on over to Fedora 33 to try it out. 😄

 

Edit: If you install WINE through just "sudo apt install wine", it defaults to their "wine-5.0 (Ubuntu 5.0-3ubuntu1)" just so you know!

Edited October 30, 2020 by Klypso
WINE Edit

[GM Tock]

Did you use the wine provided in Ubuntu's repos then to test, or did you use WineHQ's build?

[Daggenthal]

9 hours ago, GM Tahquitz said:

Did you use the wine provided in Ubuntu's repos then to test, or did you use WineHQ's build?

Apologies for the very late response, but I tested in Ubuntu's repo itself. Testing out the WineHQ build itself runs into errors where it can't find their "winehq-stable", but can find "winehq-devel" and "winehq-staging". I've purged WINE, removed its repos, refreshed the machine by reinstalling Ubuntu 20.10, 

 

using "winehq-staging" and Ubuntu's variant both work. "winehq-staging" is at "wine-5.20" currently, and from what Korvin stated earlier with the patch that's already upstreamed, both 64-bit and 32-bit now work + launch / run the game right away! 

 

It just may be an error on my end, but you can try it out yourself if you get the time to try to fix "winehq-stable" 😄

[GM Tock]

WineHQ Stable is what I've been using all along.  But my daily driver is still using 20.04.  I don't intend to change that for a while.  I'll trust you on the 20.10 part, though.

 

Gentoo (first time user of it here) turns out to be a bit rougher than I thought... no installer, on purpose.  You are expected to carry out all the steps.  Unless there's a variant that goes against that grain (apart from Chromium or ChromeOS spins... saw Hexxeh's finally came down after being ignored for 6+ years), that's going to be harder to get right for the casual Linux user.  I'll have to do more work on that.

Edited October 31, 2020 by GM Tahquitz

[gypsyav]

On 10/22/2020 at 3:22 PM, GM Tahquitz said:

Tequila and Island Rum aren't going anywhere.  Please don't!

And this isn't an official guide, just advice.  If the instructions don't work, forum and Discord pointers is as far as we can go.  In fact, I haven't tried HC Launcher with Linux Mint, and I know that's a really popular distro.  I am willing to update the above with other distro info if other Linux users want to post updates here.

I use Linux Mint 20 and just installed the new launcher a few days ago. I did not need Lutris or do anything beyond having the newest version of wine from WineHQ. I did add dotnet 4.8 and the 2017 visual C++ libraries through winetricks for other apps before I installed the HC Launcher so one or both may be needed. If I get a chance I will try install it to a fresh wine container and see if it works without those. Prior to installing the HC Launcher I was using Tequilla with no issues with the same set up.

[Daggenthal]

On 10/31/2020 at 5:43 PM, GM Tahquitz said:

WineHQ Stable is what I've been using all along.  But my daily driver is still using 20.04.  I don't intend to change that for a while.  I'll trust you on the 20.10 part, though.

 

Gentoo (first time user of it here) turns out to be a bit rougher than I thought... no installer, on purpose.  You are expected to carry out all the steps.  Unless there's a variant that goes against that grain (apart from Chromium or ChromeOS spins... saw Hexxeh's finally came down after being ignored for 6+ years), that's going to be harder to get right for the casual Linux user.  I'll have to do more work on that.

Same here. I haven't used Gentoo as much as I should have, and I still need experience with that... which is why I tried it on FreeBSD instead, where it runs good as long as you have WINE and the proper packages.

 

Let me know if you do get it up and running! Gentoo has always been a cool idea to try out for me, but I've never given it the proper amount of time to truly test it out!

[GM Tock]

2 hours ago, gypsyav said:

I use Linux Mint 20 and just installed the new launcher a few days ago. I did not need Lutris or do anything beyond having the newest version of wine from WineHQ. I did add dotnet 4.8 and the 2017 visual C++ libraries through winetricks for other apps before I installed the HC Launcher so one or both may be needed. If I get a chance I will try install it to a fresh wine container and see if it works without those. Prior to installing the HC Launcher I was using Tequilla with no issues with the same set up.

.Net isn't needed with HC Launcher, that was a Tequila dependency.  I had Lutris in the instructions because it has several support libraries that come with it for that purpose.  Simplifies things for new Linux users, but if you know what you're doing with wine and winetricks, a more precision install is just as good.

 

Thanks for the report!