How to install ED on Linux using Wine [EXPERIMENTAL, NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED]

Noobilite · Oct 16, 2018

Dang! I didn't get the first in game psychedelic screen shot! ><

Has anyone tried this with the new program that fixes the graphics(DXVK). Or is it incorporated now? I read some version of wine added it. It might have been the proton one from steam though. Might be a hassle free way to play the game.

And I knew that was going to be from some stupid registry bug. I swore I ran into something similar with final fantasy or something. I just couldn't remember what it was. And I couldn't find the old thread. Plus it is probably too different to matter.

BTW, congrats on finding that. That will help so many people get to play this game on linux. It's a life saver!

Cmdr Eagleboy · Oct 16, 2018

Noobilite said:
Dang! I didn't get the first in game psychedelic screen shot! ><

Has anyone tried this with the new program that fixes the graphics(DXVK). Or is it incorporated now? I read some version of wine added it. It might have been the proton one from steam though. Might be a hassle free way to play the game.

And I knew that was going to be from some stupid registry bug. I swore I ran into something similar with final fantasy or something. I just couldn't remember what it was. And I couldn't find the old thread. Plus it is probably too different to matter.

BTW, congrats on finding that. That will help so many people get to play this game on linux. It's a life saver!

What you mean is Steam Play with Proton and DXKV (Vulkan translation), which seems to do shaders way better than vanilla Wine for ED.

I haven't gotten around to enable Steam Play on my Fedora yet. When I will I will write down instructions for that too.

Jorge Palu · Oct 16, 2018

I ditched Windows a few weeks ago and went full time Linux. I haven't played Elite since, so the chance that I will be able too in Linux (when i get home from my shift at work and work through the steps in this thread.) is exciting news indeed.

Kudos to all who have been involved in getting it this far.

Darth Ender · Oct 16, 2018

I'd be wary of using my primary account in testing wine or even Proton support since it's not clear if the anti-cheat logic will see this all as suspect and flag your account.

Even worse will be when actual cheaters make this method of running the game the defacto method of scripting/cheating since they would have the code to wine to make custom system dll's that the game links to and expose game data in new ways not available in windows.

To me, as a developer, i'd treat running the game in a non-controlled environment as the same as you'd have to treat any attempt at cheating. If they white-listed steam's build of proton ...that's one thing. They could trust that build and all the libraries it links to and crc white list them. Allowing unsigned libraries is going to look identical to many of the already banned cheat/moddish methods in use in windows.

Noobilite · Oct 19, 2018

Has anyone informed anyone at Fdev about this. Maybe if they knew they could, "utilize," this. I've seen games that have things like Wine window as an option with things like fullscreen, windowed, and windowed fullscreen. If not it gives them the option. Or at least leaves it in their minds.

Flyinspaghetti · Oct 20, 2018

RedMcG said:
I'm just running dotnet40 at the moment. That's installing fine against my local build (which is the latest from git as of a week ago).

Actually - it turns out there's already an easy way to check the registry values:

Code:

wine reg query 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Cryptography' /v MachineGuid wine64 reg query 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Cryptography' /v MachineGuid

On a fresh wine prefix - you can see the 32-bit wine (which is how the Launcher runs) vs. the 64-bit wine (which is how the client runs) get two different values.

It seems you need to add 'Wow6432Node' to the registry path to get a consistent value with wine64:

Code:

wine reg query 'HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Cryptography' /v MachineGuid wine64 reg query 'HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Cryptography' /v MachineGuid

I guess they are suppose to be the same. I'll investigate and raise an issue (or submit a patch) with wine.

You are a legend.... (Eagleboy too)

Wine staging 3.18 plus DXVK 0.90.

Still got to figure out the resolution, keybindings etc as they are a bit dodgy.

Haven't actually tried this within steam yet though, proton has an issue where even the combat demo would freeze after 2 minutes.

Flyinspaghetti · Oct 20, 2018

Noobilite said:
Has anyone informed anyone at Fdev about this. Maybe if they knew they could, "utilize," this. I've seen games that have things like Wine window as an option with things like fullscreen, windowed, and windowed fullscreen. If not it gives them the option. Or at least leaves it in their minds.

This isn't an Fdev issue but more rather an unnoticed wine bug. This can be patched with Wine/proton along with other issues and ED can go from borked to gold rating. I had a quick fly around Jameson base while there are stutters performance seems smooth enough, keybinding presets can't be changed for some reason making me go through the agony of rebinding again.

Oh and my joystick works fine.

Noobilite · Oct 20, 2018

I meant more the fact that the game is basically working. Since it's so close maybe they would be interested in the fact. It seems in general like linux games might pick up a bit. Maybe they would be able to do something with this reality. Maybe they could make a wine release with no guarantees or a proton release or something or help with background stuff to make it not break as easily. Assuming they haven't already. If anything they might be able to add things to avoid detection issues to their cheat detectors or whatever odd things that might help smooth things out. Or whatever a game company can do with that info. 8)

Maybe they have been waiting like we have for wine to work better! ><

Flyinspaghetti · Oct 20, 2018

Noobilite said:
I meant more the fact that the game is basically working. Since it's so close maybe they would be interested in the fact. It seems in general like linux games might pick up a bit. Maybe they would be able to do something with this reality. Maybe they could make a wine release with no guarantees or a proton release or something or help with background stuff to make it not break as easily. Assuming they haven't already. If anything they might be able to add things to avoid detection issues to their cheat detectors or whatever odd things that might help smooth things out. Or whatever a game company can do with that info. 8)

Maybe they have been waiting like we have for wine to work better! ><

If the small quirks get sorted Fdev won't have to much if anything, bar not break it that is. And once the proton specific issues have been sorted along with this fix it could possibly be a Steam whitelist game.

Just flew from Jameson's base to memorial, biggest issue (with wine version) I'm finding is the keyboard bindings keep giving funny symbols and resetting the bindings entirely. If I use the joystick by itself it sticks but as soon as I try to bind a key it breaks.

Some video:

[video=youtube;JcDY4WFENug]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcDY4WFENug[/video]

Cmdr Eagleboy · Oct 20, 2018

Excellent!

Flyinspaghetti · Oct 20, 2018

Cmdr Eagleboy said:
Excellent!

The biggest roadblock now (other than the steam proton version) is the keybinds, keyboard is messed up giving funny symbols and using it actually resets them.

On top of that some keybinds end up doubling up i.e. I went to click in the contacts panel to dock and it was firing off my discovery scanner... good thing I didn't jump in my Corvette.

Noobilite · Oct 20, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcDY4WFENug

Yea, Is it me or does the game look brighter and better on linux? 8d

Comandante · Oct 20, 2018

Darth Ender said:
I'd be wary of using my primary account in testing wine or even Proton support since it's not clear if the anti-cheat logic will see this all as suspect and flag your account.

Even worse will be when actual cheaters make this method of running the game the defacto method of scripting/cheating since they would have the code to wine to make custom system dll's that the game links to and expose game data in new ways not available in windows.

To me, as a developer, i'd treat running the game in a non-controlled environment as the same as you'd have to treat any attempt at cheating. If they white-listed steam's build of proton ...that's one thing. They could trust that build and all the libraries it links to and crc white list them. Allowing unsigned libraries is going to look identical to many of the already banned cheat/moddish methods in use in windows.

Noobilite said:
Has anyone informed anyone at Fdev about this. Maybe if they knew they could, "utilize," this. I've seen games that have things like Wine window as an option with things like fullscreen, windowed, and windowed fullscreen. If not it gives them the option. Or at least leaves it in their minds.

If anything, I am 100% sure FD know of this - it's on their forums after all. If this would be classed as 'cheating' we'd have been told.

Besides, I believe the EULA talks about decompiling and all things like that etc. What's going on here I do not believe is anything that is mentioned in the EULA. People are just simply getting the S/W to work on a different platform.

Congratulations to all involved in fixing the recent hurdles, by the way (I've repped you).

Comandante · Oct 20, 2018

Elite Dangerous EULA here: https://www.frontierstore.net/ed-eula/

See specifically sections 3 & 4:

3. Licence Restrictions
You are not permitted:

(a) to load the Game on to a network server for the purposes of distribution to one or more other device(s) on that network or to effect such distribution;
(b) except as expressly permitted by this EULA and to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law, to rent, lease, sub-license, loan, exploit for profit or gain, copy, modify, adapt, merge, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Game or use, reproduce, distribute, translate, broadcast, publicly perform, store in a retrieval system or otherwise deal in the Game or any part thereof in any way;
(c) use cheats, automation software, hacks, mods, or any other unauthorized software designed to modify or defeat the purpose or experience of the Game;
(d) use any unauthorized software that harvests or otherwise collections information about others or the Game, including about a character or the game environment;
(e) use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated or manual means to access the Game or any Online Features or copy any content or information from the Game or any Online Features;
(f) probe, scan, test the vulnerability of or breach the authentication measures of the Game or any Online Features;
(g) violate any technology control or export laws and regulations that apply to the technology used or supported by the Game or any Online Features.

4. Acceptable Use Restrictions

4.1 You may not use the Game or any Online Features in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with this EULA, or act fraudulently or maliciously, including but not limited to hacking into, inserting malicious code (including viruses or harmful data) into the Game, any Online Features or any operating system.

4.2 You may not infringe our intellectual property rights or those of any third party in relation to your use of the Game or any Online Features to the extent that such use is not licensed by this EULA.

4.3 You may not transmit any material that is unlawful, defamatory or offensive in relation to your use of the Game or the Online Features.

4.4 You may not use the Game or any Online Features in a manner that could damage, disable, impair, overburden or compromise our systems or security or interfere with the experience of other users of the Game or any Online Feature.

4.5 You may not collect or harvest any information or data from the Game, the Online Features or our systems, and may not attempt to decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running the Game or Online Features.

None of what you are doing breaks any of these as far as I can tell, but I am no lawyer...

Comandante · Oct 20, 2018

Darth Ender said:
To me, as a developer, i'd treat running the game in a non-controlled environment as the same as you'd have to treat any attempt at cheating. If they white-listed steam's build of proton ...that's one thing. They could trust that build and all the libraries it links to and crc white list them. Allowing unsigned libraries is going to look identical to many of the already banned cheat/moddish methods in use in windows.

I also a developer. For example, I NEVER use illegal software - my career relies on people paying for software. If I need to pay for software, I pay - it would be hypocritical of me to do otherwise. Your choice to view this as 'cheating' is OK - but it's your choice, and one not covered in the EULA, As far as I can tell. Take a read of the EULA, load up GNU/Linux and have a go!

Now, I have separate philosophical dilemma: if this would been two months ago, I'd have had a go. However, I bought Oculus Rift and now have to use it! As a GNU/Linux user of 20 years, I think I will have to do it for the sake of it...

Seriously, congratulations to all of you here that have made this happen!

Right on, Commanders!

o7

Cmdr Eagleboy · Oct 20, 2018

FD knows people use Wine and they haven't said anything that it is illegal.

Willdrick · Oct 20, 2018

Thank you!

I haven't played E

since the proton launch (removed windows completely). Finally I can play instead of "backseat" on Yamik's or Obsidian's cockpit. I hope FDev releases an "official fix" based on the excellent work of my fellow penguin CMDRs. SteamPlay is coming along nicely and for the most part, the main issue on most games is getting middleware/anticheat software to work properly.

Genar-Hofoen · Oct 20, 2018

Okay I'm trying to replicate this on my Debian Testing install, and failing hard...

1) wine64 --version

wine-3.18 (Staging)

2) WINEPREFIX=~/ed-wine wine64 winecfg

3) WINEPREFIX=~/ed-wine WINE=/usr/bin/wine64 ./winetricks dotnet452 corefonts quartz vcrun2012

4) WINEPREFIX=~/ed-wine wine64 winecfg , and change Windows version back to Windows 7.

5) WINEPREFIX=~/ed-wine wine64 EliteDangerous-Client-Installer.exe

6) WINEPREFIX=~/ed-wine wine64 ./ed-wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Frontier/EDLaunch/EDLaunch.exe ...which is where the failure happens...

Code:

000b:fixme:winediag:start_process Wine Staging 3.18 is a testing version containing experimental patches.
000b:fixme:winediag:start_process Please mention your exact version when filing bug reports on winehq.org.
0009:err:module:__wine_ldr_start_process Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\home\\[REDACTED]\\ed-wine\\drive_c\\Program Files (x86)\\Frontier\\EDLaunch\\EDLaunch.exe" failed, status c0000017

I'm currently stuck right there. In other words, can't even run the launcher. Yes I have enabled i386 in Debian. Anyone have any ideas?

Grisham · Oct 20, 2018

My problem is game thinks I don't launch it from the launcher and steam version doesn't even start the launcher.

wstephenson · Oct 20, 2018

Genar-Hofoen said:
6) WINEPREFIX=~/ed-wine wine64 ./ed-wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Frontier/EDLaunch/EDLaunch.exe ...which is where the failure happens...

And there's your problem. The launcher is a 32 bit Mono application - start it with wine, not wine64.