How to run AE on Linux or Mac, by mefistofeles Options

[FujiQ]

Hi!

Here is the way to do it I've tested and got it to work fine on both MAC & Linux.

Here are the supported systems:

VirtualBox for OS X Hosts (Beta 2; Intel Macs only)

VirtualBox 1.5.2 for Linux Hosts:

Ubuntu 7.10 ("Gutsy Gibbon") i386 | AMD64
Ubuntu 7.04 ("Feisty Fawn") i386 | AMD64
Ubuntu 6.10 ("Edgy Eft") i386
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS ("Dapper Drake") i386
Debian 4.0 ("Etch") i386 | AMD64
Debian 3.1 ("Sarge") i386
Univention Corporate Server 1.3-2 instructions
openSUSE 10.3 i386 | AMD64
openSUSE 10.2 i386 | AMD64
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES10) i386 | AMD64
Fedora 7 ("Moonshine") i386 | AMD64
Fedora 6 ("Zod") i386
Fedora 5 ("Bordeaux") i386
Mandriva 2008.0 i386
Mandriva 2007.1 i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ("RHEL5") i386 | AMD64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 ("RHEL4") i386
PCLinuxOS 2007 i386
Xandros Desktop 4.1 i386
All distributions i386 | AMD64

if u dont find your system here try :

linux to windows : http://www.winehq.org/
Mac to windows : http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/features.html

Have fun an play AE on all systems (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[reikoshea]

Im also going to post the way to get it to run in WINE (since most linux users already have it installed...if you do, then just skip down to how to beat the server select screen)

I finally got AE running through wine. Ive tested on both Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 (which means it should also work with debian 4.0 etch and lenny).

Just for everyone that wants to get AE working on Ubuntu/Debian

If youve already installed wine you may want to uninstall it.

I usually just use aptitude and remove the package:

sudo aptitude
/wine [enter] (press n to go to the next entry)
get to the wine package that installed and hit (-)
then hit gg.

There might be some remnant setting that will jack with the fresh install, so you might want to do the following:

(note, this will delete any file with the word wine in it. like maybe a wine list or emails that have the word wine in the subject etc. I wasnt worried about it, so i just did it).

##WARNING, if you dont know what this does, then dont do it##

sudo updatedb
sudo for i in `locate wine` ; do rm -rf $i ; done

#########################################

If you skipped the above step, then just delete the .wine directory out of your home directory.

cd ~
rm -Rf .wine

Then do the aptitude thing again:

sudo aptitude
/wine [enter]
get to the wine package labeled "wine" (+)
press gg and let it install.

Then type winecfg (make sure you arent root) and set the wine instance up as windows xp. Also, it works easier if you emulate a virtual desktop (in the graphics tab).

Once installed run the launcher, login, and press play. Once the screen minimizes fully hit ALT+F4 to close the launcher (you have to do this before the Loading image pops up. You should have the server select screen alone, and now you should be able to get it to work. You might get an error about the process terminating, but dont worry, once you select a character the message goes away.

Let me know if you have any questions. We also have confirmation that this works on Fedora linux as well.

And my second article on this when the launcher got updated.

Well, as some of you might have guessed, I returned to Ashen Empires. That return however, was almost cut short.

Very few of you might have noticed that the new "updated" version of wine does not work with Ashen Empires.

Apparently some of the libraries have changed...so you will have to compile your own version of wine 0.9.51. You might be able to use versions past this one...but i know for sure. 0.9.51 works in Debian 3.1, 4.0 and Ubuntu 6.10-7.10. I haven't tried any RedHat derivatives or Gentoo, but you should have similar results.


Its relatively simple. Just go to SourceForge and grab the tar ball for wine 0.9.51.

I usually put my compiled programs in /usr/local so thats what I am doing here.

# tar -xjvf wine-0.9.51.tar.bz2
# sudo mv wine-0.9.51 /usr/local/wine

I had to download a ton of stuff on my fresh installs to compile wine without any warning. I usually run installs through aptitude, but I guess for a write up a single command is easier:

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install gcc g\+\+ flex bison fontforge libtulip-ogl-2.0-dev libproducer-dev freeglut3-dev glutg3-dev libgl1-mesa-dev ftgl-dev libotf-dev libotf0 libttf-dev libxft-dev

That will install a C and C++ compiler, fonts for wine, openGL support, and some more header files for compilation.

Before you compile, If you wish to deviate from my instructions, i'd recommend going to tools/wineinstall and modify the configs values in that script. Its pretty self explanitory.

(might need to do some chowning if you want to run this as you)
# cd /usr/local/wine
# sudo ./tools/wineinstall

Since I'm now using an old computer that process took quite sometime. Be warned.

Once the wine executable is done compiling you can enjoy your AE. For simplicity's sake i put a symlink to the new executable in my PATH that way i don't have to do a lot of typing to use it.

# sudo ln -s /usr/local/wine/wine /usr/bin/wine

And voila. Your ready to go.

# wine ~/AshenEmpires/IWG\ Launcher.exe

The launcher works pretty well...although on my Debian 3.1 and 4.0 installs I couldn't change my game directory (it had to be in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Iron\ Will\ Games/Ashen\ Empires). Thats a relatively small hiccup, i think.

The same trick as before is required though. Hit play, Hit ALT+F4 immediately after (to kill the Launcher window) and viola. Your server select screen should work as expected.

You are welcome to ask questions. Even when I wasn't playing, I still trolled the forums.

[reikoshea]

Alrighty,

So a new launcher is upon us, and new instructions for Linux users have arrived. This does take some time, so be prepared.

We need to start out by uninstalling the apt version of wine. It appears that it just will not work no matter how hard you try and fiddle with the settings.

CODE

sudo apt-get remove wine

then you'll need to go to sourceforge and download the source (tar.bz) for the most recent stable version (as of this writing it 0.9.61 release candidates are not necessarily stable.)
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ackage_id=77449

Once you have that downloaded, untar the file

CODE

tar -xjf wine-0.9.61.tar.bz2

Now that it is untarred, we need to get some dependencies taken care of.

CODE

sudo apt-get build-dep wine
sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall

I dont know if ubuntu comes pre-installed with flex and bison, but i didnt need to do this next step on ubuntu, but i did have to do it on debian. When you run configure, it will tell you if you need to install bison and flex...if so, do this:

CODE

sudo apt-get install bison flex

We're on the home stretch...now we start compiling.

CODE

cd wine-0.9.61
./configure

This will run a check on your system to make sure that you have everything needed to install wine. If not. It will not install and it should tell you what to install to get the compile to complete.

Next we have to compile all the libraries that wine needs to finally install itself.

CODE

make depend

Finally we compile all the binaries and move them into their proper directories (this takes about an hour on a AMD 2600+ and about 35 minutes on an Allendale Core 2).

CODE

sudo make install

WHEW that took long enough, right?


You might think you are done, but we have only just begun. You now have wine installed, but if you try to run the Launcher like this, you will be sorely disappointed.


What we need to do now is configure wine to do all the stuff AE needs.
\

CODE

winecfg

Make sure the "Windows Version" in the application tab is set as XP.
In the graphics tab, you want to check both of the boxes relating to window manager control, and you'll also want to run in a virtual desktop. The size is up to you.

We now need to install Gecko HTML Rendering Engine. I had to do this on both my systems, so I'm assuming everyone will need to do this. I know in the apt versions Gecko installs automatically.

CODE

wget http://kegel.com/wine/winetricks -O winetricks.sh
sudo chmod 755 winetricks.sh
./winetricks.sh

This downloads and runs a file that will allow you to install a bunch of wine components...we're only concerned with Gecko. So just check that option.

You should be good to go now.

Next, we install the game.

Go to http://www.ashenempires.com/download.aspx and grab the installer.

CODE

wine Pixel\ Mine\ Installer.exe

Run through the setup boxes. And now time for the launcher.

By default the launcher will install in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Pixel\ Mine/PixelMineLauncher.exe

All we need to do is run that:

CODE

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Pixel\ Mine/PixelMineLauncher.exe

Login, Patch, Force Sync, and Play.

The login trick still remains.

******
Once the login screen minimizes fully hit ALT+F4 to close the launcher (you have to do this before the Loading image pops up. You should have the server select screen alone, and now you should be able to get it to work. You might get an error about the process terminating, but dont worry, once you select a character the message goes away.
******

[reikoshea]

Wine 1.0 was just released. Anyone tested it yet?

[Austen the 1st]

Wine 1.0 was just released. Anyone tested it yet?

This is for 1.0

[Seed]

I had AE working in Gentoo Linux (the best linux distro out there for those of you that didn't know), I haven't played in a long while though... I'll try to get it working with the new launcher sometime and let you know how it goes.

[reikoshea]

Tested last night. New launcher works great using my above instructions (post 3).

[Krazel]

YOU ROCK <3!!!!!!!!
You fawkin rock!!

[reikoshea]

Nice to know that me coming back added one more linux user to the mix.

[Krazel]

I love linux, I use winxppro mainly but I have ubuntu on a 'test' computer thats lyin around 300 bucks for a copy of windows that will not find your drivers orrr free ubuntu that finds all the drivers like that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[reikoshea]

i have linux on every machine in my house (minus the wife's). I dont see me going back to windows anytime soon.

[Krazel]

Yus we should all be more Anti Microsoft srsly

[FourTwenty]

Using Ubuntu and wine and trying the ALT+F4 trick, but when im selecting a server its saying "Login Problem, Please Try Again : Choose Server"

Any Suggestions.

[FourTwenty]

Update* Got it working on my own, wasnt closing the process totally. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I AM THE NEWEST ADDITION TO THE AE LINUX COMMUNITY

[Red Balron]

Update* Got it working on my own, wasnt closing the process totally. :D

I AM THE NEWEST ADDITION TO THE AE LINUX COMMUNITY

How did you manage to close the process totally? As that is the same error message i got lol

[FourTwenty]

This may sound idiotic but it took me 5 attempts to get it down....

When your on the Game select screen click on ashen empires then hover your mouse (dont click yet) over the play button. This is where speed and timing comes in an the reason it took 5 attempts, Now get your right hand ready to press ALT+f4 (this keystroke is supposed to close a window. This doesnt actually close the program or process though. Wine just emulates the version of windows you ask it too. But the wine explorer itself is actually a version of the windows file explorer dating back to when it was considered freeware (windows 3.11 for workgroups if it serves me correct) anywho the reason i just explained all that is becuase when you press alt+f4 in the base unmodified version of wine it actually minimizes the window and throws it to an icon on your desktop.)

You now must right click the icon and on the submenu select close. If you did this in time before the SoC LOADING window pops up. YOU WILL LOSE THE CHOOSE THE LOGIN SERVER ERROR and connect. Only when you get the laucher screen totally closed. Can you accomplish actually selecting a server. Yes it was frustrating but i managed to get it. Maybe a Dev taking a look at this post might send me a PM and we devise a work around for it. And then we can easily get AE on a Linux Approved Software list and get some more users. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[reikoshea]

I talked to Zarq about linux when I was in Austin. Their official stance is, "If you can get it working, great, if not, the game wasnt meant to run on linux".

But to fix the issue you were having, just run in "Emulate Virtual Desktop Mode" and itll take care of that. Its a lot easier to hit ALT+F4 than to try and right click and close. To do that, just open a command prompt and type winecfg and look in the tab marked graphics.

[FourTwenty]

PWN!!! Thx for the assist. BTW Reiko are you aware of any PORTING software. Linux boasts about the ability to use a porting software to port windows apps directly to linux without the need of an emulator.

If you know of any good ones or can at least make a name recommendation, i believe im adept enough in the magical arts of cyberspace to procure us a working Port.

Also, my AE is running great but one issue im getting a non changing 5 fps per sec. Do you know of anyways to beef up the Graphics capability of wine? or is there a better Emulator out there.

[reikoshea]

I dont know of any porting packages for windows->linux. If they exist, i would imagine it wouldnt work well with the game due to the way the launcher works.

I get about 10 fps on my linux box with a radeon 9200SE. I think its more that the graphics drivers for X need to be better and not the emulator. It might be the case, but i haven't tested the game on a good linux system yet.

[GrayFox]

I dont know of any porting packages for windows->linux. If they exist, i would imagine it wouldnt work well with the game due to the way the launcher works.

I get about 10 fps on my linux box with a radeon 9200SE. I think its more that the graphics drivers for X need to be better and not the emulator. It might be the case, but i haven't tested the game on a good linux system yet.

Maybe ill throw a linux distro on my pc this weekend or something and test it out again. (i tried opensuse 11, couldnt get AE to work and gave up)
My beta expidition of Windows 7 blew up recently as well so i will be looking to fix my dual boot with something new...

Some of you linux pros should "suggest" which linux distro i might be most interested in. (best/easiest for high end gaming as well as music downloading on 64bit system)

Any info would be grrrrrreat. =D