WoW 5.4.8 Linux Client

[Quinats]

Hello,

I was wondering if there is a working 5.4.8 client for Linux-based operating systems (such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu and so on) ?

I have tried using Wine in order to connect but I failed with lots of errors on my screen. The tutorials which I found online are kinda available for the official client.

If there is no client available, should I expect one in the near future? (A full tutorial on how to connect would also be nice.)

Furthermore, if there is someone out there who has found a way of connecting to the server with Linux I would really appreciate some tips.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Quinats

[Denim]

Have you tried this maybe?


Retired

[Quinats]

Heya! Thanks for the reply. Yea, had a look there as well but I didn't really find a proper tutorial for wine...They all talk about the wow launcher on the internet..instead I need a way of re-using the wow freakz game directory and run it on wine without getting the OpenGL errors and stuff. Thanks!

[Arek75]

Here you go:

1. Install wine using your distribution's preferred method, preferably version 1.8 or newer, but any version released within the last few years should do.
   
2. Open a terminal and run the following commands:
   

   Code:

   mkdir ~/wineprefix/wow export WINEPREFIX=~/wineprefix/wow export WINEARCH="win32" wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks chmod +x winetricks ./winetricks d3dx9_36 vcrun2008 vcrun2010

   
   
3. Copy the wow 5.4.8 torrent to a location of your choosing - this does not need to be inside your wineprefix. I recommend ~/wow548. The only requirement is that this must be on something other than a windows partition (wine doesn't get along with the drivers linux uses for those)
   
4. Create a shortcut. Name it and set the icon to whatever you want. In the "command" box, put the following:
   

   Code:

   env WINEPREFIX=/home/user/wineprefix/wow wine /home/user/wow548/wow.exe

   
   
   • NOTE: replace "user" with your actual username. If you "installed" wow to somewhere other than ~/wow548, replace /home/user/wow548 with that location.

If you have any issues with framerate, add the following line to WTF/Config.wtf (or edit it if it's already there, but different):

Code:

set gxApi "OpenGL"

Your graphics quality will go down (very visibly), but your framerate should be better. If not, check your addons - some cause massive slowdowns in wine.

--Arek75

Edit: I just noticed you mentioned OpenGL errors. Make sure you're using proprietary drivers for your video card (catalyst/fglrx for ATI/AMD, or nvidia for nVidia), and that you have 32-bit OpenGL installed. Ask on your distribution's forums if you're unsure how to check this stuff - it differs by distro. In general, the Radeon/RadeonHD/Nouveau open source drivers also work, tho they can be a bit slower than the proprietary ones, but "vesa" won't work.

[Quinats]

Hello Arek,

Thank you for the kind message. Once I get the chance, I will try to configure my machine based on your tutorial.

I will keep you updated if I encounter any issues throughout the process.

Kind Regards,

Quinats

[pyrrhus]

you don't have to do any command line interventions...
the only necessary thing is to delete the freakz.dll file in the wow folder, that's it.
have fun

[Arek75]

That may work, but I don't recommend it, for several reasons:

• Wine defaults to 64-bit on 64-bit systems, and that alone can break things in WoW.
  
• Installing multiple different/unrelated games/programs in a single wineprefix is a bad idea. This is because wine isn't perfect, and sometimes things that fix one program/game can break another one.
  
• freakz.dll may not be strictly needed in order to connect, but I'm reasonably sure it is needed for the in-game shop to work, and probably to see freakz news instead of blizzard news on the login screen as well.

If you want an easier way to install WoW on linux, you might be able to use PlayOnLinux to install WoW. There are problems with this approach, too, tho.

The easiest solution isn't always the best, unfortunately.

--Arek

[TokyoGhost]

Best solution to running Windows games on Linux would be to use "direct hardware" usage through Virtual Machine software. That way game can access hardware directly and avoid API conversion FPS loss. This way you don't loose much, if anything at all - depending on your hardware setup.

[LethalFactorLK]

@Arek75

Have you solved the problem ?

[Arek75]

I know what the problem is, but it's not fully solvable, at least by me.

Your DLL (freakz.dll) has code that operates in "ring 0" (kernel mode), which wine cannot handle (ever, as in it's impossible). I don't know why you have kernel-mode code in there, but freakz.dll should work if that code is replaced with something that doesn't use kernel mode.

Meantime, as a workaround, deleting freakz.dll gets WoW working, but you can't use the in-game shop, and you'll get Blizzard news instead of Freakz news.

As for what's needed for a wineprefix: You need a 32-bit wineprefix, and you might need to install vcrun2008 via winetricks, but I doubt it (the blizz launcher requires that, and freakz.dll might once/if it gets fixed, but I don't think WoW itself needs it). I highly recommend using a CSMT-patched wine (such as wine-staging), and setting up a clean wineprefix, as indicated in my first reply. If you intend to use the DirectX rendering engine, I also recommend installing d3dx9 via winetricks as well, since the windows version is slightly faster/better than the wine version. I don't recommend using the DirectX rendering engine, tho, since it's much slower than OpenGL (I tried it...and got a grand total of 7 fps on my computer, vs about 30 in OpenGL mode). If you have a completely FOSS graphics stack, and a version of wine with Gallium9 support, DirectX might be faster, but that does require a fair number of extras to be installed in order to get it working, and it's still very experimental.

If you're paranoid, you might be able to use a firewall to block the client's access to blizzard's news server, but I'm not that paranoid, so I haven't researched how to go about it.

--Arek75