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Hey everyone!

Ok, so firstly let me preface with a few things
1) I've been determined to move away from Windows for a while, but until my gaming habits reduced it wasn't really an option.
2) I've dabbled with a few Linux distros in the past, and though I'm far from a guru, I consider myself capable with the terminal.
3) I'm determined as all hell to make this work, because it's the only game I'm playing.
4) My aim is for this to be a gratis project. That doesn't mean no one should tip anyone who helps with the project. Only that I would like to avoid paid services like Crossover. That means Wine and PlayOnLinux are still on the table.
5) VM solutions are not viable for this project, as the consistency of processors with vt-d/IOMMU is not consistent enough to provide an effective solution at this time (Perfect example, my 3770K, which came with vt-x, but not vt-d).

System Details:
Gigabyte Z77X-UP7
16GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum
eVGA GTX 670 SC+ with 4GB memory
Intel Core i7 3770K

Software details:
Wine 1.7 installed fresh (should be 1.7.33, as I added the ppa and installed with sudo apt-get install wine1.7)
--DirectX 9 installed via .exe
--Visual C++ 2010 libraries installed via .exe
--.Net Cleanup Tool run(In order to install 64-bit .Net 4.0)
--.Net 4.0 installed via .exe
---Wineconfig set for Windows 7
---Libraries: d3dcomputer_43 added
---Libraries: mscoree added
---Libraries: msvcr100 added
Ubuntu 14.04.1 (Fully updated
nVidia drivers installed using the xorg-edgers repository; drivers are 304.125

I also have a Windows 7 laptop available to me for accessing things, and as backup if things go horribly awry.

I've tried a couple things so far, using both Ubuntu and Linux, so I will try to be thorough here, but I didn't catalogue things as I probably should have.

1st Attempt:
-Installed Ubuntu 14.04
-Updated and install nVidia drivers
-Installed Wine from Software Centre (it installed v1.6.xx)
-Copied my Mechwarrior Online folder (from an install on Windows 7) into the drive_c folder
-Tried to start up MechwarriorOnline.exe
-The Launcher loaded, recognised that the game was up-to-date
-Clicking "Play" closed the launcher, and a process showed up in system monitor for MWOClient.exe (Exactly how it acts in Windows)
-No client ever actually loaded.
-Proceeded to install additional functions, including the mscoree.dll, msvcr100.dll, DirectX9, .Net 4.0(which I don't think installed correctly anyway), and Visual C++ libraries.
-I didn't get any further, so I tried installing Mono (Successfully)
-This didn't seem to improve or hinder my progress. Results were the same
-I tried installing PlayOnLinux to see if the differing settings may change the result.
--No luck here either
-I also tried a suggestion from the AppDB page for the game, showing the use of the MWO Repair Tool (with only a game folder, and Bin32 folder within), however this seems to get "stuck" on the first file it is attempting to download.
-I removed wine1.6, with all of its folders, and installed wine1.7
--Even after installing all of the dependencies, this still put me back. In hindsight, I think It's the same reason my 3rd and current attempt is failing).

2nd Attempt:
-Installed Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" (Specifically selected, as the AppDB shows some success using this version)
-Updated and installed nVidia drivers
-Installed wine1.7
-Installed Visual C++ libraries using .exe
-Did a .Net clean up and installed .Net 4.0 using .exe
-Installed DirectX9 with .exe
-Copied over the Mechwarrior Online folder to drive_c
-Attempted to run MechwarriorOnline.exe, no go again.
--Specifically, it tried to process the exe, but never actually did anything
-Attempted the method using the MWO Repair Tool, also no luck
--Same behaviour as the game exe

At this point, I fiddled a bit, but had zero results, and given I had more progress with Ubuntu I decided to switch back. Especially since Mint has some frustrating features...or lack thereof.

3rd Attempt(Current):
-Installed Ubuntu 14.04.1
-All updates done
-nVidia drivers installed
-wine1.7 installed
-Copied the install folder into drive_c
-Attempted running MechWarriorOnline.exe as a test, nothing loaded.
-Did a .Net cleanup, then installed .Net 4.0, Visual C++ libraries, and DX9 using the .exe for each
-Added the libraries d3dcompiler_43, mscoree, and msvcr100
-Attempted running MechWarriorOnline.exe, nothing loaded
-ran the command 'wine MechWarriorOnline.exe &> log.txt', error received pertained to a fault in Mono.

At this point, I decided to go back to the version of Wine that was providing the most success, which was 1.6(.2 I believe. The one on the Software Centre)
**Uninstalled wine1.7 and deleted the .wine folder prior to installing wine 1.6
-Installed wine 1.6
-Copied over the MWO install folder to drive_c
-Attempted running the MechWarriorOnline.exe, successfully loaded the Launcher without errors. Launcher recognises game files are present.
-Clicked "Play", launcher closes but the main game client does not load.
-Ran a .Net clean up, then installed .Net 4.0, Visual C++ Libraries, and DX9
-Added the libraries d3dcompiler_43, mscoree, and msvcr100
-Attempted to load MechWarriorOnline.exe, received two separate .Net errors, but the Launcher does load albeit seems a bit slower (A couple seconds at most)
-Click "Play", launcher closes, nothing happens
-Ran the command 'wine MechWarriorOnline.exe &> log.txt
-Clicked "Play" in the launcher

Now, this is where I currently am. The log.txt has been going for a good 15-20 minutes, though it hasn't updated in a couple minutes from this particular text.
The MechWarriorOnline.exe is still the active process, though it is supposed to switch to MWOClient.exe to load the actual game.
The log.txt has generated about 1870 lines of log data, but there's a lot of info to parse through.

I'm willing to take the time to figure this out if someone would like to work with me. I have no issues reformatting and installing Linux as needed for test purposes.
This post is being put up on the Wine, PlayOnLinux, and MWOMercs forums with links to each post so as to cultivate a larger group of people working on this.
If anyone would like to interact with me using more direct means of communications, please feel free to e-mail me using patrickkell at gmail dot com.

Google Drive where I'm going to store log files, etc. The folder is editable so others can upload files and content, though some files within may only be viewable.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Ca5XlL0MV0T3FpbXJWVzNKVGs&usp=sharing

First, stop switching distro's. There is no reason at all. 

Next everthing you said points to you only using Wine, and not playonlinux. From what I can see in your post, you never even ran PlayOnLinux, which means that you really should look at the documentation. That is not how POL works. 

I highly recommend reading more documetation on Wine and POL and how it works at winehq.org. 

http://wiki.winehq.org/

http://www.playonmac.com/en/documentation.html

Also, WineHQ rates this games as pretty much barely working through Wine, which is not something that we can fix:

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=30686

PlayOnLinux is just a GUI for Wine, and if it doesn't work through Wine correctly, it will not work through POL. 

You will need to file a bug report with WineHQ after thoroughly reading their wiki and documentation, so that they can work on getting it usable. Sorry, but there is simply nothing we can do unless there are patches for Wine that make it work (which you would find through the bug tracker at WineHQ.org).

 

If anyone would like to interact with me using more direct means of communications, please feel free to e-mail me using patrickkell at gmail dot com.

Google Drive where I'm going to store log files, etc. The folder is editable so others can upload files and content, though some files within may only be viewable.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Ca5XlL0MV0T3FpbXJWVzNKVGs&usp=sharing

There is no need to put up a google drive of your output for two reasons: 1, they are Wine's output, not POLs, and 2, you can simply pastebin or just post POL debug logs here. It is not really useful to search everywhere through 3rd party links when we can have the info posted here, in public, so that people can also search for this information. :) If the info is private (like through email), then no one can search for that info, so if they can't get ahold of you, then no one knows what happened. Transparency makes things like this much easier to troubleshoot (though, in this case, WineHQ will need to create a fix).

Thanks. 

 

--DirectX 9 installed via .exe
--Visual C++ 2010 libraries installed via .exe
--.Net Cleanup Tool run(In order to install 64-bit .Net 4.0)
--.Net 4.0 installed via .exe
---Wineconfig set for Windows 7
---Libraries: d3dcomputer_43 added
---Libraries: mscoree added
---Libraries: msvcr100 added

Also, another tip: Installing libraries like this will simply break stuff. .NET installers don't work correctly through WIne, and usually are installed via seperate scripts in winetricks or POL. It is best to install little to no extra's into Wine. This is a rule of thumb, expressed verily in the documentation. Also, you are probably not going to get anywhere with 64-bit Wine, as it is not too stable (again, this is explained ad nauseum with other things in the WIneHQ wiki). :D You are going to need to do some reading and get a bug report filed with WIneHQ for this game, if there is not already a bug report filed. Hope this sets you on the right path. 

Also, did you ever consider dual-booting? I mean, don't say it is impossible for this project, because it is not. lol. Plus, if it does not work through Wine, you wouldn't want to give up a whole OS simply because one game does not work, right? Truth be told, I have ALL of my systems dual-booted with Windows 7, just in case. Never know what I need to run natively, and better to have to dual boot into Windows for a short time then to just give up because of one game. Just some advice (trust me, I have been there. lol.).

Hey, thank you for replying.

 

Firstly, my post is the EXACT same here and on WineHQ. For such a large post, it made no sense to rewrite it.

 

Secondly, I did try using POL during a couple stages of the process, though it felt like I was adding extra steps for no discernable forward progress, though it did provide more graphical feedback which I personally prefer. Yes, most of my efforts have been centered on using Wine directly, but I thought maybe some additional attention to the this in a community that also has familiarity with Wine might help.

As was stated in my post, I did not write down each thing I did as I did it, so there were bound to be things I missed. Because my core efforts were focused on directly using Wine, I obviously forgot to mention the various instances where I took a quick test with POL to switch between certain settings (like 32-bit vs 64-bit).

 

Thirdly, I switched distros from Ubuntu to Mint because there appeared to be more luck with Mint and I wanted to test some things. When those tests provided nothing of value, I switched back to my comfort zone, which is Ubuntu.

 

Fourth, The usage of a folder in my Google Drive is for more than just log files. It provides a way to share other items that are sometimes a pain to access (such as the most recent .Net cleaner tool, which took me a couple downloads before I found the MOST RECENT version).

If someone specifically requested a log file posted to pastebin, I would be more than happy to oblige. I don't frequent the site personally, but I'm acomodating when people are trying to help me.

 

Lastly, please don't take this the wrong way, as I'm appreciative of any and all input people can provide, but your replies come off as condescending. That's kinda discouraging to people looking for assistance with things they lack direct knowledge of themselves. I very rarely ask for help with Linux, and more often work to find the answers on my own, so when I do ask for help it's not enjoyable to feel like I'm being looked down on.

 

 

--DirectX 9 installed via .exe
--Visual C++ 2010 libraries installed via .exe
--.Net Cleanup Tool run(In order to install 64-bit .Net 4.0)
--.Net 4.0 installed via .exe
---Wineconfig set for Windows 7
---Libraries: d3dcomputer_43 added
---Libraries: mscoree added
---Libraries: msvcr100 added

Also, another tip: Installing libraries like this will simply break stuff. .NET installers don't work correctly through WIne, and usually are installed via seperate scripts in winetricks or POL. It is best to install little to no extra's into Wine. This is a rule of thumb, expressed verily in the documentation. Also, you are probably not going to get anywhere with 64-bit Wine, as it is not too stable (again, this is explained ad nauseum with other things in the WIneHQ wiki). :D You are going to need to do some reading and get a bug report filed with WIneHQ for this game, if there is not already a bug report filed. Hope this sets you on the right path. 

Also, did you ever consider dual-booting? I mean, don't say it is impossible for this project, because it is not. lol. Plus, if it does not work through Wine, you wouldn't want to give up a whole OS simply because one game does not work, right? Truth be told, I have ALL of my systems dual-booted with Windows 7, just in case. Never know what I need to run natively, and better to have to dual boot into Windows for a short time then to just give up because of one game. Just some advice (trust me, I have been there. lol.).

 

Quote from RoninDusette

I've tried Mono (as stated in my post), and I've tried installing .NET via winetricks and POL, however the level of success is minimal at best. On the AppDB page for MWO, one person noted that using the .NET cleaner first counteracts whatever garbage MS issue is interfering with installing .NET. Having done this a couple times, I can confirm their claims appear correct.

 

I would not be installing extras if they could be avoided. I attempted at one point to test the game with each component I added to see if anything changed. As my post was already pretty damn long, I slimmed some details down.

 

As for dual-booting, I've done that in the past and find it exceptionally inconvenient for myself. Especially since I currently run a 60GB SSD for my main drive, and a 1TB for most of my games/programs, with a 2TB for storage.

Additionally, Ubuntu doesn't perform quite as well when dual-booting with easier methods like wubi.exe, and I have yet to get comfortable with the whole Linux partitioning necessities (one day, but not today). So it's not impossible, but it's not the solution for me. 

I am not trying to sound like that. I am just being blunt. I also gave you a lot of info to go off of, and again, I have been there before. The only reason I mentioned "read the docs" is because it seemed as though you hadn't. I wasn't trying to clown you. I was just telling you what you need to do to get it to work. 

POL is a way of managing Wine versions. Whether it is in your system's Wine, or POL, it doesn't really matter. POL just gives a way of getting each WINEPREFIX set up correctly. 

I am sorry if you do not like my answer. I really am. I have been in your position so bad, to the point where I became deeply involved in this project because of it. haha. :D I am here to help, but pretty much everything you did to get it to work was simply not a good way to do it, and the docs tend to help out with that. 

 

Secondly, I did try using POL during a couple stages of the process, though it felt like I was adding extra steps for no discernable forward progress, though it did provide more graphical feedback which I personally prefer. Yes, most of my efforts have been centered on using Wine directly, but I thought maybe some additional attention to the this in a community that also has familiarity with Wine might help.

You don't use Wine and POL together, technically. Not in the way you are trying to. Look at this:

http://wiki.winehq.org/PlayOnLinux

There is a difference between installing something with Wine and POL; they do not interact with each other. POL has it's own Wine versions that installs in a folder located within ~/.PlayOnLinux

 

As was stated in my post, I did not write down each thing I did as I did it, so there were bound to be things I missed. Because my core efforts were focused on directly using Wine, I obviously forgot to mention the various instances where I took a quick test with POL to switch between certain settings (like 32-bit vs 64-bit).

If you are using POL, POL uses Wine. Just not from your system (apt-get). Also, if it is broken in 32-bit Wine, it will be broken in 64-bit Wine. Always attempt 32-bit installs first.

 

Thirdly, I switched distros from Ubuntu to Mint because there appeared to be more luck with Mint and I wanted to test some things. When those tests provided nothing of value, I switched back to my comfort zone, which is Ubuntu.

There is not a difference between them when it comes to this stuff. I stick with Kubuntu 14.04, so you are good with that, too. I run Mint on my laptop, and that works just like *buntu. 

 

Fourth, The usage of a folder in my Google Drive is for more than just log files. It provides a way to share other items that are sometimes a pain to access (such as the most recent .Net cleaner tool, which took me a couple downloads before I found the MOST RECENT version).

You shouldn't be installing .NET like that. First off, wine-mono get's installed automatically with newer versions of Wine, and installing .NET will break them. Also, wine and POL have their own special installers for that, so you should never really be downloading .NET, vcrun, directX, or any of that, because they can be installed directly through Wine or POL. That is a sure-fire way to break the WINEPREFIX that you are trying to get working. 

 

If someone specifically requested a log file posted to pastebin, I would be more than happy to oblige. I don't frequent the site personally, but I'm acomodating when people are trying to help me.

You don't even have to pastebin. You can simply copy/paste your POL debug logs directly to your post. That makes it easier. We shouldn't have to go off-site to see the debug output related to it. It is just an extra step that is not needed. 

 

Lastly, please don't take this the wrong way, as I'm appreciative of any and all input people can provide, but your replies come off as condescending. That's kinda discouraging to people looking for assistance with things they lack direct knowledge of themselves. I very rarely ask for help with Linux, and more often work to find the answers on my own, so when I do ask for help it's not enjoyable to feel like I'm being looked down on.

Again,I am sorry that you feel that way. Nevertheless, reading the documentation would have disabused you of most of the ways you tried to get the application running. I am not trying to be mean at all. Just concise and verbose in telling you where to get the information. Hours, days, months even, are spent writing documentation so that users can easily access the basic knowledge needed to get these applications working. If you feel you are being looked down upon, that is not my intention. As stated above, though, everything I am telling you is what you need to know to get started playing that game (including the possibility of dual-booting, which  is less painful then you think). 

I am here to help. Honestly. Do not take this in offence, but you will simply need to do a lot more research on how these programs work, starting with the basic documentation, so that you have a solid understanding of the differences between "Vanilla" Wine and PlayOnLinux, as all of your attempts to get this working are basically the complete opposite of what you would want to do to get it fixed and working. And even then, unfortunately, Wine does not have this program working, so even if you got every last little bit right, it still would be broken, just because Wine needs to be updated. It sucks, I know. It does. There are actually a few apps I am waiting on to get fixed through Wine, but I am no C/C++ programmer, otherwise I would do it myself. hahaha. ;)

So, don't get discouraged. No one is looking down at you. This is just a simple matter of reading the docs and hopefully WineHQ's community coming up with the fix for this particular game. 

Hopefully this helps you out a bit more. Cheers. 

Again, you don't want to install stuff like .NET and whatnot through the regular .exe if you can help it. Usually the scripts provided by POL or Wine (via winetricks) do that for you the way that developers have gotten them working.

We will have to see what WineHQ does about the fix. Once they have one, we can implement it in POL. Until they have a fix, this game does not look like it will be working well, if at all. 

Yeah. I just went over the appdb entry, and a there are only a few components to install, and I see it says 64-bit, which makes it that much harder to install (if installed, garbage to run). Does this come in a 32-bit flavour (I grew up playing MW, and I didn't even know there was an online game. haha. I would have been playing this a LONG time ago. lol.). If it has a 32-bit installer, that would be ideal, as it would have a better chance of running. That is what is weak about Wine right now. The 64-bit versions of Wine tend to not work well or not be compatible with the winetricks/POL component installers. 

I will be looking into this more, and see if there is anything that I can help out with, as I would like to give this game a shot. If I figure anything out, I will update this thread. ;)

Edité par RoninDusette

It does have a 32-bit installer. I will just opened a ticket, and I will see if I can get any further, considering it will run on WinXP (which was a 32-bit only OS, so it is compatible with 32-bit Windows, which gives a FAR better chance at running it). 

 

I am not trying to sound like that. (....) 

Hopefully this helps you out a bit more. Cheers. 

Quote from RoninDusette (Truncated, 'cause it was a lot of text)

 Hey, I'm sorry if I gave you the impression I was taking it as malice. Definitely not the case. Text is funny that way. :S

 

It's not that I don't like your answer, I mean it is what it is and that's not your fault or responsibility. I'm just trying to coax some elbow grease outta people to work on this, and I'm willing to offer my time and my computers cycles to test and fiddle with things.

 

Initially, I thought POL interacted directly with my Wine install. I found out after the fact that it has it's own folder, and it's own wine prefixes. I do find the ability to select which version of wine I want to use for a program and have it be downloaded a handy feature.

 

For the different distros, it's always been my understanding that the defining differences between them are almost always the frontend GUI, and to an extent the applications they come installed with.

Admittedly, I was confused as to why AppDB had two different results between Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty" and Mint 17 "Qiana", as my understanding was that Mint 17 was a "flavour" of Ubuntu 14.04. I decided to test it out myself, since I really had nothing to lose. The results turned out to be nothing different, and I wasn't enjoying the user experience in Mint, so I swapped back to Ubuntu.

I've not used Kubuntu very much, but I spent a brief time with it when deciding which distro to use on my media server (which is an old Acer Revo net-top). I ended up going with lubuntu, since the overhead was less than the average compared to its cousins.

 

The only other thing I wanted to point out is that wine1.7, which installs wine-mono, seems to break something that at least allowed the MWO launcher to load in wine1.6.

I didn't actually realise it was happening, until I output a log file and got this:

=================================================================
Got a SIGSEGV while executing native code. This usually indicates
a fatal error in the mono runtime or one of the native libraries 
used by your application.
=================================================================

err:mscoree:expect_no_runtimes Process exited with a Mono runtime loaded.

 

That's why I ended up switching back to wine1.6. :S

 

I know there's the possibility I could expend exceptional time and effort to no avail, as I've bounced into Linux periodically over the years to continually test gaming performance. One day, maybe all the hoops won't be necessary, but for now I choose to have hope and push forward.

 

I will be looking into this more, and see if there is anything that I can help out with, as I would like to give this game a shot. If I figure anything out, I will update this thread. ;)

 

Quote from RoninDusette

Glad to hear another Warrior might join the battlefield.

 

And yes, the game does have 32-bit. It only recently added 64-bit. The switch is using a checkbox in the Launcher's settings. I generally try to load the 32-bit version for simplicity. 

Always use 32-bit for Wine. You will save yourself a lot of headache. I am taking this weekend off to spend time with my wife, but next week I will take a look at this. Though, with how Wine itself works with this app, I doubt there will be any luck. If I manage to get it working a bit, I will write a script and put it into testing. At least then part of the work is done. I will update this when I have, well, an update. haha. Later.

 

Always use 32-bit for Wine. You will save yourself a lot of headache. I am taking this weekend off to spend time with my wife, but next week I will take a look at this. Though, with how Wine itself works with this app, I doubt there will be any luck. If I manage to get it working a bit, I will write a script and put it into testing. At least then part of the work is done. I will update this when I have, well, an update. haha. Later.

 

Quote from RoninDusette

No prob. Thank you for the effort, and have a good weekend. 

 

 

Always use 32-bit for Wine. You will save yourself a lot of headache. I am taking this weekend off to spend time with my wife, but next week I will take a look at this. Though, with how Wine itself works with this app, I doubt there will be any luck. If I manage to get it working a bit, I will write a script and put it into testing. At least then part of the work is done. I will update this when I have, well, an update. haha. Later.

 

Quote from RoninDusette

No prob. Thank you for the effort, and have a good weekend. 

 

Quote from PhelanPKell

Right back at ya.