Network play in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:08 am

Hello,
I have installed C&C: Red Alert 2 in Ubuntu.
Now I want to play in a network.
I have already put the wsock32.dll [1] into the game directory and
have set up an overwrite rule for wsock32 in winecfg.
It should replace the IPX protocol with UDP protocol.
Now there is a network card shown in the settings [2] and the
network menu opens ingame now. I have set up Red Alert 2 on
different machines but they don't see each other in the network menu.
Also when one player opens a game it cannot be seen in the other
machines.
I have already checked out the appdb [3], but did find a helpful
comment.

Has someone got the network play to work?

Best regards
Christoph Korn

[1] http://www.understorm.net/cnc/lan/ts_ra ... h_1_00.zip
[2] http://www.wikihow.com/images/c/c6/Image1_618.png
[3]
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... ngId=34354

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:07 pm

Christoph Korn wrote:I have already put the wsock32.dll [1] into the game directory and
have set up an overwrite rule for wsock32 in winecfg.

That's one of the core DLLs that you can not override.

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 1:18 pm

It can be overwritten.
Just enter the name "wsock32" in the edit field.
A warning is shown that it _should_ not be overwritten but it can.

vitamin schrieb:

Christoph Korn wrote:
I have already put the wsock32.dll [1] into the game directory and
have set up an overwrite rule for wsock32 in winecfg.
That's one of the core DLLs that you can not override.

Thunderbird · Post by **Thunderbird** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:10 pm

Red Alert II works fine if you set up IPX on your linux system but you need to run wine as root. I had some users experiment with posix file capabiltiies but those didn't seem to work for some reason. IPX should work fine as at the time I worked a bit on wine's ipx to get all c&c games working (ra1 3.0x, tiberian sun and red alert 2).

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:30 pm

I think it is me you chatted with.

I managed to play with a Vista machine by using the wsock32.dll.
The IPX configuration did not work. I think UDP replaces IPX with
this wsock32.dll. But now I have two Ubuntu machines that use this
dll and they do not see each other.

Thunderbird schrieb:

Red Alert II works fine if you set up IPX on your linux system but you need to run wine as root. I had some users experiment with posix file capabiltiies but those didn't seem to work for some reason. IPX should work fine as at the time I worked a bit on wine's ipx to get all c&c games working (ra1 3.0x, tiberian sun and red alert 2).

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:52 pm

Christoph Korn wrote:It can be overwritten.
Just enter the name "wsock32" in the edit field.
A warning is shown that it _should_ not be overwritten but it can.

Should/could/would is irrelevant here.
You CAN NOT use native wsock32.dll It WILL NOT work on Wine period.
Enable IPX and use it instead.

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:15 pm

I was already able to play with this dll on the network.
The windows vista machine also used the dll because IPX is not
available in vista.
But now I use two ubuntu machines and there the clients don't see
each other.

vitamin schrieb:

Christoph Korn wrote:
It can be overwritten.
Just enter the name "wsock32" in the edit field.
A warning is shown that it _should_ not be overwritten but it can.
Should/could/would is irrelevant here.
You CAN NOT use native wsock32.dll It WILL NOT work on Wine period.
Enable IPX and use it instead.

Vincent Povirk · Post by **Vincent Povirk** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:52 pm

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 2:52 PM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:

Christoph Korn wrote:
It can be overwritten.
Just enter the name "wsock32" in the edit field.
A warning is shown that it _should_ not be overwritten but it can.
Should/could/would is irrelevant here.
You CAN NOT use native wsock32.dll It WILL NOT work on Wine period.
Enable IPX and use it instead.

He isn't using a wsock32.dll from Microsoft. According to the readme
in http://www.understorm.net/cnc/lan/ts_ra ... h_1_00.zip, it's
meant as a replacement for a few specific games, one of which is Red
Alert 2, to make them work through UDP over a LAN. This should work if
it's based on normal, public API's that Wine can implement.

Vincent Povirk

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:14 pm

Yes, somehow this topic has been split.
My original message is here:
http://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-us ... 47813.html
I use the (modified, I think) dll from the link [1].
I just need to figure out how the clients can see each other in the
ingame lobby.
Thunderbird has figuered it out by using IPX and starting wine as
root. But that seems more complicated than just using a modified dll.

Thanks for your answers, btw!

Best regards
Christoph Korn

[1] http://www.understorm.net/cnc/lan/ts_ra ... h_1_00.zip

Vincent Povirk schrieb:

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 2:52 PM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:
Christoph Korn wrote:
It can be overwritten.
Just enter the name "wsock32" in the edit field.
A warning is shown that it _should_ not be overwritten but it can.
Should/could/would is irrelevant here.
You CAN NOT use native wsock32.dll It WILL NOT work on Wine period.
Enable IPX and use it instead.
He isn't using a wsock32.dll from Microsoft. According to the readme
in http://www.understorm.net/cnc/lan/ts_ra ... h_1_00.zip, it's
meant as a replacement for a few specific games, one of which is Red
Alert 2, to make them work through UDP over a LAN. This should work if
it's based on normal, public API's that Wine can implement.

Vincent Povirk

Gert van den Berg · Post by **Gert van den Berg** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:11 am

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Christoph Korn <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello,
I have installed C&C: Red Alert 2 in Ubuntu.
Now I want to play in a network.
I have already put the wsock32.dll [1] into the game directory and
have set up an overwrite rule for wsock32 in winecfg.
It should replace the IPX protocol with UDP protocol.
Now there is a network card shown in the settings [2] and the
network menu opens ingame now. I have set up Red Alert 2 on
different machines but they don't see each other in the network menu.
Also when one player opens a game it cannot be seen in the other
machines.
I have already checked out the appdb [3], but did find a helpful
comment.

Has someone got the network play to work?

I had a shot at it earlier as well, without success.
http://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?p=15853

Some issues:
The UDP patch does not seem to work on Wine (see Vitamin's reply). It
might be that a large part of Wine's network implementation is in the
buildin wsock32? (Someone more familiar with the source code might be
able to answer that) (It might be that that wsock32 only intercepts
IPX and call the real wsock32 for the UDP part, but that Wine does not
allow that to work...)

IPX works, as root, or at least that is what I'm told. It would not be
able to LAN with Windows versions using the UDP patch though...

PvPGN works as well (kindof at least) but is a mission to set up...

There are a few utilities that allow tunneling IPX over IP for Linux
as well, no idea about their compatibility and ease of use.

Did not try POSIX capabilities...

There seem to no way, other than Westwood online / PvPGN to play
between Windows Vista and Wine... (Vista removed IPX support)

The real (long term) solution would probably be if Wine / the kernel
added an option to emulate IPX over IP (like Dosbox), with various
compatibility options... Another would be if Wine implemented enough
APIs that native wsock, and its replacements can work. (This might
take )

Gert

Vincent Povirk · Post by **Vincent Povirk** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:04 pm

Some issues:
The UDP patch does not seem to work on Wine (see Vitamin's reply). It
might be that a large part of Wine's network implementation is in the
buildin wsock32? (Someone more familiar with the source code might be
able to answer that) (It might be that that wsock32 only intercepts
IPX and call the real wsock32 for the UDP part, but that Wine does not
allow that to work...)

To get some real information, I've examined the import/export tables
of the dll using winedump. It appears that it's based on ws2_32, which
Wine implements. Wine's ws2_32 is not based on wsock32 (in fact it is
the other way around). So I think that this should work.

That said, I could not examine the export table. Winedump simply gave me this:

Entry Pt Ordn Name
Can't grab functions' name table

It's possible that Wine can't load this dll because of trouble reading
the export table.

In any case, I think you should get a log of the console output when
you try to use this dll so that we can know more things instead of
blindly speculating.

The real (long term) solution would probably be if Wine / the kernel
added an option to emulate IPX over IP (like Dosbox), with various
compatibility options... Another would be if Wine implemented enough
APIs that native wsock, and its replacements can work. (This might
take )

I'm naively hoping the problem is much simpler than missing API's and
that IPX tunnelling in wine / linux is unnecessary.

Vincent Povirk

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:53 pm

Vincent Povirk schrieb:

Some issues:
The UDP patch does not seem to work on Wine (see Vitamin's reply). It
might be that a large part of Wine's network implementation is in the
buildin wsock32? (Someone more familiar with the source code might be
able to answer that) (It might be that that wsock32 only intercepts
IPX and call the real wsock32 for the UDP part, but that Wine does not
allow that to work...)
To get some real information, I've examined the import/export tables
of the dll using winedump. It appears that it's based on ws2_32, which
Wine implements. Wine's ws2_32 is not based on wsock32 (in fact it is
the other way around). So I think that this should work.

That said, I could not examine the export table. Winedump simply gave me this:

Entry Pt Ordn Name
Can't grab functions' name table

It's possible that Wine can't load this dll because of trouble reading
the export table.

I don't know what dll you are talking about here but I could get the
information of the modified wsock32.dll.

http://pastebin.com/f43590cce

In any case, I think you should get a log of the console output when
you try to use this dll so that we can know more things instead of
blindly speculating.

What debug channel should I enable in the output?
I currently have no other ubuntu machine here that has also Red
Alert 2 installed but I think that won't differ the output anyway.

Christoph Korn

The real (long term) solution would probably be if Wine / the kernel
added an option to emulate IPX over IP (like Dosbox), with various
compatibility options... Another would be if Wine implemented enough
APIs that native wsock, and its replacements can work. (This might
take )
I'm naively hoping the problem is much simpler than missing API's and
that IPX tunnelling in wine / linux is unnecessary.

Vincent Povirk

Vincent Povirk · Post by **Vincent Povirk** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:57 pm

I don't know what dll you are talking about here but I could get the
information of the modified wsock32.dll.

http://pastebin.com/f43590cce

Those are just the headers. You need -j export to see the export table.

What debug channel should I enable in the output?
I currently have no other ubuntu machine here that has also Red
Alert 2 installed but I think that won't differ the output anyway.

Start by not enabling any.

Vincent Povirk

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 3:09 pm

Vincent Povirk schrieb:

I don't know what dll you are talking about here but I could get the
information of the modified wsock32.dll.

http://pastebin.com/f43590cce
Those are just the headers. You need -j export to see the export table.

Then I also get the error.

What debug channel should I enable in the output?
I currently have no other ubuntu machine here that has also Red
Alert 2 installed but I think that won't differ the output anyway.
Start by not enabling any.

Nothing intresting in it:
http://pastebin.com/m53f918d1

Christoph Korn

Vincent Povirk

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:15 pm

The correct dll is being loaded:
http://pastebin.com/m143eafd7

This is the output of +winsock:
http://pastebin.com/f546de647

Christoph Korn

Christoph Korn schrieb:

Vincent Povirk schrieb:
I don't know what dll you are talking about here but I could get the
information of the modified wsock32.dll.

http://pastebin.com/f43590cce
Those are just the headers. You need -j export to see the export table.
Then I also get the error.

What debug channel should I enable in the output?
I currently have no other ubuntu machine here that has also Red
Alert 2 installed but I think that won't differ the output anyway.
Start by not enabling any.
Nothing intresting in it:
http://pastebin.com/m53f918d1

Christoph Korn

Vincent Povirk

Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:27 am

I have set up red alert 2 on a windows xp machine that also uses the
wsock32.dll.
Each machine can see the other one in the network menu and can join
games no matter which machines opens a new game.

I have attached log files.
wine_log_xp->ubuntu is for the xp machine joining the ubuntu hosted
game.
wine_log_ubuntu->xp ist for the ubuntu machine joining the xp hosted
game.

Christoph Korn schrieb:

The correct dll is being loaded:
http://pastebin.com/m143eafd7

This is the output of +winsock:
http://pastebin.com/f546de647

Christoph Korn

Christoph Korn schrieb:
Vincent Povirk schrieb:
Those are just the headers. You need -j export to see the export table.
Then I also get the error.

Start by not enabling any.
Nothing intresting in it:
http://pastebin.com/m53f918d1

Christoph Korn

Vincent Povirk

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Christoph Korn · Post by **Christoph Korn** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:39 pm

Today I was able to play on network with another person who has
Ubuntu installed.
There was no IPX setup required because the wsock32.dll uses UDP.
So just putting it into the games direcroy and set up an overwrite
rule in winecfg fixed it.
Don't know why it was not working before.

Christoph Korn

Christoph Korn schrieb:

I have set up red alert 2 on a windows xp machine that also uses the
wsock32.dll.
Each machine can see the other one in the network menu and can join
games no matter which machines opens a new game.

I have attached log files.
wine_log_xp->ubuntu is for the xp machine joining the ubuntu hosted
game.
wine_log_ubuntu->xp ist for the ubuntu machine joining the xp hosted
game.

Christoph Korn schrieb:
The correct dll is being loaded:
http://pastebin.com/m143eafd7

This is the output of +winsock:
http://pastebin.com/f546de647

Christoph Korn

Christoph Korn schrieb:
Vincent Povirk schrieb: Then I also get the error.
Nothing intresting in it:
http://pastebin.com/m53f918d1

Christoph Korn

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shaolin · Post by **shaolin** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:40 am

I know this posting is a few years old now, but wondering if you're still familiar with how you got this working I would appreciate your help. I've been trying to get Tiberium Sun which I think falls under the same situation as you originally posted for Red Alert 2 to work. I have connected to laptops running Ubuntu 14.04 directly and also using a hub. At this point I would prefer the hub just because if I wanted to add another laptop for additional players.

I've disabled the firewalls on both laptops, given laptop#1 IP address 192.168.1.1 and mask 255.255.255.0, laptop #2 192.168.1.2 and mask 255.255.255.0

I'm able able to successfully ping the machines by the IP addresses I have manually given them.

I've added the IPX patch and set the override in winecfg and I'm able to see the IPX settings screen with 00 00 00 00: 00 00 00 00 00 00

So when I get to to the LAN Screen I only see myself and not the other machine/player. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've been looking at this for a few days now and I have not been able to resolve this issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm running wine 1.7.55 for Tibeium Sun.