Problem with The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Wed May 18, 2011 11:53 am

I'm on Ubuntu 11.04 and Wine 1.3.20. I've been trying to run The Witcher 2 but with no success.

I've installed vcrun2010 with winetricks and downloaded mfcu100.dll (to system32) because that's what showed up to be missing when runnig game from terminal.

Now all I get is this message:

fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0

and I have no clue what it means.

I have the Retail version which is using secuROM. Looking at AppDB there is only one test data and it's the DRM free version from GOG so maybe the problem is DRM.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:36 pm

Mateusz Stachowski wrote:I have the Retail version which is using secuROM.

It won't work on Wine without a "no-cd" patch.

Kaël · Post by **Kaël** » Thu May 19, 2011 5:51 am

Seems strange that it needs "no-cd"...
The game requires online activation, but CD Projekt Red told in an interview tat the game won't need the DVD during game.
So if we can gat the Activation / Launcher to work, this should be ok, and we could get easily DLC and Patchs to doanload ad install easily.
If you try to run Launcher.exe => It crashes with the answer you told at the beggining of the thread.
If you try to run Witcher.exe => It simply refuses to run, asking for activation.
If you run Activate.exe => Same answer, asking for activation, that seems a little Weird.

Tried to install in windows virtual machine, installation ran fine, i'm currently looking for the registry key / file that seems to be written during activation process.

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Thu May 19, 2011 1:32 pm

I was affraid that it won't work without a crack.

Hopefully there will be a patch (just like with the first Witcher) that removes DRM but I doubt it will happen soon.

DL · Post by DL » Sat May 21, 2011 12:40 am

Can you return games in your country? If so get a refund and buy the GOG version instead. Although you'll need a high end CPU + mid/high end nvidia card to play it with decent performance on wine in any case, so it might not be worth it.

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Sat May 21, 2011 12:32 pm

I've bought the boxed version because here in Poland it costs 20 euros against 50 euros on GOG and downloading it would take couple days.

I've just tried running Register.exe which is used for creating account and registering the game on thewitcher.com. Unfortunately it gives me this error:

InternetException, 10061

and in terminal:

fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0
fixme:wininet:InternetSetOptionExW Flags 00000000 ignored
err:wininet:open_http_connection create_netconn failed: 10061
fixme:wininet:InternetSetOptionExW Flags 00000000 ignored
err:wininet:open_http_connection create_netconn failed: 10061
fixme:wininet:InternetSetOptionExW Flags 00000000 ignored
err:wininet:open_http_connection create_netconn failed: 10061

Does anyone know how to workaround this issue.

DL · Post by DL » Sat May 21, 2011 11:03 pm

Mateusz Stachowski wrote:I've bought the boxed version because here in Poland it costs 20 euros against 50 euros on GOG and downloading it would take couple days.

Set your country to "United States" when you sign up and you'll get the USD price. Will still be more expensive than the polish version, but the difference isn't as great.

The DRM version basically isn't going to work as you mentioned in an earlier post (without a crack).

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:48 pm

I've made some progress on running the game (well it still doesn't work). I'm able to run the Launcher.exe and witcher2.exe (the game is registered) all this thanks to the Jake Thomas who posted this how to:

http://pastebin.com/3zq1r9pF

http://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?p=61512#61512

I've installed the game in VirtualBox Windows 7 Evaluation machine (you need a filesystem that can handle files larger than 16 GB to do that) and then I've made the first snapshot with WhatChanged. Than I activated the game and made second snapshot of files and registry settings (WhatChanged reports only new files not those that were changed). Last step is to copy those files to your wineprefix and you should export relevant registry settings and then of course import it with wine regedit.

Now I don't have to bother anymore with SecuROM but I've still didn't manage to get into game. I mean Launcher.exe works (well sort of, sometimes I can launch game with it and sometimes not and there are a connection problems) but when I try to run witcher2.exe it throws this:

http://pastebin.com/hVtHFRvY

I have installed with winetricks vcrun2005 vcrun2008 and vcrun2010 (that's only changes made to this wineprefix so far).

In my earlier attempt to get it working I also installed d3dx9_36 and d3dx9_39 and then d3dx9 it seems that the last one worked for DL atleast that's what he mentions in his test data. Maybe the GOG installer made some other changes that didn't occur in my installation.

Jake Thomas · Post by **Jake Thomas** » Tue May 24, 2011 1:26 am

What file(s)/ registry key(s)/value(s) you had to copy over from the
virtual machine is important info, and you should probably post it
somewhere. Not your actual files and registry key values, of course, but what they are (as in name and path to them) is critical info that might help others (so they don't have to go through snapshotting themselves). Maybe this info can help the WINE development team.

RegShot DOES show what registry keys have been modified, added, or removed. But apparently according to you, WhatChanged
doesn't show modified files. Did it show deleted files? What about
registry stuff? Did it show modified registry keys/ values? Removed
registry keys/values? It had to do at least added registry keys/values.

If WhatChanged lacks in the registry department, you could use both.
That's pretty interesting that
SecuRom is only needed for activation. I'm guessing you found this out
by it asking for the disc in the virtual machine for activation, and
then after activation, it let you play without the disc inserted (even
when you remove it, close the launcher, re-open the launcher and tell it to run the game without the disc)?

Wow. I'm amazed that I actually helped budge this along at all. I don't know C or have WINE programming knowledge.
I looked at the debug output you put in pastebin just to see it, and most of it makes no sense to me or rings a bell. But I WAS surprised to see uxtheme in there, because I actually know what that is. That has to do with Windows (at least XP) themes. I know this because I saw the uxtheme patch as an option in nLite, a program that lets you make custom ior automated Windows XP discs (There's now a vLite for Vista). The uxtheme patch lets you use unsigned themes, like the way-cool Halo 3 theme from belchfire.net. Then I found out the amazing things you can do with Gnome and Compiz in Linux and made a custom "theme" (not an actual packaged theme - just options I set) of Tron. Yep. Kicks butt.
Glad you actually did the tutorial and that it got you a little closer. Remember, I haven't personally used WhatChanged yet, but have used RegShot.

Why would uxtheme be in there? Where you using an emulated desktop? Desktop integration? Usage of a theme?
It also says that shell32<elf> got deferred. I know that in Windows it is a dll with lots of icons in it that you can extract with IconsExtract, which, BTW, works platinum in WINE (maybe I should make a WINE AppDB page for that - I don't think there is one).

Cheers,
Jake
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Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Tue May 24, 2011 10:21 am

WhatChanged doesn't lack in registry department this are the relevant changed keys:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DSS]

and

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CD Projekt Red]

as for the files:

Activate.exe, Launcher.exe, Register.exe, debugdata.log (also readme_language.rtf)

in bin folder:

curllib.dll, libeay32.dll, libsasl.dll, openldap.dll, ssleay32.dll, witcher2.exe

there bin some new files in Launcher folder also in C:\users\...\witcher2_Data_DFE

and in My Documents\Witcher2\Config and Downloads you should copy those to your home/username/Witcher 2 that's probably all.

uxtheme in Wine has the same purpose as in Windows XP (let's you change theme of Wine) and I know waht the shell32 is. I remember that changing those files was the only way to change Windows XP look and it was so painfull.

Jake Thomas · Post by **Jake Thomas** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:03 pm

Mateusz,

      You win the prize. Good work, and thanks for the info. Like I said earlier, I'm just surprised I knew what any of that meant in the debug output.
      You probably already tried setting WINE to mimic different Windows versions, but have you tried that since you got it activated?
      And you know what they say; WINE gets better with age. I think we're about due for 1.3.21. Can you feel it in your bones? WINE 1.3.21 feels like it's going to be great. You see, WINE 1.3.20 implemented some new stuff, but I remember the WINE mail talking about a few problems that came with those new features (like mouse stuff?). So maybe 1.3.21 will have all that new stuff but with less problems.

Cheers,
Jake
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Das Letzte Einhorn · Post by **Das Letzte Einhorn** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:32 am

CDProjekt RED has issued a 1.1 patch which is supposed to remove SecuROM from the game. This might help you..

SpawnHappyJake · Post by **SpawnHappyJake** » Fri May 27, 2011 7:00 pm

Hey guys! WINE 1.3.21 just came out! Have you tried that yet? Save those activation files and registry keys, upgrade to WINE 1.3.21, and reinstall Witcher if the upgrade gets rid of your old wine installs (though I think your .wine folder should be saved). Then copy the activation registry keys and files back over. I hope for the best.

jjmckenzie · Post by **jjmckenzie** » Fri May 27, 2011 8:39 pm

On 5/27/11 5:00 PM, SpawnHappyJake wrote:

Hey guys! WINE 1.3.21 just came out! Have you tried that yet? Save those activation files and registry keys, upgrade to WINE 1.3.21, and reinstall Witcher if the upgrade gets rid of your old wine installs (though I think your .wine folder should be saved). Then copy the activation registry keys and files back over. I hope for the best.

Upgrading Wine should not affect the wine directory. However, this is
good advice in all cases.

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Sat May 28, 2011 11:53 am

I've tried installing 1.1 patch but it failed with message something liked this:

unable to initialize (or open) launcher process

so I have installed it in Virtual Machine and copied the changed files into wineprefix.

Now I can see movies playing on start of game (CD Projekt RED, RED Engine...)
but after that there is only black screen.

I've installed with winetricks d3dx9 and changed UseGLSL to disabled. That's what I'm getting in terminal:

Code: Select all

fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x32f55c,0x00000000), stub!
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: Brak dostępu
fixme:avrt:AvSetMmThreadCharacteristicsW (L"Audio",0xdf5ea3c): stub
fixme:d3d:swapchain_init Add OpenGL context recreation support to context_validate_onscreen_formats
fixme:d3d9:Direct3DShaderValidatorCreate9 stub
fixme:d3d:state_lastpixel Last Pixel Drawing Disabled, not handled yet
fixme:xinput:XInputGetState (0 0x32833c)
wine: Call from 0x7bc48e70 to unimplemented function w1import.dll.?W1CanImport@@YA_NPB_WPADH@Z, aborting
err:seh:raise_exception Unhandled exception code c0000005 flags 0 addr 0xb74865c6
wine client error:9: write: Błędny deskryptor pliku

I'm still using Wine 1.3.20 because the new version isn't available in Ubuntu PPA. I think that maybe it will show there by Monday or even later. Anyway it probably won't make The Witcher 2 to run. As I'm writing about packages from Ubuntu Wine Team I noticed that from version 1.3.19 it doesn't have OSS sound driver anymore. Is it an upstream change or just a choice of Ubuntu packagers.

SpawnHappyJake · Post by **SpawnHappyJake** » Sat May 28, 2011 9:39 pm

Hi guys!

You can't get WINE 1.3.21 even if you go here: apt://wine1.3 ?
The 3rd line of your debug output mentions ALSA. I'm a bit like a monkey that just found an extraterrestrial spacecraft when I look at debug outputs, but I'm thinking that if it mentions ALSA, an audio driver, that it would be using ALSA and not OSS. So I would think that not having OSS wouldn't be a problem for this game. I could be very wrong. But it's a thought. Also, the 7th line says "Drawing Disabled, not handled yet" - as if it merely needs to be enabled, like a registry setting? Something saying that it is disabled is a different connotation than "unimplemented".The latter implies that it isn't developed yet. The former sounds like it is developed, and present as an option, it's just turned off and you need to turn it on.
Anybody know about this stuff? Someone must, because someone had to make it.
I am super happy that those pre-game videos played, because at least that's something. It shows some real progress.
I'm hopeful for WINE 1.3.21!
Cheers,
Jake

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Sun May 29, 2011 6:49 am

Hi Jake,

Yes i can't install the newest version of Wine because it isn't available in any of the repositories.

The reason why there is ALSA in my debug log is that I have installed Open Sound System 4.2 2004 and removed PulseAudio and ALSA from Ubuntu. Now Wine gives me this errors about no access to sound device. Sound in those movies is inconsecutive because of that.

Unfortunately the OSS sound driver of Wine was removed in Ubuntu PPA packages (starting from version 1.3.19) and this resulted in the same problems in Crysis 2.

- Mateusz

SpawnHappyJake · Post by **SpawnHappyJake** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:57 am

Hey! They got it working in 1.3.21!

And they gave detailed instructions! Check it out: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... &iId=23504 .
Hope it works for you too!
Cheers,
Jake

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 1:39 pm

Hi Jake,

I've been monitoring the AppDB and I've seen the test report of David before, but I didn't tried to make it that way. It seemed like I did everything that he wrote so there were no sense in trying.

This time I decided to trie it and it works. I have now a workig game. I've tried running it in windowed 1280x1024 with lowest settings and it runs quite good. Thanks for your post that motivated me to trying it again.

I still don't have sound. I wish that Open Sound System was more supported by wine or OpenAL driver that is (or was) in development.

- Mateusz

SpawnHappyJake · Post by **SpawnHappyJake** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 2:23 am

Hey Mateusz!

What about trying to install ALSA into Ubuntu? https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/Installin ... verModules
OR, if you don't want to do that, I use Linux Mint, which appears to be using ALSA. Linux Mint is Ubuntu with just a few modifications. It uses Ubuntu repositories, Synaptic, Nautilus, etc. It really is Ubuntu.
I'm not suggesting to nuke your Ubuntu and replace it with Mint. I'm thinking that making a Mint partition and doing a dual/ triple boot or whatever between Ubuntu, Mint, and any other operating systems you have, if any, would be a good second option if installing ALSA into Ubuntu doesn't work out so well.
If you go the Mint route, you can just install WINE and copy over the WINE prefix you installed The Witcher 2 into. You won't have to go through shenanigans again.
Sorry for the delayed response. My house has been offline for several days and hasn't gotten Internet until today. Previously I was using my one bar of 3G on my iPhone for what it was worth, but just two days ago or so, my iPhone acquired an inconvenient arrangement of 1s and 0s. With no Internet to do an iTunes restore, I was pretty stuck, though for a brief moment I checked on you guys from the library.
Cheers,
Jake

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:32 pm

Thank you for advices but you now that the default setup of Ubuntu uses a combination of ALSA and PulseAudio to output the sound.

I installed Open Sound System because it's much better and doesn't make so many problems. If you have it installed you don't need PulseAudio to mix many sound sources (for example two media players and flash).

I solved my problems with no sound in The Witcher 2 I just have to disable vmix (OSSv4 mixer) in the ossxmix before playing the game.

SpawnHappyJake · Post by **SpawnHappyJake** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:07 pm

Yaaaaaaay!

So is everything good? How's gameplay? Anything missing? Lag? Funny graphics? Sound good?
You'd be sitting on high cotton if you made a script that disabled that stuff and ran the game. Then you could have another script on your desktop to put it back.
Maybe consider putting a comment or even a test result to the AppDB?
Cheers,
Jake

Mateusz Stachowski · Post by **Mateusz Stachowski** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 2:08 pm

Yes everything works now (also sound). Unfortunately game is very lagy I get about 5 to 10 fps on my machine. It's a known issue. You can tell it by looking on AppBD.

Even people that have hardware able to run The Witcher 2 in Windows on Ultra settings (without Ubersampling) get a very low fps with Wine.

There is also a winehq bugzilla:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27298

I've added my test result to AppDB but it will take time before it will be accepted.

revolutionizeit · Post by **revolutionizeit** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 12:01 pm

Mateusz Stachowski wrote:Yes everything works now (also sound). Unfortunately game is very lagy I get about 5 to 10 fps on my machine. It's a known issue. You can tell it by looking on AppBD.

Even people that have hardware able to run The Witcher 2 in Windows on Ultra settings (without Ubersampling) get a very low fps with Wine.

There is also a winehq bugzilla:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27298

I've added my test result to AppDB but it will take time before it will be accepted.

Hi Mateusz,

Can you give me a bit more detail on how you solved the problem when the Launcher was displaying 'fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0' please?

I have mananged to install using Wine but still haven't be able to activate it.

Whenever I try to run 'Launcher.exe' it throws that error. I have had a look at AppDB and have down graded to Wine1.3.23 too based on the last suggestion but no luck

Any help will be appreciated.

Cheers

jjmckenzie · Post by **jjmckenzie** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 12:31 pm

On 7/24/11 10:01 AM, revolutionizeit wrote:

Mateusz Stachowski wrote:
Yes everything works now (also sound). Unfortunately game is very lagy I get about 5 to 10 fps on my machine. It's a known issue. You can tell it by looking on AppBD.

Even people that have hardware able to run The Witcher 2 in Windows on Ultra settings (without Ubersampling) get a very low fps with Wine.

There is also a winehq bugzilla:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27298

I've added my test result to AppDB but it will take time before it will be accepted.
Hi Mateusz,

Can you give me a bit more detail on how you solved the problem when the Launcher was displaying 'fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0' please?

I have mananged to install using Wine but still haven't be able to activate it.

Whenever I try to run 'Launcher.exe' it throws that error. I have had a look at AppDB and have down graded to Wine1.3.23 too based on the last suggestion but no luck

Please read through the entire bug report.

Comment three at http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27298#c3

contains the following:

WINEDEBUG=-all wine application.exe

This turns off all debugging outputs including the FIXME spam.

If there are other issues, you should file an additional bug report
after following the first bug report guidelines.

James