Mechwarrior: Online - Ubuntu 14.04.1 - Will Not Load

[PhelanPKell]

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= ... sp=sharing

[dimesio]

Copying an install from Windows is not supported; apps/games have to be properly installed in Wine. The AppDB reports all say the installer doesn't work, but there are no open bugs for it. It was affected by https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17273, but that bug has been fixed.

Retest the installer in 1.7.34. If it doesn't work in plain Wine (probably won't), try it in wine-staging. That build includes many experimental patches, including ones for https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17195, which probably does affect the installer.

[PhelanPKell]

Copying an install from Windows is not supported; apps/games have to be properly installed in Wine. The AppDB reports all say the installer doesn't work, but there are no open bugs for it. It was affected by https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17273, but that bug has been fixed.

Retest the installer in 1.7.34. If it doesn't work in plain Wine (probably won't), try it in wine-staging. That build includes many experimental patches, including ones for https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17195, which probably does affect the installer.

Thanks for the info, Dimesio.

I understand some things don't normally work, but as shown in some instances of people getting the game to work some of those have included copying the game over from a Windows install.

I will take a look at wine-staging, but Wine 1.7 has yet to even load the launcher for me, whereas Wine 1.6 at least loads the launcher (without having to install anything extra).

[dimesio]

Yes, copying a Windows install can sometimes work, but if there are problems, you can't report bugs or ask for help here. And someone should file bugs for the things that don't work.

The game appears to have a 32 bit version; you might want to try that.

[PhelanPKell]

The game appears to have a 32 bit version; you might want to try that.

32-bit is actually what I've been loading. The way it works with this game is you load a standard Launcher, then change the client with a setting in the launcher.

Admittedly I did not realise Wine defaults to 64-bit when it's installed (this somewhat mystifies me, given everyone says it's known to not be stable yet), but I've since rectified that by deleting the 64-bit prefix and setting up a 32-bit prefix.