Starcraft2 on Debian

Introduction

Translation

In my stats I saw that many people were translating this page (via google translator). And because my english is not the best but don't suck neither, I decided to translate the page 'Starcraft2 sur Debian'. Please do not hesitate to correct some mistake I could write on the discussion's page.

Version Française

Note: Pour les francophones qui se seraient perdu, la version française ce cette page ce trouve ici: Starcraft2 sur Debian.

Why

I had pain and fun in trying to run Stracraft 2 on my Linux. Because I had some difficulties and I found only few info, I create this article to centralise my feedback and the information that I found.

My configuration

Some troubles that I had was link to my hardware configuration. Here is the environment where I installed Starcraft2. You still have to extrapolate to the specificities of your case.

Hardware

• Intel i7
• nVidia GForce GT 220

More details can be found here... (in French)

Software

• Debian Squeeze adm64
• Kernel 2.6.32-5-amd64
• wine 1.2 (compiled), but I also tested with wine 1.3.0 (also compiled)
• nvidia-kernel-source v195.36.24-4

Mount the DVD

Make an iso image of the DVD and mount it:

 dd if=/dev/sr0 of=/home/user/Games/StarCraft2/StarCraft2.iso
 mount -o ro,unhide,uid=1000,loop /home/user/Games/StarCraft2/StarCraft2.iso /media/cd-iso

Install the last version of wine

The version of wine on the repositories of Debian is the 1.0.1-3. And the version 1.2 is at least needed or better 1.3. I didn't found any depot that I like and with the right versions of wine. So I had to compile it.

First of all, install of the dependencies:

 apt-get build-dep wine

For the owner of 64bits CPU, you have to install also the glx 32bits libs. Otherwise, the game will not run and will complain that the OpenGL is missing (see my post here).

 aptitude install nvidia-glx-ia32

We get the sources of wine. In the example here under it is the 1.30 version. But you can find other versions more up to day on http://sourceforge.net/projects/wine/files/Source/.

 wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/wine/files/Source/wine-1.3.0.tar.bz2/download

We extract the archive. And by the way, we rename it correctly.

 mv download wine-1.3.0.tar.bz2
 tar -xjf wine-1.3.0.tar.bz2

Compilation

 $ ./configure
 $ make

Installation done by root:

 # make install

Installation of the game

Launch the installer.exe with wine:

 wine /media/cd-iso/Installer.exe

Normally, everything should goes right. You just need to follow the instructions. At the end of installation (or at the first start of the game I don't remember), an update of the software start automatically.

However, if you get nothing happen, had a look in the troubleshoot chapter here under.

Launch the game

The game should run normally when executed by wine.

 wine C:\\Program\ Files\\StarCraft\ II\\StarCraft\ II.exe

If nothing happen, and/or you get a error message of DirectX, see in the troubleshootings.

TroubleShooting

Initalisation of DirectX failed

Trouble

The installation goes well, the update also. But when you start the game for the first time, you get an error message about DirectX. And next times, when you try to rerun the game, you get no reaction (no error message and nothing happen).

Error Message (in French do not hesitate to give the english version into the discussion's page)

 Echec de l'initialisation de DirectX. Il faudrait sans doute réinstaller
 DirectX. Si le problem persiste, pour plus d'informations,veuillez
 consulter notre site Internet d'assistance à l'addresse
 starcraft2.com/support.

Error message in the terminal:

 fixme:process:GetLogicalProcessorInformation (0x33fa5c,0x33fd5c): stub
 fixme:hnetcfg:fw_profile_get_FirewallEnabled 0x139ad0, 0x43cf0e8
 fixme:process:GetProcessWorkingSetSize (0xffffffff,0x43ced78,0x43ced7c): stub
 fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
 err:winediag:X11DRV_WineGL_InitOpenglInfo Direct rendering is disabled, most likely your OpenGL drivers haven't been installed correctly
 err:d3d_caps:WineD3D_CreateFakeGLContext Can't find a suitable iPixelFormat.
 err:d3d:InitAdapters Failed to get a gl context for default adapter
 Direct3D9 is not available without OpenGL.

I get the same results with win 1.2 and with 1.3.0.

The 3D and OpenGL is well working on your Linux:

 $ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
 direct rendering: Yes

Solution

Actually the trouble comes from the 64bits architecture of my CPU, and the game is a 32bits binary. By searching my disk, certain libraries ia32 where well installed but without OpenGL.

You just need to install this package:

 aptitude install nvidia-glx-ia32

And then recompile wine:

 $ ./configure
 $ make
 # make install

Notes

Differences of output of ./configure with and without the libs glx-ia32

Without ia32 libs

 checking for GL/gl.h... yes
 checking for GL/glx.h... yes
 checking for GL/glu.h... yes
 checking for up-to-date OpenGL version... yes
 checking for -lGL... not found
 checking for -lGL... not found
 checking for -lGLU... not found

With ia32 libs

 checking for GL/gl.h... yes
 checking for GL/glx.h... yes
 checking for GL/glu.h... yes
 checking for up-to-date OpenGL version... yes
 checking for -lGL... libGL.so.1
 checking for -lGLU... libGLU.so.1

Reinstall StarCraft

After the install of the libs glx-ia32 and the compilation of wine, I also reinstalled the game. It's maybe not necessary, it's why I didn't write it in the solution (only in this note).

update failed

Trouble

During the download of the update, a message box appears and says that the program failed. Nevertheless, the download continues but block a bit later.

Solution

Launch winecfg. And in the tab Libraries add the msthtml DLL and give it the 'native' value.

No more sound in game

Trouble

During the installation you get the sound in the animation. But once in the game you didn't get any more sound.

Solution

Launch winecfg. And in the tab Libraries add the DLL 'mmdevapi'; and then change the value to 'Disabled'

Fog on the mission 'Safe Haven'

Trouble

The mission Safe Haven is unplayable because there is a big grey fog (See this screenshoot). Note that the other mission 'Haven's Fall' works well.

you tested a certain number of wine version without any success.

Description of the Bug n°23906 on winehq.

Solution

You should reinnstalling Starcraft without keeping the configurations!

Personally, I solved the trouble by coincidence when I upgraded my desktop with the last Debian and new file systems in ext4. I'm not sure about the exact root cause, but in a comment on winehq we can read this: "it was solves by deleting Variables.txt found in /home/user/Starcraft II/. When you restart you lost all your settings however when you reconfigure those the fog seems to be gone."

So, it seems possible that only remove this file will be enough to solve the fog.