Installing World of Warcraft with Wine

Lisa M. Joy

Minimum System Requirements for World of Warcraft

• 800 MHz processor
• 512 MB RAM
• 32 MB 3D graphics card
• 6.0 GB HDD space (basic game)
• 10.0 GB HDD space (Burning Crusade)

Computer Specs - Desktop

• AMD Athalon XP 2800+ processor
• 786 MB RAM
• 128 MB ATI Radeon 9600XT graphics card
• Debian Etch Kernel 2.6.18

Computer Specs - Laptop R52 Thinkpad

• Intel Pentium M 1.86 GHz processor
• ATI Radeon Mobility M300 graphics card
• 512 MB RAM
• Debian Lenny Kernel 2.6.18

Obtaining and Installing Wine

• Use the Wine package included in the package manager of your distrbution or,
• Go to http://winehq.org/site/download and:
  1. locate your distro.
  2. follow the directions on how to download.
  3. install software.

Installing Wine on Debian Etch

• Log in as root.
• Add Wine repository key to trusted APT keys:

  wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg \
  -O- | apt-key add -

• Add repository to list of APT sources:

  wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/etch.list \
  -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

• Install Wine package:

  apt-get update; apt-get install wine

Configuring Wine

• Log in as normal user.
• Launch Wine configuration:

  winecfg

Running winecfg for the first time creates a directory called .wine within the home directory, which contains a basic Windows file system.
• Click the Drives tab:

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Drives tab in Wine

• To assign a drive letter to CD-ROM, click the Autodetect button.
• Each device on the system will be assigned a letter. If installing WoW via disc, you'll want to note the drive letter for use when starting the install.
• Click OK to exit the Wine configuration menu.

Methods for Installing World of Warcraft

• Download from Blizzard.
• Install from CD or DVD.
• Copy files from a Windows install.

Installing via Blizzard Downloader

• To download the client for basic game, go to http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/files/pc/wowclient-downloader.exe.
  
• Save the file in the directory of your choice.
• Launch the install from the chosen directory:

  wine wowclient-downloader.exe

• After install starts, a prompt to install Gecko will appear:

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• Click Install.

Installing via Blizzard Downloader cont.

• Select the directory of your choice for the destination of the installation file:

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• The downloader screen appears and begins the 3+ GB download:

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• After the download completes, the installer screen appears:

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• Click Install World of Warcraft.

Installing via Blizzard Downloader cont.

• On the End User License Agreement, click Agree.

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• Choose the directory to install the game:

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• Files will begin to install:

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• When installation has completed, choose to create an account or play game:

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Installing via CD or DVD

• Insert the first CD or DVD into the drive.
• Mount the drive. For example:

  mount /media/cdrom0

  If you're unsure of the mount point for your drive type:

  cat /etc/fstab

• Run the installer file on the disc using the drive letter designated in the winecfg utility:

  wine D:/Installer.exe

Installing via CD or DVD cont.

• After a few seconds, the installer screen appears. Click Install World of Warcraft:

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• On the End User License Agreement, click Agree:

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• Choose the directory to install the game:

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• Files will begin to install:

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Installing via CD or DVD cont.

• If installing using CDs, a prompt to insert the next disc will appear several times.
• To switch out discs, unmount the drive. For example:

  umount /media/cdrom0

• Eject the disc:

  eject

• Remove disc from drive and insert next disc.
• Mount the drive. For example:

  mount /media/cdrom0

• Click OK on the Insert Disc message.

Installing via CD or DVD cont.

• When the installation completes, choose to create an account or play the game.

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Installing via previous Windows installation

• If World of Warcraft is installed on another machine, you can simply copy the whole directory to the new machine.
• On the Windows machine, copy the C:/Program Files/World of Warcraft directory to the ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/ directory on the Linux/BSD machine.

Installing Burning Crusade expansion

• To install via CD or DVD, the process is the same as when installing the basic game.
• To download via the Blizzard Installer, go to https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/download/bc-clientdownload.html. You must log into your World of Warcraft account to access this download.
• If using the Windows copy method, the Burning Crusade expansion would need to be installed prior to copying the files to the new system.

Patching World of Warcraft

• If the program was installed via the download or disc method, patches will need to be applied.
• After logging in, the patcher screen will appear and begin downloading any needed patches.
• It may prompt to install Gecko if you installed via disc.
• When patches have completed downloading, the patch installation begins.
• The downloading and installing process repeats until all needed patches have been applied.

Configuration Adjustments

• Three areas will need adjustments for World of Warcraft to run smoothly:
1. Additions to the Config.wtf file.
2. New key added to the registry.
3. Modifying the xorg.conf for ATI cards.

Adjusting the Config.wtf

• The Config.wtf file is the game configuration file which is created for the first time when you log into the character screen.
• Locate the Config.wtf in the ~/.wine/Program Files/World of Warcraft/WTF directory and open it in a text editor.
• Add the following lines to the end of the file:

  SET gxAPI "opengl"
  SET ffxDeath "0"
  SET ffxGlow "0"
  SET M2UseShaders "0"
  SET SoundOutputSystem "1"
  SET SoundBufferSize "150"

• Save changes and exit the file.

Adding New Key to Registry

• Open the registry editor:

regedit

• Double-click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then Software, and finally Wine.
• Right-click on Wine, then choose New -> Key from the menu.
• Type the following name, which is case sensitive:

  OpenGL

• In a blank spot on the right side of the screen, right-click and choose New -> String Value from the menu.
• Type the following name, which is case sensitive:

  DisabledExtensions

Adding New Key to Registry cont.

• Double-click the DisabledExtensions line and an Edit String box will appear:

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• Type the following into the Value Data box, which is case sensitive:

  GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object

• Click OK. The registry should now look like this:

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• Exit the Registry Editor.

Modifying the xorg.conf file

If using an ATI card, a few lines should be added to the xorg.conf file.

• Log in as root.
• Locate the xorg.conf file:

  cd /etc/X11/

• Open the file in a text editor and add the following lines to the ATI device section:

  Option "Capabilities" "0x00000800"
  Option "UseFastTLS" "off"
  Option "KernelModuleParm" "locked-userpages=0"

• The section should look something like this:

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Starting World of Warcraft

• To start the program and go directly to the Login screen, type:

  wine ~/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/"World of Warcraft"/WoW.exe

• To start the program and go to the Launcher screen, which contains bits of upcoming news and information, type:

  wine ~/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/"World of Warcraft"/Launcher.exe

Downloading ATI drivers

• To obtain the ATI driver, go to http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html.
• Select the appropriate card model from the list and click Go:

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• On the driver page, click the driver name listed under the Download Link:

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• Save the file to the location of your choice.

Building ATI driver packages

• Log in as root.
• Instead of using the ATI installer, build packages for your specific distribution. To see the distribution packages available, type:

  sh ati-driver-installation-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run --listpkg

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• To build a package for Debian Etch, type:

  sh ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Debian/etch

Installing ATI driver packages

• The following files are created after running the --buildpkg command:

  fglrx-amdcccle_8.42.3-1_i386.deb
  fglrx-driver_8.42.3-1_i386.deb
  fglrx-dev_8.42.3-1_i386.deb
  fglrx-installer_8.42.3-1_i386.changes
  fglrx-kernel-src_8.42.3-1_i386.deb

Note: The versions will change so check the numbers and modify accordingly.

• Run the following commands to install the packages:

  dpkg -i fglrx-amdcccle_8.42.3-1_i386.deb

  dpkg -i fglrx-driver_8.42.3-1_i386.deb

  dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-src_8.42.3-1_i386.deb

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Installing ATI driver packages cont.

• Install the kernel headers and prepare enviroment for compling the kernel:

  module-assistant prepare

• Install the drivers:

  module-assistant auto-install fglrx

• Configure the xorg.conf file for new driver:

  ati.config --initial

Testing the Driver

Run each of the commands below to test whether the driver installed properly:

• Test 1- Shutdown X and load the driver module:

  modprobe -v fglrx

  There will be no output if successful.

• Test 2- Run:

  fglrxinfo

  ATI in the output means success, if it says Mesa it is not correctly installed or configured.

Testing the Driver cont.

• Test 3- Run:

  glxinfo |grep direct

  direct rendering: Yes in the output means success.

• Test 4- If any of the above are unsucessful, run:

  LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo >/dev/null

  The output should give clues to the reason for the failures of the other tests. For example:

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Testing the Driver cont.

• Test 5- Run:

  glxgears

  If successful a rotating gear graphic should appear:

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Miscellaneous Information

• The following packages are needed for the driver installation:

  apt-get install gcc debhelper bzip2 module-assistant mesa-utils

• Useful links:

  Instructions on installing WoW- http:/www.wowwiki.com/linux/wine

  How-to for installing Nvidia drivers- http://tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/debian/debian-nvidia-dri-howto.txt