Installing Starcraft 2 PlayOnLinux

Question

I am using play on linx and I want to to install Starcraft with it but it fails every time I try to. I install it successfully but then when I run battle.net it either doesn't open or crashes instantly.I tried different Wine versions same crash every time.

I am running Ubuntu 16.04 with i7 4790k and a GTX 980

Solution 1

PlayOnLinux does a terrible job with Starcraft II at the time of this writing. If your end goal is playing Starcraft II on Linux, here's what worked for me, on Ubuntu 17.04

1. Remove PlayOnLinux entirely.

   sudo apt-get remove playonlinux
   

2. Tear out the wine that ships with the OS.

   sudo apt-get remove wine
   sudo apt autoremove
   

3. Enable 32 bit architecture

   sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
   

4. Add the repo for wine staging.

   wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
   sudo apt-key add winehq.key
   sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ ubuntu_version main'
   

Where 'ubuntu_version' is version like bionic or eoan etc.

5. Update and install

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install winehq-staging
   

6. Grab battle.net installer

   wget -O Battle.net-Setup.exe https://www.battle.net/download/getInstallerForGame?os=win&locale=enUS&version=LIVE&gameProgram=BATTLENET_APP
   

7. Configure wine by running winecfg and then adjust settings according to the screenshot below. Change out the resolution with your native resolution.

   winecfg
   

   Wine Configuration Screenshot

8. Run it with wine

   wine Battle.net-Setup.exe
   

9. From there you can pretty much kick off any Blizzard game such as Starcraft II, Diablo 3, or Heros of the Storm on Ubuntu but I've only tested this with Starcraft II.

Furthermore, I had to jump through some extra hoops to get my gaming laptop here to actually use the better of the two graphics card it has inside it. If you're in this boat too, you'll need to keep reading to get Starcraft II just right.

• Launch "System Settings"
• Open "Software and Drivers"
• Access the tab, "Additional Drivers"

• Switch to the latest binary drivers from the vendor. (Sorry Open Source community - I like Starcraft)

  Binary Drivers selected

• Then tell Linux to always use your beefy card

  nvidia-settings
  

• And set the Prime Profile to NVIDIA

--- This gets you running, but not stable. If I was playing in game more than a couple minutes I got an unhelpful blizzard error. So did some additional changes that have stabilized me.

    sudo apt-get install winetricks winbind

    winetricks corefonts vcrun2005 vcrun2008 vcrun2015

    cd "/home/rakaim/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Blizzard App/Battle.net.8394"

    mv "Battle.net Helper.exe" "Battle.net Helper.exe.old"

Installed winetricks and some supporting software. Then I had to rename the Battle.net Helper.exe to old.

Edit: I noticed that this directory "Battle.net.8394" changes its numbers on each Battle.net update. Take care to make the changes you need in the latest installed version.

Edit: New errors suggested that I needed to install winbind. It appears to have helped.

Edit: Upgraded to Ubuntu 17.04

Solution 2

You need to do advance set up (custom) and install some libs separately, when installing with POL. I am playing SC2 on Ubuntu 16.04. It is still crashing sometimes unfortunately. AFAIR, I more or less followed this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv8s0_5YvLg

These are the native libs I have configured for SC2 (Configure -> Wine -> Configure Wine):

Comments

[negusp]

Please run battle.net from terminal via "wine <battlenetwhatever.exe>" and edit your answer with errors. In addition, have you tried increasing Wine's GPU memory (winetricks videomemorysize=<sizegreaterthan512>)?

[negusp]

I guess, in that case, you could follow this page: appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=33156 until you get your support, or test it yourself.

[tomkis]

Well considering this doesnt run, I can't fix the issue

[anonymous2]

Could you include a bit more information in your post? Link-only answers are requests for deletion here.

[zardilior]

This reference is truly important even though its not a good answer as per stack overflow I find it very useful for anyone interested in the question

[dolphone bubleine]

I had to use the instructions on the wine-staging website to get winehq-staging installed: wine-staging.com/installation.html

[ubuntubu]

on step 8 I get: $ wine Battle.net-Setup.exe fixme:winediag:start_process Wine Staging 2.20 is a testing version containing experimental patches. fixme:winediag:start_process Please mention your exact version when filing bug reports on winehq.org. wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\Battle.net-Setup.exe"

[6ft Dan]

It's important to remove the wine directory beforehand for this answer to work. rm -rf ~/.wine . Be careful not to mess up that remove command.

[The Mighty Chris]

FYI you can just do: wget -O Battle.net-Setup.exe https://www.battle.net/download/getInstallerForGame?os=win&l‌​ocale=enUS&version=L‌​IVE&gameProgram=BATT‌​LENET_APP

[Assimilater]

Do you have a working update for Ubuntu 18.04? Just did a fresh install of linux and wine and can't install starcraft...I got to remove wine and got the error "virtual packages like 'wine' can't be removed"

[Rakaim]

I don't. I've reformatted my machine for development and haven't played Starcraft in months.

[sungpi]

With latest version of the game, Battle.net Helper.exe is a .dll file. I have skipped this renaming step and things seem to be working anyways.

[callmebob]

Hi. Great answer, +1 obviously. I slightly updated the answer with the way repo is added, as the old ppa was depreciated in 2017. Also I changed the wget to what @TheMightyChris suggested, as yours did not work for me, his did.