Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi,
I really like WinSPMBT and tried many times to run it under Linux. For those who experience the same problems (missing mouse cursor, no sound, random crashes) as I do when using the WineAppDb instructions, I have some additional tips for you to get rid of these problems, plus I decided to show how to compile & configure Wine for WinSPMBT from scratch on an up-to-date Ubuntu 7.10 system. This is a bit of a quick&dirty work, and please excuse my English. I assume you already have a bit of linux knowledge. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

1. You need wine-0.9.43 in order to run WinSPMBT. There are no binaries for you. Go to sourceforge.net and search for Wine. Then search for the source packages in the download section. You will see a small section "Look for older packages" or something like that...download v0.9.43.
Untar it.

2. You need to patch mouse.c in the right spot as shown in the WinSPMBT WineAppDb. Do this properly and don't forget to save the file, otherwise: no visible mouse for you! ;)

3. Open a terminal, and navigate to the newly made folder.

4. Compile it. A very common setup is, done in the shown order:

./configure --enable-opengl --disable-lib --disable-debug
make depend
make CFLAGS="-O2"
sudo checkinstall

Notes: The character O is not the character zero ;). CFLAGS is an optional optimization setting.
You need some build tools, for ubuntu this is the package build-essential.
Furthermore you need the following packages: fontforge libfreetype6-dev libasound2-dev xlibs-dev bison flex checkinstall

5. After this loooooooooooong process ;), you can finally configure wine.

Execute winecfg. Under "libraries" tab override quartz.dll and devenum.dll (shown without .dll) to NATIVE only. Then replace the "fake" builtin quartz&devenum dlls in the wine windows/system32 folder with the REAL ones. Either you download those, or you copy them from your windows installation. Make sure you get the right quartz.dll, if you don't copy it from your windows, download this file from dllfiles.com, and no other source (won't work/malignant). On devenum.dll: It is not very important where you obtain it from.

NOTE: These files are actually property of Microsoft, so be aware of the possible illegality of downloading them to your computer in your jurisdiction. Better copy them from your Windows installation. I did this, and it works.

In the sound settings, use the option "emulation" in the drop-down box. If you don't choose this option, sound won't work.

For the graphics tab choose "Allow Direct X apps..." and disable "Allow the window manager...". The window manager setting is very important for actually seeing the mouse. Also disable any virtual desktop settings.

6. Install your Win(e)SPMBT using Wine. Happy Gaming!

NOTE: If you dont think the mouse is there, move it to the window edge (decoration) and it should appear if you set the Window Manager option in winecfg right. Refer to above.
You can go fullscreen, GDI/DirectX, and all, but if the game freezes, you're stuck because you dont have the linux window manager managing WinSPMBT. Keep that in mind. Maybe you'll have some workspaces left, then you can close WinSPMBT with the task manager, or you'll kill WinSPMBT in a virtual terminal. (CTRL+ALT+F1-6, usually).

Have a good day!

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

You my friend are a genius.

I hope you have posted this in the WineAppDb.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Just a couple of other tips:

- You can keep the default version of Wine installed for everything else and just use the patched version for WinSPMBT. In step 4, don't do the sudo checkinstall command. Instead, just run the specific version of Wine that you patched & built.

For example, I built my patched version in the directory:
/extras/wine/mouse-hak-wine-0.9.43

and I run WinSPMBT with the command:

/extras/wine/mouse-hak-wine-0.9.43/wine ./winSPMBT.exe

- You can also have multiple Wine environments set up for different programs that use different dll overrides.

Make a copy of the default Wine folder (usually .wine in your home folder) and place it somewhere else. For example, I copied the .wine folder to /extras/wine/winspmbt.

Before using any wine commands such as winecfg or wine, issue the command:

export WINEPREFIX="/extras/wine/winspmbt"

and then all operations that those wine commands perform will be conducted in the /extras/wine/winspmbt folder instead of the .wine folder.

So my script to start up WinSPMBT under wine looks like:

#!/bin/sh
#
export WINEPREFIX="/extras/wine/winspmbt"
cd "/extras/wine/winspmbt/drive_c/Program Files/WinSPMBT"
#/extras/wine/mouse-hak-wine-0.9.43/wine ./GameOptions.exe
/extras/wine/mouse-hak-wine-0.9.43/wine ./winSPMBT.exe

The line for GameOptions is commented out normally, unless I need to modify the Game Options or run Mobhack or something.

Deadeye

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Good Day,

I was at the WineHQ site yesterday and saw an entry that stated that winSPWW2 ran without issues under wine version 1.1.4. I'm a bonehead, and forget which Linux distro the poster was using.

So, today I updated my Wine install to 1.1.4, using openSUSE 11.0 + KDE3.5, and an ATI Radion X1650 graphics card (with current ati driver installed).

I started a console session, started winefile, and installed both winSPMBT and WW2, including (in correct order of course) all updates, by doubleclick on the files. (easier than all that tedious typing in a console)

Then I started winecfg in my console session, added both game option exe's as new programs, and set them to be used as windows 2000 programs. All other options were left as is.

Afterwards there were a pair of new menu items in my Wine menu, but only for the "uninstall" exe's?! I have no idea what (if anything?) I did wrong, but there was no menu entry anywhere for the game start exe etc, nor any desktop shortcut for the game as is usual when I install a win type program using Wine. Unhappy.

So, I started a new console session, typed winefile, and then navigated to the the winSPxxx GameOption exe(s), and tried a doubleclick. The GameOption window opened immediately. I set the options to Windowed/GDI mode (as per the hint from the WineHQ entry)(http://appdb.winehq.org/) and tried to start the game. It started. Happy!

Since I have a 22" widescreen monitor @ 1280x1024 res, the game window was/is somewhat small. I guess that I will now consider buying the CD(s) now that I can actually play the games again. (No, that is not an advert for the developers, just an observation. Heck, For all that I know Andy and Don might not even LIKE me. :-) I just don't like the drudgery of adjusting screen res back and forth.)

I haven't done any in depth playing so far, just started the game, bought a test force, deployed, and started a game. Haven't fought to finish yet. NO issues found so far.

I also started Mobhack. So far (a 20 minute tour) everything works without problem, with one exception. The icon graphic displays 3 single squashed 1-color icons that are less than usefull. NOTE!!! That is NOT a statement that Andy and Don have done something wrong. Just that Wine doesn't seem to be supporting Mobhack properly. OK?

All things considered, this should be very good news for Linux users. We can play SP again without having to do any hacking/editing of files.

More later,
james

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

This is definitely good news - I'll have to try it.

Looks like I just finished patching and re-building WINE 1.1.5 for nothing then. :doh:

I'm playing a PBEM WinSPWW2 game and it kept on crashing on me mid-turn while running under a patched WINE 0.9.43. So I grabbed the WINE 1.1.5 source, patched, re-built and just substituted it for the 0.9.43 version (leaving the override DLLs in place mind you).

Made it through the turn without a crash and noticed some fancy new cursors as well (for example when targetting smoke). I have not tried MOBHack at all.

Deadeye

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi Deadeye,

So far I have played 5+ battles completely through. Thoughts as follows...

I deliberately (sp?) did not set any dll overrides in winecfg, just to see what happened. And had no problems.

I don't know how to patch or rebuild or recompile an rpm (or...?), (don't forget, I'm a bonehead) I just updated wine through yast package management. So far updating this way has left all my pre-existing preferances as is.

The only game problem that I have had is when I minimized the game, started open office, (Writer), and started a major print operation. Since I already had aMule, Konqueror, Firefox, Gwenview, Wine, and the game running perhaps I overdid my resource usage. The game then slowwwwwwed tremendously when I got back to it, but did not lock up or crash. I saved my game and closed it as a precaution. Closed my other programs, restarted the game, and everything then restarted ok.

Sound works just fine (selected ALSA in winecfg). Attempting to access the game guide from Game Options _did not_ work, but I have no brouser set up in wine to read html documents so that is no surprise. Attempting to play back the enemy's turn in the game (video replay button?) also did not work. Didn't cause any problems, just didn't do anything.

I have played 1 full scenario, started one included campaign (US VS Druggies?)(into the third battle), and started 1 user generated campaign (in the 3rd battle now). No Problems, no other issues to report.

Mobhack has worked flawlessly, other than the icon display problem that I mentioned before. I even did major obat editing between battles in a user generated campaign, and had no problems restarting the campaign.

So, so far everything is very good.

james

Asus A7V880+AMD 32bit Athlon 2.1ghz, 2gb DDR1, ATI 1650 AllInWonderPro Graphics. openSUSE Linux 11.0 + KDE 3.5x(?) desktop.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi James,

Sorry but I haven't had a chance to try your WINE setup yet.

But regarding your slowdown, your system is not that different from mine (Athlon 2.0Ghz o/c'ed to 2.6Ghz, 2GB memory, 2xNvidia 8600GS SLI, Kubuntu 7.10) and I regularly run WinSPMBT in WINE with 3 Terminals, 2 Konquerors, Firefox, Thunderbird and Skype running, with no slowdowns whatsoever. And I have run OO spreadsheet at the same time as well. So I'm a bit perplexed by your slowdown. Linux should swap out the idle processes you have running and ensure WINE gets the cycles/RAM it needs.

The one difference I see is that I have multiple desktops set up for each program, so I don't minimize WINE - I just switch to a different desktop.

I'll try and duplicate your setup sometime this week and see what happens.

Deadeye

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi James,

I setup a test environment with a stock, unpatched WINE 1.1.5, WinSPMBT v4, no DLL overrides.

After doing some quick tests (not exhaustive by any means), as you stated above WinSPMBT works great except for the icon in MOBHack and clicking the link for the Manual. The mouse worked great so there is no need for the mouse hack any longer. I had no indications of slowdowns when switching between WinSPMBT and other programs.

There is an easy way to solve the Manual problem.

First off, find the file
.wine/drive_c/Program Files/WinSPMBT/Game Notes/spmbtguide.htm
make a backup copy of it and open it with a text editor.

You will see two references to
images/manual.htm

Change both references to
Images/manual.htm

and save the file.

Now in your Linux version of Firefox (or Konqueror or whatever browser you use), you can just open the file
.wine/drive_c/Program Files/WinSPMBT/Game Notes/spmbtguide.htm
and bookmark it for easy access.

Deadeye

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi Deadeye,

I took your advice and have been starting mbt & ww2 in a new desktop, and have had no more slowdown problems.


"You will see two references to
images/manual.htm

Change both references to
Images/manual.htm"


A minor difference: I found this using KWrite...

"images/content.htm"
"images/manual.htm"

Then did as you advised (i to I), and that worked great! Thank you for the help.

James

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi James,

Doh! - that's what I meant! Sorry if I misled you a bit. Anyhow the reason you have to change the lower-case "i" to upper-case "I" is that Linux is case-sensitive and Windows is not. So to Windows the "Images" folder name is the same as "images" or even "iMagEs". To Linux they are all different and unique.

Also, I forgot to mention that the Opponent's Turn Playback works fine for me in my PBEM games.

Glad things are working for you.

Deadeye

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

ok I have wine 0.9.53Now What I have the same problem wiht the cursor HELP!!!! by the by I don't know lunix that well.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Im on the newest version of Ubuntu, using the Wine version that was in the repo's, and the game works great for me. With one exception.. if sound is on, after a few turns, the icon panel on the right hand side will vanish, and the game more or less hangs.

Any suggestions ?

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Any help for Linux problems is going to have to come from other Linux users. No one in our development team uses that operating system

Don

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

I had the same problem with Debian/E17 - in my case it appeared to be buggy proprietary video drivers. Removed them and now it's working properly.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

I'm running winSPWW2 (which should be the same as running winSMBT) under Ubuntu 9.10 which I strongly suggest, as has wine 1.0,1 included in it's repos. The game works absolutely fine with it, as long as it is run in windowed mode. I have the full version, and if you try to run it by double clicking the exe the launcher will not allow you to use the enhanced features. You can solve this by using the terminal command to launch the exe: "wine directory/to/the/game/WW2GameOptions.exe".

As for the disappearing interface issue, when it happens play with the visible gui, click "Preferences" or "Unit view" until the interface appears again and save the game. Restart the application and it will be fine again.

I had some sound issues too. By using the ALSA driver you can have decent quality and not delayed sounds with minor stuttering.

Hope it helps. ;)

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

This hasn't been updated in a while, but with Lucid Lynx and the most recent version of wine, Steel Panthers works perfectly both in full screen and windowed, and with sound on or off.

I can die happily now

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Nah, no right story ends like that.
Now you can play Steel Panthers happily ever after! ;)

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Anybody have trouble getting desktop mode (CD only) to work in Linux, only just tried installing is simple just right click on install icon & select wine default then install as you would normally. Everything seems to work fine apart from desktop mode when it displays as if interlaced so half height & buttons dont work. Not tried messing yet as want to use a bit to try stability & get the hang of Linux as just trying but if anyone knows the fix please say. Also works just fine running on Macs possibly better than a proper PC which is laughable.
Only played for a day but Linux is similar to Mac operating system but very light weight with stuff to allow it to do most of what windows can & quite a few things it cant, think like modular design Fairly steep learning curve if have to forget windoz but if you have an old computer like a 386 this will let you use it, Mines now acting as a firewall for my network

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Hi. I tried to play in the ubuntu system 10.10, but locked or go very slow. I tried version 1 winspww2. There will be improvements if I install all the patches?

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Should be as said installed & patched to latest & works fine the only exception being desktop mode. My taskbar is not set to autohide so its not that but going to play for a bit before mess to check stability which so far has been fine

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Wine versions 1.2 and 1.3 causes sound to disappear after a short amount of time. I'll see if I can sort out what the problem is, and if it's easily correctable.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

WinSPMBT became unplayable when I upgraded from Ubuntu 11.10 to 12.04. Is there anyone else who has experienced this?

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

It seems wine 1.4 and 1.5 don't work at the moment. I haven't been able to try too much to find a workaround.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Just tried to play Winspww2/mbt under Wine 1.4 and Linux Mint 13, but still wont work. Anyone got a clue?

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Well, I don't know what the problem was, but they've fixed it. I'm using Linux Mint 17.1 and Wine 1.6.2, and winSPMBT works straight out of the box.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Good news for Linux users

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Yup. I've now tested the patches up to and including the current patch (which is called v8(R)_2014), and it all seems to be working as expected.

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

After system upgrade all the firing animations have disappeared. Occasionally I can see a glimpse of mortar shell or similar appear on the screen, but no explosions or rifle fire so far.

Anyone else ever experienced this?

Re: Win(e)SPMBT under Linux. (Ubuntu 7.10)
 

Firing animations working fine for me. Latest patch (version 10b) confirmed to work using default settings in WINE 1.6.2.