Running Neocron in Linux

Quick Setup

Wine has come a long way, pretty much to the point that none of the steps below are needed, so I give you... The Quick Setup

• Install Wine from http://www.winehq.org or apt-get install Wine
• Install Neocron
• Play

That simple. If something doesn't work try the steps below, but it should all work just fine now.

Neocron 2.2 in Linux with Wine

This has been tested on the following systems. If you get your system working, please add you setup to this section.

Setup 1 (MrTrip)

• AMD Athlon64 X2 5200+ Dual Core
• 2GB DDR2 800Mhz
• GeForce 7900GS
• Ubuntu GNU/Linux 32bit 8.04.1 LTS

Setup 1.2 (MrTrip)

• AMD Phenom 9850 Quad Core Black Edition
• 8GB DDR2 1066Mhz
• GeForce 7900GS
• Linux Mint (Felicia) x86_64

Setup 2 (BaDDaSS)

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
• 4GB PC2-8500C5 1066MHz SLI-Ready DDR2
• GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MB GDDR3
• Ubuntu GNU/Linux 32bit 8.04.1 LTS

Setup 3 (Brammers - PC Name "Sedna")

• AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ Dual Core
• 2GB DDR 400Mhz
• GeForce 7800GT
• Asus A8N-E
• Ubuntu GNU/Linux 64bit 8.04.1 LTS

Notes: Used the main wine guide below, had no issues except when configuring the sound in wine. Wine said it had failed, but after starting up Neocron, I had sound as normal.

Setups that don't work

If you got a setup that doesn't work, please add it here with some idea why it doesn't work.

Setup 1 (Brammers - Xen server - Test 1)

• Intel Q6600 Quad core
• 8GB DDR2
• Asus P5Q
• Debian Lenny - Running Xen 3.2.1 as Dom0, Guest DomU OS - Windows XP using HWMloader

Notes: I know it's Windows XP, but it was being run under Xen, which is a virtual server. The GFX card supplied to the guest OS when using HWMloader is a Cirrus Logic 5446, which isn't even DirectX compatible. Neocron may work under Xen if you have a decent hardware graphics card, with PCI passthru enabled with a compatible Vt-D motherboard. (The Asus P5Q isn't a compatible VT-d motherboard)

When Neocorn starts up, it doesn't get to the configuration screen for the graphics, Neocron just bombs out with no message. I wasn't expecting this setup to work, but it was worth a try.

Instructions for getting Neocron working with Wine

Some general notes:-

• Currently there is no known issues with installing Neocron from scratch, however patching may become an issue. It is better to just copy it from an NTFS drive.
• The use of automatrix is outdated, and WineDoors is an unsupported hack. WineHQ recommend the use of Winetricks.
• This guide gives the setup for a Debian based system. Anybody else with instructions for Fedora etc are encouraged to submit their results!

Installing Wine

First, we need to install Wine. I suggest adding wines repo to your list. This is a quote from their website.

Adding the WineHQ APT Repository

First, open a terminal window (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). On Debian, you will need to open a root terminal. Then add the repository's key to your system's list of trusted APT keys by copy and pasting the following:

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

Next, add the repository to your system's list of APT sources:

For Ubuntu Hardy (8.04):

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

For Debian Etch (4.0):

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

Then update APT's package information by running sudo apt-get update.

Getting Neocron to work with Wine

• Install Wine and ubuntu-restricted-extras from your terminal with the following: sudo apt-get install wine ubuntu-restricted-extras
• Run the command winecfg in terminal, this will setup your user account for Wine.
• Download Winetricks - wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks
• Install the following packages via Winetricks with the following command:- sh winetricks corefonts vcrun6 mfc42
  • Visual C++ Runtime Libraries 6
  • MS Core Fonts
  • Microsoft Foundation Classes 4
• Navigate to your Neocron directory in your terminal and run wine Client.exe -precache first. Then close the Client.
• Now just run the launcher! Either by double clicking the exe, or in terminal cd to the Neocron directory and type wine NeocronLauncher.exe
• Done! Neocron should now run smoothly.

Troubleshooting

Trouble writing to your Neocron directory

• Copy your Neocron2.2 directory over to ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/

Trouble getting Client.exe to launch

• run winecfg and Add Application Client.exe with the following options
  • Windows Version: Windows 98
  • [Libraries]
  • Override msvcrt, set to Native (Windows) [Thanks to vitamin in #winehq for this]
  • Override quartz, set to Native (Windows) [Again thanks to vitamin in #winehq for this]
• Copy msvcrt.dll and quartz.dll from your C:\Windows\System32 folder on your WIndows machine to ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32
• From the terminal, go to your Neocron 2 folder cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Neocron2/ and type wine Client.exe -sysconfig
• Setup your options and click OK.
• From the terminal again type wine Client.exe -precache PlayTutorial
• If all works you are done!

Can't connect to gameserver

• There are a few things to try to resolve this issue.
  • Change your /etc/hosts file so your hostname resolves to your external IP, not your internal LAN IP.
  • Make sure your ports are forwarded correctly on your router for Neocron.
  • Sometimes changing your hosts file back to 127.0.0.1 will fix a connection problem. It did for me! (MrTrip)

Suppressing those annoying fixme: errors

• The console gets spammed with fixme: errors when running Neocron. These do not keep Neocron from running however, and can be turned off with

 export WINEDEBUG=-all,err+module

Choppy audio!

• Pulseaudio and Ubuntu and WINE don't go well together. This is a fix for that. Create a script called neocron.sh in your neocron directory and paste this in it

 export WINEDEBUG=-all
 killall pulseaudio &>/dev/null && aoss wine Client.exe &
 pulseaudio -D

• chmod your script with chmod +x neocron.sh and run Neocron with ./neocron.sh to fix audio problems.
• Should you need to update just run NeocronLauncher.exe

Any other problems

• Post in this thread in the Neocron forums http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?p=2141500

Notes

A few notes on getting things working, sometimes you have to fiddle with the msvcrt.dll or quartz.dll file versions to get the one that works properly. I offer the versions I use on my website at http://areamc5.info/linux to get things rolling

Instructions for getting Neocron working with Cedega

Please note that Cedega is NOT free software. You MUST purchase it, downloading it anywhere else is considered ILLEGAL. If you do not want to pay for Cedega please follow the instructions for running under WINE.

Neocron 2.2 can be run directly from an NTFS drive. No need to copy it over. It assume it will install nicely in Cedega, please edit this page if it does.

These instructions should work for people on all GNU/Linux distros.

• Download and install Cedega.
• Open Cedega, go to Tools > Game Folders > Add. Call it NC2, or whatever you want.
• Right click the game folder you just created, click Add Shortcut and point it directly to your NC2 Client.exe This can be on an NTFS drive if you have not copied it accross e.g. /media/hda1/Games/Neocron2.2/Client.exe
• Give the shortcut a name (Neocron), and Extract the icon.
• In the 'Command Line Options' enter -sysconfig. Press Ok.
• Run Neocron (double click, or hit 'Start').
• Now right click the Neocron shortcut, go to 'Properties' and replace the 'Command Line Option' with -precache PlayTutorial If the game loads the tutorial, which it should, you now have a working NC2
• You can remove the Command Line Options now.
• You will need to edit your /etc/hosts file in order to play online. Replace your hostname (LOCALHOST) with your external IP.
• Now just launch the game and play!

And there you have it! Neocron in Linux with Cedega

Files & Helpful Downloads

• You can download a fully patched Neocron client from http://areamc5.info/linux as well as the DLL files if you have any problems.

Contacts and credits

• NC Forum discussion on Linux support
• Credit and questions go to MrTrip for this wiki entry (Josh@DigitallyEvolved.net - MrTrip on NC forums.
• Feel free to message BaDDaSS on NC forums with any questions about this updated wiki guide.
• Huge thanks to vitamin and all the guys at #winehq on irc.freenode.net for all the help they gave me (MrTrip) in this. Could not have done it without you guys!