DDO On Linux

Prerequisites

Download either the download Standard DDO client or the Lamannia testing client from DDO and make a note of what directory you downloaded it to. This is typically the Downloads directory of the user's home directory in several Linux distributions.

PlayOnLinux

From WineHQ - Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited with some edits, reformats, and updates.

1. Start PlayOnLinux (sometimes abbreviated POL).
   • You'll need to install or have already installed at least one version of wine in PlayOnLinux other than the System version.
     1. Go to Tools -> Manage Wine Versions
     2. (64 bit Linux only) Select the "Wine versions (x86)" tab.
     3. In the "available versions" side of the dialog, select any version that ends in a number (for example: 1.6.2, 1.8.4, or 1.9.11, not 1.8-steam_crossoverhack, 1.7.34-PhotoshopBrushes, 1.6.2-scummvm_support, etc.), and click the ">" button. 3.20 is known to work as of November, 2018.
     4. That version of Wine and its dependencies will download and install.
     5. Close the "PlayOnLinux wine versions manager" window and continue.
2. Click the Install button in the top toolbar of the main POL window or the "Install a program" link in the side menu.
3. In the bottom-left corner of the window that appears, below the box possibly listing some pre-scripted POL installers, click "Install a non-listed program".
   • Some introductory windows may appear with options such as "Don't remind me anymore". Click the Next button through one or both of those.
   • One is a note not to change the drive from C: or the install path.
   • The other is a reminder not to report bugs encountered or software compatibility statuses while using POL to manage Wine to WineHQ as they will delete them.
4. At the "Manual installation" window click Next.
5. Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive" and click next again.
6. Enter a name for your virtual drive. Using ddo is recommended for your standard installation and ddopreview is suggested for the Lamannia testing installation.
7. In the next dialog check the following:
   • Use another version of Wine
   • Configure Wine
   • Install some libraries
8. Next, POL will ask you to choose a wine version.
   • Choose any version that ends in a number and is one of the x86 versions from above is you have a 64 bit Linux.
   • No suffix versions such as "-steam_crossoverhack", "-battlefront", or "-raw3".
   • A "-staging" version may work, but isn't recommended if you don't know what you're doing. The recent "-staging" branches have a setting for potentially accelerating DirectX drawing commands, but it isn't considered stable.
   • 1.6.2 or higher is recommended.
   • 1.9.12 introduced an experimental taskbar on emulated desktops that can cause DDO to stop responding to input if you click that taskbar or minimize DDO to it.
9. (64 bit only) When asked what kind of virtual drive you want to create, select the 32 bits windows installation.
10. After you click "next", POL will create your Virtual Drive and initial settings referred to as a wineprefix (this may take a few minutes)
    • Creation will take a few minutes.
    • You may be asked to okay supplemental software installations such as Mono (DotNet compatibility) and Gecko (a web browser component)
11. POL will run winecfg. In winecfg:
    1. On the Application tab:
       • Leave the Windows Version on Windows XP during the initial installation.
       • Changing it now prevents installing DirectX 9 and/or 10.
       • You can reconfigure Wine later via WineCFG to change it.
    2. On the Graphics tab:
       • Capturing the mouse in full screen might be desirable if you play in a desktop that doesn't match your true resolution or you have multiple monitors.
       • Check the "Emulate a Virtual Desktop" box.
       • In the "Desktop size" boxes enter your virtual desktop resolution (or if you want to play in windowed mode click OK or enter the resolution you want to play at) and click OK. (It's best to set the virtual desktop's resolution to something smaller than your monitor's resolution so you can access the close button if things go awry. This won't limit your fullscreen resolution when in-game.)
    3. (Optional for Lamannia testers) On the Desktop Integration tab:
       • Set the My Documents folder to something other than your Linux /home/{user}/Documents folder to avoid conflicts with non-Lamannia settings.
    4. Click OK.
12. PlayOnLinux will show you a bunch of extra libraries you can install in your wineprefix.
    • Check the following items:
      • POL_Install_corefonts
      • (Optional) POL_Install_d3dx11
      • (Optional) POL_Install_d3dx10
      • POL_Install_d3dx9 (even if you select d3dx10, DDO will check for DirectX9).
      • POL_Install_tahoma
      • POL_Install_vcrun2008
    • After selecting the above, click next.
    • You will be alerted that Microsoft fonts will be installed for you.
      • Click Next
      • Check the I Agree box (the EULA may be an error or garbled, but you weren't going to read it anyway)
      • Click Next.
13. After a few seconds, PlayOnLinux will prompt you to select the installer to run.
    • Click browse
    • Find "ddolive.exe" or "ddopreview.exe", select it, and click "Open". (Might be "Okay" or "Select" depending on the flavor of Linux in use.)
      • Check in /home/{user}/Downloads in the left browse panel on most Ubuntu installs. Other Linux distributions may have other default download locations.
    • Verify you have the right .exe file under the Browse button and click Next.
14. Go through the install wizard
    • Select your language as usual.
    • For all remaining options, keep the defaults (express setup, etc.) and accept agreements as needed.
    • On the final install window, uncheck the "README" and "Launch..." options and then click Finish.
15. The virtual desktop will close and POL will resume the remainder of the setup procedure.
16. PlayOnLinux will pop up a list of .exe files to create shortcuts for.
    • Select "TurbineLauncher.exe" and click Next. (This may be DNDLauncher.exe on newer client download files)
    • Name the launcher anything you want (such as "DDO" or "Lamannia") and click Next again.
    • Select "I don't want to make another shortcut" (the top option) and click Next.
17. The PlayOnLinux installer will then close.
18. Select your DDO shortcut in the POL window and then click "Configure" on the left panel or up on the toolbar.
19. Select the "Wine" tab.
20. Click "Windows reboot" and wait until the reboot progress window disappears.
21. Close the configuration window.

At this point you can start the game by selecting it and clicking Run or double clicking the launcher. You may find the launcher shortcut on your desktop depending on your desktop environment and settings.

You'll need to accept the license agreements and wait for DDO to download the DDO data files. If these don't appear soon after starting, use the close option in PlayOnLinux to kill the Wine desktop and try again.

Once the game updates are downloaded, installed, and validated, you'll be able to log in and play.

If the game hangs, you can switch to the PlayOnLinux launcher window (or start it if you used the desktop icon to launch the game) and select DDO and then click the Close toolbar button or sidebar link if the game hangs. POL will kill the DDO virtual desktop for you and pop up a crash report for you.

This procedure has been successfully used on:

• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty) -- Launcher check boxes don't display checks, but do function.
• Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial) -- Launcher check boxes don't display checks, but do function.
• Ubuntu-Mate 18.04 LTS (Bionic) -- Launcher check boxes don't display checks, but do function. DDO Store does not work from in client.
• Linux Mint 20 "Ulyana" - Cinnamon (64-bit) on Wine 5.4

Winetricks

From WineHQ - Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited with some edits and reformatting.

1. Open a terminal and run the following commands:

   cd ~/Downloads

   Some distributions may use a different default directory for downloads. Adjust as necessary.

   mkdir $HOME/wineprefix

   export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/wineprefix/ddo

   The ddo can be replaced with a different prefix such as ddopreview if you are conducting Lamannia tests.

   winetricks vcrun2005sp1 corefonts tahoma d3dx9

   wine ddolive.exe

   or

   wine ddopreview.exe

   Follow the prompts and wait for wine to for the program to finish the basic installation. Installing shortcuts is not recommended. A desktop shortcut will still be created for you.

   wineboot

   Not always necessary but also not known to cause any problems.

2. Once the installation completes, leave the terminal open and double-click the DDO icon on your desktop.
3. The launcher should try to install Akamai Netsession.
4. If the launcher hangs without ever displaying Turbine's version of the Akamai Netsession license agreement, close it, go back to your terminal and run the following command:

   ps aux | grep netsession

   • This will show 0 to 3 lines, depending on whether grep shows itself on your system and whether netsession is currently running.
   • If there are two or more lines, the two lines we're worried about are the ones that say "netsession_win.exe".
   • The second column in each line is a process number.
   • Run the following command for each line, replacing $NUMBER with the process numbers you found, one at a time, starting with the one that does not say "--client"
     Note: According to the WineHQ instructions pkill doesn't work for this.

   kill -9 $NUMBER

   Repeat kill command as necessary for all netsession processes. Re-run the ps aux command above if you forgot where you left off.

   wineboot

   • Try launching the game again.
5. The launcher should display a license agreement. If the launcher pops back on top of the agreement then alt-tab back to the agreement and scroll down until you can accept it.
6. Follow the prompts, accepting agreements as necessary until Netsession is installed and DDO can begin downloading in earnest.

The game should be ready to play once the download completes.

DDO Store

The DDO store does not seem to work with 64-bit client; it just shows a black screen regardless of whether "Open Store in External Browser" is checked. To get it to launch in an external browser:

1. From the launcher, select Options->General->Game Client. Set it to the 32-bit legacy client.
2. Set the store to launch in an external browser.
   • Log in to DDO.
   • Select a character.
   • Options->UI Settings: at the very bottom, make sure "Open Store in External Browser" is checked.
3. The store should now open in your default browser.
4. When done using the store:
   • From the launcher, revert Options->General->Game Client back to the client you were using previously.