BF2Hub Client fails Account/CD check

I'm running MINT 19.3 with the Mate desktop in an Intel i3 with an AMD R9 280 video card. I've got the default WINE kit for MINT 19.3 installed (wine-stable, wine-stable-AMD64, wine-stable-i386:i386. All version 4.0.3-bionic). And the default PlayOnLinux kit for MINT 19.3 (playonlinux 4.2.12-1). I installed the ia32 libraries when I installed POL. I created a 32-bit prefix and installed Battlefield 2 from my 3-CD kit.

I followed Booman's BF2 guide (mostly), adding in during the Install Packages section the "POL_Install_vcrun2008" option (it makes BF2 mods like AIX2, BF2All64 stop crashing). I installed the 1.41 patch, then the 1.50 patch, and finally the Punkbuster update. (Punkbuster took a bit of effort to find the correct .ddl, .htm, and other files.) I tried it out as a single player and everything worked.

So, I wanted to get on-line. I downloaded the BF2Hub install kit. From the Playonlinux configuration window I opened the Miscellaneous tab and ran the installer kit as an .exe using the [Run an .exe file in this virtual drive] button. And created a link in the Play On Linux program list.
I started the BF2Hub client and linked to BF2Hub. I created a user account and everything worked. I see the list of servers and have joined games. My Stats are being kept (I'm up to about 40 hours of game time). And my current Rank (Corporal) and weapon unlocks are working.

BUT, when I launch the BF2Hub client I get an error message in the lower left reporting that BF2Hub "could not check Accounts / CD keys". The site says that it needs BF2Hub Client to have an outgoing link on port UDP 29940. My firewall GUFW is supposed to allow all out going links (as near as I can tell) but to be sure I've added an option for that in GUFW but the error message stayed. I added a Port Forward in my Router for UDP 29940 (Port Forwarding is supposed to be for Incoming links) but that didn't fix it. I even turned off the firewall, but the error message remained. So far the error doesn't stop me from joining on-line games and playing.

Except for the error message everything else works. Can someone tell me how to fix my configuration to get rid of the error message? (I'm afraid that sometime in the future this error will cause the BF2Hub site to kick me off permanently.)

OldRick

Hello Booman,
I sent a message to the BF2Hub crew a while back via their contact system but so far no reply. That's why I posted here. I was hoping someone else had the same problem and had come up with a solution.
In the contact form BF2Hub requires you list your O.S. but the selection options only list versions of Windows. I put mine down as Win-7. I didn't try to explain I was running Linux as I was planning mention that detail if they sent a reply with a fix that didn't work.

POL doesn't have an error message. It's the BF2Hub Client that has the error message. I think it might have something to do with POL hidden folders. The client has an Auto-detect for the BF2 game install directory, and I think it gets that value from the registry entry for Battlefield. There is a manual select folder option but the tree it creates doesn't show any of the POL prefix folders. So, I can't use the manual function at all.

I'm not very skilled with software so I rather stick with the default POL kit in the Package Manager for Mint 19.3. If I try and update it I afraid I'll destroy everything and have to reinstall from scratch.

It might be a false error message. Except for the message everything runs fine.

OldRick

As I thought, my lack of skill with software has done me in. I was planning to upgrade to PlayOnLinux 4.3.4 as recommended by Booman and I broke everything.

The package manager said I had the 4.0.3 version of WINE and listed the 5.0.0 version as available. Knowing that you have to install WINE before you can install PlayOnLinux I thought I should update to the newer WINE version. So, I marked my wine-stable, wine-stable-amd64, and wine-stable-i386:i386 for removal. The package manager marked a bunch of other stuff for removal and I let it, thinking it must know what it's doing, then hit [Apply]. I tried to install the newer wine-stable (5.0.0-bionic) and it wouldn't do it. Broken packages!

Why oh why can't I just leave stuff that works alone?

In despair
OldRick

Well... That was annoying.
Mint 19.3 Package Manager wouldn't successfully install Wine 5.0. And I couldn't roll back to WINE 4.0 because it wasn't in the Package Manager anymore. So... started searching the web for ways to install WINE 5.0. I found stuff, all terminal based, tried it, and it failed. Found, tried, failed several different sites over hours and days. Until I finally found a site that explained why the WINE 5 install failed, something about libfaudio0, and included a way to get around the failure, add a very tiny, obscure, (home brewed?) PPA. Followed all the instructions and got WINE 5.0 into my system. (About #$&*! time).

Then went to PlayOnLinux and got the instructions to install the latest POL. It made a note that for POL to work it needed wine:i386. Went back on the terminal and read through a long list of things that the WINE install had done and found line about wine-stable-i386:i386. I guessed that I was good to go (but, crossed several pairs of fingers and hoped for the best) and followed the instructions, also all terminal based, to install POL. I didn't get anything that looked like an error message.

I started up my BF2Hub client and it worked. I waited several minutes and the error message about the Account/CD check DID NOT appear. (Previously it had shown up after 1 minute of connection. Delete the error and it showed up again after a minute.) So, started a single player game and ran it for a while. Stopped it, and checked the BF2Hub Client. No error. So, started a BF2 multiplayer session and joined an on-line game. Everything worked.

In the end I got rid of the error from BF2Hub Client. But, I would rather not have to do anything like that again

OldRick