1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Starcraft II Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by Daerandin, Nov 2, 2013.

  • by Daerandin, Nov 2, 2013 at 10:54 PM
  • Daerandin

    Daerandin Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2013
    Messages:
    1,130
    Likes Received:
    243
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Northern Norway
    Home page:
    Starcraft 2 is the sequel to the acclaimed rts Starcraft. This game features the same three factions of the original game. The graphics have been greatly improved, and there are sufficient changes to the factions so it does not feel like the original only with better graphics. The single player campaigns are very well done with an interesting story and great interactivity between missions.

    A lot of game content is free to play now, including the original Wings of Liberty campaign. The expansion campaigns must still be purchased, but the base game is now available for free. All you need to do is create a Blizzard account.

    sc2_title.png

    This guide will explain how to install Starcraft 2 using the downloadable installer from battle.net with a custom PlayOnLinux install.

    Log in to your account on battle.net and you can download the installer, make sure it is the windows installer you select.

    sc2_n01.png

    Tips & Specs

    To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux explained

    Arch Linux 64-bit
    PlayOnLinux 4.2.12
    Wine 2.20-staging

    Setup PlayOnLinux

    Launch PlayOnLinux and click on "Manage wine versions"

    In the new window that appears, scroll through the 'Available Wine versions' box to find '2.20-staging' and click on the right pointing arrow to install it, afterwards it will appear on the right side under 'Installed Wine versions'

    Keep in mind that newer wine versions generally work very well, so if you are reading this guide and there are newer versions available, there is usually no harm in trying out the newer versions. Often there are great improvement, but you should always use the "staging" versions for this game.

    If you have a 64-bits system, make sure you have selected the 'Wine versions (x86)' tab above

    sc2_n02.png

    Just close the window. Back at the main PlayOnLinux window, select 'Install'

    Click on 'Install a non-listed program'

    sc2_n03.png

    Select 'Install program in a new virtual drive' and click next

    sc2_n04.png

    You can name the virtual drive anything you'd like, but for this guide I will be naming is "SC2". But like I said, you can name it whatever you want.

    sc2_n05.png

    Select "Use another version of Wine", "Configure Wine" and "Install some libraries" before you click next

    sc2_n06.png

    On the wine selection window, select 2.20-staging and click next. Make sure you select '32-bits window installation' if you are on a 64-bit system as it is normally the best practice.

    sc2_n07.png

    When the wine configuration window appear, make sure that Windows version is set to "Win7". Then select the 'Graphics tab and click the checkbox for all four options. The resolution you set for the virtual desktop should be your desktop resolution. My desktop resolution is 1920 x 1080, so you can see I have set that as the virtual desktop resolution in the screenshot below.

    sc2_n08.png

    Note: Even though the language is Norwegian in my screenshot, the layout will look the same for you

    Next click in the "Staging" tab. Here you should select to Enable CSMT. This will greatly improve the performance of the game, as well as eliminate a lot of crashing with high graphics settings.

    sc2_n09.png

    When you come to the selection of libraries to install, select the following libraries:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_vcrun2005
    • POL_Install_vcrun2008
    Make sure you have selected all these three before you click Next

    sc2_n10.png

    When you are asked to select the installer, find the installer you downloaded from battle.net and click on next

    sc2_n11.png

    Installing the game

    The first thing to be installed is the Batte.net client. You can de-select to add a shortcut as it really serves no purpose when installing it on Linux.

    Click on continue

    sc2_n12.png

    Next you must log in to your battle.net account.

    sc2_n13.png

    The login form does not work perfectly in Wine, but you can log in. Just ensure to fill in your login information in both forms, select to "Keep me logged in" on both the checkboxes. Then click "Log in to Blizzard" below the bottom form.

    Note: If you can't seem to type into the fields, press Alt-Tab to switch focus to another window, then Alt-Tab back to the login window.

    sc2_n14.png

    If you have an authenticator for your account, you will see this next. As with the login form, the "Approve" button does not work in the app. So you will need to click on "Use Authenticator Security Code"

    sc2_n15.png

    Here you can type in the security code from your Blizzard authenticator app. Note that you must select "Enter code manually" in the app.

    Note: If you can't seem to type into the fields, press Alt-Tab to switch focus to another window, then Alt-Tab back to the login window.

    sc2_n16.png

    Now the Blizzard app will launch. I suggest to not use the Blizzard app in Wine to make purchases as it does not seem to always work properly, instead try to rely on the website for purchases or in-game purchase options.

    Select Starcraft II, then click on the big Install button

    sc2_n17.png


    You should just let the game install to the default location. No matter where you select to install the game, it will be contained within the virtual drive, so there really is no point in changing it.

    sc2_n18.png

    The install process might take some time depending on your internet connection speed. Once it is done, you should exit the blizzard app so that you can create a PlayOnLinux shortcut. To exit the blizzard app, click on the Blizzard logo in the upper left corner, then select to Exit.

    Sometimes it does not seem to exit properly on its own. If it seems to hang upon exit (keep in mind it may take some time), then you can force it to exit by opening a terminal and running two commands:

    Code:
    pkill -15 Battle.net.exe
    pkill -15 Agent.exe
    When you are asked to create a shortcut, select "Battle.net Launcher.exe" and click next. You can name the shortuct anything you want, "Battle.net" or "Starcraft 2 " seems logical choices. Next, click on 'I don't want to make another shortcut'

    sc2_n19.png

    Now make sure you have selected the game shortcut in the main PlayOnLinux window, then click on 'Configure' then click on the 'Display' tab.

    sc2_n22.png

    Here you should set 'Video memory size' to the memory of your GPU

    Now you can exit the PlayOnLinux configuration window and you are ready to play.

    sc2_menu.png

    The game runs great in my experience. I have been playing this game for years through Wine and I am able to run it with all graphical settings to maximum. I have played a bit of multiplayer with friends and family, and a LOT of single player campaigns.

    Click on the images below to see them in high resolution

    sc2_18.png sc2_19.png

    sc2_20.png sc2_21.png

    sc2_22.png sc2_23.png
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2017
    vashin likes this.
  • Categories:

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by Daerandin, Nov 2, 2013.

  1. TitinRising
    On this
    cat /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope
    and this
    echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope
    the security feature
    is there an easier way to disable it and enable it faster?
    like an application or setting?
  2. Daerandin
    If you try creating a shortcut for this virtual drive now, do "Starcraft II.exe" appear? I am glad it works for you, but I hope you don't mean you have to do this every time you want to play.

    The regular executable for the game should be present when the game is installed.
  3. TitinRising
    Both of you booman and daerandin thanks for the help i redid the guide (again) and it worked now thanks
    Also booman and daerandin where can i get a list of games you have made a guide for linux? i saw you guys talking in the comments earlier.
  4. Daerandin
    I am glad to hear that it is working. If you want to see all our guides, simply have a look through the guides section of the forum here.

    As for the enabling and disabling of the ptrace security, there are several ways you could make it more automatic. However, note that editing the file require root access, so you will always have to provide your password.

    You could allow this change to be fully automatic without requiring the password, however doing this will require that make a script that make the change, and then edit the sudoers file to allow your user to run the script as root without requiring password.

    Note that this poses a security risk unless the script is rendered completely inaccessible to all users except root.

    You could then edit the PlayOnLinux shortcut for the game to run the script on startup to turn off ptrace, and then the last line of the shortcut script could be set to run the script again to turn ptrace back on.

    If you would like, I could start another topic in the General Linux section to explain how to do this. However, it is very important to note that editing the sudoers file must be done correctly. If there are errors in that file, it will make it impossible to use sudo anymore.
  5. booman
    I have a list to all of my Linux games here: GameCave
    The games that have guide include a link to the guide on GamersOnLinux.com
  6. Daerandin
    I just posted a little tutorial for having the ptrace protection changed automatically for this game.
  7. Deleted
    Someone please help me...

    The installer is stuck in the beginning at "Updating Battle.net agent" at about 33%... if I wait a long time it eventually gives me a message saying it can't be updated and that I should try again...
  8. Daerandin
    Hello Hori873, are you installing the game exactly as described in the guide?

    It will also be much easier to help you if you can tell me a little more about your system. What distro are you using, 32-bit or 64-bit.

    However, I think I recall a similar crash at a long time ago. You can try to simply run the installer again in the same virtual drive and see if it succeeds the next time.
  9. Deleted
    Hi
    I use Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit
    I followed the steps exactly as they were described in this tutorial. I didn't encounter any other kind of problem except the one I explained above (Agent updaters stuck at 33%). I tried it more than 20 times. I even reinstalled PlayOnLinux.

    At first I thought it is a connection problem but then I realised that another virtual drive on PlayOnLinux has Steam working perfectly and Steam's updater and downloader are both working without a problem (well... downloading speed is a little slower than on Windows but I can manage)
  10. Daerandin
    Two things come to mind right now. It could be that you are missing some 32-bit libraries. You may want to ask on Ubuntu forums to find out how to ensure you have all libraries installed. I don't use Ubuntu so I can't help much with that.

    However there is also the possibility that Blizzard updated the installer so that it does not work. Testing the newest wine version might help if that is the case.

    I am going to to do this install from scratch tomorrow to test how it works here by downloading the newest installer from their website.

    In the meantime, I just want to remind you of two points from the guide as a sort of sanity check. One is to ensure you have disabled the ptrace protection. If you at some point rebooted, the ptrace protection will be enabled again and must be disabled once more.

    Second thing is to ensure you have the 'mshtml' library added before running the installer. This is done in the wine configuration.

    In any case, I'll give the install process another go tomorrow just to test if Blizzard made changes which breaks my guide.
  11. Deleted
    @Daerandin Hello, I just arrived home and read your response, so I decided to give it another try... To my surprise, this time it worked! I just followed the guide (As I did before) but this time i used WINE 1.7.22 (The one I use to run Steam's Windows-only games) and even though the Updater waited a few seconds at 33% it then dissapeared and the installation procces continued :D

    Thank you for helping me!
    Unfortunately it's late here and I'm tired so I will try to install it tomorrow because IIRC Starcraft 2 takes a lot of time to download and install. I will report back with a result first thing after I have one :D

    So, as a summary to others that have this problem: I think the problem is, as Daerandin said, that the Battle.net Updater may have been updated and now requires a newer version of WINE. It worked for me with WINE 1.7.22, so try that one first.
  12. Deleted
    Hello, I am back and I am happy to say the game installed and is running perfectly! I had only one minor issue with the game not being in fullscreen even if it was set to be so in the graphics options but I solved it by making it Windowed-Fullscreen (which is ok since I hear that also helps alt-tab), but I think this is an Ubuntu-only problem since this happened to other Linux-native games too, where they were set to fullscreen but the Unity bar and launcher were still visible and the mouse input was messed up. Anyway, this was solved easily so no problem.

    I just started an 2v2 AI game to see how well it works and there were no problems. I didn't finish the game, I quit after about a minute cuz I have some other stuff to do right now but anyway an am certain the game can handle a match from the beginning to the end, and if not then I'll come back here.

    Thanks for all the help and good luck with all you do!
    Also, you can update the tutorial to WINE 1.7.22 (there is also 1.7.23, it should work fine, but I didn't try it)
    Daerandin likes this.
  13. Daerandin
    I will be testing this myself just to ensure everything is running as it should, and I will of update the my guide to reflect the new wine version.

    Great that you got the game working! And I am glad it was a simple solution as well.

    As for your fullscreen issue, did you try running the game with a virtual desktop? I am not sure how this works on the Unity desktop environment, but in my experience, setting the virtual desktop to the same resolution as my desktop resolution will render it in fullscreen.
  14. Daerandin
    Just noticed the installer is completely new and looks nothing like the old one. I will redo this whole guide from scratch to reflect the changes, and also make the installation process a bit simpler. I'll not have time for fixing the guide today, but I'll do it later this week.
  15. booman
    Ugh, I hate that! But this is what happens with clients like battlenet, steam, uplay, etc
    They are always making changes and causing more pain.
  16. Daerandin
    The guide is updated.

    I also noticed that I don't need to disable ptrace protection for the game to work, this might be because you no longer log in within the game, but you log in to the client first.
  17. booman
    Very strange, so does it even need dotnet at this point?
    I thought the ptrace was for installing dot net?
  18. Daerandin
    Starcraft 2 never needed dotnet. Previously you logged in to your battle.net account within the game, which required ptrace protection to be disabled. Now there is a new launcher that you log in to, so you are already logged in when starting the game.
  19. booman
    Oh, I had no idea. Didn't realize ptrace security was related to other things than dotnet.
    Good to know. Thanks

Share This Page