LOTRO on Linux issue

[Cham_Eleon]

Hi guys,

I have LOTRO running fine on Windows 10, but I have a dual boot system with Linux installed and would like to try LOTRO on Linux. I have installed LOTRO using Wine, but when I launch the game it just goes to a black screen. Here are a few details about my system:

Linux Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
Wine-2.4
Directx9 installed (through Wine)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (installed driver nvidia-375 linux package)

In my UserPreferences .ini file, I have only specified a couple of things for the graphics:
[Display]
WindowedResolution=1920x1080
ScreenMode=Windowed

I've installed Steam and tested the video driver out using the game Black Mesa, which works fine.

I'm kind of stuck at the moment, so if anybody has any ideas or comments, it would be appreciated

Thanks!

[Cham_Eleon]

No Linux users out there?
Bumping this to see if I can get some suggestions.

Thanks for any help!

[Alcor]

I had LOTRO working on my Linux-based laptop awhile ago, but recent updates to the game or wine broke things for me. I may try a fresh install and see. That said, I did not experience the problem you describe.

It may seem odd that I would reply to post that I can provide absolutely no help with. I just didn't want you to feel like you were talking to a wall.

[Cham_Eleon]

Thanks, Alcor

I have been experimenting by installing older versions of Wine and reinstalling LOTRO, but no luck.
It definitely seems to be related to the graphics somehow, I am able to log in and update the launcher, but when I attempt to launch the game it's a black screen only.

Since you (and others) have successfully run LOTRO on Linux in the past, I am guessing the latest updates to the game (Mordor patch maybe?) have broken things.
Maybe a future update to Wine will fix it, we'll see. For now I am giving up and will use Windows for LOTRO, even though I prefer to use Linux (it's more fun for computer nerds).

-Cham

[Palenen]

Forgive my ignorance with Linux. I do recall a similar issue with Window's clients and DirectX9. Are you able to get that installed or does it install or do you even need it? Heck, It may not be that at all.

[Gilnoviel]

I run LOTRO on Ubuntu 16.04.3 all the time, the only things that don't work for me are screen shots (they come out black) and the LOTRO Store. The Store has worked on and off but at the moment it's broken or so slow that I can't bear to wait for it.

I am using Wine-staging version 2.15, and I believe the version of PyLotro from here:

https://github.com/Lynx3d/pylotro

Some years back the original pylotro stopped working and needed to be updated with some code changes.

I am using Wine's native DirectX, I did not install the real DirectX with winetricks. The graphics selected in the options is DirectX 9, DirectX 11 doesn't work. High Res Graphics are disabled in the pylotro settings. I do use nvidia-375. I do use windowed mode but a little less on the resolution. My UserPreferences.ini was created by LOTRO.

I am using a 32 bit wineprefix.

The use of pylotro is probably not required, I just prefer it because the regular launcher is so clunky with all the checking this and loading that and its tendency to hang.

I copied the game directory from a Windows system, I did not install using the launcher on Linux.

I don't have a formula to do a fresh install, it's been a long time since I needed one.

[Silverbullets]

The black screen is not necessarily a graphics issue. We had this issue for XP, Vista, and Linux when they switched browser engines for the LOTRO Store. They recently permanently patched it so that you can optionally use the LOTRO Store in an external browser again without needing the new browser engine. Give this a try:

1. Under your Wine's Documents folder (which should hopefully soft link to your actual Linux /home/UserName/Documents folder), navigate to the folder "The Lord of the Rings Online".
2. In that folder, open UserPreferences.ini for editing.
3. Under the [UI] section of that file, make sure WebstoreExternalWindow=True is set, or else add it on a new line manually.
4. Save and relaunch the game.

Also, if that doesn't work, edit UserPreferences.ini again, and this time under the [Render] section, set your graphics for "GraphicsCore=D3D9" or "GraphicsCore=OpenGL" (depending on your preference). It might be set to use DirectX 11 by default, which would definitely not work because Wine is only halfway with its DirectX 11 implementation (but it's getting better!).

I haven't personally had to use PyLOTRO, but using the stock Launcher it does come with the cause of having to occasionally kill the process and relaunch. This is because sometimes the launcher will just hang when it starts up, sucking up around 37% of one of my CPU cores.

Let us know how it goes. We're here to help!

[TamX]

I played lotro on Linux/Wine for something like four years. At some point getting the client working has been more difficult, at some points it has worked off-the-shelf installation.

I can't remember correctly, but I think that at this spring I was using staging Wine installation, and lotro worked fine without any other configurations. I used pylotro launcher, there's all sorts of instability problems with lotro's on launcher on Linux/Wine (it may crash a few times when you start it, or hang in downloading phase and so on). When lotro store engine was updated, I never got it working again.

In general, I think that DX9 works best? But you may give a try to OpenGL core (in userpreferences.ini there is GraphicsCore setting, you can change it to OpenGL if you like to try). That option has not always worked, thought. Be warned, that trying to take screenshots when using OpenGL core may crash the client, as well as some anti-aliasing settings.

[Gilnoviel]

I think it's best to avoid the OpenGL option, SSG doesn't have any reason to keep that code base working. The DirectX9 code in Wine is actively maintained and mature. If DX9 doesn't work these days there's probably either something wrong with the video driver or the Windows DLLs are being used.

The store was my minor side issue, doesn't really help the OP. Apparently the issue is nothing in the window at all.

External browser locks everything up for me, it seems to be trying to invoke the Wine builtin browser which isn't up to the task. At one time in the past it would properly open my default Linux browser but I believe they changed how they invoke the browser to use a different API call.

[Silverbullets]

I think it's best to avoid the OpenGL option, SSG doesn't have any reason to keep that code base working. The DirectX9 code in Wine is actively maintained and mature. If DX9 doesn't work these days there's probably either something wrong with the video driver or the Windows DLLs are being used.

I believe SSG uses OpenGL for the Mac client. In which case, I would imagine they would maintain it. I have sometimes used OpenGL because DX9 had done weird things for me like the floor disappearing, etc. For a short while in Plasma 5.8, KWin would suck up all my RAM while using DX9 (but only for this game, other games in Wine were fine). Fortunately, the KWin wizards fixed that at some point.

External browser locks everything up for me, it seems to be trying to invoke the Wine builtin browser which isn't up to the task. At one time in the past it would properly open my default Linux browser but I believe they changed how they invoke the browser to use a different API call.

That's strange. In my Wine installation of LOTRO, it always opens my normal, default Linux browser, and not a Wine browser. I didn't have to specially configure anything for Wine to do this.

[Cham_Eleon]

Thanks for the responses, it motivated me to keep trying

I tried the OpenGL and D3D9 options in the [Render] section of the .ini file, and also added WebstoreExternalWindow=True. No effect, still black screen.

So, I figured why not try PyLotro. I installed the script using Python3 and it seems to work fine...but ran into a problem. When I enter my password and attempt to login, a SSL error occurs:

Checking account details...
[E15] SSL Error occured in HTTPS connection

I googled that error and others have encountered it -- seems to be related to the security certificate. If I fix it, not sure if my black screen issue will be resolved, but will keep experimenting.
If you have any further ideas, they would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Cham

[Cham_Eleon]

Hey guys,

Thanks again for all the input. I found the solution and wanted to post it here in case anybody else runs into this problem.

First of all, let me just note that I uninstalled PyLotro (since I had the SSL issue) and this wasn't needed for the fix.

It turns out the the latest updates did cause issues for users of Windows XP and Vista, as outlined here:

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...ssues-Solution

Apparently these issues also affected the Linux users because Wine emulates the software in a similar fashion.

To fix the problem, I simply downloaded the two files linked in that thread and placed them in my LOTRO installation directory.

I got the idea by looking at the test results section for LOTRO at WineHQ:

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManag...sion&iId=35718

Now I can get my LOTRO fix on Linux without having to reboot into Windows (although I must admit the DX11 does look a bit nicer, so will probably play it from time to time anyway).

Hope this helps somebody in the future

-Cham

[Cham_Eleon]

Testing update:

LOTRO works great on my Linux box. Very stable.

Give it a try if you are a Linux fan!

[ZephyrDylan]

It turns out the the latest updates did cause issues for users of Windows XP and Vista, as outlined here:

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...ssues-Solution

Apparently these issues also affected the Linux users because Wine emulates the software in a similar fashion.

To fix the problem, I simply downloaded the two files linked in that thread and placed them in my LOTRO installation directory.


-Cham

Hi all,

I'm running Wine 3.0-1 on Manjaro Linux, just downloaded and installed LOTRO. Before and after applying these fixes, I can log in to the launcher OK, but when I choose a server and click Play it crashes.

I tried it with the original game files, then with just the first 2 files at the above link, and then with those and the 3rd zip file. Same result each time.

Any ideas?