Trying to install SWTOR on Ubuntu 17.10

Shadowbane · December 30, 2017, 8:57pm

I came across instructions for installing Star Wars The Old Republic using winetricks and Wine, But the problem is the instructions are for the Arch, not Ubuntu. I am asking does anyone know how to translate the instructions for Ubuntu.

Steps using the Terminal

[USERNAME] = use your username on your Linux system

Download the swtor.exe from www.swtor.com
Open your terminal type :
env WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/[USERNAME]/wine/swtor winetricks d3dx9 vcrun2008 msls31 winhttp
Change directory to where you have swtor downloaded usually this is in the downloads folder :
$ cd Downloads
In the Downloads folder :
env WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/[USERNAME]/wine/swtor wine “SWTOR_setup.exe”
Next cd out of the Downloads folder and into :
cd “/home/[USERNAME]/wine/swtor/drive_c/Program Files/Electronic Arts/BioWare/Star Wars – The Old Republic”
Copy and paste the code from http://pastebin.com/nj5ZgbQx into a text file and save it as start.sh
chmod 755 start.sh
./start.sh
The first time you log in and start downloading it will pop up with an error you have to open up the “launcher.settings” in a text editor and replace :

, “PatchingMode”: “{ “swtor”: “BR” }”

and replace BR for SSN, so in will be like this

, “PatchingMode”: “{ “swtor”: “SSN” }”

Save and start again :
./start.sh

Thank you to those that created swtor in the first place and those who’ve created guides on how they got it to work and thank you to the user that created the swtor_fix.exe that made it possible to play on Linux.

Steps using Play on Linux

Download and install Play on Linux
When you open Play on Linux click on Tools and click on Manage Wine Versions
Install the latest Available Wine Version for 32 bit (x86)
Click on install and the Games tab in the Search tab type in Star Wars
Let the game do the install process. Once the Login screen pops up it will be in French so in the Options save it as English. The first time you try to log in the game will freeze exit the game and Log back in and then let the game install.
On the Play on Linux menu under Configure make sure that Star Wars is running under the latest wine version. Star Wars comes with 1.7.22 Wine but the latest wine versions are better to have.

Both ways work for installing the game. While in game on the Character load screen you will have to change the graphics here if you do it in game the game will crash (I run my graphics just under max graphics). The map works but if you hover over an area quest the game will crash. I have not tested the Galactic Starfighter mainly because I have not gotten a pop for it. But other than that the game runs smoothly.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll refer them back to Andynul or you can ask him yourself on Twitter @gloverpatrick3.

About the Author

Goalkeeper · December 30, 2017, 10:41pm

I do not believe any translating is needed, just follow the instructions that you copied here.

And good luck on the install.

mihawk90 · December 30, 2017, 11:06pm

Are you having any specific issues? Have you tried doing the described process? It seems rather straight forward.
Especially the Play on Linux variant should be rather easy since it’s really just click and go. That guide seems to be a bit old though since it still states that the Star Wars install in POL comes with 1.7.22? But the actual install script is actually 1.7.53 and it’s from 2013…
Either way you should update Wine to the latest version after installing with Play on Linux, the scripts use tested versions that work, but aren’t updated frequently (since they are user-contributed and people are lazy to update once “it just works”).

You could also use Lutris, I think that one pulls the latest Wine Version unless otherwise specified.

Both POL and Lutris work similar, but with a different approach concerning versioning.

/edit
From the POL script history wine 1.7.22 was introduced on 31 July 2014 and dropped for 1.7.53 on 25 October 2015. Shows how old that guide is

Shadowbane · December 31, 2017, 12:26am

I was going to modify the script to download the latest version of wine. I am trying to install it from a script.

mihawk90 · December 31, 2017, 12:36am

The first guide already uses whatever version of wine is the default wine version on your system, which in 99% of cases should be the wine version that comes from your distro repository. No need to change anything there.

You shouldn’t need the swtor_fix.exe thingy from that pastebin either since the guide seems to be for the quite dated version 1.7.5 of wine. Current version is 3.0rc4 (development) and/or 2.0.3 (release).

Try it without the swtor_fix.exe first. Also that pastebin seems to be a stripped down version of the original launcher script here:

github.com

aljen/swtor_fix/blob/master/launcher.sh

#! /bin/bash

# All cudo's goes towards the original script! The added script below is purely cosmetic in comparison (in that the new part only automates a previously manual step).

unset OPTIMUS_PREFIX
# In case of an optimus-enabled laptop, the use of primusrun is recommended over    optirun.
# Don't uncomment this line in any other case.
# OPTIMUS_PREFIX="                              primusrun"

### BELOW HAS BEEN ADDED TO TURN OFF BIT RUNNER AND SUPPORT PLAYONLINUX ###

#Regardless of where our launcher is located, lets automatically find it and use it!  Even if this script is in a parent directory.
settingslocation=`echo \'``find . -name "launcher.settings" | grep "Star Wars - The Old Republic/launcher.settings"``echo \'`
launcherlocation=`echo \'``find . -name "launcher.exe" | grep "Star Wars - The Old Republic/launcher.exe"``echo \'`

if [ -z "$settingslocation" ]; then
    settingslocation=`echo \'``find . -name "launcher.settings" | grep "./launcher.settings"``echo \'`
fi

if [ -z "$launcherlocation" ]; then

This file has been truncated. show original

To make life easier I’d recommend just using the POL part of the guide (or Lutris).

Shadowbane · December 31, 2017, 12:45am

I think I am just going to try Lutris since it might be easier.

mihawk90 · December 31, 2017, 12:50am

Have never used it so I can’t say anything about that. POL is pretty easy to use too though.

Shadowbane · December 31, 2017, 12:57am

I change my mind Lutris looks like more trouble than Play On Linux to install the game, I know it will install on Play On Linux because I did at one time have it installed on my desktop before I had a huge power spike destroy my motherboard, CPU, and Ram.