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General discussion (archive)Witcher 2 Linux Help!(24 posts)solved(24 posts)solved
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Posted October 10, 2014
So I downloaded the Linux version of Witcher 2 today to test it out, having it already on Windows. However I was expecting a deb installer like the rest of the Linux games I have gotten from GOG and not a tar.gz which I have never used since I have only been using Linux for a few months.

Can someone walk me through this? GOG really should provide a deb installer or at-least make this clear that it's a tar.gz and not an installer.

I have gotten as far as unpacking the folder... not sure if I should as root just drop in /opt and use start.sh or what.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
This question / problem has been solved by Ganni1987image
Posted October 10, 2014
I don't know why there isn't a deb installer for Witcher 2. I think there is supposed to be one. Send a ticket to support to let them know.

Afaik it doesn't really matter where you unpack the tarball (tar.gz). GOG's deb installers place all games in "/opt/GOG Games"

To start the game, open terminal, navigate to the path where the game is unpacked and type
./start.sh
Post edited October 10, 2014 by DeMignon
Posted October 10, 2014
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DeMignon: I don't know why there isn't a deb installer for Witcher 2. I think there is supposed to be one. Send a ticket to support to let them know.
It's always only been a tarball. The impression I have is there are no current plans to create a .deb installer.
Posted October 10, 2014
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Gydion: It's always only been a tarball. The impression I have is there are no current plans to create a .deb installer.
Thanks for the info, Gydion. I assumed, GOG would provide both options for one of their "in-house" games. There's obviously demand.
Posted October 10, 2014
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DeMignon: I assumed, GOG would provide both options for one of their "in-house" games. There's obviously demand.
Sure, the game is "in-house", but the port was outsourced. ;)
Posted October 10, 2014
The question is how the archive is prepared - sorry I never tried to play GOG games on Linux.

Just try to unarchive it (e.g. with command "tar -xzvpf the_name_of_the_archive.tar.gz") and check what files are inside. If you will find something like "install.sh" than just execute it. If there are no install scripts than search for other *.sh files.

.deb packages were originally invented and used in Debian. Then those packages were used also in other Linux distributions. Alternative packages like *.rpm were used originally in RedHat and then also "moved" to other distributions. I'm not sure what is the current state of the art but at the time when I was advanced Linux user various distributions were, in theory, able to handle packages from "competitors" but as far as I remember there were always problems with that (e.g. with dependencies or with uninstalling or with strange installation errors). For that reason it was usually good idea to use just tar.gz files with installation scripts when providing application as binaries only (closed source) - it was much more easier to support various Linux distributions.

Edit:
Please note that if you extracted archive with different options (especially without "p" option) or with different tool (e.g. any GUI extractor) than it could happen that *.sh scripts will have no correct file attributes. In such case if you will try to execute such scripts you will probably see an error message and script will not be executed. To "fix" the problem you should set file attribute "x" on *.sh files. You can use e.g. command "chmod +x anyfile.sh"

Edit2:
I'm now curious enough to try it myself ;) - I started downloading The Witcher 2 for Linux - 4 hours left ;)
Post edited October 10, 2014 by igor.699
Posted October 10, 2014
Depending on the distro/desktop environment, the .sh script files might be possible to run straight from the file manager by double-clicking.

Like DeMignon said, just unpack it and run start.sh. It does not matter where the game folder is. It's actually easier with the .tar.gz's since you can put it anywhere you want - for example, I have the biggest disk partition mounted at /home so I want games to be there because often they're large.

There is an install option in the start.sh but I haven't tried that at all.
Posted October 10, 2014
I have to say that not including a deb installer for people who just want to click install and have it work was a stupid decision, especially when a lot of people like Linux or are new to Linux but haven't learned terminal commands. There Linux FAQ even says the games are suppose to include a deb installer and a tarball so that if your not on Linux Mint or Ubuntu you can still try to install it. I'd expect that from random internet software, not games being sold on a major distribution site.

So I unpacked the game and tried to use start.sh, the game launcher comes up but the game will not run.

Apparently the game needs these packages: libc6:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-data:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libsdl2-image-2.0-0:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libcurl3:i386 and dependencies

So I assume I just open terminal and use sudo apt-get install then the package name correct? I'm on Linux mint by the way, and I appropriate all your help. So thank you.
Post edited October 10, 2014 by user deleted
Posted October 10, 2014
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BKGaming: I have to say that not including a deb installer for people who just want to click install and have it work was a stupid decision, especially when a lot of people like Linux or are new to Linux but haven't learned terminal commands. There Linux FAQ even says the games are suppose to include a deb installer and a tarball so that if your not on Linux Mint or Ubuntu you can still try to install it. I'd expect that from random internet software, not games being sold on a major distribution site.

So I unpacked the game and tried to use start.sh, the game launcher comes up but the game will not run.

Apparently the game needs these packages: libc6:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-data:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libsdl2-image-2.0-0:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libcurl3:i386 and dependencies

So I assume I just open terminal and use sudo apt-get install then the package name correct? I'm on Linux mint by the way, and I appropriate all your help. So thank you.
That's correct.
You don't have to use apt-get install multiple times, just dump all the package names after the command.
Post edited October 10, 2014 by sunshinecorp
Posted October 10, 2014
avatar
BKGaming: I have to say that not including a deb installer for people who just want to click install and have it work was a stupid decision, especially when a lot of people like Linux or are new to Linux but haven't learned terminal commands. There Linux FAQ even says the games are suppose to include a deb installer and a tarball so that if your not on Linux Mint or Ubuntu you can still try to install it. I'd expect that from random internet software, not games being sold on a major distribution site.

So I unpacked the game and tried to use start.sh, the game launcher comes up but the game will not run.

Apparently the game needs these packages: libc6:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-data:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libsdl2-image-2.0-0:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libcurl3:i386 and dependencies

So I assume I just open terminal and use sudo apt-get install then the package name correct? I'm on Linux mint by the way, and I appropriate all your help. So thank you.
avatar
sunshinecorp: That's correct.
You don't have to use apt-get install multiple times, just dump all the package names after the command.
Thanks, did that... looks like Linux Mint 17 already had all but one. I will test it out in a bit and see if I can get it to run now or not.
Posted October 10, 2014
Nope still can't get this to run...

Unpacked, put in /opt with my other gog games. Installed patch... says it installed, but I don't think it did because it doesn't appear to have put everything in the Witcher 2 folder that is in the patch folder. Even tried opening it under root then installing.

All required packages are installed as far as I can tell.

Click start.sh and the Witcher 2 launcher appears, click launch game nothing happens. Sigh, kind of wish I new this was a tarball and not a deb before downloading 20GB... silly me didn't look at the file type since I downloaded it at my college when I was working.
Posted October 11, 2014
Again I appreciate the help guys, but at this point I'm to the point of giving up as I have tried everything I can think of. I actually ruined my Linux Mint install trying to get this to work, and had to do a fresh install. :(

If anyone has an idea on what I'm doing wrong please let me know.

GOG has made this more complicated than it should have been. I may send an email to support.... and specifically ask them as to why there is no deb installer. Kind of crazy that not only there is none, but it's labeled as an installer when it's clearly not.

Thank you.
avatar
igor.699: The question is how the archive is prepared - sorry I never tried to play GOG games on Linux.

Just try to unarchive it (e.g. with command "tar -xzvpf the_name_of_the_archive.tar.gz") and check what files are inside. If you will find something like "install.sh" than just execute it. If there are no install scripts than search for other *.sh files.

.deb packages were originally invented and used in Debian. Then those packages were used also in other Linux distributions. Alternative packages like *.rpm were used originally in RedHat and then also "moved" to other distributions. I'm not sure what is the current state of the art but at the time when I was advanced Linux user various distributions were, in theory, able to handle packages from "competitors" but as far as I remember there were always problems with that (e.g. with dependencies or with uninstalling or with strange installation errors). For that reason it was usually good idea to use just tar.gz files with installation scripts when providing application as binaries only (closed source) - it was much more easier to support various Linux distributions.

Edit:
Please note that if you extracted archive with different options (especially without "p" option) or with different tool (e.g. any GUI extractor) than it could happen that *.sh scripts will have no correct file attributes. In such case if you will try to execute such scripts you will probably see an error message and script will not be executed. To "fix" the problem you should set file attribute "x" on *.sh files. You can use e.g. command "chmod +x anyfile.sh"

Edit2:
I'm now curious enough to try it myself ;) - I started downloading The Witcher 2 for Linux - 4 hours left ;)
Did you have better luck than me at getting this to work? If so can you please post a step by step process. Lol.
Posted October 11, 2014
avatar
BKGaming: Again I appreciate the help guys, but at this point I'm to the point of giving up as I have tried everything I can think of. I actually ruined my Linux Mint install trying to get this to work, and had to do a fresh install. :(

If anyone has an idea on what I'm doing wrong please let me know.

GOG has made this more complicated than it should have been. I may send an email to support.... and specifically ask them as to why there is no deb installer. Kind of crazy that not only there is none, but it's labeled as an installer when it's clearly not.

Thank you.
About the patch, did you install it as root? Since you copied to game to /opt, you need to be root to be able to write in there. Only /home/[yourusername]/ is writable by a normal user by default.

Open a terminal and go to witcher 2 directory:

cd /opt/witcher2/game (Or whatever the witcher2 directory is named, can't remember the default name. Note everything's case sensitive in Linux. You can automatically fill the correct directory by typing the first letter and pressing tab as you type)

Start game:

./witcher2

Then copy/paste here the error you see in the terminal window, starting from the ./witcher2 command you gave.

I have a similar problem about the game not starting but I don't get any error message at all. But I'm on a different distro, not Mint.

By the way, do you have an nVidia or AMD graphics card?
Posted October 11, 2014
avatar
BKGaming: Again I appreciate the help guys, but at this point I'm to the point of giving up as I have tried everything I can think of. I actually ruined my Linux Mint install trying to get this to work, and had to do a fresh install. :(

If anyone has an idea on what I'm doing wrong please let me know.

GOG has made this more complicated than it should have been. I may send an email to support.... and specifically ask them as to why there is no deb installer. Kind of crazy that not only there is none, but it's labeled as an installer when it's clearly not.

Thank you.
avatar
Daliz: About the patch, did you install it as root? Since you copied to game to /opt, you need to be root to be able to write in there. Only /home/[yourusername]/ is writable by a normal user by default.

Open a terminal and go to witcher 2 directory:

cd /opt/witcher2/game (Or whatever the witcher2 directory is named, can't remember the default name. Note everything's case sensitive in Linux. You can automatically fill the correct directory by typing the first letter and pressing tab as you type)

Start game:

./witcher2

Then copy/paste here the error you see in the terminal window, starting from the ./witcher2 command you gave.

I have a similar problem about the game not starting but I don't get any error message at all. But I'm on a different distro, not Mint.

By the way, do you have an nVidia or AMD graphics card?
Yea, I right clicked on the patch folder and opened as root before installing... that should have made it install under root yes? I use nVidia. by the way with the recommended Linux driver. I don't have the strongest card for the Witcher 2 but the game does play under Windows.

Checking over it though I'm not 100% sure I had all the packages needed, some didn't seem to want to install right. Should the game at-least start or give an error without all the packages? Again I'm use to a deb installer that will automatically get these so this is a little different for me. :(

I have a fresh install now, so I will unpack and try again to look over every required package in detail and try to get them all installed. Before however I can tell you that no error was given, just nothing happen when clicked on launch game.

Will post back later today with an update.
Posted October 11, 2014
Okay here is where I'm confused and running into issues with the packages, terminal says the following:

libasound2-data:i386 - Note, selecting 'libasound2-data' instead of 'libasound2-data:i386'
libasound2-data is already the newest version.

libasound2-data I assume is fine.

libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 - libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 : Depends: libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 (>= 10.0.2) but it is not going to be installed or libwayland-egl1:i386.

ibsdl2-2.0-0:i386 is throwing me off, which dependency do I install? libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 is the one I messed up my install of Mint with because it I went to install it and it looked like it was removing a lot of packages which concerned me so I stopped it.

libsdl2-image-2.0-0:i386 - libsdl2-image-2.0-0:i386 : Depends: libsdl2-2.0-0:i386.

libsdl2-image-2.0-0:i386 again should be fine once I figure out ibsdl2-2.0-0:i386.
Post edited October 11, 2014 by user deleted
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Witcher 2 Linux Help!(24 posts)solved(24 posts)solved
(24 posts)solved