Linux/Wine server install tips

chacha18

1/ Intro:

This post is not a guide / nor a tutorial (yet) but a memory of what I personally did to make plutonium work on Linux/Debian.
I hope it will help you guys configuring a COD BO2/MW3 server using recent WINE version with ESYNC patch (better performances)
This technic can be applied to other games with few modifications, including others plutonium flavors
(However, ESYNC is not going to help all games, you have to make benchmarks.)
If you follow those steps and find issues feel free to post them here, and I will try to make corrections.

2/ Preparation:

Let's start, assuming you have a computer / VM running an updated Linux version (tested with current Debian stable here).
It will be easier with GUI as a starting point.
I suggest making it work with a GUI VM/PC and then port it to a headless machine (or make the current one headless) when it's working well.

Install distro version of wine (to get required deps):

su -
dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt update
apt install wine wine32 wine64 libwine libwine:i386 fonts-wine

create an account for your gameserver:

adduser codbo2server

Now, logon to your new account with graphics.

3/ Installing last Wine:

Download wine tkg from GITHUB:
https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases
For instance: wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64.tar.xz
extract to ~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64

install your new prefix:

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wineboot

4/ Installing .NET:

Download last winetricks script from GITHUB:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
install dotnet472:

chmod +x ./winetricks
WINE=~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wine WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ./winetricks --force dotnet472 corefonts

Note: this step will take a while and will ask you for multiple confirmation in the installation process
Note2: if it fails (sometime install script can get broken...:-/) please search a little bit on Google before asking here...
Note3: when installer ask for reboot, do not reboot

restart your wine prefix:

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wineboot

Note++: There is a free replacement of .NET : MONO , you can try it but for that you will have to use another clean wineprefix.

5/ The game:

Put your game in your new created prefix.
Personnaly I created a CODBO2/CODMW3 folder in the prefix dir
According to previous steps, put game files in:
~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2/drive_c/CODBO2

Now you have to put plutonium files in the game directory.
While it is possible to use the launcher update feature, I personally end up copying files from my PC because I had problems running the plutonium launcher GUI inside wine.
It launches and download files, but the GUI was not displaying correctly and it instant-crashes if I click.

I assume you now have all the files from Game and Plutonium in the game directory.

Now, download required configuration files:
https://github.com/ChxseH/COD-Dedicated-Server-Configs/tree/master/T6
Put them in the game directory (.bat files are not needed)

6/ Launch:
You can now try to launch the gameserver with a script like this:

WINEPATH=~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64
export WINEARCH=win32 
export WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2
export WINEESYNC=1
KEY=<YOURKEY>
CFG=dedicated.cfg
PORT=27116

$WINEPATH/bin/wine $WINEPREFIX/bin/plutonium-bootstratper-win32.exe t6mp 'C:\\CODBO2' +set key '$KEY' -dedicated +set sv_config $CFG +set net_port $PORT

If it works, congratulation you have your working proof of concept :).
Server is running on last wine / ms dotnet / esync enabled

Note that wine/dotnet is very memory hungry, idle server take 500MB+ ram and it will keep growing while players get connected.

7/ Further work:

Next you can Google :

screen: to allow it to run in a convenient headless context
systemd: to make it start at boot
alotofotherstuff : tons of other cool possible features (autorestart/autoupgrade for instance)

Minami

It's really good, it will help Linux beginners

chacha18

8/ Update 09/01/2021 :
In order to lauch the plutonium built-in updater you need those things:

install dotnet48 :

WINE=~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wine WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ./winetricks --force dotnet48

install d3dcompiler_47 (native):

WINE=~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wine WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ./winetricks d3dcompiler_47

install vcrun2005 and vcrun2019 (native):

WINE=~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wine WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ./winetricks vcrun2005 vcrun2019

GUI will launch correctly and start update process without crashing when you click on it. But when the update is finished it may crash if you have no 3D accel (it is the case for me because i'm running it on a VM).

Still not very usable for automation because the GUI is still showing, even with "-update-only" because at the end of the process it stay opened. maybe a good idea for an update ? A silent/terminal option would be a great feature ...

PS: Devs, pls tell me if I missed something..

Xerxes

You could try to register ping.exe as debugger for the launcher, that's what I did on windows to get rid of the launcher.

chacha18

Xerxes How did you do that ? I know how to attach gdb but how do you attach another exe ? is it a non-documented plutonium feature ?

Xerxes

It's a windows feature that with a bit of luck works with wine too.

chacha18

Finally, I ended up with another solution:

launching plutonium.exe in a xvfb screen (so no more display)
monitoring tcp/http connection of plutonium.exe with lsof to catch end of download

It seems to work atm !

Xerxes

That seems a bit over complicated considering the updater and launcher are 2 different executables, so starting the updater and then waiting until the launcher starts would work too.

But good job as long as it works!

chacha18

Xerxes

Problem is that at the end of the update process, the update windows stay opened waiting for confirmation so i dont think I had other choice...

Anyway, the trick is pretty easy (exports from previous script needed):

Xvfb :99 -ac &
pid=$!
DISPLAY=:99 $WINEPATH/bin/wine $WINEPREFIX/plutonium.exe -install-dir 'C:\\CODBO2'  -update-only
while [ ! "$(lsof -i | grep plutonium)" ]; do sleep 1; done
sleep 30
while [  "$(lsof -i | grep plutonium)" ]; do sleep 1; done

killall plutonium.exe
kill -9 $pid

Note1: you may need to install killall :

apt install killall

Note2: you may need to launch the script in root to have the right to execute xvfb (not sure), but updater need to be executed by user, so you can add (in front of wine command) :

su <user> -c <command line ...>

Jimo

chacha18 said in Linux/Wine server install tips:

WINE=~/.local/share/wine/wine-6.0-rc5-staging-tkg-amd64/bin/wine WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/wineprefix/CODBBO2 ./winetricks --force dotnet48

none of this shit work

chacha18

Jimo very helpful coment...