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How To: Run World Of Warcraft (WoW) in Linux Using Wine

World Of Warcraft is one of the most successful games in history, with 9.3 million subscribers and counting. Believe it or not, the beta test of World of Warcraft actually had a Linux client. It’s true! When the game shipped, support for Linux was dropped and the game never shipped with a Linux client. What […]

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World Of Warcraft is one of the most successful games in history, with 9.3 million subscribers and counting. Believe it or not, the beta test of World of Warcraft actually had a Linux client. It’s true! When the game shipped, support for Linux was dropped and the game never shipped with a Linux client.

What a shame! The good news is, there’s been some positive collaboration between members of the Linux developer community who work on and contribute code to projects like Wine, Cedega and CrossOver. Because of this, installation and configuration of World of Warcraft is a snap for those of you who are interested in getting rid of your Windows partitions lying around if WoW is your game of choice.

We have 8 steps to complete to play the game:
1. Configure 3D drivers with Envy.
2. Install WINE and fonts.
3. Configure WINE.
4. Download (or install from media) the actual game.
5. Edit config.wtf
6. Create a Registry key
7. Install a Linux specific AddOn
8. Launch the game!

1. First, we need to check to see if we have correct and working video card drivers that will work with the game. Open a terminal and type in this command:
glxinfo | grep rendering

It should return with something like this:
direct rendering: Yes

If it says “no” then we have to install the right drivers.

If you have an ATI or nVidia card, the quickest way is to use Envy. Head on over to the website and snatch a copy of the script. Scroll about halfway down and you’ll see the link that ends in .deb – that’s what you want if you’re running Ubuntu or Debian.

Open up the Envy .deb file once it’s done downloading, and we should be prompted with an installer program, just hit the install button and follow the prompts. After it’s installed, we will need to start up the script by going into the Application Menu, then System Tools, then select Envy.

screenshot-envy.png

Select “Install the NVIDIA driver” (or ATI driver) and press Apply. This process takes about 5 minutes to complete, so go make a sandwich and reboot your computer when it prompts you to do so.

Don’t worry if it seems like it’s not making progress – just be patient. After rebooting, run the glxinfo | grep rendering command again, and this time it should respond “yes” this time.

2. Then, we are going to install two items before we can actually start installing the game.
a. WINE allows us to run Microsoft Windows executable files
b. To make things look pretty, we need to download two different font packs.

In Ubuntu 7.10, the following command will install all three items in short order. You can open a run dialog box by pressing Alt+F2 simultanously (or open a terminal), then paste in the following:

sudo apt-get install wine msttcorefonts ttf-xfree86-nonfree

Type in the password for your user account, and follow the prompts. After that command completes, we’re just about done preparing the system and can install the game *almost* as easily as in Windows.

3. Configuring Wine
By running the winecfg command, we can choose which sound driver to use (OSS or ALSA), and also switch compatibility modes – just like XP and Vista have done for quite some time, WINE allows us to switch between different operating systems to allow for better compatibility with various programs.

Some users have reported that switching WINE to use NT 4.0 compatibility, issues with patches or installations have been resolved. If you run into problems, you may want to try here first. I left it on Windows XP mode the entire time and had no problems, but your mileage may vary.

4. We need to download and/or install the game from media.

I personally have an old account that has been sitting dormant for approximately a year, and I’ve thrown away my installation media. The easiest way to install WoW and TBC is using the original CDs, but if you don’t have them, or have a pretty fat internet pipe, Blizzard helpfully provides online downloads via BitTorrent, so that’s the method I’ll document here today.

Since I’m showing how to install via download, here’s the two links you need. The first one is to download the original WoW game installation files, and the second link requires you to login to verify that you actually have The Burning Crusade expansion enabled on your account before you can get the BT download program for TBC from Blizzard.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/files/pc/wowclient-downloader.exe
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/download/clients/pc/bc-downloader.html

Both of these files utilize BitTorrent technology to allow users to download the entire game, except for the latest patch. These files are updated pretty often, so you usually don’t need to install more than one patch after you’ve got the game installed.

To run them, just open them up just like you would on a Windows computer. They should automatically open up in WINE, and after you select a download destination, you’ll have a pretty familiar window staring you right in the mullet.

screenshot-browse-for-folder-1.png

screenshot-0percent-blizzard-downloader.png

NOTE: Your internet bandwidth is going to be sucked up completely by the download client. If you need to browse the web or anything in the meantime while you download over 4GB of data, select the View menu in the download program and select preferences, then uncheck download from peers.

When these are done downloading and installing, we can go and get a few tweaks setup so that everything will run smoothly once the game is downloaded.

5. We need to setup the config.wtf file inside your WoW folder, by default it is located in the ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/ directory. If it doesn’t exist, login to the game once, and just exit right out. The game will create a default one for you.

We need to append a few items to this file to use the OpenGL rendering engine (instead of DirectX or Software rendering) and make sure we have everything setup to run properly under WINE.

You can run this command to edit the file:
gedit ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/wtf/Config.wtf

Then paste these lines at the end:

SET gxApi "opengl"
SET ffxDeath "0"
SET ffxGlow "0"
SET SoundOutputSystem "1"
SET SoundBufferSize "150"

6. Next, we create a registry key and value.
The following instructions to modify the registry are taken directly from the Ubuntu wiki page and is licensed under CC-BY-SA.

a. Find this key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\
b. Highlight the wine folder in the left hand pane by clicking left on it. The icon should change to an open folder
c. Right-click on the wine folder and select [NEW] then [KEY]
d. Replace the text New Key #1 with OpenGL
e. Right-click in the right hand pane and select [NEW] then [String Value]
f. Replace New Value #1 with DisabledExtensions (Notice it's case sensitive!)
g. Then double click anywhere on the line, a dialog box will open.
h. In the value field type GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object

It should look like this:
regedit.png

7. Now we can install a Linux-specific AddOn for the game so that the graphics options are able to be modified in-game without crashing. Download this file and unzip it.
applytoforehead-4.zip

Copy the entire extracted ApplyToForehead-4 folder into the following location:
~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/

If the Interface or AddOns folder do not exist, go ahead and create them.

8. We can launch the game from the desktop shortcut, or create one pointing to the wow.exe file within the WoW folder.

You should end up with the launch executing flawlessly:
fonts-installed-screenshot-world-of-warcraft-v2006080.png

Now just hit the Play button and enjoy the most addicting game since slot machines. On the character selection screen, make sure to enable out of date AddOns so that ApplyToForehead is loaded properly.

That’s it! If you have problems with running the game, please leave a comment and I’ll attempt to answer it, or look for support channels via the following wikis:

Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WorldofWarcraft
Anything else: http://www.wowwiki.com/Linux/Wine

And for your enjoyment, here’s a video. ๐Ÿ™‚

135 replies on “How To: Run World Of Warcraft (WoW) in Linux Using Wine”

I wouldn’t use envy.
envy is very dangerous to your system.

Instead it would be better to either use Ubuntu’s restricted drivers, or if you don’t use Ubuntu just install the drivers from the cards website (Nvidia, ATI..)

I think the name of that config file is kind of interesting ๐Ÿ˜›

Oh just watched the video, what is that song you had playing?

Oh and I got you beat ๐Ÿ˜› 7950GT OC ๐Ÿ˜€
I got an AMD X2 6000 though…
Nice video, which recording program do you use?

I’ve been waiting for the nv9 series to come out to upgrade. AMD? Pssssh ๐Ÿ˜‰

I tend to think upgrading to the 2nd best video card every 2nd generation is usually the best price:performance:longevity ratio.

Hey I love my AMD chip ๐Ÿ˜€

I WAS going to do a SLI setup but newegg decided to stop selling my card shortly after I got mine ๐Ÿ™

As for now my system has more than enough power for me, so I’m happy ๐Ÿ˜€

I tried to use record my desktop back on mandriva a while ago but it was buggy, maybe it will work better now ๐Ÿ˜€

I love my Intel chip too! I’m looking forward to a quad core upgrade in the near future, which should make for an interesting comparison.

Newegg is the only place I buy technology products, other than brick and mortar shops. Newegg rocks.

I got the error message that “World of Warcraft was unable to startup 3D acceleration” I followed the instructions pretty carefully, but will double check. Any suggestions? Thanks…great how to!

It did that to a 7.04 install I had on one of my other systems, Fortunately I was using that system to test it and a couple other things out without disturbing my main computer.

I was actually following a guide to installing Compiz-Fusion when the guide said to use envy… I followed it to the letter but it broke it :\

Michael…
The unable to open 3d acceleration error typically means you’re not using the proper GLX engine for your driver.

In Gentoo with an nVidia card I know it’s:
eselect opengl set nvidia

Im new to linux and have installed Ubuntu 7.10 for my first linux…i followed the instrucitons and have World of warcraft working but i have 2 problems..first i can only do 1x video setting in wows video setup…i have a nvidia 7300 512 meg video 16x yet it only is showing a 1x setting…second i have it set to full now windowd and if i shrink or i guess you say alt esc to get back to ubuntu my sound disapears out of the game i have to exit and go back in to get the sound back..

thanks again for the hints they helped… if you know how i can do please put it in steps im a complete noob to linux

Trident5-
You can change your video settings in your config.wtf file but I’m not sure what setting you’re looking for. I’m guessing it’s antialiasing which is defaulted to use application settings. You can change that at the driver level in the nvidia-settings application.

As for the sound Issue, I’m thinking it has to do with wine and dmix when mixing a stream from a second application. I normally run Ventrilo on one desktop and WoW on a second desktop. If I switch to the desktop running Ventrilo, select Ventrilo, hit my Push to Talk and then switch back to WoW I get my game sound back.

When I run the gedit ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/wtf/Config.wtf

in he Terminal it opens some window woth nothing in it and I past the
SET gxApi “opengl”
SET ffxDeath “0”
SET ffxGlow “0”
SET SoundOutputSystem “1”
SET SoundBufferSize “150”
in it and try to save it, it says File not found.
It is in there because I opened it myself.
What is happening?

Envy didn’t kill my system, it actually helped me in installing my nvidia drivers without any issues.

Awesome tutorial. I will try this out. Thanks!

Great write up. I like this a lot. This is one of the best Linux hack sites that I have found. Keep up the great work.

I do suggest trying to get the video drivers set up without the use of envy if you can. I haven’t had any problems with it, but it will need to be removed if you upgrade to the new os version. Other then that, I haven’t had any trouble with it. Envy has helped me with a very stubborn ATI x850xt that I was having trouble getting to work with anything more then the basic drivers.

Well i have a HD radeon 2600 pro and it barely works..then i tried my legacy card downstairs all dusty..and it works…soo i wonder why>?

Hello, I’m very new to Linux, and I am trying to get WOW working. I have read a lot of the forums and guides to get it working. I have it almost there, but I’ve run into an issue that I am not finding anyone posting about.

When I launch Wow, my character models do not show up, I can see their weapons and armor, but no character. When I select one of them, the game loads, but freezes a few minutes into the game.

I’ve tried modifying the wtf file, but if I add:

SET gxApi “opengl”
SET ffxDeath “0”
SET ffxGlow “0”

The game won’t load at all, I’ve tried changing the SET gxApi “d3d” as well with the same results.

I have done the registry hack and loaded the applytoforehead add on as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Um I followed this guide and got everything to boot fine until I installed Burning Crusade
I cant see the login screen properally its just like black with 2 weird off gray login bars and a black box for a cursor its really weird but i can find my way to login neways and when i get into the game the interface loads fine but the world is black… the spells and peoples names are still there… i have no clue whats going on help plz?

Hello Wayne,
first i want thank you for the guide,but i nothing do with the registry and it works very good ๐Ÿ™‚

My System..
Prozessor (CPU): AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+
Geschwindigkeit: 1 298,76 MHz

Gesamtspeicher (RAM): 1 011,7 MB

GeForce 7600 GS

Betriebssystem: Linux 2.6.22.5-31-default i686
Aktueller Benutzer: Arti@linux-ejhw
System: openSUSE 10.3 (i586)
KDE: 3.5.7 “release 72”

greez zel

I am planing to install Ubuntu (Getting tired of Microsoft) – I have WoW installed on my XP already.

Do I need to reinstall wow for it to work on Ubuntu?

Great guide (= a motivation for me proceed towards installing Ubuntu)

Michael: You may not need to reinstall WoW – Repatching everything is going to be a HUGE pain in the neck, I would try running WoW in WINE by just running it from the currently installed directory… either back it up, or run Linux from another partition.

OK – Thanks for the answer; it is giving self-confidence that it is a good idea starting to use Linux ๐Ÿ™‚

I followed the steps and I got WoW running, but I face one small problem. My character and everyone else is invisible (including the npcs). The environment loaded beautifully though. When I don’t run the game in OpenGL mode everything loads, but I have a terrible frame rate. I use ATI Drivers. Any help would be appreciated!

Muted i had same problem and your solution worked, thank you! but one problem still, every like 2 sec the background on the desktop flickers through, any1 know how to fix it?

I have the same problem as Muted, but I tried using that wtf file and got the same results.. Could you let me know what you changed in the file and I will try that?

Thanks

ah found the solution to my problem a few posts up, if your game flickers every 2 secs, disable your visual effects. did the trick for me

Yo man. This is the best walk-through HANDS DOWN !! For the past 6 months I’ve struggled and struggled through configuration, after freakin configuration – to no avail. Then finally I find your corner of the Internet. Keep it up yo! You ROCK! Ubuntu ROX!

Boogie: Good news!

sinteres: I emailed Muted and he provided his config.wtf file. Perhaps this will help, just make sure to edit the resolution or change it ingame to suit your needs.

Thanks again Muted!

Awesome guide! and nice video!

Thanks alot for this guide this is what i really was looking for.

Wow Runs superfast in ubuntu!

Thanks again!

Danny

Oy!

I have this issue where my launcher is stuck trying to download the latest patch. All the previous patches were successfully downloaded and installed, but this last one just won’t move.

Anyone got the same issue or know what may be causing this?

i have a problem even starting wow after patches

[IMG]http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg87/quwel/wowerror.png[/IMG]

when i try to run it (latest patches) sorry for triple post[IMG]http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg87/quwel/wowerror.png[/IMG]

Well i have a problem with installing the cd’s.it tells me that some application is preventing the wow disc to eject. please may you help me its sooo anoyying

how to i unsubscribe from getting emails when ppl post comments here, the page it links u to in the email doesnt seem to have anything for unsubscribing. unless im blind

QUOTE: # Valenther | March 21st, 2008 at 3:15 am

Well i have a problem with installing the cdโ€™s.it tells me that some application is preventing the wow disc to eject. please may you help me its sooo anoyying
————-
Valenther – when WINE locks up and doesnt eject your CD, simply open a terminal (nterm, gnome terminal) and type: wine eject. Hope this helps!!

hey guys i just downloaded the new ubuntu 8.04 iso. i am wandering how i can go about dual booting this with xp. i do want ubuntu as my os but not until i am certain it will work properlly. Basically i want to be able to choose whether to run my current(xp) or ubuntu. WoW MUST work as well :p

sorry for the noob questions. i am a total noob when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Well great guide i got everything to work i ditn get the regestry key added but it still works the performance i will say is a little bit jumpy anything i can do to fix that? im running ubut the newest one and i have a 8600gts vc

I finally decided to try out Heron and one of the big “Could I Switch To This Full Time” issues I had was if Ubuntu could play WoW.

I followed this guide and it worked flawlessly. Thank you so much. There’s no better time to switch to Linux!

first of all kick ass guide, simply amazing…. I’ve been curious about running wow on linux for months, although I had never tried linux I had heard about the stability, so far I’m liking it as this is my first day running it, although it is quite complicated, but I’m sure a lot of stuff I do in windows would be to someone else
Anyways a couple questions as I haven’t got wow up and running yet since I’m downloading it
I have 2 computers, I put linux on this one I’m on now downloading wow after following your instructions to install wine and so on (I also after much frustration installed beryl or compiz whatever you want to call it).
Anyways wow is up and running on the other computer which is networked and I can read all the drives, perhaps I could copy that over, actually I’m currently copying it after thinking that I could copy into the wine directory or whatever it is refered to as in linux…
I read something about you running ventrilo, I’m gonna assume you do that about the same way as you do wow, is there anything I should know to install that? I run multiple copies of it in windows all the time, but I read there’s problems with the push to talk not working right unless you’re directly on vent…… I’m in a big guild raiding sunwell, so vent is a must….. also I’m kinda curious what is your performance difference from windows to linux? does it run mods and all that?
I read a couple places that it’s a lot better, but I’m curious about frame rate and such….
this computer isn’t quite as good as mine, it has a better processor but everything else is meh…. my computer is amd 3000 2gb ram, 512 ati saphire card, this one is amd 4000 x2 I think 512 ram and 128 nvidia video

I’m tryin on this one first because obviously if it runs amazing on this one mine is just going to frickin rock, and I’m a little hesitant on switching fully as I have used dos/windows since before windows even came out, like back in the day lol I was farely young but I do remember when it came out.
Any tips or feedback about the switch and all else mentioned would be much appreciated, I know this is long and I do apologize. Spent all day getting this far (updating linux from 7. whatever to 8.04 or whatever it is now took forever) so I just don’t want any set backs, or maybe just I’m worried I won’t like it.
Hope to hear back
Alan

I just sent you an incredibly long message with the wrong email address to reply to, I just set it up inside of linux and realized….

please reply to this one instead of the last

Heya! i used Ubuntu 7.10 and WOW runned without any prob.. now i installed Ubuntu 8.10 and here i cannot use shift-click to seperate stacks of items/link items/gear in chat, and also cannot use ctrl-rightclick to show items in the dressroom. any suggestions? right now im updating to newest wine and see if the probs still there.

Greethings,

Danny

I will try to describe the problem as well as I can to help anyone else who runs into this. I finished installing the games and doing all of the previous steps. But when I started WOW, just a black screen would come up and an error. I could hear the sound but no video. I was hoping this would create the config file but it didn’t. Hoping beyond hope as the noob that I am, I decided to just make a folder called config and paste the code that mute posted. It worked beautifully and now the game runs. If anyone does have a better way to have handled that, I would love to know but it seemed to work alright.

Hey, asked in the ubuntu forums, might as well ask here too. My computer has Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset family as a fake graphics/video card and I am pretty sure the driver isn’t working like it’s supposed to. Envy works with ATI & nvidia, so what an intel girl to do? Any suggestions?

I was able to get WOW to work on my version of Mandriva Linux. The graphics are wonderful and smooth and crouded areas run with little to no lag. However when I enter any building the graphics become really squirly especially the parts on the screen where there is text. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

I have WoW installed on my Ubuntu on my laptop, and I finally got it so that when I open WoW the mouse moves fine, but the sound and the video glitch a lot and I can’t figure it out. It seems like i’ve tried everything. Help?

Lindsea you say you have intel Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset, I am assuming this is a laptop. My suggestion would be checking for any drivers from 3rd party or google the model of video card on ubuntu and u should get people having same problem and there might be a solution. If not I suggest if this is a laptop get a better one, HP offers couple laptops for under $1000 with geforce 8600gt graphics card just my opinion. If you still cant get it working email me I will be looking into this situation you got going and try to respond to you. Going back to my problem I have installed wow in wine everything works but when I launch wow I my mouse pointer wont move its like its frozen anyone know what the solution is to this problem.

Hey, when i start up WoW, its completely un playable, as it runs at about 0.5 fps, maybe lower, please help me, as ive gotten rid of my Windows partition, im using the lates wine from http://www.winehq.com., and the glx rendering thing came back as a yes.

This is by far the best how to for Wow I’ve seen. I followed each step as listed and worked the 1st time. I’ve been trying to get wow to work for months. Thanks a bunch for posting this. ๐Ÿ™‚

I really got a lot out of your site. If I did not get side tracked I might have been up and running in one day. Instead, I got the black screen of death at log in screen. Another try I got no graphics on login screen and no graphics in game. I got fatal errors. I’m sure I’m missing a failure or two. BUT I went back to where I started, this page, and finished what I had started using muted config.wtf file and all was fine. I got an ego again and tried to change detail and distance after taking out of windowd mode. My mini map is now bright white. I went back and installed those config files again and same problem. CAN you help me with this problem? Sincerely, Eric

Reflecting, one of my biggest problems was the screen flickering to the desktop throughout the game. My FPS was 40+. This tormented me for days. It was the easiest of all the fixes. Turn the appeance graphical effects to non while you are running wow.

Hope you get something out of my torment.

Eric

I have read since last post that ATI is working on a solution to the minimap problem and that other cards may not have a problem.

My minimap works intermitently usually outside.

Eric

ok guys this is possible, anyone can follow these steps there very easy and mostly copy and paste. one thing i would change would be config wine to give u a emulated desktop. you do that by going to the graphics tab and checking the box …. thanks alot now i can play wow awesome =)!

my wow screen flickers all the time, other than that works perfect.

how do i fix the flickering?

im using a dell inspiron 6000

1.8ghz processor
1gig ram
radeon x300 gfx card
60gig harddrive (running wow off 500gb external harddrive)

I used Erics solution to the flickering screen as I was using Compiz Fusion with all the shiny bits enabled. Turning Visual Effects to “None” fixed that and this is running flawlessly.

Oh and btw I simply migrated the whole WoW folder from my Vista Ultimate machine (no comment) and it’s just worked without a problem. I did however have to use the Config.wtf supplied by Mute though as I was getting a rendered enviroment but no buildings or characters. I did have to mod it a touch as things like default Realm name and my location (I’m in the UK) are obviously different so be aware of this people.

Andre take a look at your appearance settings as mentioned above.

Top guide, well written and everything covered.

I don’t know if this has been covered- I have read through, but every time I start WoW I get a critical error at the point where the opening cutscene should open to the login screen. This only happened after I downloaded all my patches. If you need more info, let me know

I”ve followed all the steps and when i start WoW it looks as if the regedit isn’t working to run the graphics on OpenGL
7600GS Video Card
Core 2 Duo 1.8
4 gigs of Ram

Shows the Vector lines on the main screen and flips back to regular. And is VERY VERY SLOW.

What am I doing wrong?

I’m installing WoW right now. I’m suprised it even started installing, I usally got some problems that makes it unable to work.

Let’s hope for the best!

Thanks for the information. Very helpful. Question though. I have had terrible download times with the updates. Running BC now. File size is 713mb. Says this will take 5 hours. This seems very flow. Is this a Bliz issue or possible a setting in Ubuntu (8.0.4)?

Thanks.

Dude you f***ing rule! My laptop broke down with WoW on it and i have been trying to use it on my Linux system ever since! I wish i could have found this sooner. You saved me from wasting my money on a game card which was activated right when my laptop broke down, i still have 15 days on it!

Thanks alot,
Konner.

How do I install the CD? It brings up the WoW DVD thing but when I click the “Installer Tome.mpq” and run it with “Wine Windows Program Loader” it does nothing. Get back to me as soon as you can, I can’t live another day without WoW! AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!

when i put the burning crusade dvd in it recognizes linux as a mac osx system because all i see is mac osx options..:/

I’m new to linux, so new, that the basics still avoid me. Following this “Hot To” to a T, I run into some problems on step 5, where I’m supposed to set-up the config.wtf file in my WoW folder.

There is no file created already, and I ahve opened up the launcher, and closed it out, no luck, and the game crashes before I can do anything after I push play, to see if that works. What should I do?

HAHA. So I found out what happened. There was a “run once” file, and then, it allowed me to open WoW without crashing. After I ran it, and logged on, there was a config.wtf file, and right after about 6 lines, was the lines I pasted into there. Now, I’m smooth as silk playing.

Yopu should mention that in the How To, otherwise, people will be spending days trying to figure out that step.

Ok, so I’m fairly new to Ubuntu and only have it as my OS on my old PC (which may be part of the problem since it is barely sufficient for WoW as it is). But I used to run wow on this comp before I got my old one anyways in Win XP. So I got it to run on Ubuntu but it’s really choppy and the texture looks really funny. The terrain is just weird lines and no actual grass or rocks or anything like that. So I wanted to show what it looks like but wasn’t sure how. So I just took a screenshot of it and you can download it at this link to see what I mean. http://savefile.com/files/1992341
If anyone has a solution to this issue, that would be great. Thx.

Hey, i’m not using this guide but i noticed another user has a similar problem to me, and that is Wow is really flickery when running. I’ve done as someone said and disabled all graphical effects. This reduced the flickering but hasn’t completely got rid of them.

Just wondering if anyone can help?

Noticed some other peoples problems so i’ll try helping with them. (In no particular order)

-If you get an error whilst trying to start up wine, disable all special effects. (Had this problem and this solved it)

-You need to run the Installer.exe with wine. You can try doing this straight from the cd. If not, copy all (and i mean all) the files to a folder which is easy to locate.

I have two questions.
First, when I tried to do step 6, I couldn’t figure out what I supposed to do, can anyone help me with this?

Secondly, when I get to the login screen, its all black and I can’t get anywhere. I saw someone else had this problem to, but didn’t get an answer, can someone help me on this two things please?

@ kode

try disabling all desktop effects, if you haven’t already

also, i found a solution to my own problem. all i had to do was disable the mini map when i log in. simple.

Hi. I’m trying to get WoW working on Xandros. I’m pretty new to Linux and I can’t configure the config.wtf. I don’t know if i’m doing it wrong or Xandros can’t do it. Is there anyway i can email it to someone with Ubuntu so they could fix it?

I just followed all of the directions perfectly. I have a problem though…

If i run with with the openGL i get a fuzzy boarder with a black login screen so i cant click anything.

If i run without openGL i get the full login screen background with the flying dinosaur thing yet there is no login section… just the background…

Im new to linux and need help with this….

i’ve got another problem :P, my wow has stopped working since the new update. It just doesn’t want to install it! any advice?

Hey, I had already copied a running version of WOW into my Wine directory and had wow running on my lappy ubuntu intrepid ibex… only problem was the game lagged like crazy. I went through your directions and made the necessary changes, and now my game is at least playable, however, i have only 2 FPS. any suggestions.
Like i said my only problem is my Frames Per Second..
My email is Houstonad88@gmail.com

Hey. I’ve got WoW working on Xandros. But i get like 2-3 FPS. When i change the camera so i see everything from above, then i get like 5-6 FPS. is there anything that i should change in my config.wtf?
Here it is :

SET locale “enGB”
SET portal “eu”
SET realmList “eu.logon.worldofwarcraft.com”
SET patchlist “eu.version.worldofwarcraft.com”
SET coresDetected “1”
SET hwDetect “0”
SET gxColorBits “24”
SET gxDepthBits “24”
SET gxResolution “800×600”
SET gxRefresh “60”
SET gxMultisampleQuality “0.000000”
SET gxFixLag “0”
SET videoOptionsVersion “1”
SET textureFilteringMode “0”
SET accountName “Gizmokingan”
SET movie “0”
SET expansionMovie “0”
SET Gamma “1.000000”
SET readTOS “1”
SET readEULA “1”
SET readTerminationWithoutNotice “1”
SET showToolsUI “0”
SET Sound_OutputDriverName “System Default”
SET Sound_MusicVolume “0”
SET Sound_AmbienceVolume “0”
SET farclip “177”
SET particleDensity “0.900000”
SET baseMip “1”
SET spellEffectLevel “0”
SET environmentDetail “0.5”
SET weatherDensity “0”
SET ffxGlow “0”
SET ffxDeath “0”
SET realmName “Shattered Hand”
SET gameTip “58”
SET gxWindow “1”
SET mouseSpeed “1”
SET Sound_VoiceChatInputDriverName “System Default”
SET Sound_VoiceChatOutputDriverName “System Default”
SET ChatMusicVolume “0.29999998211861”
SET ChatSoundVolume “0.39999997615814”
SET ChatAmbienceVolume “0.29999998211861”
SET VoiceActivationSensitivity “0.39999997615814”
SET checkAddonVersion “0”
SET Sound_EnableAllSound “0”
SET Sound_OutputQuality “0”
SET Sound_EnableSFX “0”
SET Sound_EnableAmbience “0”
SET Sound_EnableMusic “0”
SET Sound_MasterVolume “0”
SET Sound_SFXVolume “0”

I’m having problems installing Wrath of Litch King… I’ve got the CD copied over but when I try:
cd ~/Desktop/wowlk
wine Installer.exe
It comes up that a module is not found. Any hints/tip/solutions?

When I start WoW, everything workds normally, but when I eneter the character selection screen, everything f-es up. I can see through the character’s necks and the buttons start acting weird.

Can you help me out?
Thanks in advance.

I really need help! anyone that know something to change in my config.wtf above?

Thanks in advance // Jonathan

AM i the only person that is having troubles accepting the EULA? It says scroll to the bottom, click accept, etc. but it wont let me click.

only reason im having troubles is because of that, PLEASE dont tell me im the only person having problems with it.

any help would be appreciated.

Ok, as to the OpenGL stuff not working… some of the steps you took to getting WoW operational DISABLED your OpenGL, so naturally, if you activate OpenGL stuff that’s been disabled… it ain’t gonna work
as to the ApplyToForehead… no longer a valid add-on as it was never updated for WotLK.
as to the FPS… one might think that installing your system’s drivers would help… but, while it may, infact, resolve some of the issues, it has been creating an ubuntu-related issue… specifically that it keeps killing the bloody OS system files, so if you have a Radeon in your system, stick with the basic drivers, they work fine… your FPS is probably related to the fact that you are running a *higher end* windows-based program through a crappy windows emulator… i say crappy because most of the people writing the faqs for running WoW on linux aren’t experts with either linux or with wine. it’s playable, and you aren’t using winblows… just be happy… try tanking some of your in-game video specs.

Distortion, I had the same problem. Upgrading Wine to latest version (1.1.12 I think) solves it. Go to the Wine website to get it. Ubuntu repos still have 1.0.1

Though havent done nr 6 and rest since I cant find the files, since I suck at computers at all forms and souch its even harder with Linux…plzzz need some serius help here

nice I am playing WoW with my Q6600 quad-core, 4 gigs ram, ATI radeon 4870X2 and have everything maxed out! the only problem was I tried to make my graphics driver work untill I finally got it to tolerate on linux.. ATI and NVIDIA fails at linux… But ATI has its drivers on linux, What a 1 week waste before it was released -.-

Hi i recently switched fully to linux and relize now that i cannont play wow
i watched this video and when i clikc install i scroll down to press accept and in the user agreement the accpet button never lightens up

I’ve been having tons of trouble installing WoW on my Linux Ubuntu 9.04 system. This actually didn’t help at all, and when I try to open the DVD on my desktop, it says “Access Denied”. I’ve downloaded Wine, and I believe have everything set up for WoW. However, the problem persists, I’ve tried going to Ubuntu forums, and nobody responds.

I’m having the same problem as James:

“… when i clikc install i scroll down to press accept and in the user agreement the accpet button never lightens up”

Does anyone have a solution to this?

interesting things i see here but i still have yet to find an answer to my questions (not that i posted them but i cannot find them by just searching it seems).

i used to be able to change my resolutions, multisamplings, refresh rates, game sound output, voice chat outputs… but now all i get is “system default” and cannot connect or change anything unless i change it in the config.wtf file (but i am limited to my knowledge of what i can change). any suggestions because i have reinstalled my drivers and such that all the posts seem to suggest.

i am running on ubuntu 9.04 i386 (since i can’t really do much better with my x86_64 on a 32-bit game). i have an nvidia 9800gt with updated drivers, quad core processor (which the wtf recognizes 4 cores, strange?), using onboard sound on an asus m3a78-em, and two 24″ widescreen monitors (which the game resolution gives me the only option of 3840×1080 (but i want to run at 1920×1080 which i changed it to in the wtf file).

so i guess the wtf file should be next….

SET readTOS “1”
SET readEULA “1”
SET readScanning “-1”
SET readContest “-1”
SET readTerminationWithoutNotice “-1”
SET installType “Retail”
SET gxApi “opengl”
SET gxResolution “1920×1080”
SET locale “enUS”
SET movie “0”
SET showToolsUI “1”
SET realmList “us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com”
SET patchlist “us.version.worldofwarcraft.com”
SET coresDetected “4”
SET processAffinityMask “3”
SET hwDetect “0”
SET gxWindow “1”
SET gxRefresh “70”
SET gxMultisampleQuality “0.000000”
SET videoOptionsVersion “2”
SET mouseSpeed “0.5”
SET Gamma “1.000000”
SET accounttype “LK”
SET VoiceActivationSensitivity “0.39999997615814”
SET Sound_OutputDriverName “System Default”
SET ChatMusicVolume “0.29999998211861”
SET ChatSoundVolume “0.39999997615814”
SET ChatAmbienceVolume “0.29999998211861”
SET Sound_MusicVolume “0.40000000596046”
SET Sound_AmbienceVolume “0.60000002384186”
SET farclip “1277”
SET groundEffectDensity “64”
SET gameTip “65”
SET uiScale “1”
SET textureFilteringMode “5”
SET componentTextureLevel “9”
SET shadowLevel “0”
SET particleDensity “1”
SET groundEffectDist “140”
SET environmentDetail “1.5”
SET ffxGlow “0”
SET ffxDeath “0”
SET Sound_NumChannels “64”
SET Sound_EnableReverb “1”
SET Sound_EnableHardware “1”
SET Sound_ZoneMusicNoDelay “1”
SET Sound_EnableSoundWhenGameIsInBG “1”
SET Sound_OutputQuality “2”
SET accountName “BlueSilverDragon”
SET useUiScale “1”
SET OutboundChatVolume “2.5”
SET EnableVoiceChat “1”
SET Sound_VoiceChatInputDriverName “System Default”
SET Sound_VoiceChatOutputDriverName “System Default”
SET gxMultisample “4”
SET weatherDensity “3”

so am i able to change the defaults to my hardware or to what may i change them?

interesting things i see here but i still have yet to find an answer to my questions (not that i posted them but i cannot find them by just searching it seems).

i used to be able to change my resolutions, multisamplings, refresh rates, game sound output, voice chat outputs… but now all i get is “system default” and cannot connect or change anything unless i change it in the config.wtf file (but i am limited to my knowledge of what i can change). any suggestions because i have reinstalled my drivers and such that all the posts seem to suggest.

i am running on ubuntu 9.04 i386 (since i can’t really do much better with my x86_64 on a 32-bit game). i have an nvidia 9800gt with updated drivers, quad core processor (which the wtf recognizes 4 cores, strange?), using onboard sound on an asus m3a78-em, and two 24″ widescreen monitors (which the game resolution gives me the only option of 3840×1080 (but i want to run at 1920×1080 which i changed it to in the wtf file).

so i guess the wtf file should be next….

SET readTOS “1”
SET readEULA “1”
SET readScanning “-1”
SET readContest “-1”
SET readTerminationWithoutNotice “-1”
SET installType “Retail”
SET gxApi “opengl”
SET gxResolution “1920×1080”
SET locale “enUS”
SET movie “0”
SET showToolsUI “1”
SET realmList “us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com”
SET patchlist “us.version.worldofwarcraft.com”
SET coresDetected “4”
SET processAffinityMask “3”
SET hwDetect “0”
SET gxWindow “1”
SET gxRefresh “70”
SET gxMultisampleQuality “0.000000”
SET videoOptionsVersion “2”
SET mouseSpeed “0.5”
SET Gamma “1.000000”
SET accounttype “LK”
SET VoiceActivationSensitivity “0.39999997615814”
SET Sound_OutputDriverName “System Default”
SET ChatMusicVolume “0.29999998211861”
SET ChatSoundVolume “0.39999997615814”
SET ChatAmbienceVolume “0.29999998211861”
SET Sound_MusicVolume “0.40000000596046”
SET Sound_AmbienceVolume “0.60000002384186”
SET farclip “1277”
SET groundEffectDensity “64”
SET gameTip “65”
SET uiScale “1”
SET textureFilteringMode “5”
SET componentTextureLevel “9”
SET shadowLevel “0”
SET particleDensity “1”
SET groundEffectDist “140”
SET environmentDetail “1.5”
SET ffxGlow “0”
SET ffxDeath “0”
SET Sound_NumChannels “64”
SET Sound_EnableReverb “1”
SET Sound_EnableHardware “1”
SET Sound_ZoneMusicNoDelay “1”
SET Sound_EnableSoundWhenGameIsInBG “1”
SET Sound_OutputQuality “2”
SET accountName “BlueSilverDragon”
SET useUiScale “1”
SET OutboundChatVolume “2.5”
SET EnableVoiceChat “1”
SET Sound_VoiceChatInputDriverName “System Default”
SET Sound_VoiceChatOutputDriverName “System Default”
SET gxMultisample “4”
SET weatherDensity “3”

so am i able to change the defaults to my hardware or to what may i change them?

and as another note… i do get sound and the game play is doing fine… i don’t remember my frame rate or latency but it is usually good even in dalaran.

Hello All most of you are getting low Fps no? then you have a completely shit computer then Wow requires heavy GPU and cpu and ram in linux i don’t know why but you need a faster computer to play wow on linux I have tested with a amd athlon xp 2500+, 1 gig ram, geforce 6200, 200 gig ata 133, Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jakalope, And the system is slow… My quad core computer is Intel core 2 quad Q6600 OC to 3.5 Ghz, 8 Gb ram, Nvidia geforce GTX 275 in sli, Asus striker extreme. And it works linix like its bitch.. I get over 60 fps in dalaran and 60 fps in a 40 man bg.. The lowest i seen hit was in AV when we hit the middle and warred till horde won and the low fps i seen was 56 fps… It wasn’t a huge hit but it could be better on a windows based system…

Hi, nice tutorial and all. But I got a huge graphic problem and I can’t seem to get it fixed.

First of all I’ve done exactly as you wrote in the tutorial, but then I ended up with strange graphic bugs, for example; on the login screen where the dragon is flying, it just got stuck at every pixel, finally painting the whole screen. I tried all the things you guys said in the comments but it didn’t work. So, finally I changed the SET gxApi to d3d9 and it worked better (still 50 times worse than in windows).

So now to the new problem, I got bad colors, parts of the interface that used to be black (eg. AH, Friendslist etc) are now Black/Grey cloud looking.
When I hold down W or S to run/walk backwards the animation freeze and I’m gliding over the landscape.
Also, when I do run or jump around the minimap flashes in the lower-left-hand corner. I also dropped down to 10fps in IF (at nights) where I usually have 40 in Windows.

I’m new to Linux and all, but when I install Ubuntu I don’t have to install any drivers, so I thought that I maybe had to update them. But when I go to Hp’s homepage and navigate to my model (Hp 550 notebook) I see they’re only available for Windows. Have been googling all night for an answer, but nothing!

Please help, I really don’t want to go back to Windows.

i did this exactly and it wont run. i open warcraft and i have thi little black mouse icon thing and when the login screen finally comes up its all mish mashed around and it exits out all by itself

i have WoW up and running fine… there are a few things i wish i could change but everything once i am playing is fine… i have voice chat in game but no ventrilo yet…

what i did…

reinstalled ubuntu 9.04… made sure that was up and running with my grahpics card (nvidia 9800gt), motherboard (asus m3a78-em) and soundcard (creative x-fi xtreme music)… made sure all updates were up and working too

installed wine by way of PPA at http://tuxarena.blogspot.com/2009/06/3-ways-to-install-latest-wine-in-ubuntu.html … and made sure that was up and running…

installed WoW by changing a few things, such as making folders that hold the WoW files in. this is explained at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WorldofWarcraft#Voice under the headin “Installing WoW”… this works for the Original and BC install discs but for WotLK i went to Blizzard and downloaded it the long way with their “Universal World of Warcraft Client” down which you can get if you already have an account there.

then after that is installed need to go fix the wtf file… i already know i need to set the resolution to a set number since i am running with 2 – 24″ monitors. i use SET gxResolution “2400×1080” for how i use it. you also need to add Set gxApi “opengl”.

you can add what is written in this site or i just added the resolution like i said and then the api, ffxDeath and ffxGlow as written above…

remember this though… this is NOT the only site for help with WoW on wine for linux

Hey guys, I’m working on my Linux box, trying to get WOW to run on it. but I’m having a problem right after the first opening cut scene where it glitches up and pops up with a system error, i noticed that another poster had the same problem, but he never got responded to. I’ve tried following all the steps, starting over from scratch, running the repair tool…the error’s text says

======================================================

this application has encountered a critical error: ERROR #132 (ox85100084) fatal exception Program: c:\programfiles\World Of Warcraft\wow.exc Exception: 0xc00000005 (ACCESS _VIOLATION) at 023:006054ED the instruction at “0x00605ED” referenced memory at “oxfa1c27b0”. the memory could not be “written”

=====================================================
let me know if anyone have a solution or at least an idea of how to fix the problem.

Mate mate, I’m running Ubuntu 9.10 and Warcraft is running the intro video to Lich King but it crashes as soon as it finishes, it says the memory can’t “read”

there is another way that i think would be very safe but i have not done it yet since i am happy at the moment with using wine for WoW. there is virtualbox to run windows on then you can download WoW on that… i am not sure of the details or the successes of doing that nor do i know of lag times or such with it. i am just giving another suggestion to those that think they might want to try that. a virtual machine makes it safe to use on any computer because it limits the problems to only that part of the computer and nothing more. its a try but again… i don’t know details.

Rrasyrogenees: i’m sure that would work, but I’m trying to get of of an emulator, it would be nice to use every thing from wine.

well… actually i thought wine was more of an emulator than a virtualbox but ok… i thought that with virtualbox you would be actually putting windows on your computer but in a confined space and you don’t need to log out and log in to it each time… but then again i am not sure all the details about it it is only what i have read about it so far and made my opinions… so if it IS an emulator i apologise. =D

Nah, VirtualBox is an all out emulator, but it works really well, I just want totry and get off the window OS entirely, with means going all out on wine for the programs I still need. But oh well, thanks for your help, and great tutorial, I think it was an error on my part for for why its not working, im going to try again tonight

[quote]wellโ€ฆ actually i thought wine was more of an emulator than a virtualbox but ok[/quote]

WINE = WINE Is Not an Emulator

WINE is a compatibility layer that interfaces between the commands given by windows based programs and directs them to the corresponding linux resources.

yes, i have heard that before but it still has the same windows problems and more… i am still having problems with it shutting off my computer just as windows would… so is that part of a program that is not an emulator… call it what you want but it still emulates windows even though technically it is NOT an emulator. it still “emultaes” the problems that windows presents. and my opionion still stands… although virtualbox might be an emulator and wine is not… wine still acts more like an emulator so far in my opinion… MY opinion…

ok… i just read an article…

Windows Application Emulation: Wine vs VirtualBox (Page 1 of 1)
Written by Steve Lake
Posted on: Mar 26, 2008 at 07:36am
http://www.raiden.net/articles/windows_application_emulation_wine_vs_virtualbox/

and although it is old and he also calls wine an emulator it gives good insight on the differences between wine and virtualbox. now i have a better idea of the two as well… wine will be better for most people that still want to use windows for games it seems…

so, i apologize for my outburst and i would also like to say that windows sux… but while wanting to play WoW it is an inevitable evil we must endure. and after this last patch WoW has caused my computer either to reboot or freeze or in some way make me have to reboot. Blizzard seems to be making things more difficult for us as well.

but i do listen to what anyone has to say it just takes time to get through this thick skull it seems… lol =D

I installed World of Warcraft all the way up to WotLK to this very day. Everything installed fine no errors or nothing but when I go to sign in I get a runtime error…. Can someone help me!?

hey, so i got stuck on step 5, it says the file can’t be found…when I try and run WoW the launcher starts up and starts patching, then it disappears and the box with installation options comes up, but I’ve already installed it…so yah idk what to do now >.<

ive been craving wow all night lol dammit

okay, so i was able to start the game and get past step 5.
now i need a way to download the latest patch?

anyone have any suggestions? >.<

Hey for step 5. We need to setup the config.wtf file inside your WoW folder if we do not have one, and we have to log in, does that mean our account has to be activated, and registered? And also, after I install this and it is working, if I wana install Burning Crusade and WOTLK do I have to do anything?

OMG. It’s so laggy I’ve spent the last 45 minutes trying to coax the slider to the bottom of the EULA to get the ‘Accept’ button to light up. Can’t do it. And even if I did, there’s another agreement after it. Can I just make a file called config.wtf and paste someone else’s stuff into it? That can’t be much different…right? How hard is it for Blizzard to make a damn linux version…

i’m running linux mint on my laptop & this is definitely the best tutorial for installing wow that i have seen. not to mention the easiest to follow as a linux newb.

here is my issue…

wow which only open if i use the wow.exe file opened with wine, which is fine. once it opens it completely warps my screen settings & reconfigures everything. i can get to the main login screen, but the visual effects are all screwed up with tracers & trails. when i actually login it gives me a grey runtime error box 2x & then again in the wow screen.

my normal display settings are 1280×800 at 60hz as i have a widescreen display. it resets it to something else that is completely screwed up. i went into the wow video options & adjusted & that seemed to help as far as it not reseting my screen anymore, but i still have all the tracers & trails & can’t login without the runtime errors.

i followed your tutorial to the t. please help! when i’m away from home, as i am a lot, i can’t play wow… which is how i releave my stresses… and of course it’s addicting & i’m in withdrawls… lol

Notmywoman,

I have installed wow with wine on linux successfully on ubuntu from 8.04 to present 9.10. On my last install I followed the directions here, except in the cfg file I erased everything and only added:

SET gxApi “opengl”

It set all of the other values which I adjusted once in the game.

might work. Unfortunately I have never installed mint on any of my computers. Good luck.

I’m new to Linux I have installed wow but on the very first update it comes up with a accept button but it will not let me hit the button even when I scroll all the way down to the bottom like i’m spouse to. Can any one help fix this (I am running Ubuntu 8.04 i only use LTS Versions)?

hey so bare with me i have 3 days of linux experience but i been trying to get wow running for all 3 days now and no luck, im running on a inspiron 1525 with ubuntu 10.0.4 and wine 1.2 and ive followed this tutorial step by step and when i try to load wow it will give me an error saying that “my 3d accelerator card is not supported by world of warcraft to please install a 3d accelerator card with duel-TMU support”, but if i run it without this stuff it will run but i only get 2 fps with complete min requirements to run. before i switched to linux i was running around 30-40 fps so im gussing i have done something wrong or missed something

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