As far as I know the Curse/Twitch Client doesn’t work under Linux. That’s good because it’s a pest. There are enough better alternatives. Since this question came up in another post, I decided it would be a good idea to spread the word:
Python script with GUI to pull updates from Curse addon site: LCurse and LCurse fork
Another python script with GUI WoW-Addon-Updater which covers Curse and WoWInterface
WoW Addon Updater which covers Curse, WoWInterface, ElvUI and TukUI.
Thanks for the list.
I have only just started playing WoW on Linux. I have been playing since Vanilla on Windows and has been great to finally switch and it runs perfectly too!
I have been using number 3.
It seems to be really good for what I need as I was able to search for all the add-ons I needed and add them to the list via a GUI.
The only downside I am seeing regarding any of these applications is that I can’t select which type of build of the addon it downloads as I could with Curse. e.g beta or alpha. To get the cutting edge/nightly releases.
Although, now I don’t raid mythic or hardly at all. It is just a preference I have had since back in the day.
WoWMatrix doesn’t respect addon developers. WoWMatrix takes addons from other websites without asking to fuel their own business without giving anything back. Most addon developers don’t want their addons published by WoWMatrix. I’m respecting addon developers work, so I’m not going to use WoWMatrix and I’m not going to recommend it.
i haven’t tried the fork, but LCurse didn’t work when I tried it on Linux Mint 19 (I didn’t try compiling it myself though). I ended up switching to Wow Addon Updater, which IMO is actually a lot better as it supports sites other than CurseForge.
I don’t know about all that 'WoWMatrix doesn’t respect addon developers" thing. I recall that being a thing years ago, but looking at it now, they seem to be more developer friendly.
They have a donation system where you can donate directly to a developer. In fact the default setting is to display the donation reminder every time you update. They link to the developers addon site so users can visit it if they feel like it. They offer developers the option to let WoWMatrix host their files for them. An addon developer can request their addon be taken down from WoWMatrix. Seems alright to me. Developers are salty about addon managers listing their stuff that they haven’t given permission for?
The situation with WoWMatrix hasn’t changed at all. They don’t host addons, they don’t provide developers support, no forum, no nothing - they leech download bandwidth other sites pay for and monetarize this leeching. Whenever those other sites tried to defend themselves against that leeching WoWMatrix found ways around it. No addon author should have to request their addon to be taken out of that business scheme, WoWMatrix should ask first.
I’m not very fond of Curse since they joined with Twitch but for years they provided huge hosting services for addons (the user is only seeing the forefront of it) and they still do to some extent. WoWInterface does the same without a big commercial backer (just 3 guys keeping it up). This is not much about donations or author payments but about infrastructure. I don’t know about present Curse but the people who ran the site well before Twitch and the people running WoWInterface are ok with Linux users running their own non-commercial updaters but not with WoWMatrix creating revenue out of their efforts.
This situation has remained the same through the last 10 years.
I actually just installed the Twitch app on Bionic and it’s working perfectly for updating addons. The only trick is you have to set it up in a separate prefix to avoid it breaking the Battlenet app in the Lutris prefix when you install the required dotnet46. It’s no problem thought because I could just point it to the correct folder for WoW addons and done. It’s clumsier than it needs to be for just keeping addons up-to-date but I like it in that it simulates my experience from my Windows days. If anyone likes the Twitch app, go for it!
Just create a new 32 bit wine prefix, then run winetricks to install dotnet46 (it may run well in newer versions of dotnet but that’s the one I used). Then download and install the windows setup file and run it with within that prefix.
And install the dotnet46 component by clicking ‘select the current wine prefix’ then ‘install a Windows DLL or component’. It’ll be one in the list. Let that install and then run the setup file within that prefix with
Run and install as usual. Then it essentially runs like on windows. The only difference is you need to point the addon manager to the WoW folder in the appropriate prefix by going through z:/ drive.
Warning: DO NOT add dotnet46 to your WoW prefix as it’ll break Battlenet.
Thanks for your time and effort making this walkthrough ,but i ended up (before I read your guide) installing Twitch through Lutris. Worked like a charm, without any special workarounds, so I am happy
Curse has changed its directory structure so the updater scripts I mentioned won’t work anymore. Has anybody already found a working (non-twitch) updater?
Do the other scripts respect addon developers? Are they granted permissions from Curse and Wowinterface? If not then I see no problem with Wowmatrix compared to the others.
Both sites expressed tolerance for non-commercial scripts in earlier years. I don’t know of any recent comments. There is no legal problem with any of the scripts because they just do what any search engine does: crawl the site. The moral problem with WoW matrix is that they earn money with their updater. And that both curse and wowinterface strongly expressed that, even if other scripts are tolerated, WoW-Matrix is not. So whatever you think about the other scripts, if you care about the opinions of curse and wowinterface, you cannot use WoW-Matrix. They made clear over the years that they are strongly against WoW-Matrix because it keeps monetarizing their work. Leeching money has always been the argument.
Got a sad email from the maintainer of one of the linux addon updaters. I didn’t ask for permissions to share this from the email but I hope it’s ok:
Curse has cost me a lot of time and nerves in recent years. Like now again. Now they have installed the Cloudflare protection, there is a real problem. Now each request will be checked, if the “Browser” (the WoW-Addon-Updater) supports Java-Script - which of course is not possible.
Until last week all functions (except search function) working properly. But now they have extend this „Cloudflare proctection“ globally, now each core function try to access the site will be blocked with http 403 Forbidden. This have the the effect, that no free tool like the WoW-Addon-Updater is usable anymore. By simply ignoring web standards as provider and offering only proprietary stuff full of advertisements and trackers. A very tragic trend.
I’m not sure I can fix it at all. In addition, I don’t have time to work on the Addon-Updater at the moment, because I have much of other things to do now. This will probably continue for the rest of the year (careful estimation). I hope that I will have some time afterwards.
Since DDOS is a spreading malady for all big sites today they are forced to use cloudflare or similar services. To solve the problem there’s a python library called cfscrape that uses nodejs - I’m sure there are similar libraries for other programming languages too. The python scripts deriving from lcurse I mentioned are still working with that dependency.
Hey Atraisce, i’m trying to get Twitch working but my dotnet46 is stuck on install even via lutris my dotnet48 is stuck. I did try with my current wine staging version 5.6 with 32bit bottle but that’s what happened. I’ve done installation of dotnet46 via PlayonLinux with lower wine version 3.2 and installation went smooth but my Twitch app won’t start or getting just black window with errors.
What version of wine did you use to get it working (stable, delve or staging) and did you maybe install any additional libs? DId you use updated winetricks?
