Hello, my first post!
I wonder, do you need to have the games pre installed or do you have to install the games in lutris? How does it work? Can I also choose which drive I want the game itself on?
Edit 2: Can I install the blizzard app only, and through that install WoW?
Is anyone going to help me or what? Isn’t the linux community ”more helpful” than the windows community?
As far as I know, any game published by Blizzard, the first step is to install Blizzards game app and then install what game you want using the app, at least that is what I have read, I personally have never used Lutris to install games. I have always used Winetricks and Wine to install games.
Oh. But do you know if you can download games on a different drive through luttis?
@Stark Sorry I wasn’t able to answer your question until now, I went to the movies last night and saw Avengers End Game and Sham. To answer your question I wouldn’t know if Lutris can download games from a different drive. All I know about Lutris is it helps setting up games to run with Wine and Winetricks using custom made install scripts.
I see. But can you confirm that wow runs well with linux? Hah, I saw Endgame today.
Oh. But do you know if you can download games on a different drive through luttis?
You can put it on another drive so long as you know where that drive is mounted. Linux does not use drive letters like windows, instead it uses mount points like /media, /mnt, or in some cases /run. When installing a game there will be a prompt at one point asking where you want it within the lutris installation window, point it to where your drive is mounted and create a separate folder for each game. Be careful not to change the install location when using that actual game installer since its pointless as it will already be on the drive you specified and can lead to breakage in some cases.
I see. But can you confirm that wow runs well with linux?
When checking if a game works in wine you should check https://appdb.winehq.org/ when using wine, https://www.protondb.com/ when using proton, or do a quick web search on how to run a game on linux or on wine.
EDIT: typo
I see. But does luttis detect all the games that i have already installed? I have the blizzard app already installed on my hdd, will lutris detect it and wow?
It can (or at least could the last time I tried it) detect installed games so far as the game is installed “properly” (meaning it has a “shortcut” .desktop file in share/applications). If it doesn’t, however, it’s merely a matter of adding a game “shortcut” config to Lutris (in case of games “properly” installed externally, or those installed in Steam, you only need to select the game from detected list). Wine installs can be a bit trickier; but if you want an “out-of-the-box” installation experience, it’d be easier to just make a new install and copy the settings folder from your previous install… I think that was your original question? Default usage of Lutris goes like this: you open the website, find the game you want to install, click on the relevant Install button and Lutris will run setup (you generally have to provide an installer or log into the client in case of Steam/GOG/etc.); then, the game will be added to Lutris and can be run from there or exported as a menu/desktop shortcut.
As for whether WoW runs well on Linux… I’ve played it quite a few years ago, and at the very least back then it worked quite well (it uses OpenGL so performance isn’t really any lower than on Windows… in fact, I’ve heard that it was a bit better on Linux). Then again, WoW has never been a particularly demanding game in the first place (which is generally the case with MMOs).
I see. But thing is, my games are on my HDD which means the insallers themselves have created folders for the games. Can I now guide lutris to this folder and it will detect it just like steam would? Or do I really need to reinstall everything?
How was it installed? Did you use a different installer script or did you do install it in wine manually?
Oh no, I have not yet switched because I do not know how Lutris works truly. Now I installed it with the normal windows script, question is would lutris still be able to locate it and run it with wow already installed?
No, if you install it in windows it can only be used by that windows installation. What Lutris and wine does is create a prefix, which is almost like an ultra minimal, pseudo windows installation with just enough files to trick the game into thinking its running on windows. Lutris creates a prefix for each game and the specific configuration it needs which is why you should specify a separate folder for each game. Given that you are obviously new to Linux I am going to give you a few links to how Lutris and wine work as well as some basic tutorials in regards to the terminal (for being able to troubleshoot) and drive mounting.
Links:
Lutris wiki: https://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki
Lutris wiki DXVK setup: https://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/How-to:-DXVK
Lutris wiki ESYNC setup: https://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/How-to:-Esync
Lutris wiki Blizzard and WoW: https://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/Game:-Blizzard-App, https://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/Game:-World-of-Warcraft
Linux terminal tutorial with links at the bottom regarding help and what commands not to run: https://www.howtogeek.com/140679/beginner-geek-how-to-start-using-the-linux-terminal/
WineHQ Download page with tutorials for each distro: https://wiki.winehq.org/Download
Steam play (proton) info: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9439-QHKN-1308&l=
Automount tutorial: https://fossbytes.com/how-to-auto-mount-partitions-on-boot-in-linux-easily/
More on /etc/fstab (links to arch wiki, but the info applies to all distros): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab
If you are using Ubuntu or Linux Mint there is an option to try before you install, which I would highly recommend doing. It will be a little slower than a real install, but it will give you an idea on how each flavor feels before you go all the way.
Quick explanation: Windows programs are run with Wine (basically fake Windows environment), Wine prefix is the fake disk C: plus config (like which folder is disk D: or whether you use fake DirectX or install the one from Windows).
Well, then I might aswell wipe both my drives and install the big games on my hdd. Last question, can I install Lutris on my main drive but keep the games on my hdd?
Yes you can, when you install Lutris with your package manager (which is the easy and recommended method), it will install to your main drive and within the Lutris installation windows it will ask you each time where you want your game, which is why you need to know where your drive is mounted and that its mounted in the same place constantly. The tutorial I linked should help you with that. After the lutris installer script does its thing it will show you the actual game installer, which you just click through without changing anything, including the installation path (which will probably beak stuff and is completely pointless).
This is what it will look like
I would change the path to /home/lynn/.storage because that is where my secondary drive is mounted. It will likely be located somewhere else for you, depending on how you configure it.
Can you explain to me what the meaning of mounting is? I’ve heard it several times that it means to access files and such on your drives. But can you elaborate on this cause I have a hard time to understand it to the full extent.
By the way, when wiping your drives, take note that NTFS is not well-supported on Linux (because it’s a closed format). It’s usable but not recommended for full-time usage.
Mounting means you connect file tree of a disk to the Linux file tree (in Windows it’d add a new “letter” e.g. F:, in Linux it replaces an existing folder – usually empty one)
There is a full tutuorial here: https://fossbytes.com/how-to-auto-mount-partitions-on-boot-in-linux-easily/
and an even fuller explanation here if you want to know all the little details: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab. It will walk you through mounting your drive at a specified location each time. The only thing is you will need to change the permissions of the folder it is mounting at the first time it automounts. Do this by typing sudo chown USERNAME:USERNAME -R /your/mount/location, obviously replacing USERNAME with your username and /your/mount/location with where ever you configured it to mount at. You won’t see your password as you type it when using sudo and that is perfectly normal, just type it how you normally would.
That I know that the password won’t work. I do know some commands and such but still very new to it. If you can link me to a vid that shows mounting disks i would be grateful.