Recap of Vanguard on Linux after First Strike

EVE Technology and Research Center Linux
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Hi all,

I wrote a short (!) recap on the experiences, problems and solutions we collected in the Discord official server.

It’s in the thread I created to help other Linux users with the new launcher (then beta), and a lot of other penguin nerds - and developers - participated in the effort.

Of course, no guarantee that the provided solutions would work for everyone, or that CCP would setup EAC for Linux according to Epic’s documentation - albeit being quite simple.

I don’t think I can attach the document here.

So I’m just linking the message where the ODT was attached on Discord - it may be also a good chance for forum dwellers to meet other die-hard fans of our platform of choice:

Cheers.

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It would be nice to duplicate at least the info on how to make the new launcher work on linux here…

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The trouble with the new launcher lies in its installer: Squirrel requires a regular, unprivileged user to run and extract its payload. A very wise choice, but unfortunately WINE and Proton run every program as a local Windows administrator.

This prevents the installation of the launcher, and thus access to the game.

We found a few ways to work around the Squirrel problem; only one is needed, and after installation the launcher is fully compatible with WINE and Proton:

A. Use Steam, by opting-in the Beta branch and the code “TheInvitation” (case sensitive), installing the launcher from Steam, bypassing Squirrel altogether.

B. Manually extract the launcher package (“nupkg”, which is just a zip archive), and put it where it can be correctly run by WINE/Proton. Use this URL, modifying the version number adequately:

https://launcher.ccpgames.com/eve-online/release/win32/x64/eve-online-1.1.0-full.nupkg

C. Use Lutris, which allegedly implements a workaround for the “run as Administrator” default behavior in WINE/Proton, thus letting Squirrel do its job.

D. Get the Squirrel installer and modify the Setup file with a binary editor so that the check for Administrator is reversed, and the installer proceeds if the user has Administrator privileges.

smurftek: If you want to use the beta launcher under wine / proton without going through steam or having to change a bunch of settings, edit the binary and at address 00407436 replace it with “b8 01 00 00 00” and presto the launcher will work anywhere.

I personally tried methods A. and B., and they both worked.

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I can confirm that using Steam with the beta invitation works. I’ll give the nupkg method a shot in a little bit.

But I was curious about @Katrina_Bekers 's mention that lutris allows programs to run as non-admin users. I haven’t seen this setting before, but I may have been looking in the wrong places. Is there more info on getting this set up?

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Wine used to have a “runas” that could run programs as non-admin.

Stolen from Katrina over at the discord server :innocent:

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I have no first-hand experience on this. I’m reporting what other users in the Discord channel were suggesting. My recap is a collection of many, many users’ experiences and collective debugging, not just what I personally tried.

The “runas.exe” was a WINE compiled executable distributed with WINE stable (upto 5.11, if memory serves) and WINE staging ( =< 5.15.2), but no longer provided because allegedly “broken” and thus “disabled”. Ref.: WineHQ Bugzilla – Bug 40613 – Multiple applications require UAC implementation to run installer/app as a normal user instead of administrator (WhatsApp Desktop, Smartflix, Squirrel Installers, OneDrive)

Another interesting bit is the comment by Zeb (comment #50) who says:
“The plan is to implement this differently, using basically the reverse logic as in the old wine-staging patch set. Programs will be run as a normal user by default, and automatically elevated when requested. I.e. using “runas” should not be necessary anymore.”

This is from more than one year ago. UAC infrastructure in WINE is lacking at best, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for this to be correctly/cleanly/elengantly implemented anytime soon. But eventually, we will have these tools. In the meanwhile, try other solutions and some - like Lutris - may have patched WINE itself to always run as non-admin user.

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A word of warning, my fellow space and ground penguins!

At the time of writing this, my document linked above is OUTDATED. It may still contain useful tidbits and insights, but:

  • Vanguard already had its second First Strike playtest, and it’s bound to have its third in ~10 days.
  • The current Launcher version is 1.2.7 - and most likely more will be released coming next playtest cycles.
  • Steam beta code is not needed anymore, since the default launcher nowadays is the new one, and the old one received a forced update to switch to the new one anyway.

As usual with all linuxy things: your mileage may greatly vary.
In case of need, just hop in the official Discord and look for #new-launcher channel and its Linux thread.
Fly safe o7