Running LaunchBox and Big Box on Linux

[bombatomba77]

To anyone currently running Wine Stable (the version of Wine that will be installed by default) on Ubuntu, Mint, and perhaps any of the other Debian-like distros, I HIGHLY recommend updating to the newest Wine Staging from WineHQ (5.16).  There is a quite a large performance increase overall (especially in regards to menuing), and if you are like me and already using LaunchBox in this manner, it is a breath of fresh air.  Instructions are on the WineHQ page.  I tested this on Linux Mint 20, and despite the instructions on the WineHQ Ubunutu page I did NOT remove the installed Wine before installing the new, instead letting apt do it's thing.  There were no dependency conflicts.

[The_Keeper86]

@bombatomba77 that's a pretty good idea! I haven't used staging in forever! Is there anything special we have to do after installing it? I Ubuntu/Debian based distros myself. Using Pop OS atm.

[bombatomba77]

@The_Keeper86 Yes.  If you are using stable you might have to change the Wine command on any launchers or shortcuts you may have created, as it changes to "wine" (from "wine-stable" I think).

[The_Keeper86]

On 9/5/2020 at 3:11 PM, bombatomba77 said:

@The_Keeper86 Yes.  If you are using stable you might have to change the Wine command on any launchers or shortcuts you may have created, as it changes to "wine" (from "wine-stable" I think).

Thanks! I might just wait and see if @Jason Carr adds it to the script. For now I'm still trying to figure out how to get Steam games to launch.

[jedigu]

Guys, LB/BB 11.4 and 11.5 won't launch on my system (Linux Mint 20): after succesfully installing it, trying to start LB gives me the error "The process cannot access the file 'C:\LaunchBox\Core\LBThemes\Default\Views\BoxesContentView.xaml' because it is being used by another process.", and LB keeps "Loading interface", requiring me to kill the process.

It's the same with BB, only difference being the error message shown: "The process cannot access the file 'C:\LaunchBox\Core\Themes\ComixBox\Styles\BoxListBoxItemStyle.xaml' because it is being used by another process.".

Has anyone managed to launch recent versions after 11.3? I'm attaching the error messages for both LB and BB, in case someone has any idea of how to work it out.

LB 11.3 launches without any issue - and of course, installing 11.3 over 11.4/11.5 makes LB and BB work as expected again.

BB_error.txt LB_error.txt

Edited September 15, 2020 by jedigu

[Jason Carr]

Hey all, I've updated the script at the beginning of this topic with the following:

• Updated to install the new 11.5 release
• Fix for a possible out-of-date apt-get issue
• Fix for @jedigu's reported issue above

11.5 was seeing some conflicts with the symlinks that were created by the previous script, so you may need to delete the ~/LaunchBox/drive_c/LaunchBox/Core folder before installing 11.5 if you're not starting fresh.

[jedigu]

35 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Hey all, I've updated the script at the beginning of this topic with the following:

• Updated to install the new 11.5 release
• Fix for a possible out-of-date apt-get issue
• Fix for @jedigu's reported issue above

11.5 was seeing some conflicts with the symlinks that were created by the previous script, so you may need to delete the ~/LaunchBox/drive_c/LaunchBox/Core folder before installing 11.5 if you're not starting fresh.

Thanks, @Jason Carr! LB /BB 11.5 are now working as expected on my rig. ?

[The_Keeper86]

Sweet! Thanks @Jason Carr for continuing with this!! @jedigu You tried launching any Steam games or any other games? I haven't tried myself yet as I'm not currently booted into a Linux distro.

[jedigu]

@The_Keeper86 Tried it and, as far as I can tell, LB / BB on Linux still can't launch Steam games, or launch ROMs / ISOs with the native versions of Retroarch, PCSX2 and Dolphin.

Edited September 16, 2020 by jedigu

[The_Keeper86]

@jedigu That's a shame I appreciate you trying though. What distro do you use out of curiosity? 

[jedigu]

@The_Keeper86 I use Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon and really like it. I've been a Mint user since Mint 17 (and before that, I used Ubuntu up to 16.04).

[The_Keeper86]

@jedigu Awesome, I've used Mint a lot off and on since the early days. Actually started using Ubuntu when it was like version 7.04 lol. I've tried many Arch based distros including Arch itself but still prefer Debian/Ubuntu distros. Something about apt I always enjoyed.

[TnkBeatsHunters]

I just tried the installer last night, and it ran for 45 minutes before throwing an error. Running: EndeavorOS Budgie (Arch). I keep hoping that someone uploads this setup to the AUR or Lutris lol I'll try again when changes are done to the installer, cause that's a lot of time to dedicate to one setup.

[Sterophonick]

I tried this the other day and it was incredibly unresponsive. Dragging a ROM onto the window will cause the program to hang. Lots of other things caused the program to hang
It is worth noting that it might be a good idea to have an option to set a specific core directory for RetroArch.

[The_Keeper86]

Anyone else having luck getting anything to launch? I've mostly been trying Steam games still with no luck

[jedigu]

@The_Keeper86 Same here: nothing that relies on native Linux version of Steam works so far.

The same also happens regarding launching games from LB / BB with native Linux emulators (native Retroarch, Dolphin, RPCS3 etc.), so no changes there up until now.

Like previously stated, games ran with the Windows version of Retroarch - through Wine - can be launched (except for a few specific cores like Duckstation); granted that it's quite a lot of games of various systems, but I still hope that, eventually, there's some way of launching said native apps through LB / BB on Linux. And although LB is kinda slow on my Linux rig, BigBox on the other hand is working on Linux just like it does on Windows, and it would be great if we could use it to launch Steam Games on Linux.

[The_Keeper86]

@jedigu I appreciate the reply and info! BigBox indeed runs great for me as well!

 

Figuring this out is beyond my knowledge. I've been using Linux and Wine off and on since the early 00s but I'm definitely not a programmer. However I'm totally up for giving any suggestions etc a shot. I did notice as I'm sure you did as well @jedigu that the Steam shortcut url id in Linux is slightly different than in Windows as well. I've mentioned it in this thread though.

Edited October 19, 2020 by The_Keeper86

[bombatomba77]

I am not sure if this is common knowledge, but it is entirely possible now to update to 11.7 from within LaunchBox, but I've only had success using this method within Ubuntu and Linux Mint.  If you are a Arch or Arch-like user (I use Manjaro), I was able to upgrade by installing on a Mint VB Guest OS, then copy the LaunchBox folder (within ~/LaunchBox/drive_c/) to your Arch or Arch-like installation.  Then you can either copy and Merge/replace the folder itself, or replace it entirely and use a LaunchBox Data Backup to restore.  The second is probably the best, as the first method will force you to re-add your emulators.  Not a big deal for me, as I only use RetroArch (also in Wine) at the moment.

If there are any Arch or Arch-like users out there, the install process is filled with errors and feels erratic, but should work.  I haven't had a chance for a "full installation" using the current script in Manjaro, but it worked for 11.3.  I think the primary reason for this is .Net 4.8 and/or Core just doesn't install properly.  On my screen you end up getting a scrolling all of text, and a couple times I had to actually Ctrl-C to get the installation to continue (though on more than one occasion this killed the install), but I did get it to work about 50% of the time.  If you can't get it to work with 11.5, I would recommend trying with the 11.3 script (try messaging @Jason Carr and perhaps he'll still have it) and running the commands in groups instead of the the script all together (even if you change the script to use pacman instead of apt there are no guarantees).  And be patient, it will work sooner or later!  Once you get a working 11.5 (or 11.3) I highly recommend you copy the ~/LaunchBox folder and archive it in a safe place.  Keep it safe, and never run an upgrade on your original copy!  From then on I recommend keeping a Mint guest OS in VB and upgrade the way I described above.

Once you get a working copy, remember that certain things either do not work or cause error boxes to pop up.  For example trying to drag and drop files onto LaunchBox.  For me this causes the software to freeze, so instead I use the Import ROM files tool (under Import>ROM files).  Another thing to watch out for is when is in the "Would you like to download images for your games?" portion of the Import process, make sure to uncheck the "Remove roughly-matched duplicate images" checkbox.  I am not sure about Debian-like, but on my Manjaro boxes this caused Wine pop-up errors with every image downloaded.  It would still download the images, but imagine importing a folder with a hundred games and having to click off Wine error boxes with every image!

Also, I would like to again thank @Jason Carr for getting this started and updated.  Personally I don't need native integration, I just need a single place where I can put all my games and import them in batches, and despite there being a lot of options in Linux (Nostlan, Lutris, Games, GamesHub, and Pegasus), NONE of them have the look, feel, and reliability that I want.

 

[ngcbg]

I am not sure if in a long term it's going to be less painless to create a native port for *nix, instead supporting multiple issues with wine. Of course that is possible only if  there are enough Linux users to justify the investment. Since there are no such complete products for unix in this market niche it could prove valuable to create a marketing research to prove or reject this. Just my 5 cents here... All best!

[jedigu]

I haven't been able to update to version 11.8 on Linux, because it always gives me an error at the end (log attached); reinstalling 11.7 makes LB / BB work again.

Anyone managed to get it working?

backtrace.txt