Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

Running LaunchBox and Big Box on Linux


Jason Carr

Recommended Posts

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.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by jedigu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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  • Fix for a possible out-of-date apt-get issue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. :)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. ?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

@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.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@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 by The_Keeper86
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

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.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...