Running LaunchBox and Big Box on Linux

[bombatomba77]

9 hours ago, Sterophonick said:

You'll need to compile Dolphin yourself and then place the "dolphin-emu" executable in a folder named "Dolphin" in your emulators folder.

Ah, that makes perfect sense.  Thank you!  Also works when I point to the path of the binary with Wine addressing (so, Z:\bin\dolphin-emu).  Yay!  Now to figure out PCSX2.  Hmm.

[bombatomba77]

Got PCSX2 working... sort of.  First many thanks to @Sterophonick for the scripts.  Could not have done it without those (and the explanation).  Anyway, copy the following contents to a file and call it pcsx2.bat (or whatever) and put it in your Emulators section in LaunchBox:

Quote

@for /f "delims=" %%i in ('winepath -u %1') do set content=%%i
cmd /c start /unix Emulation/PCSX2 "%content%"

Change the "Emulation/PCSX2" of the script to the location of your PCSX2 binary, just make sure you run PCSX2 and set it up first.  Now for the weirdness, for some reason it will not work with a double-click, but if you right click and select the .bat file it works fine.  No idea why, as it does not do this for Dolphin, so maybe a quirk of PCSX2.  Doesn't matter to me, though, as I can use native PCSX2 on my PS2 games!  Woo hoo!

EDIT: My fault. I had Retroarch as a default Emulator for my PS2 games.  Oops!  Double-click works like a charm!

Edited February 25, 2021 by bombatomba77
Doh!

[firewater]

I've been following this for a while. Lord this is difficult. I'm not on Linux and I'm not using LaunchBox. I'm on macOS and I'm using RetroFE. But there's enough overlap, and the findings by @Sterophonick on the commands are getting me almost, almost there. I'm not yet dealing with the bat file, first I'm trying to see if I can open anything with the terminal using wine cmd and then:

cmd /c start Z:/Applications/Dolphin.app/Contents/MacOS/Dolphin -e

cmd /c start /unix Dolphin.app/Contents/MacOS/Dolphin

cmd /c start Z:/Applications/RetroArch.app/Contents/MacOS/RetroArch

cmd /c start /unix RetroArch.app/Contents/MacOS/RetroArch

all these indeed open the .app. Do note that for the /unix commands I have to move the .app to Users/myusername because calling the full Z: path doesn't work.

But, appending the game afterwards just doesn't get picked up. I have my drive added on wine under I: so say:

cmd /c start Z:/Applications/Dolphin.app/Contents/MacOS/Dolphin -e "I:/Games/GameCube/Animal Crossing/Animal Crossing.gcz"

or any variation, /unix, backward slash, quote, no quote... it always outputs Dolphin saying it couldn't find the file.

On RetroArch it's about the same because of the -L command part:

cmd /c start Z:/Applications/RetroArch.app/Contents/MacOS/RetroArch --verbose -L "Z:/Applications/RetroArch.app/Contents/Resources/cores/mgba_libretro.dylib"

outputs:

--libretro argument "Z:/Applications/RetroArch.app/Contents/Resources/cores/mgba_libretro.dylib" is neither a file nor directory. Ignoring.

and opens RetroArch without the core loaded.

So obviously this second path is being passed on wrong. It's very difficult to find information on this subject. If you guys got any idea, I'd appreciate it.

[victorguo]

On 15/07/2020 at 16:09, Jason Carr said:

Desde o lançamento do LaunchBox 11.2, estamos trabalhando para colocar o LaunchBox e o Big Box em execução no Linux usando Wine. Lembre-se de que isso não é para os fracos de coração, e você ainda pode ter problemas neste momento. Dito isso, tanto o LaunchBox quanto o Big Box agora pelo menos funcionam principalmente, desde a versão 11.3-beta-9.

Graças a @estático no Discord para algumas dicas e truques adicionais que ainda não havíamos descoberto.

Aqui estão alguns problemas conhecidos atuais:

• Apenas o mecanismo de reprodução de vídeo VLC funciona (é claro que o mecanismo de reprodução de vídeo do Windows Media Player não funciona)
• Comparado ao Windows, não é tão bonito; fontes e redimensionamento de imagem WPF não estão à altura de suas contrapartes do Windows
• É um pouco mais lento que o Windows
• O lançamento de jogos pode ou não funcionar, pois não fizemos muitos testes com ele
• Vários outros recursos podem estar corrompidos que ainda não descobrimos
• Quaisquer recursos que usam o Chromium Embedded Framework (navegação na web) não funcionam

Com essas ressalvas, aqui está um script para fazer o LaunchBox 11.3-beta-9 rodar no Ubuntu 20.04 (atualizado em 5 de agosto de 2020) :

  Revelar conteúdos ocultos

#!/bin/bash

# navigate to user folder
cd ~/

# make sure apt-get is updated
sudo apt-get update

# download and install wine, winetricks, and python2
sudo apt-get -y install wine winetricks python2

# download and install Windows fonts
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox winetricks corefonts

# download and install .NET versions (takes a long time and requires clicks)
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox winetricks dotnet48

# download and install Direct3D compiler
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox winetricks -q d3dcompiler_47

# download and install Media Foundation
wget -O mf-install.zip https://github.com/z0z0z/mf-install/archive/master.zip
unzip mf-install.zip
cd mf-install-master
chmod +x mf-install.sh
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox ./mf-install.sh
cd ..

# download and install Media Foundation Cab
wget -O mf-installcab.zip https://github.com/z0z0z/mf-installcab/archive/master.zip
unzip mf-installcab.zip
cd mf-installcab-master
chmod +x install-mf-64.sh
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox ./install-mf-64.sh
cd ..

# download and install DirectX Vulkan (requires clicks, click "No" twice when asked "Do you want to view information about this issue?")
wget -O dxvk.zip https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/archive/master.zip
unzip dxvk.zip
cd dxvk-master
chmod +x setup_dxvk.sh
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox ./setup_dxvk.sh install
cd ..

# download and install .NET Core 3.1.6
wget -O windowsdesktop-runtime-3.1.6-win-x64.exe http://download.visualstudio.microsoft.com/download/pr/3eb7efa1-96c6-4e97-bb9f-563ecf595f8a/7efd9c1cdd74df8fb0a34c288138a84f/windowsdesktop-runtime-3.1.6-win-x64.exe
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox wine ./windowsdesktop-runtime-3.1.6-win-x64.exe /passive /norestart

# download and install Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable
wget http://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox wine ./vc_redist.x64.exe /passive /norestart

# download and install LaunchBox 11.5
wget -O LaunchBox-11.5-Setup.exe https://www.dropbox.com/s/y183jh5o6ob98zf/LaunchBox-11.5-Setup.exe?dl=0
WINEPREFIX=~/LaunchBox wine ./LaunchBox-11.5-Setup.exe /DIR=C:\LaunchBox /SILENT

 

Você pode executar este script manualmente (não recomendado) ou baixar o arquivo "launchbox-install.sh" anexado e executá-lo automaticamente (recomendado). Para isso, baixe o arquivo, abra um terminal na pasta onde se encontra o arquivo e digite os seguintes comandos:

Sua senha será solicitada pelo menos uma vez e, eventualmente, você terá que clicar em vários instaladores para .NET e similares. Se tudo funcionar corretamente, você verá o processo de inicialização do LaunchBox. Se tudo mais falhar, tente começar com uma nova instalação do Ubuntu 20.04 de 64 bits.

No futuro, esperamos tornar o LaunchBox e o Big Box mais compatíveis com o Linux, na medida do possível, sem reescrever completamente os aplicativos.

Deixe-nos saber como está abaixo e diga-nos o que está ou não funcionando. Boa sorte!

 

launchbox-install.sh 1,99 kB · 622 downloads

Batocera.linux, Batocera.Plus está usando wine e proton muito bem..

[jedigu]

Well, months have gone by and still, none of the newer versions of LB / BB work with Wine (I tried all of them, with no success); last working version is still 11.7 (without any of the new features, and LB 11.7 still has frequent crashes and is SO slow); Steam games still need to be edited on the xml file one by one (I've got a few hundred games on Steam, so that's a no-no for me); and no official updates on Wine/Linux support... I can only hope there's some twist in this whole situation and that, someday, we may ditch Windows when it comes to comfortably run LB on Linux , but I'm not too optimistic.

Edited May 16, 2021 by jedigu

[The_Keeper86]

16 hours ago, jedigu said:

Well, months have gone by and still, none of the newer versions of LB / BB work with Wine (I tried all of them, with no success); last working version is still 11.7 (without any of the new features, and LB 11.7 still has frequent crashes and is SO slow); Steam games still need to be edited on the xml file one by one (I've got a few hundred games on Steam, so that's a no-no for me); and no official updates on Wine/Linux support... I can only hope there's some twist in this whole situation and that, someday, we may ditch Windows when it comes to comfortably run LB on Linux , but I'm not too optimistic.

Yeah, it's a shame really but I understand Jason is busy working on new updates etc. Wish we had some more Linux gurus to help with this.

[Dark574]

hey there,

i just installed Launchbox 11.5 on my Manjaro installation. It works so far with a few bugs

I hope that we will receive further work from the LaunchBox-Team for Linux.....LaunchBox is so fantastic, it would be wonderful to get it running properly on Linux

Edited May 18, 2021 by Dark574

[Sterophonick]

I really hope we do get a proper conversion at some point. A lack of a proper way of running LaunchBox is the one thing keeping me from switching full-time. Lutris just doesn't have the feature set or the style. Just a somewhat boring GTK interface.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Sterophonick

[The_Keeper86]

37 minutes ago, Sterophonick said:

I really hope we do get a proper conversion at some point. A lack of a proper port of LaunchBox is the one thing keeping me from switching full-time. Lutris just doesn't have the feature set or the style. Just a somewhat boring GTK interface.

That and the past 17 years of using Linux I could never find any good frontend

[Dark574]

the only other Frontend on Linux which looks nice is Attract Mode. But compared to LaunchBox its way second place

 

[Sterophonick]

20 hours ago, Dark574 said:

the only other Frontend on Linux which looks nice is Attract Mode. But compared to LaunchBox its way second place

 

I really like the WIMPS layout of LaunchBox over something like Attract-Mode or EmulationStation.

[Sterophonick]

Here's a thought.

Maybe @Jason Carr could make a "limited support release" variant of LaunchBox that is native to Linux, where updates are either slow to come or don't at all, and issues are of a low priority. This way, interest can be built up for possible Linux releases, if there is enough interest, that is. More of a proof-of-concept than anything else.

Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but I just wanted to share an idea.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Sterophonick

[DavrosKaled]

Is anyone else getting a timeout issue at the segment where it installs mf-installcab.zip?

Side note: I am so sad that more Linux users are not helping. I truly want this to take off.

[DavrosKaled]

3 minutes ago, DavrosKaled said:

Is anyone else getting a timeout issue at the segment where it installs mf-installcab.zip?

Side note: I am so sad that more Linux users are not helping. I truly want this to take off.

[neil9000]

20 minutes ago, DavrosKaled said:

Side note: I am so sad that more Linux users are not helping. I truly want this to take off.

Its probably due to the fact that Launchbox is Windows only for the most part, so 99% of the users here will be Windows users that do not use Linux, if they even are aware of what it is. I have huge respect for Linux, but lets be honest its a very niche OS, and as Launchbox is a Windows application most people on this forum will be running Windows. I have no doubt we have Linux users here, but i bet they also have a Windows machine, and thats what they run Launchbox on, Launchbox has full compatibility there and most people want a frontend that just works, not one that needs constant babysitting like what is required to get this up and running on Linux, not to mention the added complexity of running on Linux, (heavy use of the terminal, installing repositories being just two concepts that are completely alien to most Windows users) most people just want to click install on Windows and go.

[AbbieDoobie]

I'm hoping Launchbox can get some form of native linux support by the time Steam Deck is more readily available (mid 2022 it sounds like). I have Launchbox setup in an entirely portable way on my NAS, so that I can use it across multiple PCs. I'd like to be able to at least sync the same Roms/Saves and possibly theme across linux and windows. Automatic handling of linux or windows based emulators may be a heck of a stretch, but that would be amazing as well!

[DavrosKaled]

On 7/19/2021 at 11:35 PM, neil9000 said:

Its probably due to the fact that Launchbox is Windows only for the most part, so 99% of the users here will be Windows users that do not use Linux, if they even are aware of what it is. I have huge respect for Linux, but lets be honest its a very niche OS, and as Launchbox is a Windows application most people on this forum will be running Windows. I have no doubt we have Linux users here, but i bet they also have a Windows machine, and thats what they run Launchbox on, Launchbox has full compatibility there and most people want a frontend that just works, not one that needs constant babysitting like what is required to get this up and running on Linux, not to mention the added complexity of running on Linux, (heavy use of the terminal, installing repositories being just two concepts that are completely alien to most Windows users) most people just want to click install on Windows and go.

Linux is blowing up in the IT world nowadays. RHEL is killing Microsoft so much in the Enterprise space that Microsoft now have a Linux Distro.
SteamDeck will be Linux out of the Box and Proton has gone a long way to close the gap between Windows and Linux gaming.

I understand that you don't see the demand. But if you were to pop this up on GitHub the community would deliver this for you.

Edited July 26, 2021 by DavrosKaled
Grammar

[neil9000]

5 minutes ago, DavrosKaled said:

I understand that you don't see the demand. But if you were to pop this up on GitHub the community would deliver this for you.

That's the issue though, Launchbox is closed source, and also only has two devs, which means time and resources are a issue, for what is a limited audience, who are also used to getting things for free. I'm sure if Launchbox was made for Linux the basic program would still be free, and you pay for Premium and BIgbox, as is currently the case, and you would want to be using Bigbox on a device like the Steamdeck

[DavrosKaled]

3 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

That's the issue though, Launchbox is closed source, and also only has two devs, which means time and resources are a issue, for what is a limited audience, who are also used to getting things for free. I'm sure if Launchbox was made for Linux the basic program would still be free, and you pay for Premium and BIgbox, as is currently the case, and you would want to be using Bigbox on a device like the Steamdeck

I am a Linux user, but I also have paid products. BigBox would still be a paid feature, no one would demand otherwise.

[AbbieDoobie]

 

4 hours ago, neil9000 said:

That's the issue though, Launchbox is closed source, and also only has two devs, which means time and resources are a issue, for what is a limited audience, who are also used to getting things for free. I'm sure if Launchbox was made for Linux the basic program would still be free, and you pay for Premium and BIgbox, as is currently the case, and you would want to be using Bigbox on a device like the Steamdeck

 

4 hours ago, DavrosKaled said:

I am a Linux user, but I also have paid products. BigBox would still be a paid feature, no one would demand otherwise.

Agreed. Open source software still allows for paid use for particular features. Typically repos on GitHub and/or other sources just skip hosting releases on that site (in the case of fully unlocked software that lacks 'licensing' code). This is somewhat common on Patreon, where the source code is on GitHub, but the creator hosts official releases on their Patreon page.

Sure, a savvy user can build a release themselves, striping out the licensing, but only a savvy user will know how. The majority of Windows users will continue to use the standard free version, or pay for BigBox, I imagine. Linux users may be more knowledgeable on average, and thus capable of building it themselves, but I have two counter points on that:

1. Linux community is small, so even if 'rogue' users build a release for themselves, the impact on existing Windows user licensing income should hopefully be negligible.
2. Linux users are often more aware of the license terms they are agreeing to, and what all goes into software development. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of Linux users who want access to BigBox will be willing to pay for it, out of respect to the dev team.