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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Pipelight Brings Widevine Support For Linux Web Browsers

Pipelight, a project that allows you to install Silverlight to any Linux browser that supports the Netscape Plugin API (Firefox, Chrome, Midori), allowing you to use video streaming websites such as Neflix, has been updated yesterday, getting Widevine support and Linux windowless mode.

For those not familiar with Pipelight, this is a WINE browser plugin that was initially created to allow you to access services that require Microsoft Silverlight such as Netflix, LOVEFiLM, Maxdome and more, using native Linux web browsers. The plugin has evolved and besides Silverlight, it now allows using the Windows Adobe Flash Player in Linux browsers and, with the new 0.2.4 release, it also adds Widevine support.

Widevine is a browser plugin designed for viewing premium video content, used by websites such as HBO Go, Cinemax and many others. It is currently fully supported only on Windows and Mac OS X. On Linux, Widevine is bundled with Chrome browser but it's not largely used by websites as it's only compatible with a single browser.

According to the Pipelight 0.2.4 release announcement:

"The plugin itself does not work standalone and instead just offers DRM capabilities to the normal Flash plugin. While the Widevine plugin itself does all DRM related stuff like key exchange and decryption, the rendering is still done by the normal Flash plugin. Pipelight allows you to combine Widevine with either Windows, Linux or Pepper Flash."

Another change in the latest Pipelight 0.2.4 is the addition of Linux Windowless mode support, required by some Qt based browsers or browsers which do not support overlaying of normal windows like the OpenGL based Steam browser. Currently it's not recommended to use this mode if it's not necessary because it doesn't use hardware acceleration on it's own.

To enable this mode either set PIPELIGHT_WINDOWLESSMODE=2 to enable it for all plugins (caution for plugins that always use 3d rendering!) or set linuxWindowlessMode = true in the according plugin config. To do this, copy the config file to your ~/.config folder, then open it with a text editor such as gedit:

cp /usr/share/pipelight/pipelight ~/.config/pipelight
gedit ~/.config/pipelight

Pipelight 0.2.4 also introduces various speed improvements for Silverlight, especially for slow systems that were not able to rach the full frame rate and more.

For how to install Pipelight, how to enable Widevine and so on, see our initial article: Pipelight: Use Silverlight In Your Linux Browser To Watch Netflix, Maxdome Videos And More

Workaround For Black / Distorted Battle.net UI On Linux (Wine) With Intel Graphics

Blizzard's Battle.net tool was updated recently, probably in preparation for the upcoming WoW expansion called Warlords of Draenor, resulting in either a black screen or distorted / scrambled graphics on Linux (with Wine) with Intel graphics.

It looks like this is not a Wine or Battle.net bug but an Intel graphic drivers bug, at least that's what the Wine developers suggest.

1. There is a partial workaround that you can use to get Battle.net to work under Linux (Wine) with Intel graphics - launching Battle.net with "LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1".

Unfortunately, using this workaround isn't a solution if you use Battle.net to launch Blizzard's games because they will use software rendering and the performance will be awful. That's why the title says "partial workaround".

This tweak should only be used if you want to install or update Blizzard's games via Battle.net. Of course, if you only want to update games and you've enabled automatic updates, you won't need this, because Battle.net may look broken, but it actually works and it will install the updates (but you won't be able to see the update progress, obviously).

After you've successfully installed a game, you can launch it manually, by double clicking the game executable or via command line - see our World of Warcraft article for how to run WoW using a script (with some performance tweaks).

Here's how Battle.net looks like on my laptop (with Intel graphics) before using this tweak:

And after:

To launch Battle.net with "LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1", use the following command:

LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program*/Battle.net/"Battle.net Launcher.exe"

Note that the command above assumes you've installed Battle.net in the default location (~/.wine/drive_c/...) but if you've used a different location, you need to change the path for the command above.

2 (Update): there is another workaround (thanks to synn89 @ Reddit) that shouldn't affect game performance: appending "-opengl" to the Battle.net launch command, like this:

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program*/Battle.net/"Battle.net Launcher.exe" -opengl

Just like with the fist workaround, the command above assumes you've installed Battle.net in the default location (~/.wine/drive_c/...) but if you've used a different location, you need to change the path for the command above.

Note: instructions tested with Wine 1.7.28 and World of Warcraft.

QLLauncher: Quake Live Launcher For Linux

QLLauncher is a Quake Live launcher for Linux which comes with various tweaks that should improve the game's performance. Furthermore, the tool supports downloading and updating Quake Live along with other useful features.

For those not familiar with Quake Live, this is a free to play (with optional subscription options that include more arenas, game types and game server options) first-person shooter video game developed by id Software that was originally downloaded and launched via a web browser plugin. About a year ago, Quake Live became a standalone game and with this, Linux and Mac were no longer supported, though the game can still be played via Wine.

More information on Quake Live: Wikipedia | Quake Live homepage.

Now back to Quake Live launcher for Linux (QLLauncher). It's important to note that to be able to play Quake Live under Linux, you'll need Wine - installing QLLauncher from the PPA will install Wine if it's not already installed on your system.

Also, QLLauncher only works with Quake Live accounts which aren't connected with Steam. If you have an account connected with Steam, you'll have to create a new Quake Live account to be able to use QLLauncher.

QLLauncher features:

better Quake Live performance on Linux (it blocks awesomium_process, which causes lag and lower FPS, among others);
automatically downloads / updates Quake Live;
browse game servers with optional filters;
join server by server ID or IP address;
spawn your own server (this is a premium Quake Live feature);
set mouse acceleration.

While the app is great and I didn't encounter any functionality issues with QLLauncher or Quake Live in my test under Ubuntu 14.10, the QLLauncher main UI could use some improvements. That's because there are no window decorations so to move the window you must hold the ALT key and drag the window with your mouse. Also, to close it, you must press the ESC key.

Install QLLauncher in Ubuntu 14.04 or 14.10 / Linux Mint 17 or 17.1

The latest QLLauncher is available in a PPA, for Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10 / Linux Mint 17 and 17.1 and derivatives. To add the PPA and install QLLauncher, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:broken/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qllauncher

If you don't want to add the PPA, you can download the latest QQLauncher deb from HERE.

Update: Arch Linux users can now install QLLauncher (git) via AUR.

To grab the QLLauncher source code, report bugs and so on, see its Bitbucket page.

Once installed, start QLLauncher from your menu / Dash and the tool will download Quake Live for you:

Once the game download completes, open the QLLauncher settings and enter your Quake Live username and password - that's it, now click "Servers" (or manually enter a server), select a server and start playing Quake Live on Linux:

Fix: Unity Panel And Launcher Displayed On Top Of Fullscreen Wine Games Or Applications

If you run fullscreen Wine games or apps and the Unity panel and launcher show up on top of the game/app in some cases, here's a simple fix you can use.

I don't play too many games (especially Wine games) so I'm not sure how many are affected by this, but I've encountered this issue with World of Warcraft (via Wine) and I though the workaround below might help some of you, especially those who are relatively new to Ubuntu.

To fix Unity panel and launcher being displayed on top of some fullscreen Wine games/applications, firstly install CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM):

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open CompizConfig Settings Manager, search for the "Workarounds" plugin (it should be displayed under "Utility") and enable "Legacy Fullscreen Support":

There is another way to solve this: by setting Wine to Emulate a virtual desktop (Wine configuration > Graphics) but that workaround has some drawbacks, like displaying a background for non-maximized Wine apps, that's why using the CCSM settings mentioned above should provide a better results.

Get New Wine Features Faster With `Wine Staging` [PPA]

Wine Staging is a Wine version which provides bug fixes and features that aren't yet available in regular Wine versions.

Wine Staging (formerly known as Wine Compholio) was initially created for Pipelight, a project that brings Silverlight and other Windows-only plugins to Linux web browsers. The project has evolved and some Linux distributions, like Fedora, provide it in the official repositories instead of the regular Wine version.

The latest Wine Staging provides the following extra features and bug fixes:

CSMT (Commandstream multithreading) for better graphic performance
CUDA / PhysX / NVENC Support for NVIDIA graphic cards
DXVA2 GPU video decoding (experimental)
EAX 1 support
Fixes for various upstream regressions
Job Object support
Loading of .NET CLI images without entry point
Named Pipe message mode support (Linux kernel >= 3.4 only)
Performance improvements for IO-heavy programs and memory allocation functions
S3 texture compression (DXTn) support
Threadpool API support
Various improvements to d3dx9
Various speed improvements (shared memory, RT priority)
Windows ACL support
Wine PulseAudio driver

For a complete list, see the Wine Staging GitHub page.

Some of these features are optional and they can enabled or disabled via Wine Configuration, on the Staging tab:

Install Wine Staging in Ubuntu or Linux Mint

Wine Staging is available in the Pipelight PPA for Ubuntu, Linux Mint and derivatives. To add the PPA and install Wine Staging, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pipelight/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends wine-staging

If you're on 64bit and want to use the 64bit Wine version, also install 'wine-staging-amd64':

sudo apt-get install wine-staging-amd64

The Wine Staging executables aren't installed in /usr/bin (and aren't available in your PATH by default), but under /opt/wine-staging/bin/. Thanks to this, you can continue using the regular Wine version as well as Wine Staging - to run any Wine Staging executable, simply add "/opt/wine-staging/bin/" in front of the executable, like this:

/opt/wine-staging/bin/wine
/opt/wine-staging/bin/winecfg

... and so on.

However, if you don't want to type the full path each time you want to use Wine Staging, you can install a package which provides compatibility symlinks (but you won't be able to use the regular Wine version any more):

sudo apt-get install wine-staging-compat

For more information, see the Wine Staging Usage page.

The Wine Staging developers provide binaries for Arch Linux, Debian, Gentoo, Mageia and OpenSUSE - for installation instructions, see THIS page.

Installing World of Warcraft (WoW) in Ubuntu or Linux Mint (with Wine) is pretty easy, however there are various crashes that can occur, especially if you're not using the latest Wine and also, the FPS can be pretty low without a few tweaks, so I though I'd document everything I did to get World of Warcraft to work properly on my laptop (Nvidia Optimus, so I was able to test the game with both Nvidia and Intel graphics), even in large scale PvPs and hopefully, this will help you play WoW under Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Install World of Warcraft in Ubuntu / Linux Mint

1. Download the WoW installer (you can of course use a CD/DVD instead).

2. Optional but recommended (using this will most probably result in not experiencing most of the errors described below, in the "fixing various crashes" section): install the latest Wine from the official Wine PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine1.7

3. Right click the downloaded installer, right click it and select Open With > Wine Windows Program Loader:

Then install Battle.net:

Update: a recent Battle.net update broke the UI for Linux users with Intel graphics. You can find a workaround here: Partial Workaround For Black / Distorted Battle.net UI On Linux (Wine) With Intel Graphics

4. And finally, launch Battle.net from the menu / Dash (the icon should also be on your desktop unless you've deselected that option) and install World of Warcraft:

Fixing various potential World of Warcraft crashes (Ubuntu / Linux Mint w/ Wine)

A. If the World of Warcraft installer / Battle.net crashes

If Battle.net crashes on start:

Fix it by launching "Configure Wine" from the menu / Dash (or press ALT + F2 and enter: winecfg) and on the Libraries tab, under "New override for library", enter "dbghelp" (without the quotes), then click "Add". Next, select "dbghelp" under "Existing overrides" and click "Edit" and in the new pop-up, set it to "Disable":

B. If you're on 64bit and the World of Warcraft 64bit game client crashes with an error similar to this:

ERROR #132 (0x85100084) Fatal exception!

Program: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Wow-64.exe
ProcessID: 57
Exception: 0xC0000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION) at 0033:0000000005A11A71

The instruction at "0x0000000005A11A71" referenced memory at "0x00007F38ACD6C028".
The memory could not be "read".

... you'll need to force World of Warcraft to use the 32bit client. If you use Battle.net to launch the game (that's only possible if you don't use OpenGL, see below), you can change WoW to use the 32bit client from the Battle.net settings available via left-click on the blue icon on the top-left Battle.net corner - the menu is not responsive and unfortunately you have to click quite a few times to get it to work.

Or, you can launch World of Warcraft using a script - adding "-noautolaunch64bit" will force the 32bit WoW client to be launched instead of the 64bit one. If you're already using a script, simply add "-noautolaunch64bit" at the end of your WoW launch command. Or, if you're not using a script already, create a new text file in your home folder - let's call it "wow" and in this file, paste the following:

on Ubuntu / Linux Mint 32bit:

#!/bin/sh

WINEDEBUG=-all wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/World of Warcraft/WoW.exe" -noautolaunch64bit

(replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your username; you may need to adjust your WoW.exe path!)

on Ubuntu / Linux Mint 64bit:

#!/bin/sh

WINEDEBUG=-all wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/World of Warcraft/WoW.exe" -noautolaunch64bit

(replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your username; you may need to adjust your WoW.exe path!)

Then save the file and make it executable using the following command (assuming you've created the "wow" file in your home directory):

chmod +x ~/wow

Then double click the "wow" file and run it to launch WoW (you can also launch it from the command line using "~/wow", or edit the World of Warcraft desktop file to point to your newly created script).

C. 64bit only: if you're using Bumblebee and World of Warcraft crashes with the following error:

X Error of failed request:  GLXUnsupportedPrivateRequest

Fix it by installing the 32bit virtualgl-libs:

sudo apt-get install virtualgl-libs:i386

D. If World of Warcraft fails at the login screen (it's unable to connect) when launching the game through Battle.net and you're using the OpenGL gxapi, you'll find a work-around below, under the WoW Linux/Wine optimizations and tweaks - see "A. Use OpenGL".

Optimizations and tweaks (increase the World of Warcraft FPS under Linux, etc.)

A. Use OpenGL

There are numerous reports saying that World of Warcraft runs better using OpenGL. In my test, I did indeed get a much higher FPS when using Nvidia graphics, but not using Intel graphics. However, this depends on hardware so it may not be the case for you.

Unfortunately, running World of Warcraft with OpenGL from Battle.net is not possible at the time I'm writing this article, at least it wasn't in my test (and there are others who are experiencing the same issue) because World of Warcraft fails to connect. There is a work-around though.

To get World of Warcraft to connect when using OpenGL, you need to launch it using a script. To do this, create a new text file in your home folder - let's call it "wow" and in this file, paste the following:

On Ubuntu / Linux Mint 32bit:

#!/bin/sh

WINEDEBUG=-all wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/World of Warcraft/WoW.exe" -opengl

(replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your username; you may need to adjust your WoW.exe path!)

On Ubuntu / Linux Mint 64bit:

#!/bin/sh

WINEDEBUG=-all wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/World of Warcraft/WoW.exe" -opengl

(replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your username; you may need to adjust your WoW.exe path!)

For Nvidia-users only: for threaded OpenGL performance optimization, add "__GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1" to the script you've just created, before "wine". After modifying the script, it should look like this:

- On Ubuntu / Linux Mint 32bit:

#!/bin/sh

WINEDEBUG=-all __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/World of Warcraft/WoW.exe" -opengl

(replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your username; you may need to adjust your WoW.exe path!)

- On Ubuntu / Linux Mint 64bit:

#!/bin/sh

WINEDEBUG=-all __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 wine "/home/YOURUSERNAME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/World of Warcraft/WoW.exe" -opengl

(replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your username; you may need to adjust your WoW.exe path!)

Note: I've used "WINEDEBUG=-all" to turn off debugging output to improve performance a little bit further.

Next, make the script executable (the following command assumes you've called the script "wow" and created it in your home folder):

chmod +x ~/wow

That's not all. To boost the WoW FPS, also perform the following tweak: press ALT + F2, enter "regedit" (without the quotes) and:

navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Wine, select the Wine folder and right click it, then select New -> Key and rename the newly created key to "OpenGL" (without the quotes);
select the "OpenGL" key, right click it and select New -> String Value;
rename "New Value #1" to "DisabledExtensions" (without the quotes);
double click on the newly created "DisabledExtensions" and enter "GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object" (without the quotes) into the "value" field.

B. Intel graphics only

If you see black textures in the game or the game crashes, enable S3TC texture compression by following the steps below:

Firstly, install driconf:

sudo apt-get install driconf

Then launch driconf: it should show up as "3D Acceleration" in the menu/Dash (you can also launch it by pressing ALT + F2 and entering: "driconf") and on the Image Quality tab, set "Enable S3TC texture compression even if software support is not available" to "Yes", then close the window.

C. If you're still getting low FPS, here are a few game configuration tweaks (Config.wtf)

To be able to use the tweaks below, you need to run World of Warcraft at least once, or else the configuration file doesn't exist.

Open the Config.wtf file with a text editor (the file should be located under ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/World of Warcraft/WTF/) and paste this:

SET M2UseShaders "0"
SET UseVertexShaders "0"
SET useWeatherShaders "0"
SET ffxGlow "0"
SET ffxDeath "0"
SET ffxSpecial "0"
SET weatherDensity "0"
SET reflectionMode "0"
SET maxFPS "60"
SET ffx "0"
SET maxFPSbk "5"
SET mapShadows "0"

Then save the file.

Other tweaks:

Using some WoW addons can considerably lower your FPS so if the FPS is bad, you can try removing them (note that you'll have to remove the addons and not just disable them!) and see if that improves your FPS;
For better performance, you can try the latest Wine Staging PPA.
For Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10 / Linux Mint 17 and 17.1, you can use the Oibaf PPA (it requires Linux kernel >= 3.17 and wine from THIS PPA) which includes updated graphics drivers as well as Gallium Nine support which should get you a FPS boost in World of Warcraft with Direct3D.
Update your graphics drivers (e.g. for Nvidia, get the latest Nvidia beta drivers from the Xorg Edgers PPA but don't add that PPA or add it just to install the latest Nvidia drivers, then remove it).

Update 1: everything in this guide was checked and it works with the latest Warlords Of Draenor (WoD - 6.2).

Update 2: for a couple of Curse-compatible applications that work on Linux, which you can use to install or update WoW addons via curse.com, see THIS article.

Are you playing World of Warcraft under Linux? What other optimizations / tweaks have you used?

References / further reading:

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