SWTOR on Linux

How to install and run SWTOR on a Linux machine through wine

Welcome to this guide on how to install and run Star Wars: The Old Republic on a Linux distribution. This guide is written for Ubuntu, but it should be easy enough to adapt the instructions for your distribution if you know the proper commands.

Contents

• Installation
  • Before you start
  • Installing Wine
  • Setting up a Bottle
  • SWTOR setup
  • Removing BitRaider
• Running SWTOR
  • Script
  • Desktop Entry
  • Error: Failed to download patch data
• Tips
• Definitions
• Credits

Installation

The istallation of SWTOR on a Linux system is a bit more complicated than just opening an executable installer, but not by too much. Just follow these steps and you should be up and running in no-time!

Before you start

Before you get started on installing SWTOR, please note the following:

• SWTOR runs very badly on an nVidia GPU when using the standard nouveau drivers. To install the nvidia drivers, simply install them in the Ubuntu driver settings. There are plently of guides online explaining in more detail.
• Wine bottles cannot be installed on a Fuse file-system, and it is not possible to use the copy of SWTOR located on a Windows-partition if you are using a dual-boot.
• It is not required to download the whole SWTOR game data again. If you already have a copy (even if on a Fuse file-system), check the Tips.
• Official game discs will not work for installation anymore.

Installing Wine

First you need to install wine, a compatibility layer between Windows applications and Linux. The default version of wine is not quite suitable if you want a high level of performance though. For that, wine-staging is required. wine-staging contains more features than the stable release of wine, but it might not work with all programs. If you are already using other Wine Bottles¹.

For Ubuntu, the installation of wine-staging is given below. For other distributions, please consult the official instructions.

wget -nc https://repos.wine-staging.com/wine/Release.key
sudo apt-key add Release.key
sudo apt-add-repository 'https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/'
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --install-recommends wine-staging -y

Setting up a Bottle

It is possible to use the default Wine installation directory (~/.wine) to install SWTOR, but personally I prefer to put it in a different directory, because it is such a huge installation. First, choose a directory that suits your needs. Consider if you want to put the game on your main drive, or on a separate drive. As said [before](#before you start), Fuse file-systems will not work!

For this guide, I will use the location ~/Bottles/SWTOR. Remember to replace that path with the location of your choosing if you want to use a different directory.

First, create the directory, and then run winecfg to set it up as Bottle.

mkdir ~/Bottles/SWTOR
# Replace 'user' with your username. Note the WINEARCH is 32-bit, as SWTOR is fully 32-bit.
WINEPREFIX=/home/user/Bottles/SWTOR WINEARCH=win32 winecfg

While the Wine Configuration Utility is still open, got to the tab Staging and make sure to select Enable_CSMT. This will improve the multi-threading of the Windows-API-translation and can improve performance significantly. In the Applications tab, make sure that the Windows version is set to Windows 7.

SWTOR setup

Now that you have correctly setup your Bottle, you are ready to install SWTOR into it. First, download the official game installer from here. If you changed your downloads-folder, then make sure to change the path to the installer file appropriately in the commands below. Now run the setup file and install SWTOR with these commands:

# Make sure to change WINEPREFIX if you use a different folder
WINEPREFIX=/home/user/Bottles/SWTOR WINEARCH=win32 wine ~/Downloads/SWTOR_setup.exe

Now follow the installer instructions. Do not change the default installation directory to another folder. Make sure to immediately start SWTOR after the installation is complete by not unchecking the checkbox. Upon first run, SWTOR will create an important file named launcher.settings in its installation directory. Do not log in and close the launcher after is done starting.

Removing BitRaider

Use a text editor to open the following file: WINE_BOTTLE_PATH/drive_c/ Program Files/Electronic Arts/Bioware/Star Wars - The Old Republic/launcher.settings. Now change the following values, and pay attention to the quotes:

, "PatchingMode": "{\"swtor\": \"SSN\"}"
, "bitraider_download_complete": {}
, "log_levels": "INFO,SSNFO,ERROR"
, "bitraider_disable": true

Running SWTOR

Starting SWTOR from your Bottle is a bit more complicated than it may seem. Wine will probably create a program entry during the installation, but if you use this, your performance might be lower than if you use the method described here.

Script

By using a special script, is is possible to start SWTOR with options that lower the performance impact of using Wine to run SWTOR. Put the script below in a folder that you find convenient. I have put it in ~/Bottles, so I have a central place to start Wine programs from. Open your favourite text editor (nano SWTOR.sh) and save the script as SWTOR.sh.

export VIDEO_MEMORY_SIZE=4096  # Make sure to change this to the amount of MiB of video memory your GPU has
export WINEARCH=win32
export WINEPREFIX="/home/user/Bottles/SWTOR"  # Again, change the path if you use a different location
export WINEDEBUG="-all"  # Disables all Wine Debugging features
# Remember to change this path
wine $WINEPREFIX'/drive_c/Program Files/Electronic Arts/BioWare/Star Wars - The Old Republic/launcher.exe'

Then make the script executable by using:

chmod +x SWTOR.sh

Now you can use ./SWTOR.sh to open SWTOR. Or, if you would rather not change directory each time before starting use:

bash ~/Bottles/SWTOR.sh

Desktop Entry

Now that you have a special script to start SWTOR, it would be nice if you could start it from the normal Ubuntu menu by typing SWTOR, right? Adding this functionality is really easy. Note that this section is meant to be used on distributions with the GNOME desktop environment (Ubuntu 17.10 and later).

Create a new file in your favourite text editor: /usr/share/applications/SWTOR.desktop, and add the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Star Wars - The Old Republic
Exec=/home/user/Bottles/SWTOR.sh  # Like before, change the path
Type=Application
Categories=GTK;GNOME;

After closing and saving, when you search for Star Wars - The Old Republic, an entry without an icon should come up. This is the entry that will run the special start-up script.

Error: Failed to download patch data

Depending on the distribution you use, you might get an error when starting SWTOR that says that downloading the patch data has failed. This can happen if your Linux distribution does not include the required SSL root certificates, and you will have to add them manually.

Copy the certificates below into verisign-class-3-g5.crt and thawte-root-ca.crt respectively. Then copy them to the folder /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ and run sudo update-ca-certificates. Then restart SWTOR, and everything should update normally.

DigiCert VeriSign Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority - G5

Source: VeriSign Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority - G5

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Thawte Primary Root CA

Source: Thawte Primary Root CA

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIEIDCCAwigAwIBAgIQNE7VVyDV7exJ9C/ON9srbTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
qTELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxFTATBgNVBAoTDHRoYXd0ZSwgSW5jLjEoMCYGA1UECxMf
Q2VydGlmaWNhdGlvbiBTZXJ2aWNlcyBEaXZpc2lvbjE4MDYGA1UECxMvKGMpIDIw
MDYgdGhhd3RlLCBJbmMuIC0gRm9yIGF1dGhvcml6ZWQgdXNlIG9ubHkxHzAdBgNV
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r87Lev0xkhpqtvNG61dIUDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOCAQEAeRHAS7ORtvzw6WfU
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/qxAeeWsEG89jxt5dovEN7MhGITlNgDrYyCZuen+MwS7QcjBAvlEYyCegc5C09Y/
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jVaMaA==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Tips

• Remove BitRaider as described. Seriously, spare yourself loads of wasted time and system resources.
• If you would like to record the SWTOR sound separately, it is possible to redirect the sound to a sound sink under Ubuntu (or another distro using pulseaudio). First, create a virtual audio cable using this command:

  pacmd load-module module-null-sink sink_name=Virtual_Cable sink_properties=device.description=Virtual_Cable

  This will create a new audio output device named Virtual_Cable that can be selected in the Audio tab of winecfg. Then you can select the automatically created monitor of this device as audio source in the recording software of your choosing. If you do not hear anything anymore after running this command, simply go into the Ubuntu sound settings and select your speakers as default output again. To make the setup permament use:

  echo "load-module module-null-sink sink_name=Virtual_Cable sink_properties=device.description=Virtual_Cable" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa

  If you would also like to hear the sound of the game through the speakers (which I can imagine you do), then you also need to add a loopback of the monitor to your default audio device (speakers):

  pacmd load-module module-loopback source="Virtual_Cable.monitor"

  Again, to make it permanent:

  echo "load-module module-loopback source='Virtual_Cable.monitor'" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa

Definitions

1. A Wine Bottle is a folder that contains a separate Wine-configuration for (usually) a single program.

Credits

• Virtual Audio Cable
• Removing BitRaider