Problem Description:
I’m super new to everything Linux. I haven’t messed around in depth with computers very much before. After downloading and Wine and Wine 32 and all dependencies, trying to use the application in any way from the Terminal fails.
meowford@meow:~$ wine Launcher.exe
00b4:fixme:xinput:pdo_pnp code 0xc, not implemented!
00b4:fixme:pdopnp code 0xc, not implemented!
meowford@meow:~$ 0104:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
* Assertion at /builds/mono/wine-mono/wine-mono-10.4.1/mono/mono/metadata/object.c:4676, condition ‘is_ok (error)’ not met, function:prepare_run_main, Could not load type of field ‘PhotonLauncher.MainWindow:config’ (5) due to: Could not load file or assembly ‘Newtonsoft.Json, Version=12.0.9.9, Culture-neutral, PublicKeyToken=30ad4fe6b2a6aeed’ or one of its dependencies. assembly:Z:/home/meowford/Downloads/Game/Game/Launcher.exe type:MainWindow member: (null)
Hardware Information: i know nothing about computers. i’m giving all of the information because i have no clue what is relevant
Model: HP OMEN Transcend Gaming Laptop 14t-fb000
Memory: 16.0 GiB
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H x 22
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
Disk Capacity: 1.0 TB
What I’ve Tried:
I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled all of Wine maybe twice now and searched up the issue everywhere I could think to, but I couldn’t find anything responding to this specific issue. I’m super sorry if this is obvious or easy to fix and I’m missing something simple, I really don’t know how to do any of this and I was hoping to learn along the way.
What Windows application do you want to run through Wine? In my opinion your problem is not a Ubuntu problem but either a Wine issue or an issue with the Windows application that you want to run through Wine.
I have just done a tiny amount of research regarding this topic. I do not think that launcher.exe is a Wine program. I have searched the Wine website and the only mention I can find to launcher.exe is in connection with bugs with running World of Warcraft through Wine.
It seems that earlier versions of WoW on Windows were launched with the launcher.exe command. Modern versions of WoW use something called Battle.net.
The command that you have run does not include an application for launcher.exe to load. That, in my opinion is what is wrong.
World of Warcraft is listed as a Gold application in the WineHQ applications database.
Something that you should realise is that WINE works properly on only a relatively small number of Windows programs. It works OK, but not well, on a number of others, and not at all on the vast majority.
WINE can be quite complicated to use. I would recommend that you instead use Bottles, which is a front-end for WINE, hiding its complexity from you. Unfortunately, Bottles isn’t available on the standard repositories or on snap; it’s only available from flatpak, which you’d have to install first.
Have you actually installed this application in Wine?
Wine replicates the Microsoft folder system in a Ubuntu folder (.wine). In that .wine folder there will be a drive_c folder. It is in drive_c folder that Windows applications are installed when they are installed in Wine.
The application that that uses launcher.exe should put launcher.exe and its own exe file somewhere in the drive_c folder. That way Wine will know where to look for launcher.exe and launcher.exe will know where to find the particular application’s exe file.
I’m coming off of using Windows for most of my life, so I keep trying to do things the way I would on Windows, primarily with .exe files. Being fairly un-computer-y, I hear that WINE was the way to use .exe and looked up an installation guide. I used this one.
I’m beginning to realize this, and I agree that this is likely the issue!
It’s actually been an issue with every .exe I’ve tried, but it’s entirely likely that they just aren’t supported by WINE. I was trying to bring over some of the fishy, fringe programs I’m used to using on Windows. My understanding from the minimal research I had done was that WINE just could run .exe files, but as I learn more and more about how things work in the computer world, I realize how unrealistic that was.
Yeah, I’m realizing this pretty quickly… I didn’t really grasp what went into getting these things to work, and what WINE was doing, but a few hours of reading through the Wine and Lutris forums have taught me a bit more. Thanks for the reply!
Just tried this, but to the same result, unfortunately. Thank you for taking the time to look into this and respond! I think you hit the nail on the head the first time, that this just isn’t the type of file Wine is looking to run.
So, apparently, you opted for the option 2, arguably the worse unless you have one of those rare cases of a niche software that wasn’t supported by earlier versions, as already mentioned.
Yes, we understand where you come from so, a little advice:
Emulation is always the last resort → Invariably the results are the worse among all the alternatives;
For each and any software you think/feel can’t go without you’re for the most part WRONG → Most mainstream software now runs on all platforms; for those that don’t, more often than not, there are better or equal alternatives;
You found that one piece of software that you need for work and there’s no Linux replacement? The best you can do is to run a Windows virtual machine and install it there;
Wanna go the hard way and try WINE or WINE derivatives? You certainly can provided the software you intend to run emulated has a score of “Gold” or better at https://www.winehq.org/ (the “golden rule” says that anything below “Gold” is a waste of time)
In summary, avoid it if you can (and surely you can). Find alternative native Linux software - search the App Center (snap, mostly, or search online at Canonical Snapcraft), the official Ubuntu online repository (install Synaptic - sudo apt install --install-recommends synaptic - and use it to graphically search the whole thing, keep in mid it’s an advanced tool so, when in doubt, ask here before proceeding), and finally the hugely popular Flatpaks are also an option. However, unlike the previous suggestions, support for the Flatpak format needs to be installed. Once done you have access to a huge library of software.
I would like to share some personal details. I have a must have Windows application that I run through Wine on Ubuntu 20.04. Then Ubuntu 22.04 came out. I installed Wine and my must have Windows app and it will not run. Then Ubuntu 24.04 came out. I install Wine and my must have Windows app and it runs fine.
The app ran fine on 20.04; not at all on 22.04 and then fine on 24.04. That should not happen but it did. I will try with Ubuntu 26.04 when it comes out.
Sometimes I install Wine from Ubuntu Software. Sometime through commands provided by the Wine web site. It may be that the latest OS and the latest Wine are the solution.