One gotcha I remember with multi disc installers and Wine is if you run Wine from the directory the disc (or disc image!) is mounted. Unmounting won't work, you'll get a "target is busy" error. Forcing an unmount might confuse or crash Wine.

So, this will not work:
cd /media/DISC
wine setup.exe

Use this instead:
cd ~
wine /media/DISC/setup.exe

By the way, it looks like modern Wine have picked up support for quite a few disc copy protections, several versions of Safedisc etc. should supposedly work now. But keep in mind that very few people actually test or use those (not even modern Windows is guaranteed to work with those) so your mileage may vary!

Quoting: talionranger117hmm, interesting. so rtcw has and probably some type of drm.

Quoting: whizseTo the best of my knowledge, none of the old id Software games had any sort of disc DRM.

Unfortunately, both of you missed the point of my comment. It wasn't about the DRM. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the term DRM to refer to a simple disc check.

The point is that most of the old CD/DVD based games required that you have the CD/DVD in the optical drive in order to launch the game. This is a problem for WINE as I mentioned in my previous post. Usually, there is no problem with installing the game from CD/DVD. The problem comes after, when you try to launch the game. The game expects to see the CD/DVD but, due to WINE's inability to map real optical drives, it can't. The launch fails.

My workaround is good for discs with a simple disk check but would likely fail if there is any form of copy protection. (The copy protection might detect that disk image in the folder has been copied.)

As I said, this is just a shot in the dark. It may not be the answer to your particular problem.


Last edited by Caldathras on 5 May 2024 at 5:29 pm UTC

Quoting: talionranger117i know 32 games cant run unless you have wine or bottles or lutris. but, i use dvd games.

i prefer cds over steam.

Lutris is actually quite easy to use. I could describe how to manually set up a prefix and install a game without using one of Lutris' scripts, if you're interested.

I just don't know if it will get around WINE's optical drive issues. I moved to purchasing digital versions from GOG now, to avoid the complications of disc-checks and DRM. GOG provides offline installers that don't require a launcher like Steam to work.

For guides on how to manually install games in WINE, try GamersOnLinux (not to be confused with our host's site). They mostly expect that you are using the old PlayOnLinux tool and Steam, but I've found that their instructions adapt easily to Lutris (or Winetricks) and GOG's installers.

Last edited by Caldathras on 5 May 2024 at 5:50 pm UTC

Quoting: Caldathras

Quoting: talionranger117i know 32 games cant run unless you have wine or bottles or lutris. but, i use dvd games.

i prefer cds over steam.

Lutris is actually quite easy to use. I could describe how to manually set up a prefix and install a game without using one of Lutris' scripts, if you're interested.

I just don't know if it will get around WINE's optical drive issues. I moved to purchasing digital versions from GOG now, to avoid the complications of disc-checks and DRM. GOG provides offline installers that don't require a launcher like Steam to work.

For guides on how to manually install games in WINE, try GamersOnLinux (not to be confused with our host's site). They mostly expect that you are using the old PlayOnLinux tool and Steam, but I've found that their instructions adapt easily to Lutris (or Winetricks) and GOG's installers.

i have figure dit out.

what i did seemd to work. first i copy the files from the in stall disc 1 and 2, then when taht is finished. i use brasero to drag the files in it. then name the file and create the iso image. then i mount it and start the install. then i start disc one setup and then it askes for disc 2. then i use winecfg to mount the iso location and that worked.

so it seems i got it work. now know what to do.

Turns out that this is indeed a bug in Wine, specific to the Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Platinum Edition installer. It uses some convoluted way to detect the disc change that Wine can't handle. It seems even some Windows users had this problem.

Quoting: whizseTurns out that this is indeed a bug in Wine, specific to the Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Platinum Edition installer. It uses some convoluted way to detect the disc change that Wine can't handle. It seems even some Windows users had this problem.

sounds like its a common issue. sound slike its a bad bug.

Quoting: talionranger117sounds like its a common issue. sound slike its a bad bug.

Not really common, it seems to be specific to this particular (20 year old) installer.

Quoting: talionranger117

Quoting: Caldathras

Quoting: talionranger117i know 32 games cant run unless you have wine or bottles or lutris. but, i use dvd games.

i prefer cds over steam.

Lutris is actually quite easy to use. I could describe how to manually set up a prefix and install a game without using one of Lutris' scripts, if you're interested.

I just don't know if it will get around WINE's optical drive issues. I moved to purchasing digital versions from GOG now, to avoid the complications of disc-checks and DRM. GOG provides offline installers that don't require a launcher like Steam to work.

For guides on how to manually install games in WINE, try GamersOnLinux (not to be confused with our host's site). They mostly expect that you are using the old PlayOnLinux tool and Steam, but I've found that their instructions adapt easily to Lutris (or Winetricks) and GOG's installers.

i have figure dit out.

what i did seemd to work. first i copy the files from the in stall disc 1 and 2, then when taht is finished. i use brasero to drag the files in it. then name the file and create the iso image. then i mount it and start the install. then i start disc one setup and then it askes for disc 2. then i use winecfg to mount the iso location and that worked.

so it seems i got it work. now know what to do.

Interesting. I always wondered if it might work with ISOs. Never tried it myself.

Happy it worked out for you.

Quoting: whizseTurns out that this is indeed a bug in Wine, specific to the Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Platinum Edition installer. It uses some convoluted way to detect the disc change that Wine can't handle. It seems even some Windows users had this problem.

sounds like its a common issue. sound slike its a bad bug.

Quoting: Caldathras

Quoting: talionranger117

Quoting: Caldathras

Quoting: talionranger117i know 32 games cant run unless you have wine or bottles or lutris. but, i use dvd games.

i prefer cds over steam.

Lutris is actually quite easy to use. I could describe how to manually set up a prefix and install a game without using one of Lutris' scripts, if you're interested.

I just don't know if it will get around WINE's optical drive issues. I moved to purchasing digital versions from GOG now, to avoid the complications of disc-checks and DRM. GOG provides offline installers that don't require a launcher like Steam to work.

For guides on how to manually install games in WINE, try GamersOnLinux (not to be confused with our host's site). They mostly expect that you are using the old PlayOnLinux tool and Steam, but I've found that their instructions adapt easily to Lutris (or Winetricks) and GOG's installers.

i have figure dit out.

what i did seemd to work. first i copy the files from the in stall disc 1 and 2, then when taht is finished. i use brasero to drag the files in it. then name the file and create the iso image. then i mount it and start the install. then i start disc one setup and then it askes for disc 2. then i use winecfg to mount the iso location and that worked.

so it seems i got it work. now know what to do.

Interesting. I always wondered if it might work with ISOs. Never tried it myself.

Happy it worked out for you.

i wa ssuprised myself when it worked. i didnt think it would of worked. but, it did somehow.

just curious. i notice my elder scrolls 3 morrowind install disc is not being detected like my other discs are. is it cause its an old software comaptability issue?

i was able to install it before on other distros.

not sure why this wont detect it.

i was able to now install quake 1, quake 2 and 4, doom 3 and wolfenstein platinum edition.

now i cant install elder scrolls 3 morrowind.