Here is an additional guide for installing edain using lutris, a more high-level application for installing games on Linux, which should be a little more convenient than pure wine, although lutris is based on wine.
Required:
Lutris, BFME II, BFME II: The Rise of the Witch-King,
BFME II patch 1.06,
RotWK patch 2.01, current Edain version installer
As I had problems using a 32-bit system, I slightly changed the official install scripts of lutris (bfme-2 patch 1.06, and RotWK patch 2.01) to use a 64-bit architecture and I added an automatic installation of edain to the RotWK script. I added my adapted ones as an attachment (make sure you remove the '.txt' at the end of the descriptor, these should be read as '.json' files).
Installation:
After installing lutris, start it, in the top left corner click '+' and select 'install from local script' and select the bfme2_lutris_install_64b
it.json script first. Insert your disk or mount an .iso of BFME 2 and proceed with the script.
Repeat the procedure using the rotwk_edain_lutris_insta
ll_64bit.json script.
When finished the second installation, run the edain mod launcher. Make sure to hit the fix startup option and update before starting. Now edain should start normally.
Typical issues:
If the game does not start, manually check, whether the fix startup did work, as Eómer pointed out:
Beware that you have to manually add the options.ini file in ~/Games/Edain/drive_c/users/<username>/Application Data/My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files/, containing the following lines of code:
AudioLOD = Low
HasSeenLogoMovies = yes
IdealStaticGameLOD = VeryLow
Resolution = 1920 1080
StaticGameLOD = VeryLow
TimesInGame = 2
If you do not, the game will not run.
Now, to start edain in the future, just double-klick the item in lutris. If you installed it in another language, right-klick the icon -> configure -> game options -> set the pointer to the correct executable (either lotrbfme2ep1.exe or the edain mod launcher.exe).
The launcher might not work correctly, similarly to what Eómer pointed out. If it does not run at all, either reinstall edain whenever a new update is available or try what he suggests.
For me, the launcher does start even after the first installation, but it is a little buggy (there is an error message and the overlay looks buggy). It might be resolved in the future. Otherwise, try deactivating and activating the mod in the launcher, then you should be able to press update (I haven't tested, if it actually works). And you can also start the game there.
Recommendations:
For multiplayer, I recommend using
Hamachi, as it works for Linux as well (although it is beta and only a command line tool; make sure to check out
these very simple first steps). It did work nicely for me connecting two different Linux Systems, but I didn't test if connecting to windows works. Sadly, I cannot get GameRanger to work. Please PM me or add a comment if you figure it out
.
If you need a virtual CD-Drive, I recommend using CDEmu (try to find a package for your distribution instead of compiling it yourself, like for
Fedora), which can emulate your CDs and DVDs on Linux. As I do not have a local drive on my laptop, CDs won't last forever and installing from the CD is slow, it can be handy to make a virtual .iso or .mdf copy of your CDs (only for personal use!).
Have fun playing!