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Active: 12167 users

Dota 2 on Linux: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS, Radeon HD467

Blogs > thedeadhaji
Post a Reply
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-04 01:31:41
April 04 2013 01:28 GMT
#1
Click here for proper hyperlinks and list heirarchy formatting.

-----

Some notes on geting Dota 2 to work on Linux with ATI graphics. I spent far too long getting this to work so hopefully this guide will save some people some pain in the future.

In particular, there are two graphics related challenges using ATI Radeon cards: (1) Game crashes upon start, and (2) Red Screen after game start. I've listed the steps needed to resolve both of these problems.


System Details

Mother Board: ASUS ASUSRock 970 Extreme3
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 Black (3.4GHz Quard-Core)
Memory: Corsair 3 16GB DDR3 RAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4670
OS: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
MISC: Gnome 3 Shell


Installing Wine (Windows Emulation Layer)

Since Dota 2 is not available in the Linux Steam store, we need to install the Windows Steam client. As a prerequisite, we need to install Wine to emulate Windows

Install "Microsoft Windows Compatibility Layer (meta-package): Wine" from the Ubuntu Software Center. Site Link


Install Steam

Install Steam's Windows client through Winetricks or by downloading the installer. Only the latter option worked for me.

Using Winetricks, Open Winetricks -> Install an app -> steam -> OK

Manual Install:
* Download the Steam Windows Installer from the Steam store site.
* Find the downloaded SteamInstall.msi file in your file system and navigate to Properties -> Permissions -> Allow executing file as program.
* Right click on the SteamInstall.msi file and Open With Wine Windows Program Loader
* Follow prompts to install the Windows Steam Client


Install Dota 2

Install Dota 2 using the Windows Steam Client (ask friends for an invite, sign up on the official Dota 2 page, etc.)


Resolve Graphics Issues

Next, we will resolve the two aforementioned graphics issues.

Enable S3TC Texture Compression (This is needed to resolve the "red screen" issue)
* Using driconf under Image Quality settings (apt-get install driconf)
* If unavailable in driconf, install the Texture compression library for Mesa through the Ubuntu Software Center.

Change Dota 2 Launch Options (This is needed to resolve the "game crash on startup" issue)
* In Steam, navigate to: Library -> Dota 2 (in left menu) -> right click -> Properties -> SET LAUNCH OPTIONS
* Copy paste the following: -novid -sw -nod3d9ex -noborder
* I believe -noborder improves switching focus between Dota 2 and other windows. At the very least, -nod3d9ex is required to resolve the game crash on startup


Play the Game!

That's it! The game should now be playable. I'd advise that you turn down your graphics settings in the top left menu as well.


Reference

WineHQ - DOtA 2 Early Access - Steam. Particularly the post/thread by Marius titled "All red". Searching for "options" or "launch options" is useful as well.

***
Tufas
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Austria2259 Posts
April 04 2013 01:48 GMT
#2
There have been rumors for native Linux support since February, and if you are really lucky -> ATI might even release some high-end drivers for their cards. Personally I dislike running windows games on wine but I might as well check it out just to see how smoothly it works (the expected ~33% drop ?) .. as long as I do not have to use PlayOnLinux

Let's see how easy it is
Where is my ACE flair
SiZ.FaNtAsY
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
Korea (South)1497 Posts
April 04 2013 03:06 GMT
#3
I'd love to play with you Haji! PM me your steam ID!
Karma is a bitch
Loser777
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
1931 Posts
April 04 2013 04:53 GMT
#4
Running the games I wanted play has rarely been the issue in GNU/Linux, but the lack of mouse drivers (consistent sensitivity and cpi across systems) have kept me from considering it as a replacement (even with Steam for Linux) for Windows as a gaming platform.
6581
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
April 04 2013 04:59 GMT
#5
On April 04 2013 10:48 Tufas wrote:
There have been rumors for native Linux support since February, and if you are really lucky -> ATI might even release some high-end drivers for their cards. Personally I dislike running windows games on wine but I might as well check it out just to see how smoothly it works (the expected ~33% drop ?) .. as long as I do not have to use PlayOnLinux

Let's see how easy it is


Let's hope that they release it soon (since steambox is already out, we can hope that this comes pretty quickly).

I reallly wouldn't count on ATI drivers... apparently my 2 year old card is already discontinued. (I'll be sure to buy a NVDA card next time)

Performance is obvioulsy pretty shaky but all I want to do is play with some college friends so even marginal performance is fine with me. I prefer playing games (esp RTS games) on lowest settings anyways.

On April 04 2013 12:06 SiZ.FaNtAsY wrote:
I'd love to play with you Haji! PM me your steam ID!


Done


On April 04 2013 13:53 Loser777 wrote:
Running the games I wanted play has rarely been the issue in GNU/Linux, but the lack of mouse drivers (consistent sensitivity and cpi across systems) have kept me from considering it as a replacement (even with Steam for Linux) for Windows as a gaming platform.


Oh I never thought of that... that'd be a problem esp with FPS games. Hoping that MOBA game will be undemanding enough that it'll be fine for me.
SirJolt
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
the Dagon Knight4012 Posts
April 04 2013 10:22 GMT
#6
I managed to get Dota2 running in Mac OS for a while, using Cider, but there were some particle effects that wouldn't show properly. At first, I told myself that it was nothing major, but over time it bothered me enough that I eventually just created a windows partition to play Dota. It's a killer, but I guess this is life.
Moderator@SirJolt
Luye
Profile Joined July 2011
3 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-04 20:25:38
April 04 2013 20:00 GMT
#7
On April 04 2013 13:53 Loser777 wrote:
Running the games I wanted play has rarely been the issue in GNU/Linux, but the lack of mouse drivers (consistent sensitivity and cpi across systems) have kept me from considering it as a replacement (even with Steam for Linux) for Windows as a gaming platform.


xset m 1 0

{mouse device, scalar (can be expressed as a fraction for example 1/2), accelerate}

i.e. set mouse device to 1:1 sens, 0 acceleration

Xinput can be used in a similar way for persistent settings.

Read more at
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mouse_acceleration or the xorg documentation.
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
April 04 2013 22:21 GMT
#8
On April 04 2013 19:22 SirJolt wrote:
I managed to get Dota2 running in Mac OS for a while, using Cider, but there were some particle effects that wouldn't show properly. At first, I told myself that it was nothing major, but over time it bothered me enough that I eventually just created a windows partition to play Dota. It's a killer, but I guess this is life.


Wait Jolt, isn't your Macbook some 8 year old ancient fossil? It can run modern games? :O
vrmr
Profile Joined November 2009
21 Posts
April 04 2013 23:54 GMT
#9
I don't play on Linux myself but a colleague of mine who also runs an amd card with ubuntu told me like a month ago that he had game crashes always around 30 minutes into the game. Did you have any problems with longer games?

worst experience for me ( so far ) was setting up my AMD E-350 netbook to work the way it was supposed to in archlinux, took 3 full Days of config / driver / module tinkering.
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-05 00:07:45
April 05 2013 00:07 GMT
#10
On April 05 2013 08:54 vrmr wrote:
I don't play on Linux myself but a colleague of mine who also runs an amd card with ubuntu told me like a month ago that he had game crashes always around 30 minutes into the game. Did you have any problems with longer games?

worst experience for me ( so far ) was setting up my AMD E-350 netbook to work the way it was supposed to in archlinux, took 3 full Days of config / driver / module tinkering.


uh oh nope I just got it running and have only done short tests with the system.

I'll let you know what I find out though.
SirJolt
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
the Dagon Knight4012 Posts
April 05 2013 00:16 GMT
#11
On April 05 2013 07:21 thedeadhaji wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 04 2013 19:22 SirJolt wrote:
I managed to get Dota2 running in Mac OS for a while, using Cider, but there were some particle effects that wouldn't show properly. At first, I told myself that it was nothing major, but over time it bothered me enough that I eventually just created a windows partition to play Dota. It's a killer, but I guess this is life.


Wait Jolt, isn't your Macbook some 8 year old ancient fossil? It can run modern games? :O


Haha, no, no. I have two. Since newer versions of Mac OS don't have the required gubbins to play Brood War, I play it on the old Mac instead. As a result, every time I play Brood War is an invitation for free, crazy bugs :D
Moderator@SirJolt
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
April 06 2013 23:36 GMT
#12
On April 05 2013 09:16 SirJolt wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 05 2013 07:21 thedeadhaji wrote:
On April 04 2013 19:22 SirJolt wrote:
I managed to get Dota2 running in Mac OS for a while, using Cider, but there were some particle effects that wouldn't show properly. At first, I told myself that it was nothing major, but over time it bothered me enough that I eventually just created a windows partition to play Dota. It's a killer, but I guess this is life.


Wait Jolt, isn't your Macbook some 8 year old ancient fossil? It can run modern games? :O


Haha, no, no. I have two. Since newer versions of Mac OS don't have the required gubbins to play Brood War, I play it on the old Mac instead. As a result, every time I play Brood War is an invitation for free, crazy bugs :D


Ohh I see. I never knew that the new OSX versions can't run Broodwar. That's good to know yet sucks at the same time, since the only laptop I have is a macbook air.
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