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Getting BattleNet Running on Kubuntu

With a shiny new laptop running Kubuntu 22.04, I wanted to be able to occasionally play some Hearthstone on it. I was able to find some good articles on how to do this via Wine, but none were complete, at least for my version of Kubuntu/BattleNet.

Installing/Configuring Wine and DXVK

First, we will need to install Wine. Based on the information I found, it seemed like the latest "stable" Staging Branch would be the best bet for running BattleNet and Blizzard Games on Wine.

Install Wine Staging

The most current information about Wine Staging can be found on the Wine-Staging Wiki. Like-wise, the most current installation instructions can be found on the Wine Ubuntu Page.

• Enabling 32-bit architecture on 64-bit systems
  • NOTE :: This is not necessary for this installation, but might be necessary for other things run in Wine.

  sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

• Add the Wine Repository

  sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
  sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

• Download the Sources for Ubuntu 22.04

  sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/jammy/winehq-jammy.sources

• Install Wine Staging

  sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Install DXVK Libraries

These libraries were supposedly not required to get Battle Net running in Wine, based on an old Reddit post, but I would continually get an error: A required DLL could not be found. Please download and re-install Battle.net

NOTE :: There may be more current installation instructions may be found on the DXVK Project Page

• Download the latest Stable Release package from the DXVK Project Page
  • When this was written, it was 1.10.3
• Open a terminal and change to the directory where the DXVK package was downloaded
• Unpack the download and install DXVK

  tar xvzpf dxvk-1.10.3.tar.gz
  cd dxvk-1.10.3/x64/
  
  ./setup_dxvk.sh install

Configure Wine

The DXVK Setup Script will do a portion of this for you, but there are a few items that need to be updated.

• Open a terminal and run the Wine Config

  winecfg

• Navigate to the Staging Tab
  • Ensure the boxes for VAAPI, EAX, and Hide Wine version from applications are Checked and CSMT is UNChecked
    • 
• Navigate to the Libraries Tab
  • In the search box type locationapi and press the 'Add' Button
  • Click the new locationapi and click the 'Edit...' Button
    • Set the library to disabled
  • The resulting Libraries tab should look like this (if the DXVK Script completed the other entries appropriately)
    • 
• Press the 'Ok' Button to Apply the changes and Exit the Wine Config

Battle.Net Launcher (13801) Error

The Battle.Net Launcher (Version 13801) was throwing a frustrating Error for this version of Ubuntu/Wine/DXVK. The Battle.Net Launcher would not load and throw the following error

This application failed to start because it could not find or load the Qt platform plugin “windows” in “”.
Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

This was very frustrating, but I luckily found a very recent thread on the Battle.Net forums about exactly this issue. I will summarize the issue and resolution a bit, in case Blizzard deletes the post, as they often do.

Issue

The issue is with the qwindows.dll file in the platforms directory of the Battle.Net Launcher appears to have an issue in the 13801 version of the Launcher. Many people (who weren't starting with a fresh install like this one) were able to resolve it by simply copying the qwindows.dll from an older, backed up version of the Launcher over the offending one in this version.

A user with the name of Regrin found the exact issue, and resolution by digging into the file with the Linux attrs package. For archival purposes, his synopsis:

• I couldn’t give up so I dug deeper and figured out the qwindows.dll file has an extended attribute set:

 $ getfattr *
 # file: qwindows.dll
 user.DOSATTRIB

 $ getfattr -n user.DOSATTRIB *
 # file: qwindows.dll
 user.DOSATTRIB="0x2"

• For comparison, the older Bnet version has a different value:

$ getfattr -n user.DOSATTRIB *
# file: qwindows.dll
user.DOSATTRIB="0x2020"

• Not sure why but for some awkward reason this makes the file hidden from Bnet, probably by setting the equivalent of HIDDEN flag on FAT/NTFS filesystems. As an extended attribute the flag is removed on copy so that’s why copying the file works, but the correct and more straightforward solution would be to remove the attribute directly.

Resolution

Using the Script

This seemed to become a pretty frequent issue. Every BattleNet update seemed to cause this issue to re-occur, and every re-occurrence was resolved with the same fix. So, I figured I would just make a script that I could mash to fix the problem whenever the issue re-occurs.

You should be able to use the script and these steps to instantly fix your issue and get BattleNet running again, right away!

• Open a Terminal
• Ensure the attrs package is installed (if running this for the first time)

  sudo apt install attr

• Change to the directly where you stored the script and ensure it's executable (if running this for the first time)

  chmod +x BNetOnWine-Fix.sh

• Run the Script

  ./BNetOnWine-Fix.sh

• If the script ran, you should be good to re-open BattleNet and get back to playing!
  • NOTE :: The script will fail on ANY Error. So, if it ran to the print message, you should be good!

Detailed Steps

The resolution is also attributed to the Regrin user, who found the exact, detailed issue, documented above. In order to complete this, you will need the attrs Ubuntu package.

• Open a terminal session
• Install the attrs package

  sudo apt install attr

• Change to the Battle.Net directory
  • NOTE :: This command may differ if you need this fix for a different version of the Battle.Net Launcher, or if your Wine Installation exists in a different location (this is the default location for this version of Kubuntu and Wine)

  cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Battle.net/Battle.net.13801/platforms/

• Issue the command to remove the offending attribute from the qwindows.dll file

  setfattr -x user.DOSATTRIB qwindows.dll

• That's it! Your Battle.Net Launcher should now load!

References

These are many of the resources that I used as reference when getting this all to work. Some may no longer be available.

• How to Play Hearthstone on Unbuntu Linux
• Wine on Ubuntu
• Wine-Staging Wiki
• DXVK Project
• DXVK Question for BNet on Reddit
• Battle Net Launcher Error