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09/08/14, 05:26 PM   #1
Silarn
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 1
How-To: Minion Runnable in Linux (With Issues)

I'm pulling from my experiences over at WoWInterface for the ESO crowd, after responding to a thread there about running Minion in Wine.

It's not a simple process, but if you're playing ESO or WoW on Linux already, I imagine you're a little bit used to fiddling with things in Linux.

Prereqs:

1. You need a working Sun Java JRE7. JRE8 has an incompatibility which will cause a crash when loading Minion. In addition, OpenJDK may not package the required JavaFX library on your distro. Mine didn't!

2. You need Wine, to work around another crash caused by the game detection script that tries to run when you first lauch Minion. You probably already have it, considering.

Process:

1. We first need a 'working' version of Minion that we'll run to generate the minion.xml settings file. We need this file to bypass the game detection script which will hang Minion running with native Java.

- Create a wineprefix of your choice - I suggest a recent 1.7.x 32 bit. It may help to winetricks the dx9 libraries.
- Download and install the current Windows Minion installer for your 32/64 bit wine.
- Run Minion in wine. It will have some graphical glitches, but it should work. Let it run the game autodetect - which probably won't find anything as nothing is installed to an 'expected' Windows or OSX location.
- Manually browse to your ESO/WoW AddOns folders and let minion correctly recognize your AddOns. Close minion.

2. We now want to grab the minion jar file out of the wine prefix to create our own native java executable.

- Navigate into your wineprefix; Minion should have installed in c_drive/users/yourusername/Local Settings/Application Data/Minion
- Enter the app folder there and copy the Minion-jfx.jar - and possibly the lib folder. You can also copy the icon file from the root Minion folder and convert that into an icon format Linux recognizes. If you want an icon in your app shortcut...
- Paste this to whatever folder you want to keep Minion in your home user folder. I have mine under ~/Programs/Minion/.

3. Now we need to run Minion with our JRE 7.
- Create an application shortcut with your Java RE 7 and link it to Minion:
/usr/bin/java -jar /home/myname/Programs/Minion/Minion-jfx.jar

4. Now launch Minion. It will crash when it tries to find existing games, but we might as well let it generate our settings file. Close it out after it gets stuck on the game detection box.

5. We need to copy our wine minion.xml file to our linux home directory, letting it skip this check.
- Navigate to your wineprefix drive_c/users/yourname/.minion and copy the minion.xml
- Navigate to your home ~/.minion directory and overwrite the minion.xml there

6. Now we need to let minion run. It will fail one more time, but it will clean out the bad paths in the copied config file. Close it when it stops working.

7. Finally, launch minion one more time. It should now be functional, allowing you to add ESO/WoW to your game list and install/update AddOns!

NOTE: There is still one hairy bug at this stage, which is a nuisance more than anything - at least on my machine. There's a sort of 'ghost window' effect where the mouse can only interact with Minion's window and random locations. Half the time it will click through to whatever is behind it. Half the time it will correctly select what the mouse is over. Most parts of the UI will highlight when the mouse is correctly 'on' them, so use that as a guide.

Last edited by Silarn : 09/08/14 at 05:34 PM. Reason: Clarify as how-to
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04/21/19, 07:56 AM   #2
maxheadroom2000
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 4
Minion on Linux: Broken?

It seems that the Sun Java JRE7 and JRE8 files are no longer available. This was due to (I think) license changes by Sun, and their putting the downloads behind a subscriber-only firewall. It also seems the OpenJRE and JDK versions currently available do not work with the Java Minion app. The unfortunate affect to this is there no longer seems to be a way to make the Java version of Minion work, at least not the way described here.

I put this here to help someone like me avoid wasting time on things that no longer work. On the other hand, I'm still looking for alternatives, though. Now that ESO runs *very well* on Steam Play with Proton, I play all games exclusively on Linux. Manually updating my ESO addons certainly works, but definitely isn't convenient, either.
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04/29/19, 05:09 PM   #3
Dolby
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Going to install a distro with a UI and see if I can get oracle jdk8 installed (I want to check out Pop!_OS anyways). Keep in mind this thread was created before we released a .jar version of Minion.

Last edited by Dolby : 04/29/19 at 09:19 PM.
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04/30/19, 04:18 PM   #4
marlonbrando
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Originally Posted by Dolby View Post
Going to install a distro with a UI and see if I can get oracle jdk8 installed (I want to check out Pop!_OS anyways). Keep in mind this thread was created before we released a .jar version of Minion.
I have a shell script that I use to run minion. It finds my steam directory and updates both live and pts.

Here it is, for what it's worth:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
cd '/home/cgf/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Minion'
/opt/oracle-jre-bin-1.8.0.202/bin/java -jar app/Minion-jfx.jar </dev/null >&/dev/null&
This is running on gentoo linux.
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04/30/19, 07:06 PM   #5
Dolby
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This is how I was able to install the oracle jdk8 on Pop!_os (since the ppa is no longer available) but should work on most up to date distro's out there.
  • Register for a free Oracle account and download the latest JDK8 tar.gz(jdk-8u211-linux-x64.tar.gz).
  • Download these bash scripts and follow the simple directions to install jdk8 from the tar.gz file you downloaded.
  • Check if java -version shows the correct version:
    Code:
    dolby@pop-os:~/Downloads/Minion$ java -version
    java version "1.8.0_211"
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_211-b12)
    Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.211-b12, mixed mode)
  • Download the Minion jar from minion.gg and extract the zip into location and folder of your choice.
  • Now run java -jar Minion-jfx.jar in the folder you extracted the zip to
    Code:
    dolby@pop-os:~/Downloads/Minion$ java -jar Minion-jfx.jar
  • Choose to update Minion and restart. (It won't restart)
  • Before you start minion we need to apply the patch manually. Navigate to the folder you are running minion from and you should see a new folder named "null" grab the Minion-jfx.jar from there and copy over the old Minion-jfx.jar in the parent directory.
  • now start minion again java -jar Minion-jfx.jar and it should work like mine...
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Last edited by Dolby : 04/30/19 at 07:10 PM.
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05/16/19, 11:38 AM   #6
VERNSTOKED
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 1
So I actually used Lutris and installed Minion in the same prefix as ESO (after installing ESO via Lutris). The process was slick!

Install Minion Addon Manager within Lutris ESO
======================================================
1. Download the Minion executable for Windows
2. Add game inn Lutris:
1. Click the '+' to add a game
Game info tab:
Name: Lutris
Runner: Wine (runs windows games)
Game options
executable: (leave blank for now)
Wine prefix: (Select browse and navigate to your folder than contains c_drive for ESO)
** If you use Lutris to install ESO it is ~/Games/the-elder-scrolls-online-tamriel-unlimited
2. Select Save
3. In the main Lutris screen, select the new Minion game and select 'Run EXE inside wine prefix'
4. Navigate to the downloaded Minion installer EXE and run it. Go through all the installation.

Now that the game is installed we need to set the executable to run from the newly installed exe inside the prefix that has ESO
The default Minion directory for reference are as follows:

From the prefix (I left out escaping spaces for readability):
drive_c/users/(your user)/Local Settings/Application Data/Minion/Minion.exe

So for me, the absolute path from my user in Linux:
~/Games/the-elder-scrolls-online-tamriel-unlimited/drive_c/users/tannercrook/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Minion/Minion.exe

5. Click Minion in Lutris and select the settings button
6. In the Game info tab, click the smaller image box and navigate to the same directory as the Minion.exe as above but choose the Minion icon.
7. Go to the Game options tab
8. Browse to the executable to the Minion.exe as specified above
9. Hit save
10. Launch and enjoy!!!!

Your Addon folder is located at My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns
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04/15/20, 04:11 AM   #7
arekan127
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 1
Originally Posted by VERNSTOKED View Post
So I actually used Lutris and installed Minion in the same prefix as ESO (after installing ESO via Lutris). The process was slick!

Install Minion Addon Manager within Lutris ESO
======================================================
1. Download the Minion executable for Windows
2. Add game inn Lutris:
1. Click the '+' to add a game
Game info tab:
Name: Lutris
Runner: Wine (runs windows games)
Game options
executable: (leave blank for now)
Wine prefix: (Select browse and navigate to your folder than contains c_drive for ESO)
** If you use Lutris to install ESO it is ~/Games/the-elder-scrolls-online-tamriel-unlimited
2. Select Save
3. In the main Lutris screen, select the new Minion game and select 'Run EXE inside wine prefix'
4. Navigate to the downloaded Minion installer EXE and run it. Go through all the installation.

Now that the game is installed we need to set the executable to run from the newly installed exe inside the prefix that has ESO
The default Minion directory for reference are as follows:

From the prefix (I left out escaping spaces for readability):
drive_c/users/(your user)/Local Settings/Application Data/Minion/Minion.exe

So for me, the absolute path from my user in Linux:
~/Games/the-elder-scrolls-online-tamriel-unlimited/drive_c/users/tannercrook/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Minion/Minion.exe

5. Click Minion in Lutris and select the settings button
6. In the Game info tab, click the smaller image box and navigate to the same directory as the Minion.exe as above but choose the Minion icon.
7. Go to the Game options tab
8. Browse to the executable to the Minion.exe as specified above
9. Hit save
10. Launch and enjoy!!!!

Your Addon folder is located at My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns
Works like a charm, but have problem with fonts, they are without smoothing and hard to read, tried to install different fonts in winetricks, but without any luck. Any idea?
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04/15/20, 09:22 AM   #8
Baertram
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I've found this on reddit, here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/wine_gaming...dered/e62ixxp/

It's related to battlenet so it's another app but maybe helps here as well.
I'm not a linux user so without any warranty, try on your own please:
Code:
I've fixed it with "winetricks settings fontsmooth=rgb"
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08/08/20, 02:20 PM   #9
faldiin
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 1
This winetrick resolved the color issue.

When I click on preferences, the app crashes.

When I try to search for new addons, nothing loads.

I found a Post for Arch with the package build ready. Replaced the Lutris install with Aur Package. No issues now. Lutris, I am not sure what the issue was.


Thank you
Faldiin

Last edited by faldiin : 08/08/20 at 03:06 PM.
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06/12/21, 03:09 PM   #10
Faulon
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 3
Any way to fix the mess?

Originally Posted by VERNSTOKED View Post
So I actually used Lutris and installed Minion in the same prefix as ESO (after installing ESO via Lutris). The process was slick!

Install Minion Addon Manager within Lutris ESO
======================================================
1. Download the Minion executable for Windows
2. Add game inn Lutris:
1. Click the '+' to add a game
Game info tab:
Name: Lutris
Runner: Wine (runs windows games)
Game options
executable: (leave blank for now)
Wine prefix: (Select browse and navigate to your folder than contains c_drive for ESO)
** If you use Lutris to install ESO it is ~/Games/the-elder-scrolls-online-tamriel-unlimited
2. Select Save
3. In the main Lutris screen, select the new Minion game and select 'Run EXE inside wine prefix'
4. Navigate to the downloaded Minion installer EXE and run it. Go through all the installation.

Now that the game is installed we need to set the executable to run from the newly installed exe inside the prefix that has ESO
The default Minion directory for reference are as follows:

From the prefix (I left out escaping spaces for readability):
drive_c/users/(your user)/Local Settings/Application Data/Minion/Minion.exe

So for me, the absolute path from my user in Linux:
~/Games/the-elder-scrolls-online-tamriel-unlimited/drive_c/users/tannercrook/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Minion/Minion.exe

5. Click Minion in Lutris and select the settings button
6. In the Game info tab, click the smaller image box and navigate to the same directory as the Minion.exe as above but choose the Minion icon.
7. Go to the Game options tab
8. Browse to the executable to the Minion.exe as specified above
9. Hit save
10. Launch and enjoy!!!!

Your Addon folder is located at My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns
It works flawlessly with these instructions, I have tried the raw java and have been unsuccessful, as it is missing the JavaFX. But with this set of instructions it does work, no problems staring Minion, but the problem I have is inability to actually read anything without highlighting with mouse. Any simple way to fix this? I have heard about changing fonts via winetricks but not sure how to do that.

UPDATE: I got the font to change and yes that fixed the issue.

Last edited by Faulon : 06/13/21 at 01:49 AM.
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06/12/21, 04:03 PM   #11
Baertram
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Did you try the font smooth stuff I had posted above?
"winetricks settings fontsmooth=rgb"
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06/12/21, 04:21 PM   #12
Baertram
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Read the linked reddit entry, it should be explained there (I hope) as I think I copied it from there.
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