Orion on Linux - Guide

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vempa
Journeyman Scribe
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:31 pm

Orion on Linux - Guide

Post by vempa »

Greetings,

I'm a returning player and recently decided to give Orion a go and found it's not quite a plug-n-play experience on Linux based systems.
Took a good few hours of triage to get it working so thought I'd save you the time.

Please note that I'm not a Linux poweruser- feel free to correct me where I'm wrong.

If this guide has helped you or you're still having issues, feel free to comment or drop me a PM;

Good luck,
V


P.S: sorry for the formatting and lack of image. phpBB is pretty bad.


=====================================
=== Guide updated on April 6th, 2023 ======
=====================================


Verified OS:
  • Manjaro (Arch-based)
  • Ubuntu (Debian-based)

Step by step Instructions

1. Download Orion for Linux from the official site. Not linking it here in case it's against the rules or URL changed.


2. Download the latest prepatched client from UOEX site. At the time of writing, that is version 5.0.9.12.


3. Create a new, empty directory for the UO client, making sure the path does not contain spaces.
While I'm not sure it's an imperative, it does seem like Orion may have issues with paths with spaces.


4. Extract the prepatched UO client into the directory. This can be done via:
  • UI Tools like Gnome Archive Manager
  • Running with Wine (the executable is a 7z self-extracting archive)
  • Linux native utils. For example, 7z command:

    Code: Select all

    7z e -y ./uoml_excelsior_expatch12.exe -o./my-client-directory

3. Extract the Orion Launcher. I prefer a separate directory than UO's (i.e., not a nested one)


4. In Orion's directory, give 'execute' permissions to OrionLauncher64


5. Run OrionLauncher64 via the command line
At this point, you may get an error like:
Error while loading shared libraries: libxcb-xinput.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
The solution will depend on your exact system, but, in general, you have a few options at this point.
  • Check your distro's package manager for the missing library- it may be possible to install it directly
  • Lookup the missing ELF (.SO file) online; It may be a part of a larger package that can be installed via your package manager
  • Find the missing ELF somewhere on your system (in my case, I had Timeshift snapshots that had the files I needed) and drop the libs directly into Orion's directory
You may have to repeat this step several times until you've brought in all the dependencies.
Once all dependencies are resolved, the Orion Launcher should open.


6. Run the Orion Launcher.
When prompted, select your directories for the UO client and Orion directory.
You may also be prompted to configure the client version. To do so, select the FROM CLIENT.EXE FILE option, point it to UO's client.exe and set the Client version to the Excelsior client version exactly. As of the time of writing (April 6th 2023), the version is 5.0.9.12


7. Verify the Orion Launcher configuration is correct:
  • UO files path should point to your Excelsior client directory (remember, directory path should have no spaces in it)
  • Orion path should point to your Orion directory (remember, directory path should have no spaces in it)
  • The client version has been configured. If you were not prompted, you can do so via the Configure client version button

8. Navigate into the Updates tab, click Check for updates and, once done, click Apply updates


9. Navigate back to the Profile tab and:
- Click the Add server (profiles group) button. Give the server a name (Excelsior perhaps?)

- Click the Add profile button.
  • From the list that opens, select [Open Editor]
  • Give a name to the profile (display name)
  • In the address,port input, put it Excelsior's address and port. As of the time of writing (April 6th 2023) this is shard.uoex.net,60 (Please verify against Excelsior homepage for good measure)
  • You may clear out the account/password fields empty, if you'd like to avoid saving passwords on your system.

10. At this point, you may try to launch the game by pressing the Launch button or double clicking on the profile you've just created.
In all probability, you'll see nothing happen. If you the client happens to launch, you've save a couple steps, otherwise, keep reading.

If you ran the Orion Launcher via command line, you may see a message like
proc started: true
proc finished: true

11. Navigate back to the Orion directory.
There should be new files there now- they were brought in by the Orion update.
  • Create an empty file called runner.sh and give it execute permission. This can be done by using chmod +x or chmod 755 for example.
  • Give execute permission to OrionUO64
  • Create a new .sh file, for example launch.sh.
    In this file, put in the following content, making sure the LD_LIBRARY_PATH value points to your Orion directory:

    Code: Select all

    #!/bin/sh
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=PATH-TO-YOUR-ORION-DIR-GOES-HERE
    ./OrionUO64 $@
This script can be used to launch the game, circumventing the Orion Launcher, allowing easier debugging.


12. Once more, go to the Orion Launcher and try to run the game. If the same issue persists, continue reading.


13. From the terminal, run your newly created launch.sh (or whatever you named it).
You will probably get more missing ELF messages, for example:
Error while loading shared libraries: libsndio.so.6.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

As before, fill in the missing dependencies, either via your package manager or by manually dropping them into the directory.


14. Finally, re-run the Orion Launcher; The game should now be operational.




Caveats/Notes

There are a few caveats I've been yet unable to work around. If you've solutions for any of those, please let me know!
  • On my machine, some sprites are problematic.
    Items may sometimes be displayed incorrectly (my necro book, for example, decided it was a dead walrus)
  • Native UO macros (i.e. classic client macros) are not imported by Orion. It seems like it has an overhauled XML based macro system which is wholly incompatible with UO's binary configurations
  • Out-of-box sound is awfully skewed, to the point I thought it was bugged. You may have to turn down sound/music/footsteps to around 10 to get a reasonable experience.
ZeeeQi
Adept Scribe
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2021 2:35 am

Re: Orion on Linux - Guide

Post by ZeeeQi »

Thanks for sharing this! I've installed it on Ubuntu 22.04 and it was working perfectly fine. Haven't had the sprites problems you mention tho
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