How to play Istaria on Linux Mint 20

I've been very drunk while making this howto, so bear with me!

This guide explains how to set up Linux Mint to install and play Istaria.
The guide is based on Mint 20. However, installing on (X-/K-/L-)Ubuntu 20+ should be pretty much the same for the steps written below.

Small experience in using the linux terminal is helpful.

Read more:

---

The official webpage for Wine Istaria guide on WineHQ Kepesk's guide to install Istaria on Ubuntu Linux 8.04 The official Linux Mint webpage The official Ubuntu webpage The official Istaria client download

Installing and preparing Wine

Wine is a native Microsoft Windows implementation. It is used to let Windows programs run on your Linux system.

• Open up a terminal emulator.
  
• Enter the following command:
  sudo apt-get install wine-stable winetricks
• Confirm installing the packages.

Install required 3rd party packages

• Be sure no wine instance is running at your system.
• Enter the following command:
  winetricks
• Select "Create new wineprefix" and press the OK button.
  • In Architecture dropdown, select 64
  • In Name textbox, enter "Istaria"
  • Press the OK button
  • Winetricks may ask you if you would like to send statistics to the developers. Choose whatever you want.
• Back on the main menu, click on "Select Istaria"
• Select "Install a Windows DLL or component" and press the OK button.
• A list of components is shown. Select the following components:
  • d3dx9_36
  • vcrun2005
  • Press the OK button
  • a few warnings about 64 bit wine prefix may appear, confirm those.
  • A Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 dialog pops up. Confirm with "yes".
• Back in the main menu, select "Install a font" and press the OK button.
  • A list of packages shows up, select 'corefonts' and press the OK button.
  • There will be several warnings about wine would "hang". Confirm each of those.
• Once the packages finished installing, close the winetricks window by pressing the "x" symbol on the upper right part of the window.

Install Java JRE 8

The Istaria patcher will only work on Java 8 as of this writing, so it is necessary to install it.

• On the terminal emulator, enter the following command:
  sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre
• Confirm the installation.

Install Istaria using wine

• Open up your web browser, visit http://www.istaria.com/ and download the Istaria setup file.
• Once downloaded, start the program using the following command (enter your path(s) accordingly):

WINEPREFIX=~/".local/share/wineprefixes/Istaria" wine ~/"Downloads/setup.exe"

• Follow the setup assistant and install Istaria

  Note: Setup may ask you to install a Java version and a visual c runtime by visiting the official webpages, please skip these steps.

  • Once done, desktop symbols are created. These won't work, you may want to remove them.

Testing your installation

• On the terminal emulator enter the following commands. Note that the install directory may vary if you didn't name the wine prefix "Istaria" :

cd ~/".local/share/wineprefixes/Istaria/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Istaria/"

WINEPREFIX=~/".local/share/wineprefixes/Istaria" /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -jar launcher2.jar

• And there you go:
  

Creating a launcher on your desktop

• Right click on a free space on your desktop.
• Select "Create new document".
  • Select "Create empty document"
  • Change its name to "Istaria.sh"
• Right-click on the Istaria.sh, select "open with", then select "Text Editor"
  • Add the following commands to the file (change paths accordingly):

cd ~/".local/share/wineprefixes/Istaria/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Istaria/"
WINEPREFIX=~/".local/share/wineprefixes/Istaria" /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -jar launcher2.jar

• • Save the file and close it
• Right click the Istaria.sh file and select "Properties"
  • Select the "Permissions" tab
  • Check the "Allow executing file as program"
  • Press the close button

Launching Istaria

• To launch Istaria, double click the Istaria.sh file
  • Mint asks you what to do, choose "run"
• there you go: