Getting GOG Civilization IV to work on a new Debian Linux installation with Wine

[mycophobia]

I'm putting this here because every time I do a fresh install of Debian and I want to install my GOG copy of Civ 4 I have to dig and experiment and do all sorts of dumb stuff for hours to figure out exactly what to do to make it run in wine, so here's a concise sequence of commands that makes it work for me in hopes that it will assist a fellow weary Googler. I'm assuming this would work in other Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu as well:

First, add the non-free repository to your sources.list if it's not there already.

To get everything installed and ready:
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt update && sudo apt install wine32 winetricks
export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32
export WINEARCH=win32
export LC_ALL=C
wineboot
winetricks msxml3 d3dx9
cd ~/wherever_the_gog_installer_is/
wine setup_civilization4_complete_2.0.0.4.exe

Run this in the game folder to play:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32 LC_ALL=C wine [insert game exe here]

 

[lymond]

ping @Pangaea

don't know what Debian and all that means, but I think Pangaea uses both Linux and GOG Civ IV, so ping him here. He may be on a bit of a break, but hopefully he stops by soon.

 

[mycophobia]

Thanks but I'm all set, this is just a guide for others who might have difficulty installing it, or who might be searching "GOG wine civilization 4 installation" or something like that and getting frustrated that they can't find anything useful and straightforward like I was a couple days ago lol

 

[Pangaea]

Cheers @lymond. These days I'm simply relying on the work of others. I installed the game using this installer: https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meiers_civilization_series/civilization_iv_for_linux

It does all the necessary stuff behind the scenes, and I just double-click on the shortcut it creates. The game was installed on my end years ago, but these days I think this script also includes registry settings that make the game work with BUFFY.

For others reading (and I see it's part of the OP's setup), the MSXML3 part is crucial, otherwise the game will crash at certain points, like if you build Stonehenge (iirc, that was one of the triggers).

The recipe looks familiar, though one point to consider is perhaps to put the game in its own Wine "bottle" (instead of merely "wine32"). Great with more focus on this here. I've found that the game works flawlessly on Linux. It's the game itself that has issues with memory leak and whatnot in very long sessions, and that will crop up on Linux as well, like lags and suchlike in hours-long sessions. Restarting the game will solve it -- until you've played another 6 hours or something

 

[mycophobia]

The recipe looks familiar, though one point to consider is perhaps to put the game in its own Wine "bottle" (instead of merely "wine32").

I hadn't thought of that but yeah since I'm specifying a WINEPREFIX for everything including running the game anyway that's probably the cleanest way to do it.

I didn't have the d3dx9 step in there originally but then I found out the tile yields didn't show up correctly until I did it.

 

[dgang]

I'm putting this here because every time I do a fresh install of Debian and I want to install my GOG copy of Civ 4 I have to dig and experiment and do all sorts of dumb stuff for hours to figure out exactly what to do to make it run in wine, so here's a concise sequence of commands that makes it work for me in hopes that it will assist a fellow weary Googler. I'm assuming this would work in other Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu as well:

First, add the non-free repository to your sources.list if it's not there already.

To get everything installed and ready:
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt update && sudo apt install wine32 winetricks
export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32
export WINEARCH=win32
export LC_ALL=C
wineboot
winetricks msxml3 d3dx9
cd ~/wherever_the_gog_installer_is/
wine setup_civilization4_complete_2.0.0.4.exe

Run this in the game folder to play:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32 LC_ALL=C wine [insert game exe here]

How about on Manjaro, an ARCH based distro (instead of Debian)?
And are there clear instructions for the BUG mod in this case?
I have the basic game running in steam (using proton) but somehow I messed up the BUG mod and I forget where all the folders are to reinstall (been a while, a pain). I must say, it's not as much fun playing without the BUG mod (a great mod).