Install EVE on Linux with Wine
Contents
How to install EVE Online on Linux with wine
What is wine?
Wine is free and open source software that allows Linux and other UNIX-like operating system to run windows executables. Wine isn't a full emulator, instead it uses native UNIX substitutes for Windows components.
Why use wine instead of the official EVE linux client?
EVE online played through wine has less bugs, better stability and better performance than the official EVE Linux client. It can also support premium graphics with the proper hardware, which isn't supported by the official EVE Linux client.
Downloading and installing wine
Most distributions have wine in their default software repositories. Therefore, you can install wine with your package manager (Synaptic, RPM Package Manager, etc). If you cannot find wine in your package manger or would like to build wine from source, you can download and install wine from the official webpage here.
You can install wine in Ubuntu by launching Add/Remove Applications, selecting show "All Open Source Applications", typing "wine" into the search bar, clicking the check box next to "Wine Microsoft Compatibility Layer" and then pressing the "Apply Changes" button.
Downloading and installing EVE
Download the Windows premium client here. Once it is done downloading, double click on the "EVE_Premium_Setup_*.exe" file you downloaded and follow the instructions on screen. The default options in the EVE installer are acceptable.
Configuring wine to work with EVE
Open winecfg (usually found in Applications > Wine > Configure Wine), click on the graphics tab, and click "emulate a virtual desktop". You will need to download d3dx9_35 and place it in ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32. Once that is done, open winecfg again and click the libraries tab. Find d3dx9_35 in the drop down list and add it. Click on d3dx9_35 in the existing overrides window and click edit, then click "Native then builtin".
You will also need to install arial.ttf. To do this, install the package "msttcorefonts". After the package is install, move /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/arial.ttf to ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/Fonts.
Running multiple clients from the same EVE directory
Create two launchers, and set the first launcher's command to "wine explorer /desktop=EVE,800x600 "C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE\eve.exe"" and the second launcher's command to "wine explorer /desktop=EVE2,800x600 "C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE\eve.exe"". Set 800x600 to whatever resolution you are using. If you need more than 2 clients, don't forget to change the name (ie /desktop=EVE3, /desktop=EVE4, etc).