WINE Linux and Black Dragon (or other) viewer

[missyrideout]

Anyone out there use WINE to run Windows viewers in Linux? I have seen Black Dragon and Catznip mentioned,  both of which make sense given their unique features. 

I use Black Dragon this way for photography. Yesterday I was greeted with the following: "Login failed. Second life cannot be accessed from this computer. If you feel this is an error, please contact support@secondlife.com"  Which of course I did. I also verified the same issue running Firestorm in WINE, and that my account is in good standing and can log on other standard viewers. I understand nobody here can offer me support. But I'm more generally curious if anyone has had issues using WINE. 

 I assume (alternate suggestions welcome) that my configuration triggered filters designed to prevent something more sinister than mediocre snapshots 😂  I am fairly technically inclined and it's possible with research I could compile this viewer for myself in Linux. At least, I have seen archaelogical evidence of that being done. I guess at this moment I would hesitate not knowing whether, after all that work, some algorithmically controlled mechanism might be waiting to drop anvil on my head.

What's the technology behind blocking viewers, how smart is it? Are there a lot of false positives, have you experienced one?  
 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by missyrideout

[Solar Legion]

If it is possible to do so (I am unsure on this, as I use Linux "native" viewers myself) you could try using Lutris or even Steam to run the viewer. The later's Proton system allows for a lot of Windows based applications to be used. I think you can get Lutris to use Proton as well.

[TVTuner]

I suspect that is the message given when the viewer reports a MAC address that has been blocked.  I don't know anything about WINE but this makes me suspect it gave a non-random fictitious MAC address to the application to use.

[missyrideout]

6 minutes ago, TVTuner said:

I don't know anything about WINE but this makes me suspect it gave a non-random fictitious MAC address to the application to use.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into that. I know Virtualbox can have that effect. And I understand that is why games (I know SL is not a game!) do block these kind of connections. 

[TVTuner]

Once upon a time.... 00:00:00:00:00:00 would get blocked due to an abuse incident, since that was what the software the accused was using reported as the client MAC address.  Unfortunately this also swept out many harmless and beneficial agents too.

[missyrideout]

I heard back from LL that Linux is unsupported but that's OK. It means I can continue troubleshooting knowing I didn't inadvertently run afoul of the TOS or anything. So an odd technical glitch, at least I *should* be able to figure out on my own. It's vexing though because I don't tend to update my system willy nilly (technical term) and it was working one day and not the next. Thanks for the suggestions! 

[Solar Legion]

1 hour ago, missyrideout said:

I heard back from LL that Linux is unsupported but that's OK. It means I can continue troubleshooting knowing I didn't inadvertently run afoul of the TOS or anything. So an odd technical glitch, at least I *should* be able to figure out on my own. It's vexing though because I don't tend to update my system willy nilly (technical term) and it was working one day and not the next. Thanks for the suggestions! 

Linux is "unsupported" by their default viewer and some of the TPVs out there.

Firestorm and Singularity support Linux - without the need to run a Windows executable through WINE. On some distributions you can even bypass certain annoyances (a tweak or two to use Voice for instance) - Arch based distributions for example can use an AUR package to install Firestorm.

As for Black Dragon and others ... you could try using Lutris or find a way to run it through Valve's Proton system.

WINE is somewhat notorious for having prefixes 'broken' by an update or some oddity, especially if you have a shared prefix for most of your programs.

I do wish there was more collaboration between the varied TPV developers out there - along with a slight attitude adjustment for a few of the more stubborn ones. There'd be fewer headaches and more options.

ETA: If it was working fine and then suddenly isn't - be it after an update to your system/WINE or after a new program was installed into your prefix .... You may need to wholly redo the prefix itself.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Solar Legion

[Fritigern Gothly]

On 2/17/2020 at 9:53 AM, missyrideout said:

I am fairly technically inclined and it's possible with research I could compile this viewer for myself in Linux.

You have NO idea how welcome it would be if you could do that, and make the results available for others to download it too. 
I'm fairly sure that @NiranV Dean would even welcome the help.

[missyrideout]

19 minutes ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

You have NO idea how welcome it would be if you could do that, and make the results available for others to download it too. 
I'm fairly sure that @NiranV Dean would even welcome the help.

It's honestly a little over my head for anything beyond personal tinkering. There is an Arch Linux user though who created a package that compiles Firestorm directly from the nightly source.  I sent an email asking him to take a look to see if its even possible in theory.

Edited February 21, 2020 by missyrideout

[Fritigern Gothly]

16 minutes ago, missyrideout said:

It's honestly a little over my head for anything beyond personal tinkering. There is an Arch Linux user though who created a package that compiles Firestorm directly from the nightly source.  I sent an email asking him to take a look to see if its even possible in theory.

Ah, but I can compile FS myself too, it's fairly easy although it take a few hours for that to complete and of course you need to have all the proper libs.
What I would be interested in is a native Linux port of Black Dragon. It is the one viewer which I would be interested in playing with because of its many unique features, not found in any other viewer.