Hello,

I have a friend who used to be fan of Settlers series back in 90s, and am pondering buying him the new version sold at GoG as a gift. Problem is, he has no Windows PC, having switched to Linux many years ago. Hence, my question to people who actually bought and run the tittle (and can look into how it works under Windows):

I take it the game comes as installation program for Windows that installs enchanced DOS game and DosBox copy rigged to run just Settlers 2, right? How hard will it be to get it run under standalone DosBox installation for Linux? Do I need to copy configuration files from DosBox version that comes with game, or just copy game directory and run .exe under DosBox?

The game isn't for me, so I want to know I can run it with minimal fuss and not have to look at it again before deciding to buy :).

Thank you

Hi

the last time I installed Settlers 2 from my original CDs under Linux. The GOG-Installer-Package (at least the german version) unfortunately contains a binary file named [0] instead of the disc content, so open the file with an archivemanager and extracting it's content is most likely no option.
I'm not quite sure what kind of binary file this is and currently I don't have the time for a deeper inspection.

Installing with Wine should work flawlessly (I remember trying it with the english version once). After this he can save the packages contents and should be able to run them with every dosbox (and configuration). There are even DosBox-Configurations provided with the GOG-Version.

If you want I can try and test this before you jump into cold water.

i did exactly that some days ago. what do you have to do?

1: download the game installer from GoG.com

2. run and install it with wine (i used the latest version, 1.7.37)

i dont think the following step is necessary but i did it anyway:

3. copy the game folder from /home/user/.wine/drive_c/ to your desired destination folder, like /home/user/games/settlers 2 gold

4. open your dosbox config (you need to install dosbox before), usually its in /home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf

5.at the end of the config, add the lines from the dosboxSettlers2_single.conf (its in your settlers 2 folder) and edit the location paths to the place where your settlers 2 installation is:

------------------------------------------------------------
@ECHO OFF
mount c ".."
imgmount d "..\settlers2.inst" -t iso -fs iso
c:
cls
@VIDEO\SMACKPLY VIDEO\INTRO.SMK
s2.exe
exit
------------------------------------------------------------

for example, i changed the two mount lines to:

mount c "/home/oedi/Downloads/Settlers 2 GOLD/"
imgmount d "/home/oedi/Downloads/Settlers 2 GOLD/settlers2.inst" -t iso -fs iso

now just start dosbox from console or dosbox shortcut.

http://abload.de/img/snapshot5npszq.png

thats about it, works for me :) I'm using Arch Linux, but it should work with any distro out there. this is the manual way to do it, im pretty sure PlayOnLinux has an easier to use install script available. just a guess though.

For Linux distributions based on Debian (like Ubuntu or Linux Mint), I wrote an automated installation process for The Settlers 2.
You can find more about it there:
https://www.gog.com/forum/the_settlers_series/linux_turn_your_exe_installer_of_the_settlers_2_into_deb_packages

It has been tested on English and French versions of the game, I could support the German version too if there is some request about it.