single-player server · 3.3.5a
Sign in
Guides › Server

Running on Linux and macOS

Not tested yet. The Linux and macOS versions are written to work but have not been built or run so far. Expect problems, and please report what you find. Windows is the platform LonelyIce is used on today.

How it works

On Linux and macOS the launcher, the server and the tools run natively; only the game client stays the Windows Wow.exe and runs through Wine. Everything else works as on Windows: the same wizard, pages, settings and packages. The program is called LonelyIce instead of LonelyIce.exe, and lonelyice.ini sits next to it.

Getting it

If there is no Linux or macOS download for your version, build LonelyIce from source: Building LonelyIce lists the packages to install on Debian/Ubuntu and macOS (Homebrew) and the build commands. The result is in build/lonelyice-release: the LonelyIce program, its libraries, plugins/ and setup/. Keep them together.

You also need Wine (sudo apt install wine on Debian/Ubuntu; on macOS a Wine build, for example from Homebrew or CrossOver) and your 3.3.5a game client (build 12340).

Starting the game through Wine

The launcher starts the game with the program named in lonelyice.ini:

[client]
runner=wine

wine is the default. There is no field for it in the launcher; edit the file while LonelyIce is closed. The value is split at spaces: the first word is the program (looked up in your PATH unless it is a full path), the rest are arguments placed before the path of Wow.exe. For example:

runner=wine64
runner=/opt/wine-staging/bin/wine

A Proton or CrossOver wrapper works the same way, as long as it takes the path of the .exe as its last argument.

Finding the client

The wizard looks for the client in the saved folder, next to the program and in its parent folder, in folders next to it, and in the default Wine prefix:

  • the game's folder in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)
  • the game's folder in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files

Otherwise choose the folder that contains Wow.exe. Upper and lower case in the client's folder names (Data, data, WTF) do not matter to the launcher.

Where the server data goes

The wizard's "Where to keep the server data" offers, besides the game folder and a folder of your choice:

  • In your user data folder — ~/.local/share/LonelyIce on Linux (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/LonelyIce when that is set), ~/Library/Application Support/LonelyIce on macOS;
  • Next to the LonelyIce program.

Differences from Windows

  • Desktop shortcut. On Linux, the wizard's Desktop shortcut writes lonelyice.desktop into ~/.local/share/applications and onto ~/Desktop when that folder exists. On macOS the option is hidden.
  • Open folder buttons use xdg-open on Linux and open on macOS.
  • Packages. The catalog shows only packages that have a build for your system (linux-x64, linux-arm64, macos-x64 or macos-arm64); packages without server code show everywhere. The MySQL database package is built for Windows only, so MySQL storage is not available on Linux and macOS.
  • OpenSSL comes from your system and is not shipped with the program.

Reporting problems

When something fails, the Console tab, Maintenance › Logs and the Events list on the Overview tab show what happened, the same as on Windows (Troubleshooting). Include those lines, your distribution or macOS version and your Wine version in a report.