[SOLVED] Wine worked for years, now it doesn't.

[Dapper Dan]

All my standby Windows games I've run under wine for years will not work after recent upgrades. All of them (StarCraft, StarCraft 2, Half-Lif 1 & 2, Trespasser and Wolfenstein) all give me sound but a black screen. I can "hear" the games working when I roll the mouse around as it finds different things to click but the screen is black. Interestingly, Linux native games, such as World Of Goo, Abe and Chess still work flawlessly.

I recently upgraded to xorg-server 1.10.0 which broke my Nvidia driver as it was incompatible with this version of xorg-server. I found an Nvidia driver which did work with xorg-server 10 (against ABI 10) but then these troubles began with wine.

As things are now, glxgears works perfectly. I've tried the very latest wine version as well as earlier version and many in between. I've not made any changes to my xorg.conf but can post it if someone wants to see it. Here are the wine errors when attempting to run StarCraft:

Warning: translation table syntax error: Modifier or '<' expected 
Warning: ... found while parsing 'Shift,:scroll-back(1,line)'
Warning: String to TranslationTable conversion encountered errors
Warning: translation table syntax error: Unknown modifier name:   StartScroll
Warning: ... found while parsing ': StartScroll(Forward)'
Warning: String to TranslationTable conversion encountered errors
wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\plugplay.exe"
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: Permission denied
fixme:bitblt:client_side_dib_copy potential optimization: client-side color-index mode DIB copy
fixme:bitblt:client_side_dib_copy potential optimization: client-side color-index mode DIB copy
$ fixme:ntdll:server_ioctl_file Unsupported ioctl 24000 (device=2 access=1 func=0 method=0)
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33f2e0,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:d3d:swapchain_init Add OpenGL context recreation support to context_validate_onscreen_formats
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: Permission denied
fixme:dsalsa:IDsDriverBufferImpl_SetVolumePan (0x1cf010,0x1cf4c0): stub

I've Googled "d3d:swapchain_init Add OpenGL context recreation support to context_validate_onscreen_formats" but can't turn up anything that is of use. I feel like it has something to do with opengl but my knowledge of how to troubleshoot the problem as it pertains to wine is limited. Hopefully it is something really simple I'm overlooking. Any help or ideas appreciated.

Dapper

[TaZMAniac]

Not sure I can sort this out for you because of multiple updates and driver problems but lets give it a shot.

When you launch a game try pressing the F6 button.
This changes the graphical interface resolution. Many games will generate a black screen if the resolution is too low or too high.

Another thing you can try is to open wine configuration menu and under the Graphics tab make sure the Screen resolution slider is adjusted all the way to the left and the DPI setting is set to 96 dpi.

What concerns me is that when you updated the xorg server you said you broke the Nvidia driver and had to search for one that worked.
It may be that the newest xorg combined with that driver are not a compatible combination with wine.

Good luck and hope one of those settings I mentioned fix your problem.

[TaZMAniac]

I just found this post that may shed some light on your problem;

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=923096

[MikeTbob]

I believe NVIDIA has released an updated driver for xorg-server-1.10.
Which version of nvidia-drivers do you have? Mine is 270.41.03

[Dapper Dan]

TaZMAniac thanks for those links. It appears I'm not the only one having trouble after upgrades though most of the problems others are having seem to be screen flicker. My screen just goes black even though I can hear the game in progress.

Mike, I was using 270.30 when the problems started. They recently came out with 270.41.06 which is what I'm using now and still getting the black screen. These are the only ones (I'm aware of) built against ABI 10. Anything previous won't work on my system with xorg-server 1.10.0.

It's just with wine that I get the black screen, otherwise the drivers work perfectly in every other way including with Linux games.

[TaZMAniac]

This line in your log file bothers me;

wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\plugplay.exe"

The double \\ are causing problems opening the plug n play devices.

[Dapper Dan]

This line in your log file bothers me;

wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\plugplay.exe"

The double \\ are causing problems opening the plug n play devices.

A cursory Google reveals it may be because I'm running an older version of wine. Just this minute finished compiling the very latest wine (April 15, 2011). I'll run it and see if that particular error reoccurs. Thanks TaZMAniac.

[Dapper Dan]

wine-1.3.18
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-270.41.06
xorg-server 1.10.1

Here are the errors now when trying to run StarCraft under wine:

Warning: translation table syntax error: Modifier or '<' expected 
Warning: ... found while parsing 'Shift,:scroll-back(1,line)'
Warning: String to TranslationTable conversion encountered errors
Warning: translation table syntax error: Unknown modifier name:   StartScroll
Warning: ... found while parsing ': StartScroll(Forward)'
Warning: String to TranslationTable conversion encountered errors
fixme:mixer:ALSA_MixerInit No master control found on Logitech USB Headset, disabling mixer
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory
err:alsa:ALSA_CheckSetVolume Could not find '{PCM,Line} Playback Volume' element
err:alsa:ALSA_CheckSetVolume Could not find '{PCM,Line} Playback Volume' element
fixme:bitblt:client_side_dib_copy potential optimization: client-side color-index mode DIB copy
fixme:ntdll:server_ioctl_file Unsupported ioctl 24000 (device=2 access=1 func=0 method=0)
err:alsa:wine_snd_pcm_recover underrun occurred
$ fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33f394,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:d3d:swapchain_init Add OpenGL context recreation support to context_validate_onscreen_formats
fixme:mixer:ALSA_MixerInit No master control found on Logitech USB Headset, disabling mixer
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory
err:alsa:ALSA_CheckSetVolume Could not find '{PCM,Line} Playback Volume' element
err:alsa:ALSA_CheckSetVolume Could not find '{PCM,Line} Playback Volume' element
fixme:dsalsa:IDsDriverBufferImpl_SetVolumePan (0x160f78,0x161428): stub

SecondLife, World of Goo and all other Linux games work as expected. Glxgears is running properly. Still getting just a black screen with all games when attempting to run under wine. I still think it has to do with opengl but haven't Googled anything useful on that error.

[MikeTbob]

You might have to downgrade xorg-server until they get this mess fixed.

[Dapper Dan]

You might have to downgrade xorg-server until they get this mess fixed.

Mike, I tried that before upgrading to the newest wine and got the same errors. Rebuilding the latest wine might work with a downgraded version of xorg-server so I'll try it again. Thanks!