Visual novels on Linux

Visual novels are only Microsoft Windows programs, therefore you must use Wine in order to run them. This works exceptionally well on Linux.

Follow the steps below to run VNs on Linux.

Install Wine & Dependencies

Arch

You will need to enable [multilib] and [community] before running this command. To do this, uncomment the [multilib] and [community] section in /etc/pacman.conf.

sudo pacman -S wine-staging winetricks lutris giflib lib32-giflib libpng lib32-libpng libldap lib32-libldap gnutls lib32-gnutls mpg123 lib32-mpg123 openal lib32-openal v4l-utils lib32-v4l-utils libpulse lib32-libpulse alsa-plugins lib32-alsa-plugins alsa-lib lib32-alsa-lib libjpeg-turbo lib32-libjpeg-turbo libxcomposite lib32-libxcomposite libxinerama lib32-libxinerama ncurses lib32-ncurses opencl-icd-loader lib32-opencl-icd-loader libxslt lib32-libxslt libva lib32-libva gtk3 lib32-gtk3 gst-plugins-base-libs lib32-gst-plugins-base-libs gst-plugins-good lib32-gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-bad-libs gst-plugins-ugly libgudev vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader cups samba dosbox

This may look like a lot of "bloat" but for older games especially, you will need all of these.

Now we might want something called CDemu, this is to trick some VNs into thinking that the original disc for the VN is inserted, so it'll let you play the game.

sudo pacman -S cdemu-client cdemu-daemon

In order to use CDemu, you need to install the VHBA module.

sudo pacman -S vhba-module

Custom and LTS Kernels

If you are using a custom or LTS kernel, install vhba-module-dkms. Otherwise, install vhba-module.

You can then enable the CDEmu daemon by running:

sudo systemctl enable --now cdemu-daemon

If drivers for CD/DVD drives are not automatically loaded, you can load it manually.

sudo modprobe -a sg sr_mod vhba

Ubuntu

First you will need to enable 32-bit architecture.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Download the WineHQ repository key:

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Now add the WineHQ repository key:

sudo apt-key add winehq.key

Add the repository:

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main' -y

Other Ubuntu Versions

If you use a different version of Ubuntu you must do this instead. Replace groovy with the codename of the Ubuntu version you use. This one is for 20.10:

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ groovy main' -y

Add PPA's for Lutris:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris -y

Update packages:

sudo apt update

Now install the stable version of Wine:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends winehq-stable -y

Now install Lutris, CDEmu and some needed libraries:

sudo apt-get install lutris libgnutls30:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libxml2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0:i386 libgudev-1.0-0:i386 ocl-icd-dev:i386 -y

Now we need to install winetricks manually because the one on the repository already is outdated and causes errors.
First, wget the binary:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks

Use chmod to make it into an executable:

chmod +x winetricks

Now copy it to your /usr/bin so it can be used in a command line.

sudo cp winetricks /usr/bin

Optionally, for some VNs, you might want CDemu which tricks VNs into thinking that the original disc is inserted so it'll let you play the game.

Add PPA's for CDEmu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cdemu/ppa -y

Update package repositories:

sudo apt update

sudo apt-get install gcdemu cdemu-client

Now we need to install the VHBA module if you don't already have it.

sudo apt-get install vhba-dkms -y

Debian

✅ Tested on Debian 11 Bullseye

First you will need to enable 32-bit architecture.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Download the WineHQ repository key:

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Now add the WineHQ repository key:

sudo apt-key add winehq.key

Add the WineHQ repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ bullseye main

You will need the Deb Multimedia repository for CDEmu, this is used to trick VNs that the disc is inserted if no crack is available. Using wget, get its GPG keyring:

wget https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/main/d/deb-multimedia-keyring/deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb

Install the deb file as usual:

sudo dpkg -i deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb

Now add the repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org bullseye main

You also need to append contrib and non-free to your main repository line in /etc/apt/sources.list if you haven't done so already.
Example:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free

Now finally update package repositories:

sudo apt update

Now install all the needed packages, including Wine, Lutris, CDEmu and other Wine dependencies.

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable lutris dbus-x11 libmirage-plugins gcdemu cdemu-client cdemu-daemon libgnutls30:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libxml2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0:i386 gstreamer1.0-plugins-good:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0:i386 libgudev-1.0-0:i386 ocl-icd-dev:i386 -y

Now we need to install winetricks manually because the one on the repository already is outdated and causes errors.
First, wget the binary:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks

Use chmod to make it into an executable:

chmod +x winetricks

Now copy it to your /usr/bin so it can be used in a command line.

sudo cp winetricks /usr/bin

In case you do not have the VHBA kernel module, get it now.

sudo apt install vhba-dkms

Fedora

First add the Wine repository.

Fedora 33:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/fedora/33/winehq.repo

Fedora 32:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/fedora/32/winehq.repo

Now lets install ALL the build dependencies.

sudo dnf install alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 glibc-devel.i686 glibc-devel libgcc.i686 libX11-devel.i686 freetype-devel.i686 libXcursor-devel.i686 libXi-devel.i686 libXext-devel.i686 libXxf86vm-devel.i686 libXrandr-devel.i686 libXinerama-devel.i686 mesa-libGLU-devel.i686 mesa-libOSMesa-devel.i686 libXrender-devel.i686 libpcap-devel.i686 ncurses-devel.i686 libzip-devel.i686 lcms2-devel.i686 zlib-devel.i686 libv4l-devel.i686 libgphoto2-devel.i686 cups-devel.i686 libxml2-devel.i686 openldap-devel.i686 libxslt-devel.i686 gnutls-devel.i686 libpng-devel.i686 flac-libs.i686 json-c.i686 libICE.i686 libSM.i686 libXtst.i686 libasyncns.i686 liberation-narrow-fonts.noarch libieee1284.i686 libogg.i686 libsndfile.i686 libuuid.i686 libva.i686 libvorbis.i686 libwayland-client.i686 libwayland-server.i686 llvm-libs.i686 mesa-dri-drivers.i686 mesa-filesystem.i686 mesa-libEGL.i686 mesa-libgbm.i686 nss-mdns.i686 ocl-icd.i686 pulseaudio-libs.i686 sane-backends-libs.i686 tcp_wrappers-libs.i686 unixODBC.i686 samba-common-tools.x86_64 samba-libs.x86_64 samba-winbind.x86_64 samba-winbind-clients.x86_64 samba-winbind-modules.x86_64 mesa-libGL-devel.i686 fontconfig-devel.i686 libXcomposite-devel.i686 libtiff-devel.i686 openal-soft-devel.i686 mesa-libOpenCL-devel.i686 opencl-utils-devel.i686 alsa-lib-devel.i686 gsm-devel.i686 libjpeg-turbo-devel.i686 pulseaudio-libs-devel.i686 pulseaudio-libs-devel gtk3-devel.i686 libattr-devel.i686 libva-devel.i686 libexif-devel.i686 libexif.i686 glib2-devel.i686 mpg123-devel.i686 mpg123-devel.x86_64 libcom_err-devel.i686 libcom_err-devel.x86_64 libFAudio-devel.i686 libFAudio-devel.x86_64

sudo dnf groupinstall "C Development Tools and Libraries"
sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"

You also need some packages from rpmfusion

sudo dnf install gstreamer-plugins-base-devel gstreamer-devel.i686 gstreamer.i686 gstreamer-plugins-base.i686 gstreamer-devel gstreamer1.i686 gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel.i686 gstreamer-plugins-base.x86_64 gstreamer.x86_64 gstreamer1-devel.i686 gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel gstreamer-plugins-base-devel.i686 gstreamer-ffmpeg.i686 gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-devel.i686 gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-extras.i686 gstreamer1-plugins-good-extras.i686 gstreamer1-libav.i686 gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld.i686

Now install Wine:

sudo dnf install wine

And then Winetricks:

First, wget the binary:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks

Use chmod to make it into an executable:

chmod +x winetricks

Now copy it to your /usr/bin so it can be used in a command line.

sudo cp winetricks /usr/bin

And now CDEmu, first enable the rok/cdemu COPR repository:

sudo dnf copr enable rok/cdemu

Now install CDEmu daemon and clients:

sudo dnf install cdemu-daemon cdemu-client gcdemu

Now load the VHBA kernel module:

sudo akmods
sudo systemctl restart systemd-modules-load.service

openSUSE

✅ Tested on openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210408

sudo zypper install wine winetricks lutris cdemu-client cdemu-daemon gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-good-32bit gstreamer-plugins-base gstreamer-plugins-base-32bit gstreamer-plugins-libav gstreamer-plugins-libav-32bit gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-bad-32bit gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-ugly-32bit libgudev-1_0-0 libgudev-1_0-0-32bit libSDL2-2_0-0 libjpeg-turbo

Now load the VHBA module into your kernel.

sudo modprobe -a sg sr_mod vhba

Gentoo

Make sure your kernel is compiled with the following options enabled:

• CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR
• CONFIG_ISO9660_FS
• CONFIG_UDF_FS

It is recommended to have the following global use flags in your make.conf:

• X
• pulseaudio
• jpeg
• png

sudo emerge -av "=app-emulation/wine-vanilla-6.4" virtual/wine games-util/lutris app-cdr/cdemu app-emulation/winetricks media-libs/gst-plugins-base media-libs/gst-plugins-good media-libs/gst-plugins-ugly media-libs/gst-plugins-bad app-emulation/wine-staging gstreamer mp3 openal vulkan vkd3d gssapi sdl vaapi opencl
sudo modprobe vhba

Edit your /etc/conf.d/modules file and add this:

modules="vhba"

In order for the CDEmu daemon to be started automatically on boot, you will need to have dbus enabled. You can enable it by running:

sudo rc-update add dbus default

Configure Wine and install runtimes

Creating the Wineprefix

First we need to create a 32 bit Wine prefix, this has the best compatibility and 64 bit is unnecessary for VNs.

WINEARCH=win32 wineboot

Using winetricks

Now we need to install the common redistributables such as DirectX, Visual C++ Runtimes and .NET Framework 3.5 and other things that make video cutscenes work.

Optional: Font smoothing

You can do winetricks fontsmooth=rgb because without it, the font is simply awful.

Optional: GUI Improvments

You can open the Registry Editor using wine regedit and import this .reg file, the GUI should look nice and clean then.

First you need to get the latest patches for Winetricks or else this will not work.

sudo winetricks --self-update

Now you can use Winetricks.

winetricks ffdshow quartz wmp9 d3dx9 dotnet35 vcrun2003 vcrun2005 vcrun2008 vcrun2010 vcrun2012 vcrun2013 vcrun2015

ffdshow

When installing ffdshow, make sure you check (tick) ☑ every single codec/format or else it will not work!

Installing DXVK slightly improves performance as it is a Vulkan implementation of D3DX9.

winetricks dxvk

Vulkan Unsupported Systems

If your system does not support Vulkan, do not install DXVK. If you want to remove DXVK, follow the instructions here

For some VNs, such as TYPE-MOON's, LAVFilters may be needed to playback video.

winetricks lavfilters

ffdshow and LAVFilters

Some games may break if you have both ffdshow and LAVFilters installed! Make sure you experiment!

Then, run this command to disable DLL overrides, and use the native DLLs instead:

winetricks alldlls=default

Having issues?

You can set it back using winetricks alldlls=builtin

Japanese fonts in Wine

You need to install Japanese fonts to Wine now. Please download the pack below.
[Google Drive]
Unzip the file and move the font files to your Fonts folder in ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/Fonts

Why not install cjkfonts in winetricks?

Because it doesn't work properly for VNs.

Lutris initial setup

Environment Variables

Once thats done, we can setup Lutris.

Open Lutris, and click the plus icon in the top left corner, and click Install runners.

Scroll down to the bottom and find "Wine" and click the cog icon next to it.

Now go to System options and set the environment variables as shown below and click Save.

• Key: LC_ALL Value: ja_JP.UTF-8
• Key: TZ Value: Asia/Tokyo

Installing the visual novel

I will be using 古色迷宮輪舞曲～HISTOIRE DE DESTIN～ for this demonstration. Visual Novels usually come in .ISO files and if not, an .MDS/.MDF file which can be mounted with cdemu.

Mounting disc images

Navigate to the path of the disc image:

cd /path/to/visualnovelfolder

MDS

Load the .MDS file with CDEmu first. The Linux mount command will not mount it.

cdemu load 0 /path/to/mds_image.MDS

UDF Volumes

Load the UDF volume with CDEmu. The Linux mount command with the -t udf argument is not advised.

cdemu load 0 /path/to/udf_volume

CDEmu Mount Point?

It should usually be in /run/media/user/image_name

If using a regular ISO9660 ISO file create a mount point for it.

sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom0

Now we can mount our ISO to our mount point.

sudo mount -o loop file.ISO /media/cdrom0

If all went well, you will be able to see the contents of the image by doing ls /media/cdrom0 or whatever your mount point is:

Running the installer

Next, we will run the setup file using wine:

LC_ALL="ja_JP.UTF-8" TZ="Asia/Tokyo" wine <setup_executable>.exe

.msi installer

If the installer executable is an .msi, run with msiexec instead of wine.

Proceed with the installation. The game may be installed in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files or wherever you chose to install it.

Adding to Lutris

Now we can add the game to Lutris so we can launch it quickly.

Back in Lutris, click the plus icon in the corner, add the name of the VN, choose Wine as the runner and under "Game Options" navigate to the game's executable. You should also change the prefix architecture to 32-bit.

AlphaROMdiE

For AlphaROMdiE, you need to add AlphaROMdiE to Lutris as the executable, and the filename .exe of the Visual Novel as an argument. If you are using Wine in a command line it should look something like this:

LC_ALL="ja_JP.UTF-8" TZ="Asia/Tokyo" wine AlphaROMdiE.exe <VN_executable.exe>

For the 1st option, you must create an empty file disable_conv in the same location as AlphaROMdiE.exe, for the 3rd option, you must create an empty file other_engine in the same location as AlphaROMdiE.exe. You can do this easily by doing:

touch disable_conv other_engine

Vulkan Unsupported Systems

If your system does not support Vulkan, you must disable DXVK in "Runner options", this will fallback to regular D3DX9. DXVK is a Vulkan implementation of Direct3D so we will be keeping it on even though Vulkan may not make much of a difference.

Now you can just launch it in Lutris!

Error: オリジナルディスクを入れてください

Load the .ISO image with cdemu. Even though Linux can mount ISO9660 images without CDEmu, Wine programs cannot seem to find the mounted image.

cdemu load 0 /path/to/image.ISO

and viola!

Now go back to Visual Novel Guide to learn how to use Textractor, it works perfectly under Wine. Also consider adding Textractor to Lutris for quick access.

Linux: Troubleshooting

Shift-JIS

When you've done everything correctly but your VN text still looks like this: ????? ?????????? ???????????? This means your VN needs to use ja_JP.sjis instead of ja_JP.UTF-8.

You need to download ja_JP.sjis from here first.

Extract it to a memorable location on your computer and cd into that directory.

cd /path/to/ja_JP.sjis

Now compile the locale using localedef:

localedef -i ja_JP -f SHIFT_JIS ./ja_JP.sjis --no-warnings=ascii

Using your editor of choice, edit your locale.gen and add ja_JP.SJIS SHIFT_JIS after ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8

vim  /etc/locale.gen

Now generate locales:

locale-gen --no-warnings=ascii

You can then change the LC_ALL environment variable in Lutris to ja_JP.sjis.

MPEG-1 movie does not play

No full fix found yet

I spent 20 hours trying to fix this issue (I use Arch btw) with a Liar-soft VN. If you manage to find a fix, please let me know!

Things I have tried that may work for other VNs

• Installing every gstreamer plugin, including lib32 versions.
• Using different combinations of gstreamer plugins (e.g. ugly & bad or good & base)
• Launching the VN with the latest version of Proton-GE.
• winetricks=alldlls default will entirely skip the video (already covered in this guide)
• Using LAVFilters
• Enabling MPEG-1 decoder in ffdshow
• installing libgudev (including lib32 version)
• 64-bit Wine prefix
• installing gstreamer for Windows in wine
• installing allcodecs in winetricks
• installing wmp9, wmp10 and wmp11 and wmpcodecs
• replacing quartz.dll with quartz.dll 6.5.2600.5512 from Windows XP
• disabling winegstreamer.dll
  Despite all of this, something simple as playing back a MPEG-1 video was not possible.
  Using gst-play-1.0 I am able to play the actual .mpg file just fine.
  Here is the error related to MPEG-1 video playback I get in the Wine debugger:
  

  winegstreamer error: decodebin0: GStreamer はプラグインを見つけることができません
  0100:err:gstreamer:decodebin_parser_init_gst Failed to play stream.
  winegstreamer error: decodebin0: ../gst-plugins-base/gst/playback/gstdecodebin2.c(4719): gst_decode_bin_expose (): /GstBin:bin0/GstDecodeBin:decodebin0:
  no suitable plugins found:
  Missing decoder: MPEG-1 System Stream (video/mpeg, systemstream=(boolean)true, mpegversion=(int)1)
  

Fuguriya VNs

VNs made by Fuguriya such as Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o and Hanahira will not launch with Wine by default. Follow the steps below to fix this.

Download fjfix [here].
Extract the archive.
Now in the terminal, run:

LC_ALL=ja_JP.UTF-8 wine fjfix.exe -f /path/to/MGD

Now it should just work.

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