Installing EVE on Linux

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Much of this guide is adapted from the official forum post by CCP Snorlax, which can be found here. Questions about the information found in this article are best asked on the official EVE forums.

While Linux is not officially supported by CCP, a side project by CCP Snorlax has yielded a native Linux application that downloads a prebundled version of Wine (also built by CCP Snorlax) which allows Linux to run the EVE launcher more easily. The launcher requires a 64-bit installation of Linux, but should work with most distributions.

Basic Setup

Tux, the mascot

(Terminal commands are displayed in code blocks)

  1. Download the launcher binaries either manually (found here) or via terminal command:
    Note: These can be put wherever the user prefers, but the home directory ~/ is recommended.
    wget https://binaries.eveonline.com/evelauncher-1104891.tar.gz
    If this file no longer exists or is outdated, check for an updated link in CCP Snorlax's forum post.
  2. Extract the compressed files (.tar.gz)
    tar -xvf evelauncher-1104891.tar.gz
  3. Move to the newly-extracted folder
    cd evelauncher
  4. Set the script as being executable
    chmod u+x evelauncher.sh
  5. The launcher can now be run via terminal command.
    ./evelauncher.sh
    This is a good point to check if the launcher works and whether any errors are output to the terminal before continuing to any more advanced steps.

Custom Launcher Shortcut

(The following additional steps are not strictly necessary, but can make running the launcher more convenient through the use of a custom launcher shortcut.)

Launcher icon
  1. Create a symbolic link (symlink) to the script in the user binaries folder
    ln -s /Path/To/evelauncher.sh /usr/bin/evelauncher
  2. And make it executable
    chmod u+x /usr/bin/evelauncher
  3. Download the icon file
    wget https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/images/a/af/Evelauncher.png
  4. Move the icon file to the correct directory
    sudo mv Evelauncher.png /usr/share/pixmaps/
  5. Create the launcher file with your preferred editor
    sudo $EDITOR /usr/share/applications/eve.desktop
  6. Insert the following text and then save it:
    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=EVE Online
    Comment=EVE Online by CCP Games
    Exec=evelauncher
    Icon=Evelauncher
    Terminal=false
    Type=Application
    Categories=Game;
  7. Run the game through the newly-created launcher shortcut!

Troubleshooting

Incompatible OpenSSL library

The EVE launcher requires the 1.0.x version of the openssl library in order to function, however, some newer versions of Linux distributions and those that use rolling releases include the 1.1.x version by default (this will be evident by the launcher simply not appearing at all when the script is run), so some extra steps to install the older compatibility library may be necesssary.

Note: The following example is for Ubuntu - paths and package names will likely be different on other distributions.
  1. Download the older library from your distribution's repos
    sudo apt-get install libssl1.0.0
  2. Add symbolic links to the libraries in the launcher's folder
    ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libssl.so.1.0.0 /Path/To/evelauncher/libssl.so
    ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.1.0.0 /Path/To/evelauncher/libcrypto.so


This should correct the issue temporarily, but the symlinks will be removed when the launcher is updated. A solution to this is to make your own script which checks for the existence of the symlinks, remakes them if they are missing and then triggers the launcher's script.

  1. Create the wrapper script in your preferred editor
    $EDITOR /Path/To/evelauncher/evewrapper.sh
  2. Insert the following text and then save it:
    if [ ! -e $dirname/libssl.so.1.0.0 ]; then
    ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libssl.so.1.0.0 $dirname/libssl.so
    fi
    if [ ! -e $dirname/libcrypto.so.1.0.0 ]; then
    ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.1.0.0 $dirname/libcrypto.so
    fi
    evelauncher.sh
  3. If you made a custom launcher file as above, you will need to change the path of the symlink in step 1
    ln -s /Path/To/evewrapper.sh /usr/bin/evelauncher


QT Dependencies

In some rare instances on Ubuntu, you may be lacking the required QT dependences for the launcher, This will manifest as some QT files not be located and the launcher window opening but not displaying anything.
Instructions for this install are taken from here: https://wiki.qt.io/Install_Qt_5_on_Ubuntu

  1. Download the installer
    Note: These can be put wherever the user prefers, but the home directory ~/ is recommended.
    wget http://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt/5.7/5.7.0/qt-opensource-linux-x64-5.7.0.run
  2. Adjust permissions
    chmod +x qt-opensource-linux-x64-5.7.0.run
  3. Install QT
    ./qt-opensource-linux-x64-5.7.0.run
  4. Install g++
    sudo apt-get install build-essential
  5. Install generic fonts
    sudo apt-get install libfontconfig1