New Battle.net update Version 14542 breaks Linux compatibility with Wine/Proton via Lutris or Steam and will only display a gray screen.
Workaround is to delete the update folder Battle.2.net.14542 under $wine_root$/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Battle.net/ and then start the client again.
Update workaround: Set WINE_SIMULATE_WRITECOPY=1 environment variable in Lutris
If you are using Lutris, they indicated that adding “WINE_SIMULATE_WRITECOPY=1” environment variable should work (cf. https://fosstodon.org/@lutris/111503016713557868).
Thanks for the information and the link. Updated the opener.
Thank you for including a workaround with this terrible news!
Even with disabled autoupdates, the launcher itself still tries to update on my end. Fixed it the barbaric way, by clearing the contents of that pesky folder and doing
sudo chmod a-rwx Battle.net.14542Doesn’t Microsoft own blizzard now?
Approximately how often are we going to get Linux breakages like this, do you think, given the clear conflict of interest and Microsoft’s storied history of fucking over FOSS in pursuit of profit?
I don’t know if blizz ever cared about people playing their game on Linux in the past, but msft titles on steam are often the ones I have the most compatibility issues with. I don’t think it’s deliberate so much as I think msft just likes to invent and use new windows specific dependencies that often break wine.
I know valve’s push on Linux is a direct attack on windows’ monopoly on gaming, so it makes sense that msft would make at least some effort to make gaming on Linux as unpleasant as it can.
Thinking about it we may actually have less breakage now as Blizzard has started selling Diablo 4 on Steam provided they implement it well. Does that version come with battle.net launcher as mandatory or is that requirement foregone beside account linking?
