Having looked over my previous post on how to get Lord of the Rings Online running nicely on Ubuntu. I noticed that a fair few things were left out or perhaps not explained well enough.
Therefore, this new updated post.

There are two ways you can install LotRO on Ubuntu, both require Wine.

1) Having the DVD box set and installing it from that.

2) Only having the free trial/free client from the website.

This guide is divided and the different parts of the guide also tell you whether it applies to DVD only, to the downloaded client only, or to both.

For a sidenote. I ask that if you are a person living in the EU, please don’t be worried that you can’t play for free. Just simply head over to the European site and download the 14 day free trial. I have been told that the trial is not 14 days but until the free to play implementation is in place (Although I cannot confirm this officially).

Installing Wine & Wine-addons (Both DVD and DL Client)

In order to play LotRO you will need Wine. Personally I recommend Wine 1.2. Although the wine version that is standard is also good. There is better support for more software with Wine 1.2, and is also the version this has been tested in.

If you do not already have Wine, you can install this using either synaptic or Ubuntu Software Center, or the Terminal if you wish to use that instead. No repositories need to be added. If you are using Synaptic or Ubuntu One Software Center, be sure to look for wine1.2.

If you are using the Terminal, simply enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install wine1.2

If you already have Wine installed, but wish to upgrade to Wine 1.2, just remove your current wine version, and install wine 1.2 using the above directions.

The next step is to install necessary addons which are not only needed for LotRO, but if you are a gamer, you will find these useful.

In order to do this, you will need the Terminal, you can start this up from Applications > Accessories > Terminal.

In the terminal type in the following command:

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

This will download ‘winetricks’ to your home folder.

After this is done, type the following command:

sh winetricks vcrun6 directx9 dotnet20 vc2005express win2k

This will download and install VC runtime 6, DirectX9, .Net 2.0, VC 2005, and set Wine to Windows 2000.

You will be faced with some familiar installation questions. Just follow them through and if you get error’s do not worry about them too much at this point.

After this, we are ready to begin installing

Installing LotRO from DVD (DVD only and requires Mines of Moria Expansion)

Insert your first DVD and wait for the icon to appear on the desktop.
Once it has, open the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)

Now type in:

cd /media/

After you hit enter type in

ls

You should see something along the lines of the name of what is in the folder. In my case I got ‘CDROM’… if you have read it type in:

cd <name of CD>

In my case I had to type in ‘cd CDROM’ and hit enter.

now type in:

wine lot

And then hit tab…this will finish the rest of the exe file name.

After you hit enter, you will be faced with the installer.

Follow that right through and after it is finished, scroll down here to ‘Finishing installation’ in this guide.

Installing the DL Client (DL Client Only)

If you have downloaded the client from the website and it goes to your Download folder, you can follow this guide exactly as it is. If it downloaded in another location, you can still follow this guide as it is, just replace the references to the download folder, to the folder where you have downloaded the client to.

Open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and type the following:

wine ~/Downloads/lotro-setup.exe (please note that the installer file may have a different name, if this is the case, replace ‘lotro-setup.exe’ with the name of the downloaded file)

You should now be faced with an installer. Go right ahead and follow it through.

Finishing the Installation (DVD and DL Client)

Click on System > Administration > Software Sources.

(Please note, if you are using Ubuntu 10.10, this is found in Ubuntu Software Center, by clicking on Edit, then Software Sources).

Click on Third Party Sources and add the following line.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ajackson-bcs/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

If you are using an Ubuntu version before Karmic (9.10) then replace karmic with your version name.

Click on close and it will update the software list.

After this you are able to use either Synaptic, Ubuntu Software Center, or the Terminal to install pylotro.

In the terminal just type:

sudo apt-get install pylotro

This will install a Linux LotRO login client.

After this, you click on Applications > Games > LotRO

If all is well, you should see the realm list being loaded, and you will be able to login.

Make sure that the first time you use this, that you click in the menu at the top, to apply patches. Once all pathes are applied, you are ready to play