nix-everquest/docs/eqlogparser-wine.md

Wine on Nix — notes for EQLogParser

This document captures troubleshooting lessons from packaging EQLogParser on Linux with Wine and Nix. It is meant for maintainers and anyone running the app outside Bottles/Flatpak.

For day-to-day usage, see eqlogparser.md. The reference implementation is packages/eqlogparser/package.nix, which mirrors the upstream Bottles manifest.

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What EQLogParser needs under Wine

EQLogParser is a .NET 8 WPF Windows app. Under Wine that implies:

Requirement	Why
64-bit Wine prefix (WINEARCH=win64)	Release builds are x64 (bottles/Games/eqlogparser.yml)
wine-mono in the prefix	Wine’s mscoree shim; without it you get the interactive “Wine could not find a wine-mono package” dialog
.NET Desktop Runtime 8 (x64)	WPF needs the desktop runtime, not plain dotnet-runtime or wine-mono alone
GDI D3D renderer	WPF on Wine is unstable with default GL/Vulkan paths; Bottles sets renderer=gdi
No DXVK / VKD3D	Bottles explicitly disables them for this app
Piper TTS installer (recommended)	Wine x64 cannot use Windows SAPI voices; use EQLogParser-install-pipertts-*.exe

The app also expects WINELOADER to be set so it disables hardware acceleration (software rendering only). See upstream EQLogParser/App.xaml.cs — this matches Linux known issues.

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Choosing a Wine package in nixpkgs

nixpkgs exposes several Wine variants. They are not interchangeable for this project.

Package	Use for EQLogParser?	Notes
pkgs.wine64	No (alone)	Often breaks during wineboot / winetricks (syswow64\rundll32.exe / ntdll.dll errors). Prefix may be half-initialized.
pkgs.wineWow64Packages.stableFull	Yes	WOW64 + embedInstallers = true bundles wine-mono and gecko MSIs under share/wine/mono/. This is what the flake uses.
pkgs.wine (default 32-bit WOW)	No	Wrong architecture for a win64-only bottle.
pkgs.wine64Packages.full	Maybe	Has embedInstallers, but lacks the 32-bit side WOW64 often needs for installers and msiexec. Prefer wineWow64.

Rule of thumb: match Bottles — 64-bit bottle, Wine runner, no DXVK. On Nix that is wineWow64Packages.stableFull with no DXVK in PATH or WINEDLLOVERRIDES.

wine = pkgs.wineWow64Packages.stableFull;

Verify mono is present:

ls "$(nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A wineWow64Packages.stableFull --no-out-link)/share/wine/mono/"
# e.g. wine-mono-10.0.0-x86.msi

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wine-mono vs .NET Desktop Runtime

These solve different problems. Installing only one leads to confusing errors.

wine-mono

• Ships with Wine when embedInstallers = true (stableFull, full variants).
• Installed into the prefix via MSI, e.g.
  wine msiexec /i "$WINE_PKG/share/wine/mono/wine-mono-"*.msi /qn
• Satisfies Wine’s .NET Framework / mscoree path and stops the mono download dialog.
• Not a substitute for .NET 8.

.NET 8 Desktop Runtime

• Microsoft installer, same as Bottles dependency dotnetcoredesktop8
  (dotnetcoredesktop8.yml).
• For win64 bottles, the x64 installer is enough (Bottles also installs x86; we only install x64).
• Example (version pinned in the package):
  windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.12-win-x64.exe /quiet
• Winetricks verb dotnetdesktop8 is equivalent but failed in our tests (see below).

Install order (important)

1. wineboot -u
2. wine-mono MSI          (/qn)
3. .NET Desktop Runtime   (/quiet)
4. renderer=gdi           (registry)
5. EQLogParser installer  (/VERYSILENT …)

Installing EQLogParser or the .NET runtime before mono triggers the mono dialog and can leave a broken prefix.

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Mapping Bottles settings to Nix/Wine

Bottles (eqlogparser.yml + deps)	Nix / shell equivalent
Arch: win64	export WINEARCH=win64
Runner: Wine, dxvk: false, vkd3d: false	wineWow64Packages.stableFull; do not add DXVK to the environment
dotnetcoredesktop8	windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.12-win-x64.exe /quiet
allfonts	Copy Nix font packages into drive_c/windows/Fonts, register them, and avoid winetricks allfonts
renderer=gdi	wine reg add 'HKCU\Software\Wine\Direct3D' /v renderer /t REG_SZ /d gdi /f
Piper TTS installer	EQLogParser-install-pipertts-*.exe with Inno flags
(implicit) wine-mono	msiexec on bundled wine-mono-*.msi

Inno Setup silent flags used successfully:

/VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-

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Prefix location and mutability

Do not use /nix/store as WINEPREFIX during setup

Wine refuses to create a configuration directory when ownership checks fail:

wine: '/nix/store' is not owned by you, refusing to create a configuration directory there

This happens if:

• WINEPREFIX points at $out before copy, or
• HOME is unset and defaults under /nix/store.

Build-time prefix in the Nix store: possible in theory (build under $NIX_BUILD_TOP, then cp to $out), but the EQLogParser package uses first-run setup in $XDG_DATA_HOME/eqlogparser/wine instead — simpler and avoids sandbox/fontconfig/XDG issues.

Recommended layout

Variable	Value
WINEPREFIX	$XDG_DATA_HOME/eqlogparser/wine (or ~/.local/share/eqlogparser/wine)
HOME	User’s real home (or a writable temp dir during one-off setup)
WINEARCH	win64
WINELOADER	Path to wine binary (EQLogParser uses this to detect Wine)

Reset a bad prefix:

rm -rf ~/.local/share/eqlogparser/wine
nix run .#eqlogparser

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Winetricks on Nix

winetricks from nixpkgs works, but several verbs failed in testing even after a healthy wineboot and mono install:

warning: wine cmd.exe /c echo '%AppData%' returned empty string

Affected verbs included allfonts, renderer=gdi, and dotnetdesktop8. The prefix was usable; winetricks’ %AppData% probe was not.

Workarounds:

• GDI renderer: set the registry directly (see table above).
• .NET Desktop Runtime: use Microsoft’s .exe from Bottles’ dependency URL, not winetricks.
• Fonts: copy Nix font packages into drive_c/windows/Fonts, register them under the Windows Fonts registry key, and set Wine font replacements for common Windows UI fonts.

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Graphics: GDI, DXVK, and WPF

WPF on Wine is sensitive to the renderer:

• Bottles sets renderer=gdi via winetricks; we set the same registry value.
• Do not enable DXVK/VKD3D for this app (Bottles dxvk: false, vkd3d: false).
• EQLogParser forces software rendering when WINELOADER is set. Confirm in logs:
  RenderMode: SoftwareOnly under
  …/AppData/Roaming/EQLogParser/logs.

If you see rendering glitches, verify GDI is set:

WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/eqlogparser/wine wine reg query 'HKCU\Software\Wine\Direct3D' /v renderer

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Common errors and fixes

“Wine could not find a wine-mono package”

Cause: Prefix has no mono MSI installed, or wrong Wine package (no embedded MSI).

Fix:

1. Use wineWow64Packages.stableFull.
2. Install mono before anything else:
   wine msiexec /i "$(wine --prefix 2>/dev/null; echo $WINE_PKG)/share/wine/mono/wine-mono-"*.msi /qn
3. Or use nix run .#eqlogparser and let package.nix run setup.

failed to start L"C:\\windows\\syswow64\\rundll32.exe": c0000135

Cause: pkgs.wine64 prefix without proper WOW64 support.

Fix: Switch to wineWow64Packages.stableFull and recreate the prefix.

App installs but crashes on start / “.NET not found”

Cause: Desktop Runtime 8 x64 missing (only mono or only ASP.NET runtime installed).

Fix: Install windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.x-win-x64.exe with /quiet.

wine cmd.exe / %AppData% empty (winetricks)

Cause: Known winetricks + Wine prefix quirk on Nix; not always fatal.

Fix: Avoid winetricks for dotnet/gdi; use direct installers and reg add.

Fontconfig / XDG_RUNTIME_DIR during Nix builds

Cause: Building a Wine prefix inside runCommand without a full graphics/font stack.

Fix: Prefer runtime prefix creation (current package design), or add fontconfig / XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to the builder if you revisit store-time prefixes.

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Debugging checklist

1. Wine version: wine --version (from the wrapped PATH).
2. Prefix arch: grep '#arch=' "$WINEPREFIX"/*.reg → expect win64.
3. Mono installed:
   test -d "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/mono" or check Add/Remove in wine uninstaller.
4. .NET 8 desktop:
   ls "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App/8.*"
5. App binary:
   test -f "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/EQLogParser/EQLogParser.exe"
6. EQLogParser log:
   $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData/Roaming/EQLogParser/logs
7. Render mode: log line should show SoftwareOnly under Wine.
8. Piper TTS: log should mention piper-tts if using the piper installer.

Run with more Wine noise:

WINEDEBUG=+pid,+process wine …

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Why the package uses first-run setup

We tried baking the prefix into the Nix store at build time. Blockers included:

• Wine refusing /nix/store paths for initial config
• Fontconfig and XDG_RUNTIME_DIR in the sandbox
• Long, brittle builds that still produced prefixes winetricks could not post-process

Current approach: ship Wine + installers in the store; run eqlogparser-setup-prefix on first launch (and on version bumps). Trade-off: first start takes several minutes; later starts are fast.

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Manual reproduction (without Nix)

Equivalent to Bottles + upstream manual install docs:

# Use wine-wow64 from your distro or nix shell wineWow64Packages.stableFull
export WINEARCH=win64
export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.local/share/eqlogparser/wine"
export PATH="/path/to/wine-wow64/bin:$PATH"

wineboot -u
wine msiexec /i /path/to/wine-mono-*.msi /qn
wine windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.12-win-x64.exe /quiet
wine reg add 'HKCU\Software\Wine\Direct3D' /v renderer /t REG_SZ /d gdi /f
wine EQLogParser-install-pipertts-2.3.54.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-

export WINELOADER="$(command -v wine)"
wine "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/EQLogParser/EQLogParser.exe"

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References

• EQLogParser Linux support (website)
• Bottles game manifest
• Bottles dotnetcoredesktop8 dependency
• Wine Mono wiki
• Nix usage
• packages/eqlogparser/package.nix — maintained install script