Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

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coljac
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Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by coljac » Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:54 am

I've been interested in Condor for some time - I've been gliding in X-Plane for a while - but as a Linux user I didn't relish having to reboot my computer every time just to play Condor 2. Well, I finally bought a license and had a go getting it running on Linux - and succeeded without much trouble! I'm posting here in case there are other fence-sitters out there.

Quick instructions (I'm using Ubuntu 20.04):
- Download and install Lutris
- In the main Lutris window, under Wine, click on manage versions and install a reasonably new version of wine (I'm using 6.21)
- Make a directory to keep the game files.
- Add a new game in Lutris; under Game Info set the name of the game, under Game Options set the path to the installer .exe and the Wine prefix to the empty dir you made, and under Runner Options make sure the right wine is selected
- Hit play and the game will install!
- Right click and edit the game configuration, and change the executable to /your/directory/drive_c/Condor2/Condor.exe

That's it - the game should be ready to go!

I am using a HOTAS joystick, throttle quadrant and rudder pedals and they all work without any hassle. I haven't tested multiplayer or anything fancy like getting telemetry out or connecting XCSoar, but will do.

There are three problems I've encountered. One is an access violation error message that pops up each time I access the main menu, but is otherwise harmless. Another one is that the license key needs to be entered every time. The third is I am not sure how to get head tracking working with Opentrack. I will update the post if I figure out any answers.

In case anyone has any info:

Once activated, how is the key stored? Is it in a registry key or a file?
Should condor detect a head tracker, e.g. under windows with trackir.exe?

EDIT: I got head tracking working! Opentrack is a bit finicky when it comes to different wine versions. The aim basically is to make sure that the system wine and the wine running Condor are the same (or use a version of opentrack that lets you choose). I will write up some more detailed instructions and might put something up on Youtube.
Last edited by coljac on Wed Dec 15, 2021 5:49 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by OXO » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:23 pm

Keys are encrypted into the registry, and the access violation is probably cause by not having a windows user/documents folder
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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by 6266 » Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:06 pm

Don't know if it helps.

I use a Tobii 5 Eyetracker on a Win 10, connected to Condor via FaceTrackNoIR, game protocol is Free Track 2.1
track.png
There was nothing to do in Condor, worked out of the box

Settings of Free Track 2.1
track2.png
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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by coljac » Wed Dec 15, 2021 5:23 am

OXO wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:23 pm
Keys are encrypted into the registry, and the access violation is probably cause by not having a windows user/documents folder
Are you able to tell me the key? The wine registry certainly works; for example, I can see cndr2/HangarVersion and so on. The question is why would the change it makes when I unlock either not persist or not read back properly. I will see whether it's not writing the key, or Condor2 can't read it back for some reason.

I may be able to fix by scripting a write to the registry before running the game or something like that.

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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by coljac » Wed Dec 15, 2021 5:25 am

6266 wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:06 pm
Don't know if it helps.
I use a Tobii 5 Eyetracker on a Win 10, connected to Condor via FaceTrackNoIR, game protocol is Free Track 2.1
Thank you for this, I kept poking and I got OpenTrack working, so I'm all good now!

I tested all sorts of head tracking options, currently I use a home-built IR tracker but I also made one using a 9dof gyro, Aruco markers and facial recognition. Quite tricky to find the perfect solution.

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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by coljac » Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:09 pm

OXO wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:23 pm
Keys are encrypted into the registry, and the access violation is probably cause by not having a windows user/documents folder
Hi Chris,

Thanks again for the reply. I have verified that the two 32-bit binary blobs in the registry used for activation are there in the wine registry. If I activate it twice, it writes the same blobs to those keys, so it's not a case of something in the hardware changing between runs causing the encrypted version to be incorrect. I presume that when activating, the game checks the key, sets the 'activated' flag to true, and then writes to the registry. On startup it reads from the registry and conducts some check to verify registration. This is going wrong on wine somewhere. Can you guess how that might be?

I noticed that on windows the unactivated game had a bunch of the menu grayed out, but not under wine. All the menu options are there. Does this give a hint as to what's going on?

There is a users\me\documents folder, so not sure about that other issue.

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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by OXO » Thu Dec 16, 2021 1:00 pm

I'm sorry, I dont do Linux or Wine, and I am much to busy to look at it right now.
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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by BOD1 » Thu Dec 16, 2021 4:34 pm

Please have a look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\MachineGuid value.
Does is change between 2 Condor launches? Is there a value like "12345678-abcd-3456-1a2b-abcdefghijkl" ?
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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by BOD1 » Thu Dec 16, 2021 4:39 pm

I think Condor "fingerprints" installed hardware to detect if install has moved from another computer. If the check fails, it asks for a new validation.
I don't know what is fingerprinted, but it could be the graphic card device id, the network MAC number, hard disk serial, ... something your emulator can generate again at each new launch.
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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by coljac » Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:35 am

BOD1 wrote:
Thu Dec 16, 2021 4:39 pm
I think Condor "fingerprints" installed hardware to detect if install has moved from another computer. If the check fails, it asks for a new validation.
I don't know what is fingerprinted, but it could be the graphic card device id, the network MAC number, hard disk serial, ... something your emulator can generate again at each new launch.
Yes, this must be right. The MachineGuid doesn't change; I ran wine a few times and that value stayed the same. The registry does change from invocation to invocation, but I don't know if it's anything consequential. I assume Condor is using some part of the windows API to get some hardware info, rather than looking in the registry, and without knowing what that is I guess I'm stuck. Wine doesn't actually emulate any drivers, so all the hardware info should actually be those of the base machine, so it'd be odd if something changed.

At least there's a workaround!

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Re: Condor 2 on Linux - very doable!

Post by Memo » Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:01 pm

I am using condor on Debian an found an ease way to use xcsoar on mobile:

1. Setup a new comport on wine
#with default wine directory
wine regedit
#with special wine directory
WINEPREFIX=dir wine regedit


under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wine\Ports
with name "com5" and string "/tmp/xcsoar"
regedit.png
2. start lutris
mkfifo /tmp/xcsoar
lutris

3. start streaming
netcat IPADRESS 4353 < /tmp/xcsoar > /tmp/xcsoar

4. start condor
set com5 as NMEA output

5. xcsoar config
NMEA TCP / Condor Soaring driver

Enjoy flying
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