(August 2020)

NOTE: THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. THE LIST OF KNOWN LIMITATIONS IS BELOW. SEVERAL
MAJOR THINGS DO NOT WORK WELL ENOUGH TO BE USEFUL TO MANY PEOPLE. TOTEM WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THIS HOWTO AND HAS NO OBLIGATION TO SUPPORT ANY LINUX/WINE INSTALLATIONS (but some of us think it would be nice if they would develop an official native Linux version 😉).

If you find solutions to any of these issues, please contribute your knowledge here. If you choose to try
this and discover something not working that isn’t listed, please do provide that feedback. It will be
helpful for the community to know about those issues and we may be able to help each other resolve
them.

What doesn’t work properly:
• Desktop stripping. It actually works better than I expected, but it’s still far too glitchy to be
acceptable.
• Music. In fact, even the presence of an mp3 file in the “Musics” folder will cause a crash on
launch. Attempting to import a music file through the iStripper GUI causes an immediate crash.
• The user interface is glitchy, sometimes with much of a window missing. I can usually make the
rest of the window appear by clicking on a visible part and ***** the mouse over the invisible
part.
• Some Linux Updates. Any changes to Wine or associated libraries tend to result in a crash and a
need to re-install; even requiring the complete removal and re-installation of Wine.
• iStripper versions newer than 1.2.242. I also tested on 1.2.266. That version does function, but
an apparent change to the QTWebEngine within the application causes pages that have live Web
content, such as the Featured and Forum tabs, to cause an error and fail to connect. The Girls
Store still works, though, and I could still sync my collection with the servers and download my
cards. I don’t know if Preview Push still works as I turn that off. (UPDATE: this issue apparently has appeared on the Mac client, as well:

https://www.istripper.com/forum/thread/45373/1?post=674022

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Full screen mode works very well; in fact, the picture is sharper than on Windows 10 on both the PCs
that I have tried it on. So, if all you really want is to be able to run the Full Screen option, or if you’re
willing to accept that limitation because you are switching to Linux no matter what and this is the only
way to avoid saying goodbye to iStripper altogether, this may be worth trying. Also check the Forum for
many user-created scenes to add and open up a world of Full Screen possibilities.

Full step-by-step procedure here:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Xyn1CShQU_ki8XNJi91OShJFWqtcwc0f

SUMMARY:

Description of testing environment
Install PlayOnLinux
Configure Wine
Install iStripper
Set uninstaller
Workarounds for initial launch GUI problems
(Optional) Add support for older cards
Tip for mounting or auto-mounting another drive or partition for storage

Very well done @sh42n81 👍

TOTEM WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THIS HOWTO AND HAS NO OBLIGATION TO SUPPORT
ANY LINUX/WINE INSTALLATIONS
(but some of us think it would be nice if they would develop an official native Linux version 😉).

Hopefully they are getting now the Attention to us few Linux Users 😊

Any changes to Wine or associated libraries tend to result in a crash and a
need to re-install; even requiring the complete removal and re-installation of Wine.

As an Ubuntu LTS User it should not have an huge impact.
The Wine and Playonlinux Version from the official Software Repo will stay on this specific Version.
Except for Bugs and Security Fixes, if there are any Issues in this Direction.
Both Packages are located in universe and multiverse,
https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/playonlinux
https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/wine
so only the Ubuntu MOTU's are taking care of them > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU
until April 2023. After this Date there will be no more Updates.
But as a smart LTS-User you should switch anyway as soon as possible to the next LTS-Version 😉
In my case i switched from 18.04 to 20.04 in May 2020.

@Stanston Thank you for the compliment and for your valuable input. 😊

@sh42n81

Thank you for the compliment and for your valuable input. 😊

No Problem :) Oh my ... 11 Years with Linux only, i never could Imagine that.
Further i found my way to iStripper or even could be able to run the Client in it.
Yap it is absolutely True:
Nothing is impossible, you can do everything you want, you just have to want it.

• iStripper versions newer than 1.2.242. I also tested on 1.2.266. That version does function, but
an apparent change to the QTWebEngine within the application causes pages that have live Web
content, such as the Featured and Forum tabs, to cause an error and fail to connect.

I'm pasting this feedback from @Stanston from another thread to add a perspective on this issue:

That is Interesting, i don't have any of these Issues with 1.2.266.
The opposite is the case, this Version is running better hen ever, at least on my Setup.
The GUI is reacting now better then ever, smoother and more faster as before on 1.2.242.

Maybe ... a big Maybe i'm using the XFCE Desktop Environment which is using xfwm4 as
Windowmanager, and Budgie on your side is using Mutter.
Maybe this is causing the Issues on your side.

UPDATE:

I have been avoiding doing any updates to iStripper and Wine because of the issues I encountered before, but I finally decided that I needed to try to make it work before my version gets too far out of date. Today was the day.

My current working configuration:

Linux distro: Ubuntu Budgie 20.04
Wine version: 6.3
iStripper version: 1.2.282

The overall experience is much the same--if you run full screen exclusively, as I do, and you don't care about sound, and/or you're moving to Linux no matter what and you want to be able to bring iStripper along even if it means reduced functionality, this is for you. Full screen scenes still run flawlessly.

• Desktop stripping: no change. Still almost good enough but too glitchy.
• Music: I haven't tested with the new configuration. Will update if I get around to that. Show sounds are now audible, but badly distorted. UI sounds are silent.
• UI graphics: much improved.
• Linux updates: of concern are updates to Wine. They seem to work with version 6.3.
• Newer versions of iStripper: I'm on the current version now.

I had previously been using Wine 5.0. I have now upgraded to 6.3, the latest stable version according to PlayOnLinux. I first did an in-place upgrade without uninstalling iStripper on one PC. This triggered a login prompt and collection rebuild from iStripper, as if I had done a new install.

As before, none of the active Web content would display, and would cause a QTWebEngine crash. This behavior began with whatever version started placing a separate "Totem" directory in the AppData folder alongside the VGHD directory. That's where the QTWebEngine files live.

Still, all of the important UI screens work: Girls Store, My Collection, Settings, Full Screen Scenes. The only thing that doesn't work that I care about is the Forum and I can get to that through a browser.

I installed iStripper 282 over my existing version with no further drama.

Next I moved to my other machine. Remembering the logon prompt from before, I went ahead and uninstalled iStripper** because I was concerned about the dreaded "too many installs" hard stop. I updated Wine to 6.2, then, while preparing to install iStripper, PlayOnLinux prompted me that "Mono," a plugin for .Net Framework support, wasn't installed.

That's new--I haven't seen that before. I assume I didn't get that warning on the first machine because I didn't do a fresh installation. In any case, I followed the instructions to download and install the plugin, then started the iStripper install again...

...and all that QTWebEngine crashing is gone. All of the active Web content screens work and the UI is very smooth now. I'm guessing Mono is the reason for that. Here is info on Mono: https://wiki.winehq.org/Mono

So, bottom line, here are the steps:

• Backup your scenes folder!
• Uninstall iStripper (if already installed) (choose NO when it asks to remove your models/shows)
• Install PlayOnLinux (if not already installed)
• In PlayOnLinux, install Wine version 6.3
• Download Mono and extract to /usr/share/Wine
• Follow previous instructions for installing iStripper, using version 282, found here:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Xyn1CShQU_ki8XNJi91OShJFWqtcwc0f
• At beginning of install, choose "Use a different version of Wine" and make sure 6.3 is selected
• Login to iStripper and rebuild collection

**THIS DELETED MY SCENES FOLDER AND I LOST SCENES THAT I HAD NOT BACKED UP. 😳

Greetings my fellow Linux Friend :)

I'm not sure about your Issues on your Setup, but i only clicked on the Update Button,
in the past to get to the current Client Version.

https://www.istripper.com/de/forum/thread/46787/1?post=698579

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But i'm still sitting on POL Version 4.3.4 and Wine 5.7 and also i didn't made your Experiment
with the Windows Media Codec.

The only thing that doesn't work that I care about is the Forum and I can get to that through a browser.

Close the iStripper Client before! bring up your Terminal and execute:

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Keep in mind you will see an Ncurses Window > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ncurses
inside your Terminal, so please use Tab and Enter to execute the Installation.

The overall experience is much the same--if you run full screen exclusively, as I do,
and you don't care about sound, and/or you're moving to Linux no matter what and you want to be able to bring
iStripper along even if it means reduced functionality, this is for you. Full screen scenes still run flawlessly.

Exactly 👌

https://www.istripper.com/de/forum/thread/36697/1?post=689828

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I'm not sure about your Issues on your Setup, but i only clicked on the Update Button,in the past to get to the current Client Version.

Yeah, uninstalling and re-installing isn't strictly necessary. I just did it because upgrading previously made me login again, which I think means it was seen as new install even though it wasn't (probably because I updated the Wine version). If that happens too many times, I get locked out because of "too many installs" and I wanted to avoid that. Uninstalling first sends a message to Totem decrementing the number of installs.

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

I did not have to do this. All of the active Web tabs work fine on the second PC, where I installed Mono, without having to install any MS fonts.

I did not have to do this. All of the active Web tabs work fine on the second PC,
where I installed Mono, without having to install any MS fonts.

So obviously and as usual @sh42n81 many Roads lead to Rome :)

Backup your scenes folder!

One thing i forgot and just in case you are interested, i'm doing this with rsync.

rsync -a -v --progress --delete /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/vghd/drive_c/users/username/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/vghd/data/ /home/username/Dokumente/1_Istripper/VGHD_Data/

And i'm mirroring the whole Data Directory to a second Location inside my Home-Directory.
But all in all and like we both are saying before, almost everything works fine so far 👍 😊

So obviously and as usual @sh42n81 many Roads lead to Rome :)

It would seem so.

One thing i forgot and just in case you are interested, i'm doing this with rsync.

I should have been doing this, too. 😕

Addendum:

Last weekend, I installed the available Ubuntu software updates that were presented, as usual. When they were complete, iStripper would no longer run--definitely NOT as usual. Uh-oh.

To make a long story short, after a week of troubleshooting, repeatedly re-installing iStripper, Wine, and Ubuntu itself, and debugging with no resolution, I finally came upon the answer: the OpenGL driver had been updated to a version that has a bug that makes it incompatible with older graphics cards. I'm running this on a positively geriatric Dell Optiplex with the onboard Intel graphics chip.

It was surprising that even re-installing the OS would not correct this; it must have been grabbing the latest OpenGL driver during the install. The good news is that there is a simple fix.

If iStripper crashes at launch and your Wine log shows an error that says GLXBadFBConfig, then try editing ~/.pam_environment (create it if it isn't present):

MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5

Also, another lesson learned: ALWAYS TAKE A SNAPSHOT OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE ALLOWING A SOFTWARE UPDATE.

I repeat: ALWAYS TAKE A SNAPSHOT OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE ALLOWING A SOFTWARE UPDATE.

If I had done this, I easily could have reverted back to the previous snapshot and saved myself a lot of grief. Timeshift is a great tool for taking whole system snapshots on a schedule or on demand.

***Installation document update with the following information***

Latest install - April 2022

I ran into a few additional glitches, so I’m updating this document. All of them stem from installing the Windows Media Format Runtime, so if you don’t plan to play cards from 2014 or earlier, none of the following will be relevant to you.

The first glitch was that iStripper will no longer install on Windows XP, and the Windows Media Format Runtime will not install on anything other than Windows XP. This is manageable, but you must take care to set the correct version in Wine Configuration for each install.

The second glitch is that the Windows Media Format Runtime installer kept crashing when I tried to launch it from PlayOnLinux. I tried many different solutions. It seemed that I could get it to install without crashing if I installed it first–before iStripper–but then iStripper, while it would install, would crash upon launch. Also, the “install WMFR first” approach did not work consistently: sometimes the installer would crash anyway.

Finding a pattern was difficult. I tried Wine versions 2.2, 6.3, and 7.3. I also tried opening wide the permissions to the iStripper virtual drive. In the end, it seems that simply rebooting the Ubuntu host after installing iStripper, and before installing Windows Media Format Runtime, solves the issue.

The third glitch is related to the second, in which iStripper crashed at launch if WMFR was installed first. This actually happens if iStripper is installed first and WMFR is installed second, as well. It turns out that Windows Media Format Runtime modifies a DLL that causes iStripper to crash. This hasn’t been a problem in the past. Fortunately, making a backup copy of the DLL after installing iStripper and then using it to replace the one modified by WMFR solves it.

Here are the new additional steps (Wine version 6.3):

1. Set Windows version to Windows 7 in Wine Configuration
2. Install iStripper using previously described steps
3. Make a copy of the Wine iStripper virtual drive - this entire folder can be restored if needed
4. Set Windows version to Windows XP in Wine Configuration
5. Install Windows Media Format Runtime using previously described steps
1. If WMFR installer CRASHES
1. Reboot Linux host
2. Set Windows version to XP in Wine Configuration
3. Install Windows Media Format Runtime
6. Set Windows version to Windows 7 in Wine Configuration (for iStripper compatibility)
7. Copy mplat.dll from %windir%\system32 from the backup of the virtual drive from Step 3 to the same location in the active iStripper virtual drive

Hmmm, I usually just install using bottles. It can't play classic shows. But audio of the girls speaking works. Although music doesn't. I don't ever use full screen mode as I never got into it. Usually small mode works better than large mode, and some shows are more glitchy than others. But it's really doable for me. Where do we linux lusters hang out actually? It'd be fun to meet someone else to chat about this stuff with.

It'd be fun to meet someone else to chat about this stuff with.

You can follow these three Links,

https://www.istripper.com/forum/thread/45495/1

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https://www.istripper.com/forum/thread/36697/1

You are not allowed to see this topic or access data relative to this topic

https://www.istripper.com/forum/thread/36697/1?post=689828

You are not allowed to see this topic or access data relative to this topic

and if you are clicking on the "i in a Circle Symbol" on the top right in the Software
you will find an Invitation Link to the Forum on Discord down left in the Corner.

Or you can just use this one here instead :)

https://discord.com/invite/3ssN3utTks

If you want to share Pictures on this Forum please pay Attention to this Information as well.

https://www.istripper.com/forum/thread/48572/1#post726093

Everything about iStripper / FORUM : no more pictures – official update

Starting October 1st 2021, it will be impossible for you to post pictures (nor gifs) on the iStripper forum and to send pictures to other members thru Personal Messages. Of course, the forum remains o...

I'm sorry to report that I am giving up on this. I allowed my system to update Ubuntu to the latest version and it broke my install again, as I expected. I removed iStripper, Wine, and Play on Linux, installed the latest versions of PoL and Wine, and then tried to install several versions of iStripper, starting with the newest. Nothing worked.

I tried several combinations of Wine versions and iStripper versions before restoring my system to before the Ubuntu upgrade, and even that didn't work. I tried several re-installs following my steps listed here with no luck. I'm sure, with more time and effort, I could get it back on its feet again, but for how long? Every time something gets a major update--Ubuntu, Wine, or iStripper--I have to re-invent the wheel. It's no longer worth it to me.

When I first did this three years ago, my intent was to break away from Windows completely. That never happened, so continuing to struggle to make iStripper work partially and unstably on Linux doesn't make sense anymore. I just ordered a new PC; I'll leave Windows as the primary OS, install iStripper on that, and use a VM to do the rest of my work and play on whatever Linux distro I feel like playing with.