Roblox on Linux

"We’re probably 95% of the way to a Linux port, now that we’ve all the work necessary to port ROBLOX to OSX – which, as you probably know, is based on the UNIX kernel. I think the problem that we would likely run into on Linux is poor video driver support. I’ve heard horror stories from other developers. However, as Linux becomes more popular, I expect this hurdle to disappear. ― John Shedletsky, Responding to User Feedback v6" "We could spend six months porting ROBLOX to Linux, or we could deliver other highly requested features. If we’re going to be porting ROBLOX to another platform, Android is definitely next in line. Consoles are a close second–maybe that would involve a Linux port, particularly if the Steam OS takes off. We’ll see. ― John Shedletsky, Feedback Loop: BLOXcast Edition"

Roblox works under Ubuntu, Fedora, FreeBSD, and many other Unices using Wine. This has been tested multiple times, with recent success. As of July 22nd, 2013 ; Roblox is considered a "Silver" application in the Wine App Database

Working Features

 * Roblox Studio
 * Roblox Player
 * Lua scripting
 * Graphics in DirectX and OpenGL
 * Graphics in NoGraphics modes are currently broken.
 * In-game screenshots
 * Nearly everything

Non-working features

 * Anything which depends on Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is Microsoft's flagship web browser. This browser comes with every Windows computer, which resulted in Roblox depending on it as it's already provided to them. It was never made to work on Linux or OS X, so Roblox users are currently stuck.
 * Roblox Game Recording

Bugs

 * The GUI and HUD flicker, but work fine. Although harmless, this issue is definitely annoying.
 * Shift or Caps Lock do not work when using the chat window.
 * Entering text onto a HUD or GUI can bug out and cause random character entry (such as random commas while typing words - i.e. "h,ell,o,," instead of "hello")

Prequisites

 * A UNIX-like operating system, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, FreeBSD, or anything that can run Wine.
 * Wine 1.6
 * Winetricks (Comes with wine1.6 in most situations)

Step 1: Installing or Upgrading WINE.
To install Wine, if you have not already, follow these steps:

Ubuntu:

 * 1) Open a terminal
 * 2) Run this command (without quotes): "sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine1.6 -y"
 * 3) Wait for the installation to finish (it should show something like "username@host ~ $"
 * 4) Close the terminal

CentOS / Fedora / Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

 * 1) Open a terminal
 * 2) Run this command (without quotes):
 * 3) "yum --enablerepo=updates-testing upgrade wine"
 * 4) Wait for the installation to finish (it should show something like "username@host ~ $"
 * 5) Close the terminal

Arch Linux
Arch Linux users can either use the pacman package manager directly or yaourt, a command-line frontend for pacman and the Arch User Repository, which can be downloaded here from archlinux.fr.

Without Yaourt

 * 1) Open a terminal.
 * 2) Run this command: "pacman -S wine" (People who use sudo can use it here, if you don't have sudo the Arch Linux wiki can help you with that).
 * 3) If pacman lists other packages (the dependencies for WINE), this means you're able to install WINE without any fuss. Press Enter and wait for it to install.
 * 4) It may list a bunch of optional dependencies, ignore this unless you need to install anything else to allow WINE to work properly on your computer.
 * 5) You're done! You can close the Terminal now.

With Yaourt
Some people may prefer Yaourt as the steps can be seen to look simpler than using pacman directly, and sudo is automatically executed when installing packages. Assuming that you have Yaourt installed...
 * 1) Open a terminal.
 * 2) Run this command: "yaourt wine windows"
 * 3) It will list packages that Yaourt have found with the words "wine" and "windows" in their name/description. Press 1 and press Enter.
 * 4) Sudo will execute, type the password. It will then execute Pacman again, so press enter if Pacman asks you to install and let it install.
 * 5) You're done! You can close the terminal now.

Other operating systems:

 * Follow the instructions provided at http://www.winehq.org/download/

If you are not using Wine 1.6 or later, it is highly recommended to upgrade!

Step 2: Install Roblox (Automatic, via script)
There is an automatic Roblox installer for Linux called rlw.sh. This stands for "Roblox Linux Wrapper". This wrapper enables Roblox to behave more like a native Linux application, but it still requires Wine. It will automatically set up Roblox on first launch, then provide the options to play Roblox, configure Roblox, or install the wrapper as a program on your computer.

Instructions on running the script:
 * 1) Download the script from https://db.tt/P1M7V0oV
 * 2) Open a terminal and type "chmod +x ", then drag in the script. Make sure to have a space between the +x and the script.
 * 3) Open the script by double clicking it and click "Run".

Step 2: Install Roblox (Manual)
Head over to http://www.roblox.com/install/setup.ashx. This is a direct link to the installer and bypasses the need to change your user agent to anything. This file will be located in your "Downloads" folder. If it tries to open in an archive manager, right click "RobloxSetup.exe" and select "Open with" and select "Wine".

Step 1: Install requirements
If you already installed the Roblox Studio requirements, you can skip this step.

Open a terminal and enter the following commands: winetricks -q vcrun2008 winhttp wininet

Step 2: Open a terminal and paste the following command:
wine ~/.wine/drive_c/users/$(whoami)/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/RobloxVersions/version-*/RobloxPlayerBeta.exe --id $(zenity --entry --entry-text "Place URL" --title 'Roblox Linux Wrapper' --width 450 --height 120 | cut -d "=" -f 2) This will open a window asking for a Place URL. Copy-paste the address of the game you would like to play (For example, http://www.roblox.com/8-Million-Visits-Sword-Fights-on-the-Heights-IV-place?id=47324).

Once pasted, click OK and the game should load.

To play a game while logged in instead of using a Guest account, open the Roblox Studio and log in through there. Once logged in, you may close the Roblox Studio and join a game. The Roblox Player will automatically use your account information and any game you join will use that account. To log out, just open Roblox Studio and log out through there.

If you don't want to open terminal everytime you want to launch a game, follow these steps: Now, instead of opening terminal, all you have to do is double click the file, and when a window asking "Do you want to run "filename.sh", or display its contents?", click run to open the window asking for the place URL
 * 1) Open Text Editor
 * 2) Type in the following(with out the quotes): "#!/bin/bash" and press enter a couple of times
 * 3) Copy and paste the command from Step 2
 * 4) Go to File>Save as, and when you name the file, make sure you add the .sh extension(example: filename.sh). Then click on save
 * 5) Close out of Text Editor and locate the file that you just saved
 * 6) Once you find it, right-click it and select properties
 * 7) Select the Permissions tab
 * 8) Check “Allow executing file as program.” and close out

  

Step 1: Install requirements
If you already installed the Roblox Player requirements, you can skip this step.

Open a terminal and enter the following commands: winetricks -q vcrun2008 winhttp wininet

Step 2: Launching the Studio
Go to your Applications menu and look for Wine, then go to Programs, then go to Roblox, and you should be presented with the following options: Click Roblox Studio.
 * Play Roblox (the browser that popped up)
 * Roblox Studio (what we will be using)

Step 3: Build anything.
Go ahead and load your places and games, everything should work flawlessly beyond this point.