White Album 2 on Linux

This guide covers installing the DVD extended edition of White Album 2 via Lutris to easily get the game working on Linux.

The game can be legally purchased from the following sites:

• Amazon JP (Physical) - Offers global shipping
• DMM (Digital)

Requirements

• White Album 2 Extended Edition as Disc (+ DVD drive) or ISO's
• A Vulkan capable GPU, and Driver for DXVK Support

Installation

Enable Japanese locale

Check if it's already enabled with: locale -a | grep ja

If you see something like the following proceed to the next step

ja_JP
ja_JP.eucjp
ja_JP.ujis
ja_JP.utf8
japanese
japanese.euc

Otherwise generate/install the locale, and install a supported Japanese font. This will vary by distribution. A few are listed below.

• Arch:

   sudo sed -i 's/^#ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8/ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8/' /etc/locale.gen
   sudo locale-gen
   sudo pacman -S otf-ipafont noto-fonts-cjk
  

• Ubuntu:

   sudo locale-gen ja_JP.{UTF-8,EUC-JP}
   sudo apt install -y fonts-{takao,mona,monapo}
  

• Fedora:

   sudo dnf groupinstall -y 'Japanese Support'
   sudo dnf install -y hanazono-fonts mona-*-fonts
  

• Gentoo:

  sudo sed -i 's/^#ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8/ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8/' /etc/locale.gen
  sudo locale-gen
  emerge kochi-substitute ja-ipafonts noto-cjk
  

Install Lutris and Wine dependencies

These steps will heavily depend on your Linux distribution. Lutris has great documentation covering these which I've linked against each.

1. Lutris
2. Wine Dependencies
3. Drivers (needed for DXVK Support)

Install 32-bit GStreamer

Without these dependencies the in game videos won't play, and throw an error.

• Arch:

   sudo pacman -S lib32-gst-plugins-good
   yay -S lib32-gst-plugins-ugly lib32-gst-libav
  

• Ubuntu:

   sudo apt install -y gstreamer1.0-{plugins-{good,ugly},libav}:i386
  

• Fedora:

   sudo dnf install -y gstreamer1-{plugins-{good,ugly},plugin-libav}.i686
  

• Gentoo:

  USE="abi_x86_32" emerge --autounmask gst-plugins-{good,ugly,libav}
  

Using CDemu (if using ISO's)

CDemu can emulate the existence of a DVD drive, and is needed to be used if your installing with ISO images as opposed to using a physical DVD drive.

• Install CDemu, refer online for steps that cover your distribution
• Once installed check CDemu status with cdemu status
• If there's a single device listed add another with cdemu add-device
• Load the install images to both devices

   cdemu load 0 /path/to/WA2_EE_1.iso
   cdemu load 1 /path/to/WA2_EE_2.iso
  

• Mount both of these disks

Running the Lutris installer

There is a few different ways you can start the installer these are listed below. You only need to do one of them.

• From the Lutris website
  1. Select the Install button on the White Album 2 app page for the Extended Edition (DVD) version
• From the Lutris app
  1. Select the Lutris source on the right
  2. Search for "White Album 2" under the Community Installers tab
  3. Select Install for "White Album 2"
• Local with the install script
  1. Download the Lutris install script white-album-2-extended-edition-dvd.yml
  2. Open a terminal in the directory where the file was downloaded to
  3. Install the script under Lutris with lutris -i white-album-2-extended-edition-dvd.yml

During installation leave the install directory as default.

After Disc 1 has finished installing, a prompt will appear asking for Disc 2 to be inserted. Insert Disc 2 and ensure you can see it's contents in your file manager before pressing OK on the prompt to continue.

If you installed the game with CDemu, make sure to unload the discs afterwards

cdemu unload 0
cdemu unload 1
cdemu remove-device

Troubleshooting

Game Crashes on start up

This may be due to one of the discs data being misread during installation. Try removing the game, and reinstalling it again. It might also be worth to dump both the discs as ISO's and load them with CDemu instead. If you still are getting this issue after retrying, please open an issue with any applicable logs from lutris.

After Disc 1, the installer is unable to continue with Disk 2

To resolve this I had to reconnect my external disc reader after switching the discs so that I could mount disc 2, and see it's files correctly before pressing OK on the continue prompt.

If you are using an internal disc reader where this isn't possible you can instead dump both the discs as ISO's and load them in with CDemu before starting the installation. See the Using CDemu section of this guide for more on this.

Disc Check Error Dialog

This error may occur when the game installer is ran from an mounted ISO. Ensure your mounting the installer ISO's with CDemu. See the Using CDemu section of this guide for more on this.

Credit

Todokanai Translations team for releasing the english patch along with providing instructions for installing and patching the game with wine.

TheMoeWay's guide covering Visual novels on Linux.