StarCraft 2 on openSUSE 11.3 [update]

13. August, 2010

As you may have heard, StarCraft 2 works on Linux. It’s even officially supported by CrossOver Games. It’s only Silver (which means “runs with minor issues”.

One of the issues is that the game crashes at startup or shortly afterwards. This seems to be a kernel bug.

To solve the issue on openSUSE 11.3, you need to install a kernel with version 2.6.35. Luckily this is pretty simple:

  1. Add the repository http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/openSUSE_Factory/  with Yast2 (under “Software Repositories”). Give it any name you like.
  2. I suggest to set the priority to 120; that way, the other repositories will be considered first and entries in this new repository won’t pollute your system unless you ask for them.
  3. Open “Software Management” in Yast2
  4. Open the tab “Repositories”
  5. Select the new kernel repository
  6. Locate the package “kernel-desktop” and select it
  7. Click on the “Versions” tab at the bottom
  8. Select the one with version “2.6.35.1” (the last digit can be different).
  9. Click “Accept”

Yast2 will download the new kernel and install it. After a reboot, you can enjoy StarCraft II.

[Update] I’ve played the first six single player missions and had no major problems so far. The frame rate could be better but that’s about it.

[Update 2, 11th Nov. 2010] Kernel 2.6.36 has been released. You can find it here.


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