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• koaschten · 12/10/07, 8:19 AM

For reference, copy&paste from blizz boards on what people are referring to when mentioning the "vmware method"

OK i've done a little writeup in a private forum on how to get a linux virtual machine setup with socat etc. This ISN'T necessarily the best way to do it, i'm a linux noob so I stuck with whats familiar to me so hold those flames :P

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I used Debian for no other reasons than thats the only distro I have any experience with and apt-get is rather handy

. Please don't flame me for my choice :P

I don't claim the way i've done it is the best/cleanest or most noob friendly way of doing it, but it worked for me. Your mileage may vary!

Please note to run VMware + wow on the same pc the pc needs to have plenty of grunt. I'm doing this on a core 2 duo with 2 GB ram. Doing this with less is not recommended.

Quick and dirty setup:

Preparation: Download the following -

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...86-netinst.iso - I prefer netinstall ISO's as they are a lot smaller than a full CD image
Download VMware Server, free VMware, virtual server - VMware - make sure you get a key!
Some sort of virtual cd mounting tool, I use THE DAEMONS HOME - Daemon-Tools but on writing this I see the site is down at the moment. Otherwise simply burn the ISO to a blank CD. Also be warned Daemon-Tools is bundled with some adware but you can opt out of the install of that software so no big drama.

1) Install VMware. Click "yes" when it moans about IIS. The VMware install is straightforward just rather lengthy (it seems to spend a while apparently doing very little). I left 'auto-run' enabled btw.

2) Make sure the Debian cd is in your CD drive or the ISO image is mounted via something like daemon-tools

3) Set up a new virtual machine. Give the virtual machine one processor, and allow it say 512 MB ram (I have 2 GB so plenty of room), and allocate 1 GB hard drive space (again got heaps so didn't care :P). With its networking select the top option (bridging). I most creatively named my virtual machine "Debian". :p. The machine type btw is linux 2.6

4) Boot the virtual machine, all going well it should detect the CD and auto run the Debian install

5) Go through the Debian install. It is self explanatory just make sure you read each page before mindlessly clicking yes :p

6) When you reach the part about the APT repository select the mirror closest to you (there is a couple in NZ).

7) When prompted for package selection I unchecked the desktop option and clicked continue (no need for a x windows system).

8) When asked about GRUB install say yes to installing on the MBR.

9) Soon after this the install will complete. you will need to eject or unmount the CD and click continue. The virtual machine will then reboot.

10) The new debian install will boot and you will soon reach a login prompt. Log in under your user account name that you gave during the install

11) Once logged in you will need superuser privileges to carry out the following steps so to gain that type at the command prompt su and press enter, then type the admin password you set during the install. Press enter.

12) Place the Debian install CD back in the CD drive (or re mount it if using a virtual drive)

14) Type the following: apt-get install iptables and allow the install to complete. This is probably unnecessary it should already be installed - this step is just making sure.

15) Type the following: apt-get install socat and allow the install to complete.

Note i'm skipping sudo because setting that up involves editing /etc/sudoers which will be beyond a noob

(but if you really must, run the command visudo)

16) Type the following ifconfig and press enter. Note this screen is a bit complicated but what you are looking for is the virtual machines ip address. You are looking for a entry beside the Eth0 entry that will probably be something like 192.168.1.3 (for example). This will vary depending on your network setup. If anyone has an easier/noob friendly way of determining the ip address post it below!! Write down this address.

17) Refer to http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...18019717&sid=1 for your wow servers IP address. For Blackrock its 12.129.225.21

18) Type the following iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -d your.wow.server.ip.address --dport 3724 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 3724

If you play on multiple servers then you can set up multiple iptables entries simply by substituting in the server ip addresses you need.

19) Type the following socat -d -d TCP4-LISTEN:3724,nodelay,fork,reuseaddr,su=nobody TCP4:your.wow.server.ip.address:3724,nodelay (note I removed 1 -d from Yarre's example to reduce the screen spam)
If you want to play of a different server you'll need to hit CTRL-C to kill the socat screen and re-enter the above command with the correct ip for the new server. There are better ways to do this of course but i'm going for noob friendly here

Your linux virtual machine is now ready to do its magic. You now need to set up your windows pc to send data to the linux virtual machine.

to do this you will need the ip address you wrote down earlier for your linux virtual machine (example 192.168.1.3)

20) Press START then RUN and type cmd and press enter

21) type the following:

route -p ADD your.wow.server.ip.address MASK 255.255.255.255 your.linux.virtual.machineip.address

so for example for Blackrock and using the virtual machine IP address of 192.168.1.3 the command would be:

route -p ADD 12.129.225.21 MASK 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.3

If you play on multiple servers you can add a route per server.

If the command is successful then you will be returned to the command prompt with no message. If you get a error please double check what you are typing in.

Now, fire up wow, and all going well you will be able to play on your server with a substantially lower ping!

Hopefully this all makes some sense.

Lots of credit to Yarre (for coming up with the idea) and Jax!!

Note: You don't need daemontools, vmware server can mount iso files.