Wizard101 on Arch Linux (CachyOS) via Wine

Required steps to install and run Wizard101 on Arch Linux (CachyOS) using Wine and the .deb (ChromeOS) package provided by KingsIsle.

The converted package leaves behind a broken Wine prefix. On CachyOS, the prefix must be removed and recreated using a standard wineboot --init so that a proper WOW64 environment is generated before restoring the game files.

KingsIsle does not state that Linux supported on their system requirements page:

https://www.wizard101.com/game/systemrequirements

This is an unsupported workaround to use the provided ChromeOS .deb package on Arch Linux. I found this to be highly successful and had no issues with gameplay or performance.

Environment

• OS: Arch Linux / CachyOS
• System Wine installed
• Multilib enabled

Step 1 – Install required 32-bit libraries

Wizard101 is a 32-bit Windows application and requires Wine multilib support.

sudo pacman -S \
  lib32-gnutls \
  lib32-libldap \
  lib32-libpulse \
  lib32-nss \
  lib32-openssl

Step 2 – Convert and install the Wizard101 .deb

Download the Chromebook .deb package from:

https://www.wizard101.com/game/how-to-download#chromebookInstructions

Install and update debtap:

paru debtap
sudo debtap -u

Convert the package:

debtap wizard101_1.26-1.deb

Install the converted package:

sudo pacman -U wizard101-1.26-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Step 3 – Fix permissions

The package installs into /opt/wizard101 and is root-owned by default.

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/wizard101

Step 4 – Install winetricks

sudo pacman -S winetricks

Step 5 – Back up Wizard101 game files

The converted package places the Wizard101 files on disk, but the Wine prefix must be rebuilt. Back up the game files before continuing.

mkdir -p /tmp/wizard101-backup
cp -r "/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/ProgramData/KingsIsle Entertainment/Wizard101" /tmp/wizard101-backup/

Step 6 – Remove the broken Wine prefix

rm -rf /opt/wizard101/support/wizard101

Step 7 – Create a clean Wine prefix (WOW64)

On CachyOS, a standard Wine initialization correctly creates a WOW64 prefix. Do not set WINEARCH.

WINEPREFIX=/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101 wineboot --init

Verify that the WOW64 directory exists:

ls /opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/windows/syswow64/user32.dll

Step 8 – Restore Wizard101 game files

mkdir -p "/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/ProgramData/KingsIsle Entertainment/"
cp -r /tmp/wizard101-backup/Wizard101 \
  "/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/ProgramData/KingsIsle Entertainment/"

Step 9 – Install required winetricks components

WINEPREFIX=/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101 winetricks -q wininet
WINEPREFIX=/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101 winetricks -q corefonts

Step 10 – Verify Wizard101 executable

ls "/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/ProgramData/KingsIsle Entertainment/Wizard101/Wizard101.exe"

Step 11 – Launch Wizard101

WINEPREFIX="/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101" \
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wininet=n,b" \
wine "/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/ProgramData/KingsIsle Entertainment/Wizard101/Wizard101.exe"

Step 12 – Create a launcher script

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/wizard101

Paste:

#!/bin/bash
WINEPREFIX="/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101" \
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wininet=n,b" \
wine "/opt/wizard101/support/wizard101/drive_c/ProgramData/KingsIsle Entertainment/Wizard101/Wizard101.exe"

Make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/wizard101

Run:

wizard101