WineX3 and 1.6.7, DX 9.0b not found and SL crashes

This is a bit frustrating because I've gotten SL to run on Linux before. Moreso because icculus announced a native port without any timetable for release, and I'll feel a bit silly if I get this to work the day before it comes out.

Anyway, I got SL 1.6.7 to install under Cedega 4.3.2 and tried to run it under WineX (3.2, 3.3.1 and 3.3.2) with point2play. This method was described as working in a few places. But when I try to run it under any version, the "Successfully Installed" message pops up and then another box comes up saying something to the effect of "DirectX 9.0b not found, try it anyway?" I click Yes and it immediately crashes.

Is 1.6.7 just utterly broken with WineX, or is it a problem on my side? I've tried installing WineX outside of point2play and it breaks the same way.

I have SL 1.6.7 working sucessfully with WineX 3.2 on Gentoo. I do not use Point2Play, I have also never ran SL on windows. Here is how I got it to work.

Installed the latest version of WINE (not WineX)
Installed WineX 3.2
Installed SL 1.4.10
Ran SL under WineX (winex3 -winver win2000 ~/.wine/fake_windows/Program\ Files/SecondLife/newview.exe)
Go to preferences and set it to windowed rather than fullscreen[1]
Attempt to connect, get told to go and upgrade.
Install SL 1.6.7 on top of the old version using WINE
Ran SL under WineX again (same command only the .exe name has changed)
Works.

I have found since upgrading from KDE 3.3 to KDE 3.4 that SL crashes whenever I switch virtual desktop, but after a bit this problem went away on it's own. I beleive WineX 3.3.2 fixes this problem but I have not been able to obtain a copy, despite the source being available under AFPL

[1]This was the killer, I wasted a day on this one. I'm told it's in the settings.ini file but as I had never sucessfully started SL (it crashes in fullscreen) I didn't have a settings.ini file to modify and no info as to the format or location was available)

Ok I can't get into SL in linux to even get to a preferences window. Are you refering to some setting in Wine/WineX?

no!

SL 1.6.7 crashes winex when it attempts to go fullscreen, it also does nasty things to the X server requiring you to restart it.

The solution that worked for me was to install an older version of SL (1.4.10) just to allow me to get in and set it to windowed mode, then I could run an upgrade to SL 1.6.7 and it would start in windowed mode which does not crash winex.

I wont be able to try 1.6.8 until Friday as I'm away from home, but I'll let you know how I get on.

oooh ok so where can I find 1.4.0 for download?

Yeah, where can one find the older version?

Give this a go, one of the links should work.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=SecondLife_v14.zip

Thanks. I think I'm gettingit from Fileplanet. They are so amazingly awful I hate it. It would be great if Linden could put up an archive of old client versions.

Umm, small hint: Do not download from FilePlanet unless there is no alternative source anywhere on the internet.

You'd get it faster if you downloaded it from some eastern european cable modem, in fact you'd probably finish the download while you're still queueing for FilePlanet.

Hrm. Okay. I try to install 1.4.0, and it says "I can't install Second Life while it's already running, and a folder named Second Life will confuse the installer." There's nothing with the word "second" on my entire filesystem, and I kill every process remotely related to wine or cedega before running the installer.

Poop!