Proton: Arma 2 Bad serial number given in setup (33900)

[kcb2k5]

Arma 2 exited with "Bad serial number given in setup" error after a few seconds after launch. When I opened "regedit", I saw that field "Key" in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\bohemia interactive studio\arma 2" is empty. Any workarounds suggested for windows version of the Steam and Arma2 had no effect in my case. Arma2: Operation Arrowhead works well.
The only way for me to get it works is: install win-version of steam and arma2 in wine and copy the registry entry "Key" to Proton prefix through Proton regedit. But it resets every time the game updating.

[mvalente]

Same here.

[ziman]

The following worked for me:

1. I used the Sethioz Industries ArmA 2 key conversion tool to convert my Product Key into Hex.
2. Below, I assume these environment variables. Reorganise them as you see fit.
   bash SA=~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps WINE=${SA}/common/Proton\ 4.2/dist/bin/wine export WINEPREFIX=${SA}/compatdata/${GAME_ID}/pfx
3. I edited that value into the Windows Registry using ${WINE} regedit with WINEPREFIX as above. You need to edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\bohemia interactive studio\arma 2, key Key. You should find it empty before you edit.
4. Don't run the game via Steam. When Steam launches the game, it clears the key from the registry for some reason.
5. Run the game using ${WINE} ${SA}/common/Arma\ 2/arma2.exe, with WINEPREFIX as above.

I also observed that during the installation of the game, the installer displays the Product Key for you to copy and then it opens the Explorer window in the "My Computer" view. That's strange because I don't know what to do there and I have to close the Explorer window to let the installer continue. I suppose that this is a result of some installer script gone wrong and that instead of prompting you for the Product Key, it opens Explorer instead, which leaves the key empty in the Steam configuration. Steam then saves this empty key into the registry every time you run the game, I guess.

[ryao]

@ziman That worked for me too, although in my case, my appid was 33910, not 33900. Here are some commands that might make starting arma 2 easier:

protontricks -c 'wine /path/to/ARMA2_Keychanger.exe' 33910
protontricks -c 'wine regedit' 33910
protontricks -c "wine $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Arma\ 2/arma2.exe" 33910

Also, the key is under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\bohemia interactive studio\arma 2 on proton 4.11-1.

By the way, Arma 2 hangs when I try to exit. I had to switch to a virtual terminal to kill it after trying to use the in-game exit option in the menu. Alt tabbing and killing the protontricks command will make it exit cleanly though.

[ryao]

I made a small executable script called arma2.sh with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh
exec protontricks -c "wine $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Arma\ 2/arma2.exe" 33910

I then added it to steam as a non-steam game and renamed it to Arma 2 (protontricks). I am now able to launch Arma 2 from steam using that. I have access to the steam overlay. I can exit the game by force quitting via the steam overlay.

[LevitatingBusinessMan]

@ryao I didn't get it working myself but why not just run the program mentioned by @ziman through protontricks directly? It should be able to set the key itself.

Edit: Actually it did work for me, but it set the key for arma2 oa both times.

[LevitatingBusinessMan]

Hey but @ryao seeing as this is a common issue with ArmA 2 in general I think you should close this issue, nothing proton can do about it...

[ysblokje]

I got so annoyed by this bug I started writing a workaround that should be as easy as possible. It does require a few things. but after that it should more or less work out of the box.

runarma2

[ryao]

@LevitatingBusinessMan This is a late response, but the following ProtonDB report indicates that the issue is partially caused by steam running the start script for this game at every launch on Linux:

https://www.protondb.com/app/33900#o20Z765PX6

I am not sure if the game properly installs the key into the registry at first start, although it presumably does on Windows. if it does on Linux, it gets clobbered by this script it on first start (and every subsequent start). Removing read permissions (and possibly) execute permissions will keep the script from being run according to that report and I can confirm that it works. It feels like this could be a bug in steam.