EA App no longer working with soda-9.0.1; unable to start, unable to install

[Simon-Spettmann]

Issue

After an EA App update a few weeks ago I am no longer able to start the EA App with soda-9.0.1. Before that update everything worked fine. Attempts to fix the issue were unsuccessful (see below).

I am also no longer able to install the EA Launcher in a new Bottle of type Gaming with the default runner soda-9.0.1 using the Install Programs... > EA Laucher. The EA App installation process fails in a state where the Bottles installer window displays "Installing EA Launcher...", "This could take a while.", "Processing installer steps..." and the EA App installer itself displaying:

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new Bottle of type Gaming with the default runner soda-9.0.1
2. Use Install Programs... > EA Laucher to install the EA App
3. Follow the steps of the EA App installer
4. Wait for the installation to fail

Attempts to fix the issue (for existing Bottle with EA App already installed)

Starting the EA Launcher.exe runs the program for a few seconds until it terminates without any error message. Launching a game directly via it's EXE worked for a short time, but after a while this workaround also stopped working. I believe that launching games directly used an old version of the EA App, as I was given a reminder to update as well as a grace period.

I tried switching the Bottles runner, but this didn't fix the issue. Uninstalling the EA App using the button in Bottles was also unsuccessful, as was the repair process of the EA App installer. Uninstalling using the Bottles "Legacy Wine Tools > Uninstaller" or deleting the EA App directory and running the EA App installer again didn't solve this either.

Workaround

The only thing that worked so far was to create a new Bottle and use ge-proton10-32.

1. Create a new Bottle of type Gaming with the default runner ge-proton10-32
2. Use Install Programs... > EA Laucher to install the EA App
3. Follow the steps of the EA App installer
4. Wait for the installation to succeed

You might want to move all game installations to the new bottle to avoid having to download all your games again.

[nddoes]

I have had the same issue with bottles for 5 days now. I tried to follow this workaround but still nothing. I can't even get the ea app to download at all it just loads for a while then fails.

[Simon-Spettmann]

@nddoes Here is the exported configuration of the Bottle that works on my system (Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS, Linux 6.17.0-19-generic). It's unchanged, except for the timestamps (see <redacted>). Maybe this help you or others.

You might notice that the configuration says ge-proton10-33 instead of ge-proton10-32 as noted in my workaround. I'm not sure why that is the case, maybe I updated the runner after creating this issue.

---

Arch: win64
CompatData: ''
Creation_Date: '<redacted>'
Custom_Path: false
DLL_Overrides: {}
DXVK: dxvk-2.7.1-12-9963ecd
Environment: Gaming
Environment_Variables: {}
External_Programs:
    fe09bf57-134d-465f-881f-f8ecc48c9cba:
        arguments: ''
        executable: EADesktop.exe
        id: fe09bf57-134d-465f-881f-f8ecc48c9cba
        name: EA Client
        path: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop\EADesktop.exe
Inherited_Environment_Variables:
- DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
- DISPLAY
- HOME
- LANG
- LC_ALL
- LC_CTYPE
- LC_MESSAGES
- PATH
- PULSE_SERVER
- TERM
- TZ
- USER
- WAYLAND_DISPLAY
- XAUTHORITY
- XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
Installed_Dependencies:
- d3dx9
- msls31
- arial32
- times32
- courie32
- d3dcompiler_43
- d3dcompiler_47
- mono
- gecko
- andale32
- arialb32
- comic32
- georgi32
- impact32
- tahoma32
- trebuc32
- verdan32
- webdin32
- allfonts
Language: sys
LatencyFleX: latencyflex-v0.1.1
Limit_System_Environment: true
NVAPI: dxvk-nvapi-v0.9.1
Name: EA App
Parameters:
    custom_dpi: 96
    decorated: true
    discrete_gpu: true
    dxvk: true
    dxvk_nvapi: false
    fixme_logs: false
    fsr: false
    fsr_sharpening_strength: 8
    fullscreen_capture: false
    gamemode: false
    gamescope: false
    gamescope_borderless: false
    gamescope_custom_options: ''
    gamescope_fps: 0
    gamescope_fps_no_focus: 0
    gamescope_fullscreen: true
    gamescope_game_height: 0
    gamescope_game_width: 0
    gamescope_scaling: false
    gamescope_window_height: 0
    gamescope_window_width: 0
    latencyflex: false
    mangohud: false
    mangohud_display_on_game_start: true
    mouse_warp: true
    obsvkc: false
    pulseaudio_latency: false
    renderer: gl
    sandbox: false
    sync: fsync
    take_focus: false
    use_be_runtime: true
    use_eac_runtime: true
    use_runtime: false
    use_steam_runtime: false
    versioning_automatic: false
    versioning_compression: false
    versioning_exclusion_patterns: false
    virtual_desktop: false
    virtual_desktop_res: 1280x720
    vkbasalt: false
    vkd3d: true
    vmtouch: false
    vmtouch_cache_cwd: false
    wayland: false
    winebridge: false
Path: EA-App
Registry_Rules: []
Runner: ge-proton10-33
RunnerPath: ''
Sandbox:
    share_net: false
    share_sound: false
State: 0
Uninstallers: {}
Update_Date: '<redacted>'
VKD3D: vkd3d-proton-3.0
Versioning: false
Versioning_Exclusion_Patterns: []
Windows: win10
Winebridge: false
WorkingDir: ''
data: {}
run_in_terminal: false
session_arguments: ''

[Simon-Spettmann]

I just successfully installed the EA App on another system (Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.4, Linux 6.17.0-19-generic):

1. Create a new Bottle of type Gaming with the default runner ge-proton10-33
2. Use Install Programs... > EA Laucher to install the EA App
3. Follow the steps of the EA App installer
4. Wait for the installation to succeed

So far everything seems to work.

[billgeek]

Thanks for the workaround, works a treat! To note: Changing an existing bottle to ge-proton10-32 doesn't even help. It MUST be a brand new bottle.