at a moment they also developped wow on Linux machines
They also probably run the WoW servers on Linux. It’s funny how these game companies actually use it, but then when the customer (player) uses it they seem… I’m going to say less than enthused? 
don’t mismatch developping the server and the client.
Client seems to use protobuf, i’m pretty sure that the server provides some common libraries for the communication based on frameworks around protobuf, but client should be developped by another team, just using the communication lib from the server team, or something like this (common pattern in client/server development, regarding any technology you develop)
Also the launcher should be developped by another team, using only the game storage libraries from a team managing the way that blizzard assets are stored, and this launcher team is certainly a tiny team…
I got the same problem as well. I have tried all the work arounds suggested here on r/linux gaming and r/ steam deck however I can’t get Battle.net or Diablo 3 to run. Which is a damn shame because I really wanted to finish this saeson. 
It would be nice if Blizzard threw us a bone and let us play games.
Would really hope that Bliz would at least acknowledge the issue… whether to say they’re working on it or not planning to. A post with almost 300 comments seems like it would be a good place to say something. Not to be a whiny baby screaming “Im going to drop my sub if it’s not fixed”, but the steam deck is honestly the only platform I can play wow on right now. Essentially paying for a product I may not even be able to use again?
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Also have the issue. Playing with Lutris from 2019 Classic launch without any issues up until this moment. Blizzard, you need to cooperate and communicate with the community.
My workaround for the moment is to update using the old Agent.exe trick and playing through a duplicated entry in Lutris with executable to wow exe.
I got it running and updating with the crazy method below. Note that the OPs solution didn’t work for me, I had to tweak it like I describe in post 4 that my link points to:
This is an image https://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=73146 I took earlier today showing Mint with 8012 agent file and Win 10 (QEMU VM) with the 7984 Agent both downloading Classic games. The 8012 does seem to have fixed some of the real Blizzard problems, what is needed is some help to figure out what dependency is missing to make this rock solid. Sadly, nothing I have tried has been able to get the workarounds work with Proton or Wine-GE runners.
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there was a retail upgrade today, now we cannot rely on game if not updated. all realms are now marked as incompatible
launcher doesn’t work on proton-ge latest version and agent crash update loop on wine-staging latest version too.
Now neither DF beta, PTR or retail are playable until a launcher fix. Do something Blizzard, investigate to have a tiny wine compat on the launcher, please. Or help wine developpers with more technical info here: wine bug tracker ID 53697
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I was able to download and install today’s update using Agent.7984 so the game can still be played/patched for now. Hopefully Blizzard releases a working Agent before disabling the 7984 version.
Once upon a time, when WoW began, they almost made a Linux client, but decided managing 3 OS platforms was too much. So instead Blizz helped ensure wine could run WoW. There was an unofficial backing of wine to make Linux gamers be able to play. I remember because friends of mine when they worked on the game told me this.
But that all has chamged. Ironically, as Linux gaming builds steam (lol), Activision-Blizzard has decided to discard the ever growing customer base. Its a shame, really.
Right now, work-arounds are needed. Eventually wine will have it figured out.
the only saving grace is this is the dog days of pre-expansion…season 4 where a lot of people are taking it easy anyways…imagine this happened on dragonflight launch. riots would ensue.
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Oh, very much. This isn’t the first time there was a hiccup, honestly. But it has beem a while.
In extreme cases, you need an alternative method for updating clients, bypassing the launcher
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except having a windows there is no alternative, or a good friend sending your the Data/data folder or wow (i’m downloading a friend one, and discovered how it’s done, it’s not consistent between installs it seems)
Lutris did it with multiple stores, Heroic did it with Epic, …
It’s probably possible. But it will require a lot of work.
Oh, I forgot, make sure you are starting with Battle.net.exe and not the Launcher. That’s important. Or any time you attempt to change the Agent.exe file, it will revert back to the recent one before starting.
I also set the replaced Agent.exe file to read-only, and even set it’s containing folder to read-only, to attempt to convince Battle.net to not replace it.
i am using Lutris for all of this. how do i start with battle.net.exe through Lutris?
In Configure->Game options, confirm that the Executable is pointing to …/Battle.net/Battle.net.exe (for example on my Lutris installer, I use /home/jhu/Games/world-of-warcraft/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Battle.net/Battle.net.exe)
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NightRaven is right. That’s how I configured it. I am doing everything through Lutris as well.
Since we are going to be in this for the long haul by the looks of it this may help with getting started with StarCraft II if you have access to a Windows PC:
Its rough around the edges.