macos PKHeX working on Mac using Crossover App, a Tutorial

[spizer511]

So I got PKHeX to work on mac… Not the simplest, nor the plausible cheapest (14 day free trial, $59 for a license), but compared to the literal day and a half I spent trying to get the free options to work? I considered what my time was worth and $59 is worth a day and a half of my time.

Anywho here’s a rough tutorial, PKHeX running through Crossover on the Mac. I make no guarantees, but this is how I've gotten it to work for me.

Let me know if it works for you too!

Resources

MacOS - I'm running 12.4 Monterey on a 2019 Intel MBP
Crossover app (free 14 day trial) - https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover
PKHeX - https://github.com/kwsch/PKHeX
Crossover Archive - DL from Google Drive

Preamble

Crossover will create a container called a “Bottle” (it uses a project called Wine, get it, Bottle of Wine…Get it? #dadjokesaside Anywho).

Your goal is to create a Bottle that has all the Windows bits necessary to run PKHex. There is no actual installing of PKHex, just running the .exe in a habitable space.

There are two ways….

The easy way-

Import Crossover Archive

1. Download the  crossover archive (see above in resources)
2. Install Crossover (pretty self-explanatory, if you’re having issues check youtube “Install Crossover macos”)
3. Launch Crossover
4. Import Bottle Archive and Name it (Either of the following will get ya there)
    * Bottle > Import Bottle Archive… (from the system menu)
    * or the little + sign in the lower left and select “Import Bottle Archive”
    * Note: This archive includes only .NET and Core fonts
5. Run PKHex
    1. Select your Bottle
    2. Double-click “Run Command” (upper right, gear icons)
    3. Use the “Browse” to find your PKHeX.exe file
    4. Either
        1. Run (one time use)
            * or
        2. Save as Launcher (should appear in programs)
            * After this all you have to do is double-click the PKHeX App that will appear in the launcher.

The manual way-

The steps to self-build:

1. Install Crossover (pretty self-explanatory, if you’re having issues check youtube “Install Crossover macos”)
2. Launch Crossover
3. Create Bottle
    1. Create a new bottle (Any of the following will get ya there)
        * command + N
        * Bottle > New Bottle (from the system menu)
        * or the little + sign in the lower left
    2. Name your Bottle
        1. Whatever you like, “PKHex Bottle” makes sense to me
    3. New Bottle Type
        1. Windows 7 (others might work, but for me… this is the only one that does so far)
    4. Click Create
4. Create PKHex Environment
    1. After a hot second, select your new bottle in the left panel and  Click the big blue “Install a Windows Application” button to the lower right.
    2. Type "micro" in the field, and select Microsoft .NET 4.6.1  and click “Continue”
    3. In the list of compatible Bottles you should see the one you created, e.g. “PKHex Bottle”, select it and click “Continue”
    4. Finally click install
    5. Then comes the long, long as heck part where Cross over will download and install a couple versions of .NET
            1. Accept all the EULAs
            2. Do NOT click Send reports
            3. Always “Restart now” (note: this does NOT restart your computer, it just allows Crossover to continue)
            4. And always “continue” when asked
5. Optional Fonts:
    1. Go through the same steps as above, but instead of searching for/installing .NET, search for “Core Fonts” and install that package.
    2. Note: It takes far less time than the .NET stuff and helps PKHex look better.
6. Optional (but recommended BEFORE you run PKHex, see upgrade Q in FAQ)
    1. Make an Archive of your Bottle
    2. Right-click your bottle and select “Export <your bottle name> to Archive”
7. Run PKHex
    1. Select your Bottle
    2. Double-click “Run Command” (upper right, gear icons)
    3. Use the “Browse” to find your PKHeX.exe file
    4. Either
        1. Run (one time use)
            * or
        2. Save as Launcher (should appear in programs)
            * After this all you have to do is double-click the PKHeX App that will appear in the launcher.

FAQ:

1. Why are there all these x86-64 preloader things running?

* Crossover has to run whenever you run this app because (to the best of my knowledge) it’s basically providing the magic services that allow Windows apps to run.

2. Why Should I make an Archive before I run PKHeX?

* So, in theory you can run all your PKHex.exe from a single Bottle… But the underlying tech that enables .exe to run on Windows is finicky and you could run into some issues especially when all the executables have the same filename. If you do want to run multiple PKHeX in a single Bottle, try renaming the executable before running it. I recommend adding the release date MMDDYYYY, so PKHeX.exe would become PKHeX06102022.exe. That way you’ll never get ‘em mixed up. Eventually though your bottle is gonna end up getting pretty big… But the choice is yours!

3. How do I uninstall or upgrade to a new version of PKHeX?

* Simply put? It’s easier to create a new bottle or import an archive and run the new executable from it. There’s no easy way to uninstall a program once it’s associated with a Bottle. The “Move to Trash doesn’t really seem to work well.

Edited June 14, 2022 by spizer511
Posted Archive file on Google Drive and updated content to reflect that change

[semajames]

Have you got this working recently? I haven't been able to get it working on my mac.

[thaiteaboba]

It's been working for me! There was a 14 day trial period for it when I downloaded from their main page, so I used another application to edit the expiration date. I set it to expire in the year 9999 so that I essentially have the app for an unlimited time. Here is a link to the video that I used as a guide, super helpful 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru_hC0oo6Cc&ab_channel=ToothX

 

[akatony]

Doesn't work for me, I get an error when I try to open it