Wine 1.0 is coming out some time from now, but like you could read in my previous post, there are some killer apps you can run with it now. After my succes on getting iTunes running on Ubuntu 8.04 and inspired by a post on http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com where Defcon succeeded in getting GTA Vice City to run using Wine, I managed to install and play GTA San Andreas. Now it's only a matter of time for GTA IV. Here is what I did.

0. Prerequisites:

GTA san andreas PC iso
wine (my version was 0.9.59)
Nvidia graphics card with minimum 256 MB memory and proprietary driver (mine is a Geforce 8500 GT)
fuseiso (sudo apt-get install fuseiso)
5GB harddisk space
decent CPU (mine is AMP Athlon 64)
read the README file in the iso to be sure

1. Mount SA iso

-create GTA directory in your home directory:
mkdir GTA
-copy the iso into this GTA directory:
cp gtasa.iso /home/USER_NAME/GTA/gtasa.iso
-create a mount point for the iso in the GTA directory:
cd GTA
mkdir sanandreas
-mount the iso with fuse:
fuseiso gtasa.iso sanandreas

2. download and install kernel update for wine kernel engine
download
http://support.installshield.com/kb/files/Q108322/IkernelUpdate.exe
and run it.

3. select install.exe

select the demoshield player:
GTA > sanandreas > bin

4. Apply crack

after installation, apply no cd crack you find here

http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_gta_san_andreas.shtml#GTA:%20San%20Andreas%20v1.01%20[EURO]%20No-CD/Fixed%20EXE

I took the "GTA: San Andreas v1.01 [EURO] No-CD/Fixed EXE" 4.8MB file

it's a rar file, so we need to install rar:

sudo apt-get install rar
sudo ln -fs /usr/bin/rar /usr/bin/unrar

5. Configure Wine

winecfg

In the applications-tab, add gta_sa.exe and select "Windows 2000" as the windows version.
Select the graphics-tab and set Vertex Shader Support to "None". This will make the game less slow.
Select a virtual desktop so that you can change the game's display resolution.

6. play

cd .wine/drive_c/Program Files/Rockstar Games/GTA San Andreas
WINEDEBUG=-all wine gta_sa.exe

This is what worked for me.

After this I got tired of the virtual desktop. So I deselected it from winecfg and it was still playable.
It is reported that GTA San Andreas can't run with ATI graphic cards, I don't have one so I could try it.
If for some reason your resolution stays small, do Alt+F2 and gnome-displayproperties to change the screen resolution back.

Good luck
Westside