Hi man! Someone on Reddit had the same problem, so here's my reply to that guy:

"I had this issue, but I'm not sure how I fixed it :)

If you read the Lutris pages here

https://lutris.net/games/ubisoft-connect/

you could try installing the packages they mention (lib32-gnutls and gnutls-bin).

If that doesn't work, I switched my prefix from a Lutris made one to one I made manually for Steam games (don't ask me why I ran Steam through Wine haha). This meant that the only runtime libraries that were installed were through the client, not through winetricks.

You could try making a basic wineprefix for Uplay (or Ubisoft Connect as it now is), without installing dx9 and others, just with DXVK. Then see if you get in. If you do, installing a game will also install all necessary runtime libraries hopefully, like DX, .net, VC. Then you're golden!"

lib32-gnutls is installed
cant find gnutls-bin

the last big OS update was on the 25th. last time i played was 26th

since then there were these updates

pamac-gtk (10.3.0-3 -> 10.3.0-4)
pamac-cli (10.3.0-3 -> 10.3.0-4)
pamac-gtk (10.3.0-2 -> 10.3.0-3)
pamac-cli (10.3.0-2 -> 10.3.0-3)
libpamac-snap-plugin (11.2.0-3 -> 11.2.0-4)
libpamac-flatpak-plugin (11.2.0-3 -> 11.2.0-4)
libpamac (11.2.0-3 -> 11.2.0-4)
polkit (0.120-3 -> 0.120-4)

could one of these be the reason? seems like they are just for the package managers

Last edited by mylka on 29 Jan 2022 at 3:17 am UTC

Ok, so at some point my Ubisoft Connect stopped working and I had the infinite "Looking for patches" issue. Maybe Ubi changed something?

I have now solved it with the following troubleshooting steps scrounged from the web and experimentation, but I have not figured out exactly if all these steps need to be done or a simple re-installation did the trick :)

1. Install the wine DLL component 'crypt32' using winetricks and set it to 'Built-in' with winecfg
- this did not work alone

2. Rename the 'cache' Ubisoft Connect folder or delete it.
- this did not work by itself

3. Install lib32-gnutls
- this used to work, but no longer

4. Reinstall Ubisoft Connect after downloading the installer from their website.
- this worked! possibly in conjuction with the above steps

So now I'm online with Ubisoft Connect and my games work online too.

Note! This is geared for normal Wine installations, but I think the process is similar for Proton (point to Proton prefix, use protontricks, use winecfg from your applicable Proton version, and so on).

i am using steam btw. i do not know how to reinstall connect. steam does it on its own
can i just delete the connect folder and verify the game files? it should redownload it i guess?

damn, i hate 3rd party launchers.....

ok nevermind. fixed it

i renamed this folder
Steam/steamapps/compatdata/812140/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Ubisoft/

tried to verify game files, but steam did nothing for 1 hour.

i just hit launch and steam installed connect. connect launches, but not the game. so i closed connect and hit launch again. now it works just fine

Last edited by mylka on 29 Jan 2022 at 3:41 pm UTC

Quoting: mylkai just hit launch and steam installed connect. connect launches, but not the game. so i closed connect and hit launch again. now it works just fine

Hah, the murky waters of double DRM and multiple clients :) Add Proton/Wine to the mix and you got yourself a well mixed cocktail of confusion.

Glad you got it working! No idea why/how though.