Engine DJ 5.0 issue in VM - fixed, but it's slow

Engine DJ Software Engine DJ (Mac & PC)
1

Screenshot_2026-05-14_20-36-58
Screenshot_2026-05-14_20-36-58345×156 5.61 KB

I use Engine DJ in a VM, so I can run it on my Linux box.

Was working fine with the previous version, but stopped working with the new version with the above error.

After some fiddling, the following steps got it working for me… but it’s slowwwwww.

Engine DJ 5.0.0 stopped launching for me in a Windows 10 QEMU/KVM VM after updating from the previous version (which worked fine in the same VM/environment).

Environment:

  • Linux host (Xubuntu 24.04)

  • QEMU/KVM via virt-manager

  • Windows 10 guest

  • Originally QXL/SPICE

  • Switched to Virtio video + SPICE OpenGL + 3D accel during troubleshooting

  • No GPU passthrough

Error shown:

Failed to initialize graphics backend for OpenGL.

Relevant log output included:

Failed to load opengl32sw
Failed to load and resolve WGL/OpenGL functions
Basic wglCreateContext gives version 1.1
OpenGL version too low
QRhiGles2: Failed to create context
Failed to create RHI (backend 2)

The VM only exposed:

Microsoft Basic Display Adapter

It appears Engine DJ 5.x now requires a newer Qt/OpenGL rendering path than previous versions.

What finally got it launching:

  1. Downloaded Mesa3D Windows x64 release build

  2. Took Mesa’s:

opengl32.dll
  1. Renamed it to:
opengl32sw.dll
  1. Copied it into:
C:\Program Files\Engine DJ\

Commands used:

copy opengl32.dll opengl32sw.dll
copy opengl32sw.dll "C:\Program Files\Engine DJ"

After that, Engine DJ 5 launches normally from the desktop icon.

However:

  • UI performance is now very slow/sluggish

  • waveform rendering is noticeably laggy

  • but the application is usable for library/export management

Looks like Engine DJ 5 is now depending on a more modern OpenGL stack, and Mesa software rendering is acting as a fallback workaround in a VM environment.

Interested to know if:

  • others running Engine DJ in VMs are seeing the same issue

  • there is a cleaner fix

  • proper VirtIO GPU drivers help

  • Denon/Engine changed something graphics-related in 5.0.0

2

You don’t need to use a VM if you don’t need the Sync Manager. Engine DJ 5.0.0 runs fine with Wine as already mentioned in this forum.

With Engine 4.5 they upgraded from Qt5 to Qt6.

3

I found ENGINE DJ with wine insanely frustrating in the past .. I get it working.. then some minor apt-update of wine components for security broke audio playback, I found the VM solution about 10x more reliable, at least until v5.0

in wine .. sometimes Audio works, sometimes it doesn’t .. ZERO visibility to me of how to debug, but the audio layer plays the test sounds in winecfg fine, or foobar2000 plays audio but ENGINE DJ will not! the same audio hardware that works perfectly in Linux or via QEMU.

I’ve just been trying STEAM/PROTON (which is a wine variant?) with “pretty good” results.. my current stumbling block is removable drives. I have to jump through a bunch of stupid hoops to get audio working, and I’ve been “problem solving” on it for hours but got it working…

Can all you meisters who have it working perfectly in WINE document how you are able to mark the drive letter where your USB/SD card is mounted as a removable drive so the “sync manager” doesn’t come up with “Insert USB drive” even though I set it to be type “floppy” in winecfg so that you can sync your set to an SD card?

I got audio working after hours of messing about.. now I’m stuck on SD cards being detected as a removable device..

This is a bit off topic so I might make another post about the details elsewhere..

EDIT: I found a solution! noted at Engine DJ 5.0 under Steam/Proton (wine variant) under Linux - update: now mostly working - #5 by DJ_ZOG