Local network farm stopped working after updating MT5 on Ubuntu linux

[Yasuaki Kimushigeru]

Hello,

I used to use the local network farm feature on Ubuntu Linux. When I tried to run it again after a while, I found it was no longer working - possibly due to an MT5 update.

- Symptoms

Clicking the "Add" button for an agent in the "Services" tab of MetaTester 5 Agents Manager produces no response, and no agent is added.

- Environment

OS: Ubuntu 24.04.04 LTS

Wine: wine-10.0

MT5: MetaTrader 5 Version 5.00 build 6090 (31 Jul 2026)

- Potentially clue

With an older version of MT5, clicking the "Add" button used to display error messages like the following (though they no longer appear in the current version):

0164:fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100

Unit MetaTester-2.service could not be found.

015c:fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100

016c:fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100

Unit MetaTester-1.service could not be found.

Unit MetaTester-3.service could not be found.

Does anyone know how to resolve this?

Thanks in advance!

[Michael Charles Schefe]

Yasuaki Kimushigeru:

Wine: wine-10.0

try updating wine to 11.X -- credit, kudos to Alain Verleyen.

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MetaTrader 5 Platform Update Build 6090: General Improvements

Alain Verleyen, 2026.08.03 03:02

Nothing will be done with Wine 10 sorry. Developers can't assure maintenance of all Wine versions. Upgrade to 11.x and check how it works. Then report here if needed. Thanks.

[Yasuaki Kimushigeru]

Michael Charles Schefe #:

try updating wine to 11.X -- credit, kudos to Alain Verleyen.

Thanks for your comment. I installed and tested wine-11.0, but the symptom remained the same and did not improve.

[Michael Charles Schefe]

Yasuaki Kimushigeru #:

Thanks for your comment. I installed and tested wine-11.0, but the symptom remained the same and did not improve.

latest version is 11.14 not 11.0

[Alain Verleyen]

Michael Charles Schefe #:
latest version is 11.14 not 11.0

I guess some people are reluctant to install Development versions, 11.0 is the last stable (with bugs).

But you are right they should use 11.14.

[Yasuaki Kimushigeru]

I tried it again on the latest development version "wine-11.15", but the result was same (no improvement).

[Ryan L Johnson]

Yasuaki Kimushigeru #:

I tried it again on the latest development version "wine-11.15", but the result was same (no improvement).

There is a relevant Article Discussion thread that has been active since 2013. Here is the latest post therein:

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Discussion of article "MetaTrader 5 on Linux"

Thiago Ferreira, 2026.08.05 19:37

Ah… but it’s up to you. I, for one, am fed up with all these little workarounds. I’ve used Bottles before; I had to reformat my system, and after reinstalling Bottles, I couldn’t get it to work again.

Regarding the points you mentioned, with a basic tweak to the VM you can sort all this out without getting frustrated:

1. Copy and paste: By enabling bidirectional clipboard sharing, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V work normally and seamlessly between Linux and Windows.

2. Switching between windows: Using Seamless Mode or RDP, MT5 and MetaEditor appear as separate windows on your Linux desktop, integrated directly into your taskbar, without having to keep switching the entire VM screen.

3. Shared folders: You can map the MQL5 code folder directly on Linux and edit it using your preferred editor.

Wine 11.11 may well work fine today, but the advantage of a VM is its predictability. An update from MetaQuotes or to the operating system won’t suddenly break your working environment in the middle of the day. For those seeking stability and zero maintenance, a VM is still the better option.

[Yasuaki Kimushigeru]

Ryan L Johnson #:

There is a relevant Article Discussion thread that has been active since 2013. Here is the latest post therein:

Thanks for the information.

But I couldn't find any solution or hint to the issue with the local network farm so far from my point of view, unfortunately.

[Yasuaki Kimushigeru]

I'm not sure if this will be helpful, but here is the result I got from asking Claude. *Note: I tried the recommended solution below, but it didn't work.

[Turn 1] — User

I installed the latest version of MT5 (build 5660) and found that I can no longer add agents using the Local Network Farm feature on Ubuntu.

Note: No issues on Windows. Also, this used to work fine on Ubuntu about two years ago.

When I pressed the "Add" button and captured the log from metatester64.exe, the following errors appeared. Please let me know if there is a solution.

            0164:fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100
Unit MetaTester-2.service could not be found.
015c:fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100
016c:fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100
Unit MetaTester-1.service could not be found.
Unit MetaTester-3.service could not be found. 

---

[Turn 1] — Claude

Root Cause Analysis

The logs clearly indicate the following:

Message	Meaning
fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored	Attempting to execute a shell command via Wine
Unit MetaTester-X.service could not be found	The service unit is not registered with systemd

In newer MT5 builds (likely 5000-series and above), agent management has been migrated to systemd services, which differs from the Windows service management architecture. On Ubuntu, the error occurs because the corresponding systemd unit files do not exist.

---

Solution Steps

1. Confirm the MetaTester path

bash

# Check the directory where MT5 is installed find ~/.wine -name "metatester64.exe" 2>/dev/null

Example: /home/youruser/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/MetaTrader 5/Tester/Agent-127.0.0.1-3000/metatester64.exe

---

2. Create systemd unit files (one per agent)

Example for three agents (adjust quantity as needed):

bash

            # Create user-level systemd directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/

bash

# Create service file for Agent 1 cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/MetaTester-1.service << 'EOF' [Unit] Description=MetaTrader 5 Tester Agent 1 After=network.target [Service] Type=simple Environment="WINEPREFIX=/home/YOUR_USER/.wine" ExecStart=/usr/bin/wine "/path/to/metatester64.exe" /agent:127.0.0.1:3001 Restart=on-failure RestartSec=5 [Install] WantedBy=default.target EOF

※ Replace /path/to/ and YOUR_USER with your actual paths.

Create the same files for Agents 2 and 3 with incremented ports (3002, 3003...).

---

3. Enable and start the services

bash

            # Reload the systemd user daemon
systemctl --user daemon-reload

# Enable and start each agent
systemctl --user enable MetaTester-1.service MetaTester-2.service MetaTester-3.service
systemctl --user start MetaTester-1.service MetaTester-2.service MetaTester-3.service

# Check status
systemctl --user status MetaTester-1.service

---

4. Enable lingering (to keep services running after logout, if needed)

bash

sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER

---

Notes

• The number of agents and port numbers must match the settings in MT5's Agent configuration file (e.g., agent.ini ).
• If systemctl --user does not work, try placing the unit files under /etc/systemd/system/ (requires sudo ).
• To check whether systemctl is being called correctly via Wine, run WINEDEBUG=+exec wine metatester64.exe to get a more detailed log.

If you can share the contents of MT5's Agent configuration file (ports, paths, etc.), I can create a more precise service file for you.

[Ryan L Johnson]

Yasuaki Kimushigeru #:

Thanks for the information.

But I couldn't find any solution or hint to the issue with the local network farm so far from my point of view, unfortunately.

I found a relevant container solution on GitHub. Just know that it's a bit dated...

[Yasuaki Kimushigeru]

Ryan L Johnson #:

I found a relevant container solution on GitHub. Just know that it's a bit dated...

This appears to be an issue related to using Docker containers, but I am not using Docker.

Furthermore, since the description mentions that "the agents never connect anywhere"

it seems distinct from my problem, where the agents fail to be added in the first place.