How to install ED on Linux using Wine [EXPERIMENTAL, NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED]

Space Cadet Smith · Jan 20, 2022

Just another Tencents from me. (Cough cough.) Whether or not WINE has futex2 support as of yet, as the above CMDR noted the performance improvement in-game is very noticeable when using kernel 5.16. Snappier. Eventually all upstream projects patches trickle back down to WINE anyway so if it is necessary, it is just a matter of time.

2022 will not be the Year of the Linux Desktop but it might well be the Year of Linux Gaming. The Steam Deck is due for release next month if all goes well.

Debian and Debian backports are slow when it comes to newer kernels but thankfully Xanmod and Liqourix fill the void. Winetricks provides the glue to pull in DXVK, Dotnet and Visual C++ libraries easily, but there may well be other ways to reach the same destination. Steam being probably the easiest.

Darth Ender · Jan 20, 2022

if using the latest wine (ideally proton) ...you should no longer need to install microsoft .net 4 framework.

alexzk · Jan 20, 2022

Space Cadet Smith said:
Just another Tencents from me. (Cough cough.) Whether or not WINE has futex2 support as of yet, as the above CMDR noted the performance improvement in-game is very noticeable when using kernel 5.16. Snappier. Eventually all upstream projects patches trickle back down to WINE anyway so if it is necessary, it is just a matter of time.

2022 will not be the Year of the Linux Desktop but it might well be the Year of Linux Gaming. The Steam Deck is due for release next month if all goes well.

Debian and Debian backports are slow when it comes to newer kernels but thankfully Xanmod and Liqourix fill the void. Winetricks provides the glue to pull in DXVK, Dotnet and Visual C++ libraries easily, but there may well be other ways to reach the same destination. Steam being probably the easiest.

Ok, you got me, gona update system. 5.15 -> 5.16 ... a lot of changes total - 10Gb of upgrades since December 8-0

Space Cadet Smith · Jan 20, 2022

Darth Ender said:
if using the latest wine (ideally proton) ...you should no longer need to install microsoft .net 4 framework.

I believe the launcher uses dotnet and Visual C++ libraries but that was from memory from the original redmcg instructions. Better to be safe than sorry and I am using WINE only, no proton. WINE 7.0 is now final and there have surely been many patches and improvements since my first usage a couple of years ago before I had to take a hiatus due to personal circumstances.

ETA Removed redundant sentence.

@alexzk The game starts as slowly as ever but once loaded, you should notice a marked improvement in "snappiness".

Darth Ender · Jan 20, 2022

Space Cadet Smith said:
I believe the launcher uses dotnet and Visual C++ libraries but that was from memory from the original redmcg instructions. Better to be safe than sorry and I am using WINE only, no proton. WINE 7.0 is now final and there have surely been many patches and improvements since my first usage a couple of years ago before I had to take a hiatus due to personal circumstances.

ETA Removed redundant sentence.

@alexzk The game starts as slowly as ever but once loaded, you should notice a marked improvement in "snappiness".

the .net 4 dependencies have not been necessary for a while now in proton and i believe that is reflected in recent upstream wine as well. The native mono support that comes with wine is now capable of handling the launcher on it's own.

the visual C++ dependencies i believe still remain. Steam will install them automatically for you. regular wine will need a step in winetricks as usual.

Ace Everett · Jan 23, 2022

Has anyone figured out a way to switch relative mouse movement on/off without going into the settings?
Windows has some solutions like joystickcurves and vjoy but I can't find anything for Linux.

RedMcG · Feb 8, 2022

A milestone I thought worth mentioning, ProtonDB now reports Elite Dangerous as Platinum:
359320

Darth Ender · Feb 8, 2022

makes sense considering the not needing .net to deal with the launcher anymore.

nms works well too.. star citizen is more hit or miss it seems depending on the current version.
of course X4 has direct linux support.

It'll be interesting to try horizons out on the steam deck when that becomes available.

Space Cadet Smith · Feb 11, 2022

Well, I don't know what I did but I broke something and I can't get it working again. The game runs fine except I can't jump anymore. I can't enter hyperspace or supercruise. I tried a new wine install, I tried restoring binds but nothing helps. Do any of you good people have an idea to help me? Thanks in advance. I'm back in Windows when playing and I hate it.

ETA To add more detail. I can engage the FSD no problem but I cannot speed up enough to engage it. Also my throttle (HOTAS X) is out of balance. I cannot zero it at all. I'm either flying forward or flying backward. I can't stand still. It appears to be a throttle issue but the binds file copied from Windows (which does work just fine) has no effect. I've been playing for months using Linux and then it just borked. I have no idea what I did but I must have done something wrong. Thanks once again.

Darth Ender · Feb 11, 2022

did you install or run anything specific for your hotas X to set it up either in your wine prefix or linux ?

CMDR Astraea Astralis · Mar 16, 2022

Darth Ender said:
if using the latest wine (ideally proton) ...you should no longer need to install microsoft .net 4 framework.

Wait, you're right. How about that! Is this specific to the ED launcher, or did they implement something .NET related in Wine that might possibly fix a lot of other games too (none that I can think of, just curious. I don't have Mono installed in my prefix so it's definitely not Mono..)

Darth Ender · Mar 16, 2022

CMDR Astraea Astralis said:
Wait, you're right. How about that! Is this specific to the ED launcher, or did they implement something .NET related in Wine that might possibly fix a lot of other games too (none that I can think of, just curious. I don't have Mono installed in my prefix so it's definitely not Mono..)

well, more parts of .net4 were implemented in the base mono framework making it unnecessary to have to install the microsoft version (and it's problematic even being able to install the microsoft one in recent wine versions)

It's not ed launcher specific. but whether other games that required .net4 are also now handled is not something you can know until you test. They may use some other as-yet-unimplemented aspect of .net4 .. who knows.

CMDR Astraea Astralis · Mar 16, 2022

Darth Ender said:
well, more parts of .net4 were implemented in the base mono framework making it unnecessary to have to install the microsoft version (and it's problematic even being able to install the microsoft one in recent wine versions)

It's not ed launcher specific. but whether other games that required .net4 are also now handled is not something you can know until you test. They may use some other as-yet-unimplemented aspect of .net4 .. who knows.

Interesting, thanks for clarifying

I'll keep an eye on this..
Changed Wine version yet again, now to the newest GloriousEggroll fork of Wine (the one that's "protonified" now) and having a pretty good time, only getting some annoying stutter when on foot, but hey, it's stable otherwise now which is what matters. Very exciting.

Limpooka · Apr 26, 2022

Has anyone figured out how to get tobii eye-tracker 4C and TobiiGameHub working with it? I can get the eye-tracker to work on desktop using TobiiProEyeTracker-Manager, but I can't get the game to pick it up.

Darth Ender · Apr 26, 2022

are you using wine to execute the tobii software in your example of it working? have you created a script that will execute the tobii daemon/service in the same prefix as elite dangerous is being executed in so that it is running prior to elite dangerous running?

mine's been collecting dust for years due to not having any support in linux, would be nice to get it working when i'm not using VR.

Limpooka · Apr 26, 2022

The manager is free and native https://www.tobiipro.com/product-listing/eye-tracker-manager/
Not created any scripts (don't know how or where to put it). I've tried installing the various drivers and such in the wine prefix, but GameHub insists I can't install it as admin... I've no idea how to not be that. Nothing else seems to complain

One thing I'm not clear on though is whether I should install TobiiGameHub in the standard wine prefix and start it beforehand, or if it should be running inside the Elite wine prefix

Darth Ender · Apr 26, 2022

my only suggestion is to attempt to set your tobii up in linux via vjoy so it appears to wine as a joystick and then configure ED headlook to respond to that joystick.

You wont get direct tobii eye tracking support working in wine i dont think. It's not using a standardize api and that means the wine developers would have had to make a library / driver stub specifically for it...which is unlikely.

the100thmonkey · Jul 13, 2022

I tried EDO in Steam/Proton vanilla and found the performance to be so unpredictable that I just decided to "do passthrough" instead.

I haven't set up a VM with PCI passthrough in years. Wish me luck.

Jack Winter · Jul 13, 2022

FWIW, supposedly it runs a bit smoother with a 5.16 kernel (or later) and using FSYNC (not quite sure how this is handled by proton).

the100thmonkey · Jul 13, 2022

I'm seriously behind the curve with Proton. I haven't updated my kernel. I'll look into it some more. One of the issues with passthrough is that it's clunky AF having two keyboards and two mice just for one system - my desk already has a ton of peripherals on it!