What’s the best way to play pirated windows games on Linux?
Ever since I’ve migrated I stuck to emulation for game piracy cause it was pretty simple. Ive been trying to run some repacked games but I can’t get them to install properly.
I don’t see many people talk about this probably because most game pirates use windows if I had to guess.
Edit: i fixed my problem, yesterday When running the fitgirl installer it would only show me two drives ,c and z, which were my home and root folder respectively. I wanted to install my game to a bigger drive, but couldn’t find the option to and assumed it was a problem with wine or the installer. A few hours ago I searched for a bit and found out I can add a drive to wine via winecfg -> Drives -> add drives. I ran the Installer again and this time it saw my bigger 1tb drive and everything went smoothly from there, ran The installer, added the game on steam, ran the game, all good.
I install FG Dodi and Gnarly repacks and ElAmigos updates this way. I have only had weird bugs with ~5 that would only unpack in a Windows VM and 2 that needed native Windows (BG3 and Until Dawn) but tbh I have a feeling its an AMD issue not a wine issue
I recently got fitgirl’s Cyberpunk 2077 repack working on Artix Linux with Lutris by following this guide:
It doesn’t take into account you also need to use GEProton as well (for Cyberpunk at least), but its easy enough to install GEProton via ProtonUp, and then just configuring the game to use GEProton in the settings via lutris.
I got mangohud working as well, that was relatively simple.
I also noticed that I needed to install and setup dxvk as an overlay for Vulkan.
Yeah, it was a lot of setup and you need plenty of hard drive space as both the repack and the installed game are huge (have double the space available listed on the repack site).
I have the game on Steam, but wanted to know how to do this, and it was not as bad as I thought it would be.
after a non-succesful attempt at installing fitgirls cyberpunk on my deck (through bottles), i downloaded dodi’s repack and it worked flawlessly. just pointing it out.
I do it all the time. Just add it to steam as a non steam app and select the proton version you want to use. It will run just fine.
EDIT: If you need to install first, just add the installer as a non steam program, run it, install normally and then chang the path of the exe and the working folder to those of the installed game
I don’t think Steam lets you pick the location for Proton’s virtual environments which is where Steam installs non-Steam games. AFAIK they are always in the home directory and you can only pick a random location when it’s a portable game without setup.exe.
I’m at work right now so i can’t take a pic, but I have an SD and an external drive for my steam deck. When I’m installing a repack through proton (or also a gog game through proton), it will let me pick my SD as the drive D and my ssd as drive E same way as if I were in windows. I can post a pic later today.
Maybe my memory is wrong or it was different in an older SteamOS version. I remember Valve changed something about mounting SD cards a couple of months ago.
then chang the path of the exe and the working folder to those of the installed game
I feel the need to underline this part because removing the setup.exe entry and the adding the installed exe doesn’t work. The entire virtual drive gets deleted when removing setup.exe. This makes the procedure a bit more complicated than it should be but it’s needed when it has to go through Steam because of Steam Deck Game Mode.
If you add a steam game it will delete or invalid portions of the repack depending on where you got it from. I had to unzip the game again and try in lutris. DBZ sparking 0
Either Bottles or Lutris. Lutris is the popular way, but the Bottles fans swear by it. Either one will get you going, and neither one is usually difficult. There is the occasional game or app that is a little bitch though.
I’ve just used wine or wine ge. Some games don’t work as well as others. If you want better compatibility adding games to steam or lutris might help if you can use proton
If the game is not a Steam exclusive, you can get some help from Lutris-scripts, and if the game is a bit older, maybe even winehq appdb. Otherwise, ProtonDB (if the game doesn’t run but the recent reviews say to just hit play, look for older reviews).
Most of the time, the issue will be .NET or vcrun (Majorgeeks AIO is easier than winetricks IMO)
Barely had issues wich FG yet. She even has instructions for Linux. Limit to 2GB RAM works almost always.
I had one game where I had to use the Lutris 7.2 runner and I had a diyferent game where a feature would only work with Proton.
I just switched over to using heroic launcher from lutris, its prettier and a smoother setup IMO. I have had issues as well installing some games from fitgirl, the install always failed. However they would install on windows just fine. So I did that then copied over the install files to my Linux hard drive and setup them up in heroic launcher.
I’ve only had to do this with 3 games from fitgirl, maybe I’m missing something but I could not get these 3 games to install on linux. This is why I keep a hard drive with windows installed on it :)
I’ve tried all the ways, and Bottles was the easiest by far. Make a bottle for games from the high seas, using bottles’ preset for games. Once created change the wine from Soda to whatever you want or just use Soda.
Then inside the bottle look for install dependencies and grab things like vc redist, and dot net. Once that’s done under the bottles’ UI choice “Run Executable” and chose the .exe for the game’s installer. If it doesn’t work as expected, click the cog/gear and select the checkbox for “Run in Terminal” to see where it goes wrong and search online for what fix is needed.
The only time I had to troubleshoot with terminal, was for a mspatcha.dll problem. It was an easy fix: the bottle has a Legacy Wine Tools > Configuration > Libraries, where I found mspatcha listed, then changed it to “Native then Built in.”
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I wrote step by step instructions for installing windows repacks on linux using Lutris. https://sopuli.xyz/comment/9858101
I install FG Dodi and Gnarly repacks and ElAmigos updates this way. I have only had weird bugs with ~5 that would only unpack in a Windows VM and 2 that needed native Windows (BG3 and Until Dawn) but tbh I have a feeling its an AMD issue not a wine issue
I recently got fitgirl’s Cyberpunk 2077 repack working on Artix Linux with Lutris by following this guide:
It doesn’t take into account you also need to use GEProton as well (for Cyberpunk at least), but its easy enough to install GEProton via ProtonUp, and then just configuring the game to use GEProton in the settings via lutris.
I got mangohud working as well, that was relatively simple.
I also noticed that I needed to install and setup dxvk as an overlay for Vulkan.
Yeah, it was a lot of setup and you need plenty of hard drive space as both the repack and the installed game are huge (have double the space available listed on the repack site).
I have the game on Steam, but wanted to know how to do this, and it was not as bad as I thought it would be.
after a non-succesful attempt at installing fitgirls cyberpunk on my deck (through bottles), i downloaded dodi’s repack and it worked flawlessly. just pointing it out.
Run it through proton. Import into steam from add non-steam program, or lutris
I can run pirated steam games on steam? that doesnt sound right.
You can also run them using the correct Proton prefix directly.
ProtonTricks can help make this a lot easier and more graphical.
I do it all the time. Just add it to steam as a non steam app and select the proton version you want to use. It will run just fine.
EDIT: If you need to install first, just add the installer as a non steam program, run it, install normally and then chang the path of the exe and the working folder to those of the installed game
How does steam deals with installing on a different HD than system’s one? That’s the only issue I have had with WINE and I had to unpack in Windows.
It’s pretty straightforward. You just select the unit as you do in windows (as long as it is mounted).
I don’t think Steam lets you pick the location for Proton’s virtual environments which is where Steam installs non-Steam games. AFAIK they are always in the home directory and you can only pick a random location when it’s a portable game without setup.exe.
I’m at work right now so i can’t take a pic, but I have an SD and an external drive for my steam deck. When I’m installing a repack through proton (or also a gog game through proton), it will let me pick my SD as the drive D and my ssd as drive E same way as if I were in windows. I can post a pic later today.
Maybe my memory is wrong or it was different in an older SteamOS version. I remember Valve changed something about mounting SD cards a couple of months ago.
I feel the need to underline this part because removing the setup.exe entry and the adding the installed exe doesn’t work. The entire virtual drive gets deleted when removing setup.exe. This makes the procedure a bit more complicated than it should be but it’s needed when it has to go through Steam because of Steam Deck Game Mode.
I’ll give it a shot if I can’t get it to run on lutris.
Lutris + wineprefixes works great but most of the time it’s harder to configure and needs some search around the web to get it right !
Non-steam games with proton on steam works like nearly every time without to much hassle (if supported) !!
If you’re afraid of your account ban, create a dummy steam account only for your pirated games.
If you add a steam game it will delete or invalid portions of the repack depending on where you got it from. I had to unzip the game again and try in lutris. DBZ sparking 0
Steam has DRM for Steam games. You can add any other game to Steam and ask Steam to attach Proton to it.
Steam.
Either Bottles or Lutris. Lutris is the popular way, but the Bottles fans swear by it. Either one will get you going, and neither one is usually difficult. There is the occasional game or app that is a little bitch though.
I don’t know how to diy it on your pc, but on my steamdeck with the latest proton version most repackaged games work fine.
A lot of repack installers won’t work in Linux, not even with proton. Use the original scene release instead if you can.
I’ve been installing dodi, elamigos, fitgirl repacks for a while and still have to find one not working. Dunno what repacks are you installing.
i tried many different cyberpunk 2077 repacks from dodi and fitgirl and none would finish installation with wine
Try the jc141 repack. It worked for me. It’s a linux repack so I think their script handles the wine stuff.
apparently his repacks are for arch, fedora and debian unstable. no setup provided for ububtu based, so that’s a nope then.
Yes. You can make it work but it’s just too much work to support it. Gaming needs cutting edge releases.
Check which version wine you are running. It could be the main problem.
I’ve only had issues with fitgirl repacks i think there’s an optimisation they use for low RAM machines that doesn’t play well with proton
I’ve tried a number of fitgirl ones and had only around a 50% success rate with them.
Yeah fitgirl doesn’t work well with translation layers. In my experience elamigos works the best out of all repackers.
Personally Elamigos works for me but not Fitgirl
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I’ve just used wine or wine ge. Some games don’t work as well as others. If you want better compatibility adding games to steam or lutris might help if you can use proton
Lutris, Bottles, …
Others mentioned good sources.
I like to install in Lutris.
If the game is not a Steam exclusive, you can get some help from Lutris-scripts, and if the game is a bit older, maybe even winehq appdb. Otherwise, ProtonDB (if the game doesn’t run but the recent reviews say to just hit play, look for older reviews).
Most of the time, the issue will be .NET or vcrun (Majorgeeks AIO is easier than winetricks IMO)
Barely had issues wich FG yet. She even has instructions for Linux. Limit to 2GB RAM works almost always.
I had one game where I had to use the Lutris 7.2 runner and I had a diyferent game where a feature would only work with Proton.
Newer Codex cracks don’t work.
Running the installer with wine first and then adding the game exe as a non-steam game and running it with proton works for me.
I’ve been using heroic game launcher. Easier then Lutris and bottles.
I should’ve asked the question earlier. Thank you so much!
I just switched over to using heroic launcher from lutris, its prettier and a smoother setup IMO. I have had issues as well installing some games from fitgirl, the install always failed. However they would install on windows just fine. So I did that then copied over the install files to my Linux hard drive and setup them up in heroic launcher.
I’ve only had to do this with 3 games from fitgirl, maybe I’m missing something but I could not get these 3 games to install on linux. This is why I keep a hard drive with windows installed on it :)
I’ve tried all the ways, and Bottles was the easiest by far. Make a bottle for games from the high seas, using bottles’ preset for games. Once created change the wine from Soda to whatever you want or just use Soda.
Then inside the bottle look for install dependencies and grab things like vc redist, and dot net. Once that’s done under the bottles’ UI choice “Run Executable” and chose the .exe for the game’s installer. If it doesn’t work as expected, click the cog/gear and select the checkbox for “Run in Terminal” to see where it goes wrong and search online for what fix is needed.
The only time I had to troubleshoot with terminal, was for a mspatcha.dll problem. It was an easy fix: the bottle has a Legacy Wine Tools > Configuration > Libraries, where I found mspatcha listed, then changed it to “Native then Built in.”
Hope that helps.
Jc141 on 1337x is nice. Their collection is limited to games above 85% rating on steam.