How I got ESO working in Linux

ElAland

I am using Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon 64-bit on an old Alienware laptop with keyboard and mouse. In my situation I already owned and subscribed to ESO, but had not purchased it through Steam. Therefore I had to first buy the Steam version, and then link my Steam account to my ESO account. The steps I used are summarized below after collecting the info from different forums and sources.

1. Start Steam, click on the drop down menu "Steam", and select "Steam Play". Check the box for "Enable Steam Play for all other titles".

2. Buy the Steam version of ESO if you don't own it already.

3. Check that your game downloads are set to the correct drive. You do this by going to the main Steam window's drop down menu called "Steam" in the upper left corner. Then go to Downloads, and click on the box titled "STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS". If you only have one hard drive, you should see it displayed as a Local Drive and how much GB are used out of the total available for it. However, if you have an SSD for booting, and a separate hard drive for installing games you will need to add another game location by selecting the plus sign next to the Local Drive box and pointing to the drive and directory you want Steam to use for your game downloads and installations. This assumes your other drive is already setup and working within Linux of course.

4. Install ESO from Steam

5. Go to your Steam library of games, right click on the ESO game, and pull up the Properties.
a. Under the General section set the Launch Options to the following:
PROTON_SET_GAME_DRIVE=1 %command%
b. Under the Compatibility section make sure the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" checkbox is checked, and change the selection below it to Proton 6.3-8.

6. To get my addons for the game, I simply used a flash drive and copied the "Addon" folder from an installation on my Windows computer as well as the "Saved Variables" folder and copied them to the Linux computer under the "Live" directory which for me was located here:

/home/<username>/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/

The 306130 number is the number that Steam uses to identify the ESO game. You can find these numbers by using your web browser to find the game on the steam website. The url will have that number at the end of the address, e.g. https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/306130/

7. Play the game!! I did all my crafting writs on 16 toons without issue using Dogulbon's Lazy Writ Crafter and all my other normal addons active as well.

fyi I went through several failed attempts trying to use Wine, and/or Lutris (both standalone and Steam) on PopOS and on Linux Mint. Even after I used the approach above, Steam's default use of Proton Experimental when running the game would get the Launcher started, show the news, update the game, and try to start it, but I would end up with a black screen with the Launcher on top and I could not get out of it except by rebooting. After I set the ESO Steam game to use an older version of Proton (6.3-8), the game seemed to work great.

fleeb

Well...

Following these steps (and attempting some other things), I can't seem to get the keyboard to react in a timely fashion. In fact, the keyboard reaction is so poor as to render the game damn near unplayable (tap a key, wait up to 3 seconds sometimes, then the game reacts).

My network isn't the problem; I can run the game on Stadia (at least until Stadia disappears, because, y'know, Google) and the reaction to the keystrokes is better. Kind of hilarious that streaming the game gives better reaction to keystrokes than the client itself. Except that now I will need to run the client, so I need to find a solution.

(Installing Windows isn't a solution... that OS is dead to me for various reasons).

TaSheen

Thank you so much for this! At least once win 10 goes end of life, I'll have a place to start with linux for ESO. I'm going to set up my win 7 laptop for linux before saying goodbye to win 10, so I hope I'll have some clue. Yes, I use linux servers through my website reseller provider's WHM, but that's not like moving from windows to linux (and I don't even know what flavor I want to try first) on my desktop or laptop.

Bookmarked, and thanks again!

rauyran

I use ESO on Linux through steam too and have done for nearly 2 years. It runs well for me without any noticeable input lag so I suspect the keyboard problem is something specific to your setup.

thedocbwarren

I've used Linux (Debian and Ubuntu) with no issues. Linux works just fine with ESO and seems to perform on par with Windows. Can't say the same for the mac version, but my Apple Silicon box is the fastest machine I own and I do everything on that machine. I do have a PC but unplug and reboot is trouble and not worth the trouble when I have only a few minutes to play.

LikiLoki

This is useful information that will be useful to me when I switch to Linux due to the fact that Windows is getting worse. Thanks

SpiderCultist

For anyone curious, ESO can be run as Standalone version w/ wine GE version BUT you will probably need some certificates first (from thawte.com/roots) and REBOOT before even trying to run the launcher. There are some errors on the Standalone version on Lutris that make ESO unplayable and depending on your distro adding the certificates may vary (sudo trust --store... for Arch; move them as .pem to /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors and sudo update-ca-trust on Fedora and so on...).

After adding the certificates and reboot you need to install on a WINEPREFIX of your choice with winetricks: vcrun2010, corefonts, dxvk... (iirc), make d3dcompiler47 native (via winecfg) and then you will be able to run the game with a G. EGGROLL version of Wine, not staging, not vanilla. From my tests, any GE v6.2+ will do it.

These are some hints, if you need further info let me know. I have a very good performance on GNU/Linux (constant 100FPS w/ a RX 560 on Vvardenfell e.g.).

Memory_In_Motion

proton 7 is now stableand should work. it works for me on an rx 550 2gb single slot card and also on an rx 6400 single slot card. boith are low profile cards i've used in sff used former business machines (i7 7700) that i got used off ebay for 200$. Plop in the said card and a 500 gb ssd and some extra ram and we're off to the races.

Minion works on linux natively from the command line with java. simply open the folder containing the minion java version in a terminal and enter the comman:d java -jar Minion-jfx.jar Minion will need the path to the Elder Scrolls Online folder in linux which looks like:

/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/

TTC can be run from a virtualbox of windows. If you dual boot no need to reinstall windows, use the command to setup your bare metal install of windows as a hdd or ssd in virtualbox

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "</path/to/file>.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/sda

use the above command to create a path to the virtual hard disk file, can be whatever you want but must end in .vmdk . Replace sda with where you have windows installed. coulde be nvme0n1p4 or sdc or where you have it installed. I run my windows 10 install from linux in virtualbox with one core active to run TTC from the shared folder i created where on linux i have all my addons installed with minion java version. it looks they listed the path to that stored location in OP:

/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/

Use that for a shared folder in virtualbox and navigate to ttc exe and run it from a vb. You will have to uninstall TTC from your windows install because otherwise you'll get an error from ttc to run it from it's installed location. i went ahead and renamed the folder in windows from the C: drive from ELder Scrolls Online to eso just to prevent TTC confusion and so it will run from the linux shared folder instead.

BTW i use Artix Linux, arch without systemd

SpiderCultist

I never take the hassle to go to those long directory paths, instead you should create a symbolic link. Let's say your "Elder Scrolls Folder" is (as @Memory_In_Motion stated):

/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/

Just open a terminal and type

$ ln -s "/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"/ "/home/<username>/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"

And voilá, you can access your ESO folder (addons, screenshots, etc.) from your Documents folder instead of having to go that long path every time (creating a shortcut also works).

Memory_In_Motion

SpiderCultist wrote: »

I never take the hassle to go to those long directory paths, instead you should create a symbolic link. Let's say your "Elder Scrolls Folder" is (as @Memory_In_Motion stated):

/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/

Just open a terminal and type

$ ln -s "/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"/ "/home/<username>/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"

And voilá, you can access your ESO folder (addons, screenshots, etc.) from your Documents folder instead of having to go that long path every time (creating a shortcut also works).

That's awesome. Symlinks are great. TY!

Does that also work to create symlinks if you use the ~ in the path name as a short cut? ie "~/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online" "~/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"

SpiderCultist

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

SpiderCultist wrote: »

I never take the hassle to go to those long directory paths, instead you should create a symbolic link. Let's say your "Elder Scrolls Folder" is (as @Memory_In_Motion stated):

/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/

Just open a terminal and type

$ ln -s "/home/<username>/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"/ "/home/<username>/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"

And voilá, you can access your ESO folder (addons, screenshots, etc.) from your Documents folder instead of having to go that long path every time (creating a shortcut also works).

That's awesome. Symlinks are great. TY!

Does that also work to create symlinks if you use the ~ in the path name as a short cut? ie "~/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Elder Scrolls Online" "~/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online"

No problem, no, you have to state full paths and be careful w/ quotes and slashes

Tommy_The_Gun

I recently tried out Steam Deck and I managed to actually install & play a stand alone version of ESO on a linux (non-steam version). And I am not a linux user... this was my 1st experience, as I normally daily-drive Windows.

On a Steam Deck, I switched to desktop mode, opened a browser and downloaded installer from ESO website (had to login to my account).

Then I have added it (the installer) as "a game" to the Steam (add non-steam game to steam so you could launch it). The .exe file was in downloads folder.

Then I switched back to Steam Deck mode, found the "install_eso.exe" game, and in game options -> compatibility (cogwheel icon) I enabled "force proton" or something like that and I chosen 7.04 version.

Then I run the ESO installer through steam (with proton enabled). It downloaded & installed ESO normally.

Then I switched to desktop mode and added the ESO launcher that was installed as another game.
It required a little bit of searching, but since I did not had any other games installed, I managed to found it inside a steam folder. It seems that the instalation kinda "emulates" windows folders as program files and documents folders were all there inside the folder with random numbers, so it is probably even possible to install eso addons too.

Then, I switched back to Steam Deck mode, found ESO launcher, enabled proton and... it works ! !

What is amazing is that on a Steam Deck, you don't need to create controller mapping, as the game has controller mode. What is also incredible is that you can just enable "accessibility mode" - which makes interface bigger. Very useful on a smaller hand-held device screen. And it also enabled controller automatically - so that is pretty much the only option you need to enable.

ESO, despite not having support for linux and for hand-held devices, on a Steam Deck pretty much looks like as if I was playing ESO on a Switch or PSP. I it !

rauyran

I use this script to keep TTC prices up to date without needing wine or virtualbox: https://github.com/APHONlC/Linux-Tamriel-Trade-Center

jabbrwokk

I was going to start my own thread but figured I would piggy-back off this one, since it was so helpful for me! I was able to get ESO running on Linux and now play the game this way exclusively.

I will highlight some of the unique challenges I encountered and hopefully add some tips to this discussion that might help others.

I am dual-booting Windows 11 and Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon (version 5.2.7).

CHALLENGE ONE: Getting Steam to use my secondary hard drive for the install location

I had to create a new Library as my primary drive was not large enough for ESO's footprint. In Steam go to Settings, then Downloads, then Steam Library Folders to add a new drive under Storage Manager.

I tried to add my secondary 320GB drive dedicated to games only, but had some technical difficulties getting this to work at first. I was getting error messages related to execute privileges.

I solved it by first making sure that the drive was being mounted properly by the OS, then adding it via Steam. Mint uses the GNOME GUI so I used the built-in Disks program, selected the drive in question and clicked the gears icon, and made sure the drive was set to Mount at System Startup. I then added these options to the command line in the field just above the "mount point" field (I found this on another guide somewhere in the depths of the Internet):

exec,nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show

Then I rebooted. Afterwards in Steam I was able to add a library to this drive with no problems. NOTE: it will save you a lot of confusion and frustration later if you use short labels to identify this drive.

CHALLENGE TWO: Installing the ZOS Launcher

Divines give me strength, the Launcher is the worst part of this whole process. That "InstallAnywhere" pop-up must have been sent by Molag Bal himself to torment us. The Launcher installer looks like it hasn't been updated since 2017 and it's a miracle it still works. It has to install an old version of the launcher, then boot-strap itself to a newer version. Any ZOS techies reading this, you need to fix that before it's broken completely.

I managed to get through it by selecting Proton 7.0-5 in the Steam compatibility options. Under Proton Experimental the Launcher installer could not see the correct installation drive. Using 7.0-5 still wasn't perfect -- some screens requiring me to click "OK" or select my language were completely black, so I had to hunt around for the click box. But this seemed to help, I put this in the "Launch Options" under the "General" section (I found this in another guide):

PROTON_SET_GAME_DRIVE=1 %command%

As well, the Launcher likes to put itself on top of the game window, so once the game has started, I alt-tab to the Launcher, close it, and then tab back to the game. There are scripts out there to do this automatically but I haven't gotten there yet.

CHALLENGE THREE: Add-ons

All the add-ons I use on the PC version work with the Linux version. I am using:

• TTC
• Harvest Map
• Lost Treasure
• Dolgubon's Lazy Writ Crafter
• CombatMetrics

But where is the add-ons folder?!

It was tricky to locate the correct folder for my add-ons because I have ESO installed on a different drive than the OS and Steam. This is why it is important that if you use a similar setup to mine, you should make sure the drive where ESO is installed is labelled with something short and easily identifiable. Mine shows up as "/mnt/Games" and you can label yours however you like with the Disks program. The add-ons folder for me was here:

[/mnt/Games]/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/306130/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns

I manually downloaded the add-ons and supporting libraries and put them in this folder, same as on PC. I was even able to copy the Harvest Map LUA files from my Windows installation and put them in the SavedVariables folder so all my pins are still there.

I know many people have been able to get Minion to work on Linux to manage add-ons for them, I have not done so yet (that's the next project).

CHALLENGE FOUR: Updating the TTC price table

Since I didn't want to run the TTC client.exe through a WINE layer, Thanks to rauyran above, I found a nice and simple script that updates the price table every six minutes in the background while I'm in-game through a low-impact terminal window.

I used the "TTC-LO LINUX NATIVE STEAM" version, which updates the price table on a loop.

NOTE: You will need to use chmod to make the script executable, and you WILL need to modify the script in two locations to point it to the TamrielTradeCentre folder in your add-ons folder.

I love that this game works so well on Linux. It might be my imagination but the Vulkan shaders used by my GeForce video card on Linux make the game look prettier than it did in Windows, especially reflections and sunbeams.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for your tips and tricks!

Redguards_Revenge

Windows is such a horrible OS. I bought an 8 GB laptop with windows on it. At first it is good, then all of a sudden the thing is bogged down and ram becomes scarce. Then I put on linux and I got like 6 GBs of ram FREE.

Why the heck are we gaming on windows? Shame on windows for not having an option to shut off all that bloated services in the background. Windows needs a whole rewrite. Someone tells me Microsoft is running on servers and I wonder how that's possible.

Dysturbed

marking this for future reference

TaSheen

Yup. I did earlier.

Yirmeyahu

fleeb wrote: »

Well...

Following these steps (and attempting some other things), I can't seem to get the keyboard to react in a timely fashion. In fact, the keyboard reaction is so poor as to render the game damn near unplayable (tap a key, wait up to 3 seconds sometimes, then the game reacts).

My network isn't the problem; I can run the game on Stadia (at least until Stadia disappears, because, y'know, Google) and the reaction to the keystrokes is better. Kind of hilarious that streaming the game gives better reaction to keystrokes than the client itself. Except that now I will need to run the client, so I need to find a solution.

(Installing Windows isn't a solution... that OS is dead to me for various reasons).

I'm sure since this will be viewed as bringing an old thread back to life it'll be locked. But, I just had to say that I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I tell you that this degree of "input lag" between key presses and actions taking place is how ESO has been for me for years on Windows PC, especially in any form of Cyrodiil PvP. So, I'm disinclined to believe this is solely a Linux issue. "Fixes" I've tried to date include peripherals with extremely high polling rates, setting nVidia control panel to "low latency mode" and setting "GPU Smoothing Frames" in settings from 10 to 0. The end result remains doors that never open, break-frees and barswaps that never happen, and at least 3-4 clicks per skill for any skill to actually fire. I've also gone through 5 separate PCs since 2014 when I began playing ESO. Surely enough, this game has simply always performed this way for me regardless. (I now yield the floor to the folks who will say, "I've never experienced that so you're just wrong.")

etchedpixels

Performance to me seems about the same. However note that the PTS doesn't work with Proton.

OsUfi

I also find performance the same, but there's something about big battles in Cyro that crashes Linux hard.

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

We have closed this topic as it was originally created in August 2022. In many cases, it's better to create a new thread on a topic that you want to discuss as opposed to bumping one that is rather old.

Thank you for your understanding.