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 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.

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

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 !

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!

marking this for future reference

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.")

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