Linux WINE-ge GoG non-Steam focused System Setup Guide

[James_Richards]

The purpose of this is to complete the first part of the guide, the System Setup Guide.

I am using Arch Linux, installed and updated as of 04/10/2024, using the Arch wiki with very little deviation to start with. My desktop environment is KDE Plasma, this means sound system is pipewire and qt6 the windowing agent. Most of this will probably not matter in the end, just something to keep in mind if you use a different distro, kernel and environment, something to keep in mind qas you follow along, but what is the most important part of this is WINE. That should be universal enough. I am also going to walk through setting up Skyrim to work without Lutris. so, a lot of manual command line stuff here. I will also get to a point that MO2 is working and ENB support. the rest is up to you, dear reader.

So, a couple extra notes, I have fully migrated to systemd for boot and system service handling. I am on Wayland, 6.13 linux Zen kernel (I use virtualization programs, Zen has patches to make things easier as a lot of the dkms extensions are patched in. If you think any other info is needed, I'll share more of my setup as the plethora of setups out there might affect your success in following what I have outlined here.

System Setup Guide (SSG)

Have Linux installed

Install WINE and dependencies (sttaging or not, doesn't matter, rezlly, I don't use it)

Install winetricks and dependencies
Download wine-ge (8.26) as of writing this

Direct landing page on github

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/wine-ge-custom/releases/tag/GE-Proton8-26

File: "wine-lutris-GE-Proton8-26-x86_64.tar.xz"
unarchive to a place.

I suggest in the home directory. For me, it would be:
/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/

/home/jrich82/ will definitely be different for you. "jrich82" is my user folder. You may or may not have depending on how you installed Linux.

(I also renamed the wine-ge folder to something a little shorter and memorable, keeping the version number in case)

Since I have Skyrim AE on GoG, I downloaded all the installer files from the site.and put them at
"/home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/" (your download folder may be different, just make a note of it.)
As of writing, I have yet to get the latest version of GoG galaxy to work properly, so manually downloading the files will be your better bet. Might take a moment, but this guide is trying to do as much as possible thorugh terminal and manual intervention anyway. Much more of a reward feeling when you have everything working

Assuming you have nothing downloaded or installed before. You should have:

The game:
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(70738).exe
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-1.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-2.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-3.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-4.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-5.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-6.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-7.bin
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).bin

AE DLC:
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniversary_upgrade_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe
setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniversary_upgrade_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-1.bin

Skyrim Anniversary Edition from GoG install:

Syntax is important. Keep in mind the (), "" and _ Also, capitalization, unlike Windows is imperative as the folder Skyrim is different from the folder skyrim. Also, if you miss the double quotes, it will error as "(" is the a start of an escape sequence for Linux

I will also be using direct folder paths. Adjust for your install.
Base game:

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe"

command line break-down:
WINEPREFIX is the prefix fodler for the game, keeping it separate form any other ewine prefix you might have. I find this better as things can stay separated and hcnages specifically for Skyrim can happen without messing with what you alreayd have setup.

This is then followed by the wine executable from GloriousEggroll
"/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine"
Again, your path might be different, depending on where you extracted the archive downloaded from github. It should point ot he "wine" executable int he bin folder for it.

If you should need the prefix to work as 32-bit (these commands should work with just about any windows installer/executable) add "WINEARCH=win32"
example:
"WINEPREFIX=~/Games/some-random-game WINEARCH=win32"
I won't be using the WINEARCH= argument here as I think it should default to win64 behavior by default.

Then the executable for Skyrim AE downloaded from GoG.
"/home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe"

TLDR; prefix wine executable

I changed one thing dduring the install, I changed the install location from C:\GOG Games\Skyrim Anniversary Edition to C:\Skyrim

Anniversary DLC upgrade install:

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniversary_upgrade_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe"

First run, Vanilla Skyrim AE!

So far so good?

Located at /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim some files and folders. We want to pay attention to everything under "drive_c" This is basically your "C:" drive.

For now, I am going to run Skyrim through the Skyrim launcher:

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Skyrim/"SkyrimSELauncher.exe"

NOTE remember the location where you told the GoG insaller to point to: "C:\" = is "drive_c/Skyrim" for me. So, the final path is /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Skyrim/"SkyrimSELauncher.exe

side-quest!

For me, I had some odd graphical glitching, so I thought I would fix that before moving on. I decided DXVK dll integration would work. So I downloaded the latest release

https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v2.4.1

Inside "dxvk-2.4.1.tar.gz", is an x64 folder. copy these dlls to /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/windows/system32 (create folders "windows" and "system32" if you don't have them)

keep them nested WIndows/System32

This is how it looks on my system using the same commands, your location might varry if you change some things to suite your folder organization you want to practice.

/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Windows/System32

now, we need to override the "native" libraries:

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" winecfg

on the "Libraries" tab, in the drop down for "New override for library":
I entered "d3d10core.dll" and clicked "add" I also did this for "d3d9.dll" "d3d11.dll" and "dxgi.dll"
then clicked OK. and tried running again. graphical glitches gone!

Some folders to keep in mind:
Again, these might be different on your install, especially anything "jrich82", should be your username.
/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Skyrim (the main game folder)
/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/users/jrich82/Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition GOG (this folder will have your ini and save files.)

Mod Organizer 2 install
Now, we will install MO2 and make sure that works.

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/"Mod.Organizer-2.5.2.exe"

The installer wants to put it at "C:\Modding\MO2" I think this is fine

I just left everything at recommended install

It will throw up a couple errors, just "Ignore" them and let the installer finish. Uncheck Launch Mod Organizer.

MO2 should now be at
/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/MO2/

Try running it and see what happens.

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/MO2/"ModOrganizer.exe"

You should be greeted with the New Instance dialog. set up as the guide suggests, or whatever you already know how to use if you have used it before. I like portable, so I chose that, ensured it saw where Skyrim was installed and clicke don GoG (not Steam or Epic)
I also connected to my nexus account through my API key.
Once the initial setup was done and default profile available, I tested running the game through MO2, and again; success. Everything is working so far.

BethINI

I created a folder BethINI under the Modding folder:
/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/BethINI/

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/BethINI/"BethINI.exe"

It ran, just couldn't find the launcher and INI. easy enough to resolve, just point to it in the dialog box that pops up.

LOOT
Installing LOOT was pretty simple, but the executable wouldn't run. I just downloaded the 7z and created a folder for it
/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/LOOT/

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/LOOT/"LOOT.exe"

Ran fine. Updated the master list and sorted the plugins

xEdit
I just downloaded the 7z and created a folder for it
/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/TES5Edit/

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/TES5Edit/"TES5Edit.exe"

While it runs, it could not see the registry key for Skyrim.

You can add in the line arguments manually specifying the data, ini and plugins.txt file

-D:"C:\Skyrim\Data" -I:"C:\Users\jrich82\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\Skyrim.ini" -P:"C:\Users\jrich82\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\plugins.txt"

(again, pay attention to your path, they most likely do NOT match mine)

xLODGen

Follow the guides instructions.
Same with TE5Edit, xLODGen is based off it, you need to add the same argument

-D:"C:\Skyrim\Data" -I:"C:\Users\jrich82\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\Skyrim.ini" -P:"C:\Users\jrich82\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\plugins.txt"

You should now be ready to follow the rest of the STEP guide. Just remember whatever path to certain folders you used and you should be fine.

Beyond that, the rest of the guide can be followed I gather. The most important parts work; SKSE64 reports the proper version and some extended commands do their thing. ENB series 502 with STEP's ENB downloads (all three) work.

It took about 5 hours, counting the downloads, and the bulk of the time was spent finding fixes for things that didn't work "out of the box" and needed to be tested multiple times before I was confident they can be replicated.

Again, this guide is just for setup. I am not really planning on rebuilding STEP, but every step should work properly. If I missed anything, let me know! I will try to also answer questions to the best of my ability if something doesn't go right.

When you get into the tool setup stage of the guide, just append the STEP guide's arguments to these and you should be good to go.

Edited October 14 by James_Richards

[z929669]

Thanks for posting this. Pinned for posterity.

[Badfrog88]

This is great! Thank you for doing this. I will be reading through this more closely today.

 

[Badfrog88]

I've followed your guide regarding installing the base game files, but the " Skyrim " folder isn't showing inside my "C:" or in any other folders. Can the command line commands be broken down so I get a better idea of what went wrong?

Edit to add: I'm running Arch Linux with the Xfce4 desktop, with a clean install yesterday.

Edited October 7 by Badfrog88
Added OS information.

[James_Richards]

OK, so when you run the GoG installer (and this is the base game)

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe"

WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" is what is called the prefix, the location you want everything about this game to be installed to.
When int he installer popup, it asks you where you want it installed. If you put in "C:\Skyrim", then the resulting game will be at (again, no changes outside of what I have here, your location might change)

"/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c"

in the drive_C folder will be the executables, dll and Data folder you would normally have on Windows.
Basically;
""/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c"" is effectively "C:\"

"/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine" is the downloaded wine-ge folder form Glorious Eggrolls' github repository. This is a modified version of wine that includes the tweaks Proton Wine from Valve with GE's tweaks. It should be used for games that are not installed form Steam.

"/home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe"

This is the GoG installer part

Technically, you could usse just straight wine
"/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine" = wine

(would look like this:
)WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe"

but I have not experimented with it as the GE binary has given me success in even installing old Windows 95/98 games off CDROM better than straight-up wine.

Skyrim should run just fine as is without further tweaks, 

I need to make a change, when creating the System32 folders for DXVK, they should be nested. I'll update the original post

/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Windows/System32

Dump the dll's from DXVK into here, then follow the winecfg notes, which are from the DXVK github page anyway under the manual install instructions.

Edited October 14 by James_Richards