Since this forum thread is the first result that shows up when you search “pirate galaxy linux,” I figured it would be helpful to post an updated and easy-to-follow guide. The goal is to explain how to run the game on Linux in a way that’s reliable and performs well.
I’ll go through three modern methods that let you run the game on almost any fairly up-to-date Linux distribution. The examples focus mainly on
NVIDIA graphics cards, since that’s what me and most players are likely using.
For testing, I used two popular distros myself (Linux Mint and CachyOS), and I also have confirmation from a friend that these steps work on Fedora. This should make the guide useful for a wide range of users.
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Prerequisites:
- Any common Linux distribution (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc.). The specific distro isn’t very important.
- A recent version of Wine, ideally something around Wine 10. Most distros already include an up-to-date version by default.
Tip: You can check whether Wine is installed—and see which version you have—by running this command in your terminal:
- Steam or Lutris. You can use either one—just pick whichever works best with the method you try.
- For NVIDIA users only:
Make sure your GPU driver is fully up to date. Linux Mint and CachyOS usually handle this automatically. On Fedora and some other distros, you may need to install the NVIDIA driver manually. If that applies to you, look up a current guide online.
Tip: Don’t use the open-source “nouveau” driver for this game.
- For AMD Radeon / Intel users only:
- AMD drivers are usually included in the Linux kernel, so most of the time you don’t need to do anything. If you want, you can also manually update or install the latest Mesa driver.
- For Intel GPUs, simply make sure you have the latest Mesa driver installed.
- I won’t go into detailed installation steps here, but if you need guidance, search online for an up-to-date tutorial for your specific distro.
- A Proton/Wine version manager like ProtonUp-Qt, which makes it easy to install different Proton versions as needed.
Tip: You can install ProtonUp-Qt either through your distro’s software store (often listed simply as “ProtonUp-Qt”) or by installing it from the terminal. Use the correct command for your distribution. For example, on many Debian/Ubuntu-based systems you can use:
Code:
sudo apt install protonup-qt
- The game can be installed either inside a Wine prefix (which is usually straightforward) or by transferring the game files from a Windows drive to your Linux system. Both methods work equally well.
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1. Best Performance Method, High Effort
Difficulty: Medium - Hard depending on if you already are on a distro for this method or not
What you need:
- A modern Linux distro with good Wayland support (like CachyOS or Fedora)
- Wine 10.X
- Steam
- ProtonUp-Qt to install a custom Proton version
Steps:
- Open ProtonUp-Qt and install the latest proton-cachyos-10.0-X version for your CPU architecture. If unsure install the generic version like in the example screenshots:
Tip:
- Versions labeled v4 (x86_64-v4) are for newer CPUs.
- Versions labeled v3 (x86_64-v3) require CPUs that support AVX instructions.
- The base generic version works on all CPUs, regardless of these features.
- After the installation is complete, open Steam.
- If Steam was already running during the Proton installation, restart it, because it won’t detect new Proton versions otherwise.
- First, make sure the game is installed and that you know the location of its folder and executable. Then, add launcher.exe to your Steam library by following these steps:
- The game should appear in your steam library. Go to its properties and add the following launch options in the correct field like this:
NVIDIA ONLY: PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=1 %command%
AMD Radeon / Intel: PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 %command%
DISCLAIMER: If the game runs bad with this method in the case of AMD / Intel you have to understand that I could only test on NVIDIA since that is the only GPU that I currently own. If it runs good for you / you have something to add here feel free to reply.
- Then go into the Compatibility tab and enable the newly added proton version for this game like this:
- Now, launch the game through Steam.
- On the first run, you might notice that text appears as squares on the loading screen.
- Close the game, and Wine will likely prompt you to install some missing dependencies.
- Click Install, then start the game again. The text should now display correctly.
Terminology:
- PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 – Instructs Proton/Steam to run the game using the Wayland display server instead of X11. This is why a Linux distro with proper Wayland support is needed.
- PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=1 – Makes the NVIDIA GPU appear as a generic AMD Radeon GPU. This disables NVIDIA-specific features like RTX, which can sometimes improve performance. That’s why this option is only for NVIDIA users.
Known Limitations / Issues:
- Early-game stuttering: The game may stutter for the first 10–60 seconds, but it smooths out on its own. This is only a minor inconvenience.
- Black screen from repeated fullscreen toggle: Pressing Alt + Enter repeatedly can cause a black screen. The only fix is to restart the game. To avoid this, use Alt + Tab to switch windows instead of toggling fullscreen repeatedly.
Expected Performance:
- FPS should be virtually the same as on Windows—around 62.5 FPS on high-refresh-rate displays.
- Stuttering or micro stuttering is minimal to nonexistent, making gameplay feel nearly identical to Windows.
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2. Decent / Good Performance Method, Low Effort
Difficulty: Easy
What you need:
- Any modernish Linux distro that supports either X11 or Wayland
- Wine 10.X
- Steam
- ProtonUp-Qt to install a custom Proton version
Steps:
- Open ProtonUp-Qt and install either latest proton-cachyos-10.0-X version for your CPU architecture. Or the latest Proton-GE version available. I recommend proton-cachyos for best results
- Similar to Method 1, Add the game on Steam then select the version of proton you want to use
- Add these proton arguments:
NVIDIA ONLY: PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=1 %command%
AMD Radeon / Intel: either: PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% or leave it empty. The reason being that AMD has much better driver support under linux than NVIDIA. I recommend you try both and see how the game runs after a period of at least 5 minutes.
Terminology:
- PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 – Tells Proton/Steam to run the game using WineD3D, which translates Direct3D (Windows graphics API) calls into OpenGL or Vulkan on Linux. This can improve compatibility for games that struggle with the default Proton D3D-to-Vulkan translation, especially on NVIDIA GPUs, which are known to sometimes have high overhead with DirectX-to-Vulkan conversion. In this game's case it massively improves performance, results validated on Cachy OS, Linux Mint and Fedora.
- PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=1 – Already explained in Method 1
Known Limitations / Issues:
- Early-game stuttering: The game may stutter for the first 10 seconds up to 2 minutes, but it tends to smooth out on its own. This is only a slightly bigger inconvenience but still not huge.
- Keyboard that can stop working if you alt tab out of the game: This is very annoying as you can expect but can be fixed in 2 ways. Depending on your Window Manager (especially KDE Plasma) you can force the game window to be borderless windowed even though the fullscreen toggle is disabled in game. This effectively fixes the keyboard "dying" for the game. (ALT + F3 opens up the menu to do this for KDE)
Expected Performance:
- FPS will be lower than windows—around 58.5 FPS regardless of your display type
- Stuttering or micro stuttering is medium to minimal, making game play feel nearly but not quite identical to Windows. Keen eyes will instantly notice that something is not quite right. But considering this is the easiest way to run the game in linux.. it might be one of the better options to use.
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2. Good Performance Method, Medium Effort
Difficulty: Medium
What you need:
- Any modernish Linux distro that supports either X11 or Wayland
- Wine 10.X
- Lutris
- ProtonUp-Qt to install a custom Wine version
Steps:
- Open ProtonUp-Qt and install a custom Wine version called Wine-GE. If your Linux distribution doesn’t include this version, you may need to download it manually from the official GitHub page. The recommended version is 8.26. The location of default lutris runners is:
/home/$USER/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/
All you have to do is unarchive the downloaded wine-ge version to that directory and lutris will pick it up.
- Open lutris and add the game to it like this:
Select Wine as the runner
Point lutris to the correct wine prefix you have installed. Usually lives in /home/YOUR_USER/.wine
Then select the Wine-GE version you have installed (it will show as GE-Proton) and then toggle the graphics settings as described below and then click Save:
- OPTIONAL:
Add wine DLL overrides to improve the game performance slightly. Go to this directory where lutris stores config files ~/.local/share/lutris/games and inside you will find a config file for the game. Open it and inside the overrides section paste this:
Code:
overrides:
caelum: native
caelum4j: native
cg: native
cpp2j-base: native
driv_xal: native
forests: native
msvcp140: native
msvcp71: native
msvcr71: native
mygui: native
mygui4j: native
ogre4j: native
ogreal32: native
ogremain: native
ogreoggsound: native
ogreoggsound4j: native
plugin_cgprogrammanager: native
plugin_octreescenemanager: native
plugin_paginglandscapescenemanager2: native
plugin_particlefx: native
plugin_securearchive: native
rendersystem_direct3d9: native
scenemax: native
swt-awt-win32: native
toolkit: native
toolkit4j: native
Save the file and then you should see all the overrides inserted at once like this:
Then save and click play.
Terminology:
- Wine-GE – A custom, community-built version of Wine (by GloriousEggroll) that includes additional patches and fixes for better compatibility and performance with certain games on Linux. It often handles DirectX and Vulkan translation more reliably than standard Wine.
- Wine DLL Overrides – This allows you to replace Wine’s built-in Windows DLLs with either native Windows DLLs or alternative implementations. It’s useful when a game behaves better with a specific DLL version or when Wine’s default handling causes crashes or graphical issues.
- Disabling DXVK / VKD3D under Lutris – DXVK (DirectX-to-Vulkan) and VKD3D (Direct3D 12-to-Vulkan) are translation layers for running Windows games on Linux. On NVIDIA GPUs, enabling these can and will cause performance drops or stuttering. Disabling them in Lutris forces Wine-GE to handle DirectX calls differently, resulting in better FPS.
Known Limitations / Issues:
- Early-game stuttering: The game may stutter for the first 10 seconds up to 1 minutes, but it tends to smooth out on its own. This is only a slight inconvenience but still not huge.
- Keyboard that can stop working if you alt tab out of the game: Same issue same fix as in Method 2
Expected Performance:
- FPS will be lower than windows—around 58.5 FPS regardless of your display type
- Stuttering or micro stuttering is ~minimal, making game play feel close to Windows. Otherwise similar to method 2 but very slightly better
TL;DR
This guide is meant to serve as a reference. Feel free to experiment—try different Proton versions, tweak launch arguments, or swap variables as needed. And if you discover a setup that works well and might help others, consider sharing it in a reply.
The performance notes and issues I listed are based on my own hardware, software, and OS setup, so your results may vary.
Personally,
Method 1 and
Method 3 are my top choices. The Wayland-based method gives the best performance overall, while the Lutris method offers strong results with less effort for those who prefer a simpler setup.
I wish a guide like this had existed when I first tried running PG on Linux—it took me weeks of searching, testing, and digging through forums to understand how and why these methods work. Hopefully this gives you a solid starting point. And if not, at least it should help point you in the right direction.
Enjoy the game—and welcome to the Penguin!
