I do not know if this will be new or permanent. I now have a pretty decent Linux machine and am going to try to make the leap to gaming with it within the next week. I know many of the games in my library here will not work on linux, but for those that do, I am looking for hints on what to expect when installing them. (I'm still going to keep a Windows machine around to play the Windows OS only releases, but do not expect it will be my main rig after I get the Linux machine up and running. Linux will be for internet, papers, and recreational overall).

I used Linux years ago, but have not used it since 2012 (so many new things about it, probably). I'm still in the process of getting it up and running, but when I do, I plan on installing a lot of games on it from my account.

In prep, I just purchased some new games (some in dev as well) that show they can work on Linux (ubuntu). I took a gaze at one of them (Factorio) and it appeared that the offline installer only had one option for both windows and/or linux?

So, questions on installation of games.

Does GOG Galaxy work on Linux and how well does it work? If it works, what are some glitches I might need to be aware of?

If it doesn't work, or I choose to use offline installers (backup installers/download the installer) what are some things to be aware of and look out for?

Something I think I noticed (haven't gone in depth on it) is that in my library when I list Linux compatible vs. when I go to the store and look at linux compatible, it seems some of the games are not listed as linux compatible in my library which may be compatible in the store?

With Windows, if I do offline it is simple to just click and install, and it can be a simple click to install normally. Is it this easy on Linux (via Galaxy or offline) or are there other tricks and work arounds that I need to be aware of?

Also, looking at using Wine. It appears it can be used to make more games that only work on windows, work on Linux. It looks like a lot more troubleshooting with that. Any advice in regards to using Wine is also appreciated.

Thanks (in advance) for any advice.

There is no GOG Galaxy for Linux (to the dismay of quite a few people it seems).

GOG Galaxy does not officially support Linux.

On Linux though you do have options such as Lutris (a similar client you can link your GOG account to but is buggy). In Theory you can install GOG Galaxy through Lutris however it runs very slow and uses a generic wrapper so games may be a bit unstable if they require more work on the layer.

There is also a program I believe called Mini Galaxy that, again you can link your account to and will allow you to download and install your games (note this program can only work with native Linux games).

For Wine check the game specific forums for the games you are looking at, many have threads dedicated to getting games running on Linux and some even have custom scripts available to get games running (Just look for threads made by adamhm).

So, I have the Linux machine and learning a bit about it. How do I install a GoG file on it without using Galaxy.

For example, I downloaded Crimsonland, and then double clicked on the download. It attempts to unload it via archve, but that results in a message that says error occurred while loading into archive.

How do I install files or games that say they are compatible with ubuntu via the GoG backup game installers?

some files you can run be right clicking on the file then selecting to make it executable. This somtimes doesn't work.

Another method is:

-Start Linux Terminal

-Go to the directory that the file is located

-type chmod +x name_of_file.sh (this makes the file an executable

-then type sh ./name_of_file.sh to start the install.


There are other methods such as installing Lutris or Mini Galaxy if you want an application to download and install the programs for you.

So, if I understand this right, let's say I was trying to install Crimsonland.

I'd go to the terminal and type

chmod +x crimsonland.sh

then I'd type sh /crimsonland.sh

and that would start the install?

Thus far what I've tried with the terminal was

home/user/Downloads/setup_crimsonland_1.3.5.sh

Instead i need to be typing the other method...is that correct?

Just tried it and got a chmod cannot access crimsonland.sh no such file or directory exists?

You need to use cd to change to the directory you downloaded the program into.

For example, you could do something like this:
user@host:~$ cd Downloads
user@host:~/Downloads$ chmod +x crimsonland.sh
user@host:~/Downloads$ ./crimsonland.sh

Note that the dot at the start of that last command is important, as it indicates that you want to run a file in the current directory; it's required to prevent you from accidentally executing a file you don't intend to; the chmod command also serves that purpose.

Note that everything up to and including the dollar sign ('$') is the prompt and not what you type; I include this because it includes your current directory, which is rather important in this example. If the prompt instead ends with a number sign ('#'), then the shell is running as root, and you should turn back if you don't know what you're doing; in particular, do not install GOG games as root.

Awesomeness...I figured it out. Thanks for the Post above. It really helped!!!

Instead of typing the directory way out, I simply needed to do the

cd Downloads which took me to the downloads directory.

Then, after that I simply needed to do as you said above with the

chmod +x crimsonland.sh

and then after that

.\ crimsonland.sh

Thanks! It worked great!

I guess I"m just a novice at this and figuring it out, but now with your guys help, I think I'm on my way!!!

PS: So now I seem to have it installed and it is listed on my apps, but how do I get it to run?

That up there is the correct way. >.>

The I-don't-care-about-what-others-think-way is to right click the installer, select Properties and in the Permissions tab check "Allow executing file as program" (that's what chmod +x does). Then drag and drop the installer into your console and hit Enter. ;)

There isn't a Linux GOG Galaxy client yet.

Noticed you didn't mention what distribution of Linux you are using. Some Linux distro's (Ubuntu) work better "out-of-the-box"with GOG Linux installers, other Linux distros like Arch & Fedora require installing more packages.

I am currently on Ubuntu 18.04

I have crimsonland installed now, but when clicking on it, can't seem to get it to run. I clicked on it in the apps and properties and let it be an executable as well as read and write access, but still can't figure what I'm doing wrong on getting it to run

I think it was just something with crimsonland itself...not sure what on this distro.

Tried Torchlight 2 instead and it works great!!!

So it looks like I'm in business.

Thanks again!

Looking forward to being part of the Linux community of gamers!!!

Use lgogdownloader to download your games. Running it regularly keeps it up-to-date without the need of a "client".

Also, if you use sh to launch your installer, don't bother with the "chmod +x" step so many seem fond of. I have never made a single installer executable. The only time you "need" it is if you execute the installer directly, but save yourself some typing and instead just "sh <installer>". You might also want to look into ./install.it (I don't use it myself, but others like it).

As to wine: good luck. Many games just work out of the box. Many more work if you install dxvk or some other "standard" things first. Some will never work. I wrote some wrapper scripts around wine that I use, and others have done the same. At the very least, it would be a good idea to install each game in a separate prefix (aka root aka wine install). I suggest looking at adamhm's wine wrappers (I don't use them, but other people love them). I suggest staying away from high-level solutions such as Lutris because when they go wrong, it's often impossible to fix.

I provide no links Use google to find them.

It would be a good idea to learn the basics of the command line, as the Linux command line is incredibly useful.

Here are some commands to get you started:

cd: Changes the current directory, as you've already observed.
ls: Displays a list of the files in the current directory. There are many options that can be added to the command line, like
-l, which will display details about the files.
chmod: Changes permissions. You used this to make the installer executable.
mkdir: Create a directory.
cp: Copies files.
rm: Deletes a file (or, with the right options, an entire directory tree).
man: Brings up the manpage for a specific command. For example, "man ls" will display the manpage for "ls", including information on all its (documented) options. "man man" will do the same thing for the man command itself.

To run a game you installed from the command line, do the following:
1. cd into the directory the game is installed in.
2. Enter the command ./start.sh from that directory.

Now, why don't you try running crimsonland from the command line? You might get an error message that tells you why it isn't working.

One very important command is ldd.- A utility to print shared object dependencies.
So basically you'd go to the directory of a binary file (this can be a SH, bin, and others as long as it is valid for the purposes of the command, and then type ldd [file]. Be lazy like me and use tab to autocomplete parts, it'll help speed things up.

For example, running LDD on Starbound produces...
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffccbb05000)
libSDL2-2.0.so.0 => /lib64/libSDL2-2.0.so.0 (0x00007fd54a28a000)
libGLU.so.1 => /lib64/libGLU.so.1 (0x00007fd54a215000)
libGL.so.1 => /lib64/libGL.so.1 (0x00007fd54a18d000)
libsteam_api.so => not found
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fd54a16b000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fd54a164000)
librt.so.1 => /lib64/librt.so.1 (0x00007fd54a157000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007fd54a011000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fd549e47000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fd54a421000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fd549c57000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fd549c3c000)
libGLX.so.0 => /lib64/libGLX.so.0 (0x00007fd549c08000)
libX11.so.6 => /lib64/libX11.so.6 (0x00007fd549abf000)
libXext.so.6 => /lib64/libXext.so.6 (0x00007fd549aaa000)
libGLdispatch.so.0 => /lib64/libGLdispatch.so.0 (0x00007fd5499f1000)
libxcb.so.1 => /lib64/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007fd5499c5000)
libXau.so.6 => /lib64/libXau.so.6 (0x00007fd5499bf000)
Which given there's no alarming substitutions or missing files, means the game should run just fine.
The problem is, most games have this annoying habit of targeting Ubuntu instead of being platform agnostic.

Let's take a look at what happens when I run LDD on OpenRCT2 for Linux.
[Output largely truncated]
libduktape.so.202 => not found (The purpose of which is unknown.)
libzip.so.4 => not found (This is several versions out of date)
libicuuc.so.60 => not found (I have no idea what this does.)
And rather annoyingly: ./openrct2: /lib64/libcurl.so.4: no version information available (required by /home/drcat/Downloads/OpenRCT2/./libopenrct2.so)

But even more annoyingly, is this: I run "locate libzip" and:
/usr/lib64/libzip.so.5.1

Now you might be wondering why a game like OpenRCT2 has libfiles with EXACT VERSION REQUIREMENTS. I couldn't tell you, except their build system is Travis, which apparently runs on a {SWEAR PURPOSEFULLY REDACTED BUT HEAVILY IMPLIED} LTS version of Ubuntu.

I'm on Fedora.

Ubuntu is the leftovers of Debian. Debian already has the annoying quirk of "stability via staleness." Ubuntu takes that staleness and then gets the idea to backport things further though a decentralized mess of flatpacks, PPAs and platform specific Snaps. Mint is based on the table scraps of Ubuntu; being based on the LTS of an already LTS product. Which itself has a LTS branch.

Sheer utter madness.