Wabbajack via Proton - Omni-guides/Wabbajack-Modlist-Linux GitHub Wiki

Introduction

This is all unofficial, please don't ask for support from Wabbajack Support staff in the way you would if you have an issue running Wabbajack on Windows, instead please seek assistance from the #unofficial-linux-help channel on the Official Wabbajack Discord. There have been many users involved at various stages of getting things this far, and a lot of trial and error and testing has been done before things were repeatable enough to form into a guide and offer it as an option for those running Linux as their primary OS - most recently Sulfur Nitride, blejusca, Ouroboros and trawzified on the Official Wabbajack Discord, but many, many more over the time. Thanks to all involved for getting this far!

As with my other guides, they may look longer and more involved than the steps actually are - this is to try and be as clear as possible, step by step.

Sulfur Nitride has also produced a youtube video that covers this, as well as examples of how to get many modlist types running. You can view it here !

Wabbajack on Linux, via Steam/Proton

Thanks to advancements with Wine(Proton), running Wabbajack on Linux is a viable option - though please understand that there won't be any guarantee of 100% compatibility. As it stands, it's 'good enough' to be able to install a Wabbajack modlist. While you can run Wabbajack via base Wine on Linux desktops, and via Bottles on Steam Deck (though with some issues), I hope that this method utilising Proton/Steam will mean things are the same across all platforms and distros, and that this will become the preferred method. It is not yet perfect, see the Known Issues and Troubleshooting sections at the end of this guide for more information.

There may be other ways to carry out the steps required, and more experienced users may have their preferred way (for example command line vs gui), but this guide should help those unsure, and at least give some guidance to others.

For each step, I've tried to include both command line and GUI methods (you only need to do one or the other), though not all steps have both.

Required - protontricks 1.11.0 or newer (users of Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions take note, as the non-flatpak version of Protontricks available by default to ubuntu distros is far too old)

PLEASE NOTE: Use this guide at your own risk. Damage to your system caused by following the steps of this guide either correctly or incorrectly are done so with this understanding. You could always initially carry out the steps in a VM until you are familiar with the steps, to test for your distro without altering your base system.

Step 1 - Create a Wabbajack Directory and Download Wabbajack

There are only a couple of steps that I can't automate for this - Downloading the Wabbajack installer, adding it to Steam, and running the initial launch.

While not specifically required, I strongly recommend you create a directory to use for Wabbajack, just to keep things in a sensible place and together. You can use a file browser or cli to create this new directory - for this guide I will use /home/deck/Wabbajack, but the commands shown will use the $HOME variable, which should apply the command to your user home directory on your system.

mkdir -p $HOME/Wabbajack

Next, download the Wabbajack Application into the Wabbajack directory we created:

wget -O $HOME/Wabbajack/Wabbajack.exe https://github.com/wabbajack-tools/wabbajack/releases/latest/download/Wabbajack.exe

Alternatively, just download it from wabbajack.org via your browser and then copy or move it into the new Wabbajack directory. Either way, once you have a $HOME/Wabbajack/Wabbajack.exe in place, we're good to proceed.

Step 2 - Add Wabbajack.exe to Steam

Add Wabbajack.exe to Steam by using the "Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library" function from Steam:

Once added, right click the new entry and go to Properties. You can change the name to simply "Wabbajack" if you wish: followed by clicking the Compatibility tab, and set it to use "Proton Experimental":

Next, click the Compatibility tab, and set it to use "Proton Experimental":

With that set, close the properties window and click Play for the Wabbajack entry in Steam. This will start Wabbajack for the first time, which is when the application downloads and installs the latest version of Wabbajack for you. It'll take a little time to download and install, just let it complete.

Once done, the Wabbajack application itself should open up - Close it down before trying to use the application, and move on to Step 3.

Step 3 - Run the WabbajackProton script

I've written a bash script (source) that will configure the Proton Prefix as required to run Wabbajack via Proton. Run the following in a terminal/konsole and follow the few steps when prompted:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Omni-guides/Wabbajack-Modlist-Linux/refs/heads/main/binaries/WabbajackProton.sh)

e.g:

Step 4 - Run Wabbajack

All being well, that should really be all that is needed. Start Wabbajack from Steam again, and log in to nexus using the little cog in the top right. Once ready, browse the gallery or add a .wabbajack file manually, as you would do even on Windows. Fill in the Install and Downloads directories using their Z:\ paths. For example:

Additional Steps Needed

The above will get Wabbajack installed and running on your Linux system. It does not however, take care of any installation requirements to get the modlist itself running on Linux. You can see my other guides within this github for specific lists, or general steps to take, or you can use my Automated Installation Script to take care of things for you.

Known Issues and Troubleshooting

Current Known Issues are:

Drop-down menus fail to render.
Some images fail to load in the Wabbajack Gallery.
The "Verify Installation" checkbox doesn't render correctly.
Wabbajack may hang or crash when running via Proton/Wine. Just restart the app and use the "Install from Disk" option, Wabbajack should pick up from where it left off.

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Troubleshooting:

If even after the script runs without errors, you still have issues with things like the Nexus login, it is possible that rogue/ghost wine processes got in the way of things truly being successful. I've done what I can to mitigate these, but by nature wine processes can often get stuck.

Best bet is to reboot your system and re-run the install script. I wish there was an easier way.

Conclusion

If you've read this far, then well done! I'd very much appreciate a Star for this guide, just to show if I'm on the right track. I'm also open to any feedback, positive or negative.