Running Non-Steam Games in Linux

Whenever you run a non-native game through Steam, you are using Proton, Valve's Wine wrapper, to make it work. This is great for Steam games but it won't help you with any non-steam games you wish to run.

I have been able to use the following on the Steam Deck:

• Wine
• Bottles

Unfortunately, the flatpak version of Lutris currently has a bug that prevents it from working. Valve sent Lutris devs a Steam Deck so hopefully they get the flatpak version working soon.

• There is a bugfix, but it has not been released yet: https://github.com/lutris/lutris/commit/072e72a4aefd91101b79dd05d8ce9f100a4b6b0c. If you are desperate for Lutris, you could try patching it yourself.

Using Wine to run Non-Steam Games in Steam OS

1. Install the flatpak version of Wine

   flatpak install org.winehq.Wine
   

2. Allow Wine to access your game directory. Adjust the directory path according to your game.

   flatpak override --user --filesystem="/home/deck/Games/MyGame" org.winehq.Wine
   

3. Test running your game with Wine. Adjust the file path according to your game.

   flatpak run org.winehq.Wine "/home/deck/Games/MyGame/Game.exe"
   

Adding your Wine Game to Steam

1. Click on the Steam icon in your taskbar and select Library
2. Click on ADD A GAME in the bottom left of your Steam window.
3. Click on Add a Non-Steam Game...
4. Wine will not be registered as a program to add. You can just select a different program like Firefox instead
5. Click on ADD SELECTED PROGRAMS
6. In your Library, find and right-click on Firefox and select Properties
7. Rename the shortcut to the name of the game
8. Change TARGET to "/usr/bin/flatpak"
9. Change START IN to "/usr/bin"
10. Change LAUNCH OPTIONS to run org.winehq.Wine "/home/deck/Games/MyGame/Game.exe" Adjust the file path according to your game.
11. Close the Properties window and click on Play to test that the game works
12. If that works, try it in gaming mode as well (don't forget to set a controller profile if you need one)

Using Bottles to run Non-Steam Games in Steam OS

Running Bottles is a bit slower than just using Wine, but it provides many more features you could use that I won't get into here. It also has a GUI unlike Wine, so you can avoid using the terminal.

1. Enter Desktop Mode on the Steam Deck
2. Open the Applications menu by clicking on the Steam Deck icon in the bottom left of your screen
3. Select the Discover app
4. Click on Search and in the Search... input box, type bottles
5. Click on the Download button to install.
6. Open the Applications menu by clicking on the Steam Deck icon in the bottom left of your screen
7. Start Bottles. It is categorized under Utilities

If you wish to use a terminal instead, you can run the following command:

flatpak install flathub com.usebottles.bottles
flatpak run com.usebottles.bottles

1. Create a bottle by clicking the + in the top left of the window.

   1. Choose a name for your bottle. I recommend picking a shorter name without spaces or special characters.
   2. Select the Gaming environment. I am not familiar enough explain the differences between the options but I'll stick with the default.
   3. Click on Create in the top right of the prompt.
   4. Click the Close button when finished.
   5. Exit out of bottles

2. Copy the application you wish to run to your bottle's C drive. By default your Bottle's filesystem will be installed to /home/deck/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/<your bottle name>/drive_c. See the following section for an example on how to do this.

Copying files to your Bottle

There are many ways to copy files in SteamOS, including the GUI, the command line or even FTP. In my example I will use the command line.

The game I am installing is called WowowowKoroneBox v1.1.0_Windows and my bottle is named Test. You will need to replace these values with the game you are installing and your bottle's name.

If you are interested you can download the game for free from here: https://tiannya.itch.io/wowowow-korone-box

cp -a "~/Downloads/WowowowKoroneBox v1.1.0_Windows/" /home/deck/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/Test/drive_c

You can test to see if you placed it correctly using the command line

• The -b flag specifies your bottle name
• The -e flag is the full path to your executable

flatpak run com.usebottles.bottles -b Test -e "/home/deck/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/Test/drive_c/WowowowKoroneBox v1.1.0_Windows/WOWOWOW KORONE BOX.exe"

If this starts your game, congratulations! You've got it working!

The next section will describe how to add the game to your Steam Library so you can run it directly from Game mode.

Adding your Bottled Game to Steam

1. Click on the Steam icon in your taskbar and select Library
2. Click on ADD A GAME in the bottom left of your Steam window.
3. Click on Add a Non-Steam Game...
4. Click the checkbox next to Bottles within the program list
5. Click on ADD SELECTED PROGRAMS
6. In your Library, find and right-click on Bottles and select Properties
7. Rename the shortcut to the name of the game
8. Copy the -b and -e flags and arguments to the end of the Launch Options
9. Close the Properties window and click on Play to test that the game works
10. If that works, try it in gaming mode as well (don't forget to set a controller profile if you need one)