Reason: Remove old references to solutions that are no longer relevant, update for new launcher, please add and improve, steam needs some love.
Options to run a client on Linux
New launcher
For the Steam and Lutris setup this page assumes Linux Mint 22.2. Everything might be a bit different in your specific distro, but the setups are always very similiar. You can easily play EVE on Steam. Lutris is a bit more work but doable.
Note: By default not all game files are downloaded and the client can download when it does not have the file/part.
The launcher can download all files en cache them, update when needed and removes parts when no longer needed. This behaviour can be changed in the launcher and I recommend to do so to prevent any lag due to loading.
Steam (recommended)
- Install Steam through the software manager
- any distro can use this guide https://www.linuxnest.com/install-steam-on-any-linux-distro-the-complete-2025-guide/
- Open the steam app and Install EVE Online on Steam
- Right click EVE Online in steam and chose "Properties":
- in General copy the following launcher options: PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 LD_PRELOAD= %command%
- in Compatibility check "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compability tool" and chose "Proton Experimental"
- Launch EVE Online in steam which then starts the EVE launcher
- Open the settings of the launcher (gear icon top right):
- in EVE Launcher disable hardware acceleration
- in EVE Online I suggest you chose "Download the full EVE game client"
- in EVE Online select DirectX version "DirectX 11"
And you are all set. Easy, right?
By standard your settings will be in /home/$USER/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatadata/8500/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/CCP/EVE/c_ccp_eve_tq_tranquility/ and can manipulated the same as in windows.
Credit to cloroken who also made a very recent video guide
Lutris
Lutris is a gaming platform for Linux. A setup with Lutris a bit more complex compared to steam but doable. It offers Wine builds that are pre-configured for specific games, and allows for a graphical installation of various games and applications. Those that are unable to roll their own wine prefix, or are weary on the process, may find this solution more viable.
Download eve-online-1.9.4+Setup.exe - stable EVE online excutable
Download eve-online-1.9.4-full.nupkg - EVE Online NUPKG
One should always be careful with executables but these are from ccp directly. Install Lutris via your package manager, and ProtonPlus. Start Lutris briefly so ProtonPlus knows about it and then start ProtonPlus and chose Lutris in the top left corner. Chose Proton-GE-latest as version and download it. Now back to Lutris:
Add a new game with the + sign:
- add locally installed game
- General Info
- name the game EVE Online
- chose runner "Wine (Runs Windows games)
- Game options
- Game executeable: link the EVE Online executable we downloaded
- Wine prefix: /home/$USER/Games/eve-online (where $USER is your user)
- Runner options
- Wine version: Proton-GE-latest
- uncheck Enable Esync
- uncheck Enable Fsync
- System options
- add enviroment variable with KEY: LD_PRELOAD, no value
- SAVE
Now start the newly created item in Lutris and it will start the launcher asking you where to install. CLOSE THAT INSTALLATION. DO NOT PROCEED.
Instead, after closing right click the EVE item in Lutris and chose configure.
Set a new path for the executable in game options: /home/$USER/Games/eve-online/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData/local/eve-online/eve-online.exe (where $USER is your user)
Unpack the NUPKG into a folder. Create the folder /home/$USER/Documents/EveLauncher/ and copy the content of nupkg/lib/net45 to it.
Create the following bash script as /home/$USER/Documents/eve-prelaunch.sh
#!/bin/bash
SOURCE="$HOME/Documents/EveLauncher"
TARGET="$HOME/Games/eve-online/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData/Local/eve-online"
GOODVER="app-1.9.4"
ls -d $TARGET/app-* | xargs rm -rf
cp -R "$SOURCE" "$TARGET/$GOODVER"
cp "$SOURCE/eve-online_ExecutionStub.exe" "$TARGET/eve-online.exe"
This can be done by copying the above into any text editor and save as the filename given above. Make sure the target line in here actually points to your prefix location.
Right click the .sh file and in the properties chose
- permissions
- check run as executable
Back to Lutris. Right click and configure the EVE item. In system options turn on advaned mode. Scroll down to the prelaunch script and enter the /home/$USER/Documents/eve-prelaunch.sh we created. Enable wait for pre-launch script completion. Save.
Pheewww. Done!
You now be able to start the EVE launcher with the Lutris item created.
Open the settings of the launcher (gear icon top right):
- in EVE Launcher disable hardware acceleration
- in EVE Online I suggest you chose "Download the full EVE game client"
- in EVE Online select DirectX version "DirectX 11"
Credit to cloroken who also made a very recent video guide
Discord Server: EVE on Linux
Join the growing community that plays on Linux. You can get even ditro specific help there easily.
https://discord.com/invite/eKMEVeC7SQ
EVE on Linux Resources
- Manage GE Proton Version: https://davidotek.github.io/protonup-qt/
- Fix audio crackling/stuttering: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3214697797
- EVE Online Linux Forum: https://forums.eveonline.com/c/technology-research/linux/
- OBS Vk Capture Plugin: https://github.com/nowrep/obs-vkcapture
- pyfa works with .appimage: https://github.com/pyfa-org/Pyfa/releases
- Hotkey Daemon (for client switching purposes): https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd
Client slowing down / high CPU usage
Behavior like lagging is reported, a solution for this behavior is to disable Esync & Fsync. In the installation steps given above we already took care of that.
- Steam: Start the launcher with the launch options
PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 LD_PRELOAD= %command%
- Lutris: In the runner options disable Esync & Fsync