How to install Baldur's Gate II mods on Steam Linux version?

[LV426]

Hi,

I am looking to install The Tweaks Anthology mod on the native Linux version of BG2 that is on Steam. I am not new to Linux or Baldur's Gate, but I have not played any modded Infinity Engine games on Linux before. I have followed this guide: https://moebiusproject.gitlab.io/mods_on_linux , but after an hour of reading + Googling, I am at a loss. The guide mentions the GOG version of BG1;  No mention of Steam BG2. The guide is telling me to move `mv game` but game does not exist. In it's place, I tried `BaldursGateII` but that did not work. I also tried something I found on Google, moving some libcrypto and libssl file into the game directory, but that didn't fix things. I have no issue running / playing the game, but I want to play with the Tweaks mod.

Maybe I am missing something obvious, being tired... I did a lot of Googling and most of the results are years old. Any help would be appreciated. Just want to play the game using my favourite mod.

 

Cheers

[Rook]

I found this guide to be very helpful. Trying to actually run the game using ciopfs was pretty slow for me, but I'm running on a bit of a potato at the moment. YMMV.

I'm not sure if the Steam versions require you to launch through Steam? If they don't it might be easier to move the game files elsewhere and just run the game manually from there.

Regardless, game is the directory containing the files BaldursGateII and chitin.key. Running the commands in the parent directory should work better.

EDIT: I guess the install directory for the steam version is something like ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition/? In that case running

cd "~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Baldurs Gate II Enhanced Edition/"

instead of

cd "~/local/GOG/Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition/"

before

mv game game.original

should work. AFAIK the directory structure isn't very different between the platforms, but I could be wrong on that.

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Rook

[LV426]

Thanks for the response Rook. I looked at that guide before, but I want to avoid using a proprietary file system (NTFS) and anything that is not native to Linux.

If anyone finds this thread through Google, I came up my with my own solution linked here

[marchitek]

Hello. Not exactly answer to this topic, but since it's "General Mod Discussion" I hope it wouldn't be inappropriate.

I'm also Linux user, but I found it a bit overwhelming, this hole file system problems etc. I just wanted to say that I tried to run Windows version of game using Wine and after couple hours of play (~10) I experienced only one minor issue. I play BG1 EE from GOG, but I guess Steam version would work similar way sine running Steam on Wine is possible:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/777115/running-windows-steam-on-linux-using-wine

Since Wine emulates Windows, to install mods you use their Windows version and there is now compatibility problems regarding file name case sensitivity etc.

I'm glad you found solution that suits you, I just wanted to leave this note in case someone else would have similar issue. 

[In_A_Graveyard]

This may be a little late, but I set up an ext4 partition w/ casefolding enabled as per this post by @argent77. I have many mods and different mod load outs set up on my Linux system. Would be happy to help if you find you need it.

Thanks!

[LV426]

On 3/5/2022 at 2:55 AM, marchitek said:

Hello. Not exactly answer to this topic, but since it's "General Mod Discussion" I hope it wouldn't be inappropriate.

I'm also Linux user, but I found it a bit overwhelming, this hole file system problems etc. I just wanted to say that I tried to run Windows version of game using Wine and after couple hours of play (~10) I experienced only one minor issue. I play BG1 EE from GOG, but I guess Steam version would work similar way sine running Steam on Wine is possible:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/777115/running-windows-steam-on-linux-using-wine

Since Wine emulates Windows, to install mods you use their Windows version and there is now compatibility problems regarding file name case sensitivity etc.

I'm glad you found solution that suits you, I just wanted to leave this note in case someone else would have similar issue. 

Thanks for the reply!

While Wine is an option, I would recommend Proton, which is Valve's compatibility layer that is built into Steam. It's the easiest solution to get Windows games working on Linux. It's also why Linux is growing so much as a gaming platform.

Wine and Proton aside, I don't think either option will solve the issue at hand: Installing mods. Even if you install BG through Wine or Proton, you are still using the ext4 filesystem, which is case-insensitive.

On 3/5/2022 at 4:04 AM, In_A_Graveyard said:

This may be a little late, but I set up an ext4 partition w/ casefolding enabled as per this post by @argent77. I have many mods and different mod load outs set up on my Linux system. Would be happy to help if you find you need it.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply!

I am really glad this an option, but in my case, I didn't want to partition my drive. So I went with ciopfs. As I said in my other post, I haven't ran into any performance issues; Probably because BG2EE is not a demanding game. I may try that method in the future, but with the ZFS file system.

[marchitek]

11 minutes ago, LV426 said:

Wine and Proton aside, I don't think either option will solve the issue at hand: Installing mods. Even if you install BG through Wine or Proton, you are still using the ext4 filesystem, which is case-insensitive.

Hm, I cannot say more besides that it works for me. I play modded game (using windows mod version) and it just works. Ofc I'm installing mods using wine cmd.

[LV426]

19 minutes ago, marchitek said:

Hm, I cannot say more besides that it works for me. I play modded game (using windows mod version) and it just works. Ofc I'm installing mods using wine cmd.

Good to know! Maybe the next time I play IWD I will install the Windows version of the game through Proton instead of the native Linux port. I'll let you know if I run into any issues with mods.