How to play Elite Dangerous on Linux

Elite Dangerous is a space flight simulator game developed and published by Frontier Developments. In the game, the player takes control of the “Commander” and goes on exploration missions. Here’s how to play the game on Linux.

Getting Elite Dangerous working on Linux

Elite Dangerous works on Linux, but only if you install the Linux release of Steam, as it is a Windows game. Therefore, the only way to get the game working on Linux is to make use of the Steam Play feature.

Install Steam

To get the Linux version of Steam working on your computer, you’ll need to open up a terminal window on the desktop. You can open up a terminal window on the desktop by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard or search for “Terminal” in the app menu.

When the terminal window is open and ready to use, follow the installation instructions outlined below that correspond with the Linux OS, you use on your computer.

Ubuntu

To get Steam working on Ubuntu, use the apt install command down below.

sudo apt install steam

Debian

Steam does work on Debian, but you’ll have to grab the latest DEB package directly from the Steam website. To do that, you can use the wget downloader command down below.

wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb

When the DEB package for Steam is done downloading to your computer, you’ll be able to start the installation of Steam. Using the dpkg command down below, set up Steam on your Debian system.

sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

Once the Steam DEB package is set up on your computer, use the apt-get install -f command to correct any dependencies that may have arisen during the installation of Steam on your computer.

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

On Arch Linux, users can install Steam provided they have the “multilib” software repository enabled on their computer. To enable the repo, open up the /etc/pacman.conf text file in your favorite text editor (as root).

Once the text file is open in your favorite text editor, locate the “multilib” line in the file and remove the # symbol from in front. Also, remove the # symbol from the lines directly below it. Then, save the edits and run the command below.

sudo pacman -Syy

Finally, install Steam on Arch with Pacman.

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

Those on Fedora and OpenSUSE will be able to set up Steam on their computers using built-in software repositories. That being said, the Flatpak release of Steam works much better on these operating systems, so we suggest using that instead.

Flatpak

Those who want to use the Flatpak release of Steam on their computers will first need to install the Flatpak runtime on your computer. To set up the Flatpak runtime on your computer, follow our guide on the subject.

After setting up the latest version of the Flatpak runtime on your computer, it is time to install Steam. Using the two commands below, get the Steam app working.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

Install Elite Dangerous Linux

After setting up Steam, log into your account using your user credentials. Then, follow along with the step-by-step instructions below to get Elite Dangerous working on your Linux system.

Step 1: Click on the “Steam” menu inside of Steam to reveal its options. From there, find the “Settings” button, and click on it with the mouse. Then, find the “Steam Play” section and click on it with the mouse.

Inside the “Steam Play” area, check both the “Enable Steam Play for supported titles” box as well as the “Enable Steam Play for all other titles” box.

Step 2: Find the “Store” button inside Steam and click on it with the mouse. After selecting this button, find the search box and type in “Elite Dangerous.” Then, press the Enter key to view the search results.

Step 3: Look through the search results for “Elite Dangerous” and click on it to go to the game’s Steam store page. Once on the Steam store page, find the green “Add to cart” button and click it to purchase the game and add it to your account.

Step 4: Find the “Library” button inside of Steam and select it with the mouse to go to your Steam library. Then, find “Elite Dangerous” in the list of games and select it with the mouse. Once you’ve chosen your game, find the blue “INSTALL” button, and select it with the mouse to download and install Elite Dangerous on your computer.

Step 5: Once Elite Dangerous is installed on your computer, the blue “INSTALL” button will become a green “PLAY” button. Select this green “PLAY” button to start up Elite Dangerous on your computer.