How to play Hearts of Iron IV on Linux
Hearts of Iron IV is a strategy game set during World War II. In the game, players take control of a nation during the war and fight to win. Here’s how to play Hearts of Iron IV on Linux.
Getting Hearts of Iron IV working on Linux
Hearts of Iron IV is a native Linux video game. However, lots of users report the native release doesn’t work as well as the Proton version. As a result, we’ll be going over how to install it with Proton.
To play Hearts of Iron IV on Linux with Proton, you’ll have to set up the Linux Steam app on your computer. Getting the Linux Steam app working requires the terminal. You can open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard or searching for “terminal” in the app menu.
With the terminal window open and ready to use, the installation is ready to begin. Get the Steam app set up on your Linux computer using the installation instructions below.
Ubuntu
You can install the latest Steam app on Ubuntu by entering the following apt install command.
sudo apt install steam
Debian
To install Steam on Debian, use the wget download command to grab the latest version of the Steam DEB package from the internet.
wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb
After downloading the latest Steam release to your computer, you can install the software on your computer using the dpkg command.
sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
With the software installed on your computer, you’ll need to run the apt-get install -f command to correct all dependency errors that occurred during the installation process.
Arch Linux
To install Steam on Arch Linux, you’ll need to edit the /etc/pacman.conf file in a text editor (as root). Open the file in your favorite text editor. Then, find the “multilib” line and remove the # symbol. Also, remove the symbol from the line directly below.
Once finished editing, save the edits and run the pacman -Syy command to re-sync with the servers.
sudo pacman -Syy
Finally, install the Steam app using the pacman -S command.
sudo pacman -S steam
Fedora/OpenSUSE
If you use Fedora or OpenSUSE Linux, you’ll be able to install the Steam app using the software repositories included with your operating system. However, we suggest following the Flatpak installation instructions instead, as the Flatpak release of Steam tends to work better.
Flatpak
To install Steam as a Flatpak package, you’ll need to set up the Flatpak runtime on your computer. After setting up the runtime, you’ll need to run the flatpak remote-add command and the flatpak install command to set up Steam on Linux.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam
With the Steam app installed, open it on the desktop and log into your account. Once logged in, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get Hearts of Iron IV working on Linux.
Step 1: Find the “Steam” menu inside the Steam app, and click on it with the mouse. Once inside the “Steam” menu, select the “Settings” button. Then, choose the “Steam Play” section.
Check the “Enable Steam Play for supported titles” box and the “Enable Steam Play for all other titles” box. Click “OK” when done.
Step 2: Find the “Store” button inside Steam and click on it with the mouse. Then, find the search box, and click on it with the mouse. Type in “Hearts Of Iron” into the text box. Press Enter to view the search results.
Step 3: Look through the Steam search results for “Hearts Of Iron IV.” Once you’ve found the game in the search results, click on it with the mouse. Selecting Hearts Of Iron IV will take you to the game’s Steam store page.
Step 4: On the Hearts Of Iron IV Steam store page, find the green “Add to cart” button and click on it with the mouse. When you select this button with the mouse, you’ll add the game to your Steam cart.
Click on the Steam cart to purchase Hearts Of Iron IV for your Steam account.
Step 5: Click on the “Library” button to view your Steam games library. Once there, find “Hearts Of Iron IV” and right-click on it. After right-clicking on it, select the “Properties” button.
Step 6: Inside the Hearts Of Iron IV” properties window, find “Compatibility” and select it with the mouse. Then, select “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
Set the version of Proton to Proton 7.0.
Step 7: Find the blue “INSTALL” button on the Hearts of Iron IV page in your Steam library. Select it to download and install the game to your computer. When the installation process is complete, the blue “INSTALL” button will become a green “PLAY” button. Select it to start up the game!
