How to play Hollow Knight on Linux
Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania-style action-adventure game developed and published by Team Cherry. Here’s how you can play Hollow Knight on Linux.
Getting Hollow Knight working on Linux
Hollow Knight is a native Linux video game. However, you’ll need the official Steam app for Linux to play it. Start by opening a terminal window on the desktop to get the Steam app working.
Unsure about how to open up the terminal window? Press Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Or, search for “Terminal” in the app menu and open it that way.
Once the terminal window is open, Steam is ready to install. Follow the installation instructions below that correspond with the Linux OS you use.
Ubuntu
You can install the Steam app on Ubuntu by running the apt install command below.
sudo apt install steam
Debian
To install Steam on Debian, download the official DEB package to your computer. You can download it with the following wget download command.
wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb
After downloading the Steam DEB package, you can install it on your computer using the dpkg command below.
sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
Once the Steam app is installed, finish by correcting all the dependency issues that may have occurred during the installation process. Then, use the following apt-get install -f command.
sudo apt-get install -f
Arch Linux
Start by enabling the “multilib” software repository to install Steam on Arch Linux. Open up the /etc/pacman.conf file in a text editor (as root). Then, locate the “multilib” line and remove the # symbol and the # symbol from the line directly below it.
Save the edits when done and run the following pacman -Syy command.
Finally, install the Steam app on Arch Linux with the pacman -S command.
sudo pacman -S steam
Fedora/OpenSUSE
If you use Fedora or OpenSUSE Linux, installing the app from software repositories included out of the box is possible. However, we suggest installing the Flatpak version of Steam, as it tends to run better.
Flatpak
To install Steam as a Flatpak, you must first enable the Flatpak runtime on your computer. Then, after setting up the Flatpak runtime, run the two flatpak commands below to set up the Steam client.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam
Once the Steam app is installed on your Linux PC, open it up and log into your account using your user credentials. After logging into your Steam account, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get Hollow Knight working.
Step 1: Find the “Store” button inside the Steam app and click on it with the mouse. After selecting the “Store” button, you’ll load up the Steam storefront. From here, find the search box, and click on it with the mouse.
Step 2: Once you’ve selected the search box inside of the Steam app, type in “Hollow Knight.” and press the Enter key. Next, look through the search results for “Hollow Knight” and click on it.
Step 3: When you select the “Hollow Knight” search result, you’ll be taken to the game’s Steam storefront page. From here, find the green “Add to cart” button and click on it to add the game to your cart.
Click on the cart icon to access your Steam cart. Then, purchase the game to be attached to your Steam account.
Step 4: Find the “Library” button, and click on it with the mouse. You’ll have access to your Steam library when you select the button. Next, look through the sidebar in Steam for “Hollow Knight” and select it with the mouse.
Step 5: Locate the blue “INSTALL” button on the Hollow Knight Steam library page and click on it with the mouse. Once the “Install” button is selected, Steam will download and install Hollow Knight to your Linux PC.
Step 6: After installing Hollow Knight onto your computer, the blue “INSTALL” button will become a green “PLAY” button. Select the “PLAY” button to start Hollow Knight on your Linux PC.
Enabling Hollow Knight in Proton
Hollow Knight is a native Linux video game and should work well out of the box with zero tweaks. However, if you are having issues with the game, you can run it in Proton by doing the following.
First, find the “Steam” menu, select it, select “Settings,” click on “Steam Play,” and check the two boxes on the page to enable Proton.
Then, find “Hollow Knight” in the Steam sidebar, and right-click on it with the mouse. Next, select “Compatibility” and check “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.”
Set the dropdown menu to a version of Proton to run the non-native release of Hollow Knight on your Linux PC.
