How to play RimWorld on Linux

RimWorld is a construction and management simulation game developed and published by Ludeon Studios. Here’s how you can play RimWorld on Linux.

Getting RimWorld working on Linux

RimWorld is a native Linux game, so you won’t need to use Proton or Steam Play to enjoy the game on your computer. However, this game requires the Steam app to run, so you need to install it on your Linux system. Open up a terminal window on the Linux desktop to set up Steam.

Unsure how to open a terminal window? Press Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Or, search for “Terminal” in the app menu and launch it that way.

The installation can begin with the terminal window open and ready to use. Get the Steam app set up on your computer using the instructions below.

Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, install Steam using the apt install command.

sudo apt install steam

Debian

Those on Debian can install Steam. However, it must be manually downloaded first. To get your hands on the Steam app, run the wget download command below.

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

After downloading the latest Steam DEB package to your Debian system, you’ll be able to install it using the dpkg command.

sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

With Steam installed on Debian, you must correct any dependency issues that occurred during the installation process using the apt-get install -f command.

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

To run Steam on Arch Linux, you must enable the “multilib” software repository. To enable the “multilib” repo, open up the /etc/pacman.conf file in a text editor (as root). 

Inside of the text editor, locate the “multilib” line and remove the # symbol. Then, remove the # symbol from the lines directly below it. Save your edits when done, and run the pacman -Syy command.

sudo pacman -Syy

Finally, install the Steam app on your Arch Linux PC using the pacman -S command.

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

Are you on Fedora or OpenSUSE Linux? If so, you can install Steam through software repositories included out of the box. That said, the Flatpak release of Steam tends to work better on these operating systems, so we suggest following Flatpak instructions instead.

Flatpak

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

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

With the Steam app set up on your Linux PC, open it up and log into your account. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get RimWorld working on Linux.

Step 1: Select the “Store” button inside the Steam app. By selecting the “Store” button, you’ll be brought to the Steam storefront. From here, find the search box, and click on it with the mouse.

Type in “RimWorld,” and press the Enter key to view the search results in the search box.

Step 2: Look through the Steam Storefront search results for “RimWorld.” When you’ve found the game in the search results, select it. By selecting “RimWorld,” Steam will load up the game’s Steam Storefront page.

Step 3: On the RimWorld Steam Storefront page, locate the green “Add to cart” button and click on it with the mouse. Selecting this button will allow you to add RimWorld to your Steam cart.

Once RimWorld is added to your Steam cart, click on the green cart icon with the mouse. Then, purchase RimWorld for your Steam account.

Step 4: After purchasing RimWorld on your Steam account, click on the “Library” button. By selecting this button, you’ll load up your Steam games library.

Inside of your Steam games library, click on the search box and type in “RimWorld.” Once you’ve located the game, select the blue “INSTALL” button with the mouse. By selecting “INSTALL,” Steam will download and install RimWorld on your Linux PC.

Step 5: When the Steam app is done downloading and installing RimWorld on your Linux PC, the blue “INSTALL” button will become a green “PLAY” button. Select the blue “PLAY” button to start RimWorld on your Linux PC.

Proton version

While the native release of RimWorld should work fine, it isn’t the only way to play the game on Linux. If you are having issues with the native version of the game, consider enabling the Proton version. For more information about this, view the RimWorld page on ProtonDB.

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