How to play World Of Warcraft on Linux

World of Warcraft is a wildly popular MMORPG developed by Activision-Blizzard. It came out in 2005 and has been around for over ten years. The central concept of the game is to create a character and work your way up in the interactive fantasy world, complete quests, adventure with friends, and fight monsters.

Due to how popular WoW is, it’s effortless to get running on alternative operating systems like Linux. In this guide, we’ll show you how you can play World of Warcraft on Linux with the help of Wine, Lutris and DXvK. Let’s get started!

Getting Lutris

There are many different ways to play World Of Warcraft on Linux, as it’s one of the most played games on PC. However, to save Linux users a lot of headaches and setup, we’ll be using the Lutris automatic installation script. By going this route, you’ll be able to get the game working more smoothly.

The Lutris installation script requires the Lutris app set up on your Linux PC. To set up Lutris, head over to this tutorial. It goes over how to get it working on all major Linux distributions.

Installing Dependencies

Before you can run the Lutris WoW script, you must set up DxVK, a program that can convert Windows DirectX11 calls to Vulkan. You must also install the latest version of Wine-Staging.

In the past, AddictiveTips created an article on how to install the latest release of Wine Staging on Linux. Check it out and when you’ve got Wine-Staging working, open up a terminal window and run the commands below (specific to your Linux OS) to get DXvK up and running.

Note: every day, the developers behind Wine-Staging change how the software is installed. If you run into trouble with our tutorial, be sure also to check out the WineHQ website, as they have information on how to get it working as well.

Ubuntu

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

sudo apt libgnutls30:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386

• AMD:

  sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386

• Nvidia:

  sudo apt install libvulkan1 libvulkan1:i386

Debian

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

sudo apt-get libgnutls30:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386

• AMD:

  sudo apt-get install mesa-vulkan-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386

• Nvidia:

  sudo apt-get install libvulkan1 libvulkan1:i386

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S lib32-gnutls lib32-libldap lib32-libgpg-error lib32-sqlite lib32-libpulse

• AMD:

  sudo pacman -S vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-icd-loader

• Nvidia:

  sudo pacman -S vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader

Fedora

sudo dnf install vulkan-loader gnutls gnutls-devel openldap openldap-devel libgpg-error sqlite2.i686 sqlite2.x86_64

OpenSUSE

Sadly, there is no information out there for DXVK/Vulkan on the Lutris website. If you’re using OpenSUSE and want to play World of Warcraft, consider skipping this tutorial in favor of this WineHQ post. It won’t be through Lutris, and it won’t be as easy, but you’ll be able to play the game!

Install World of Warcraft on Linux

Now that all of the dependencies are set up on your computer, it’s time to install World of Warcraft on Linux. Thankfully, the Lutris app will make setting up WoW very simple. To start, open up Lutris on your Linux PC and keep it on in the background. Then, head over to the official World of Warcraft game page on Lutris.com.

On the WoW page, scroll down and look for the “Install” button. Click it, and then allow your browser to launch the script in Lutris. You should then see a pop-up window that explains what the script is, what you need to run it successfully, etc.

Click “Continue” on the initial pop-up in Lutris to continue with the installation process. Follow the wizard installation tool and use Lutris to set up the script fully.

When the Lutris installation script is done, it will automatically launch the Blizzard Battle.net installer, which is used for World of Warcraft. Go through the Battle.net wizard and install Battlenet like you would on a Windows PC. When the installation finishes, return to the Lutris application, locate the “World of Warcraft” tile, right-click on it and run it to open Battle.net.

With the Battle.net application open and running, use the login box and enter your user details. Then, find “World of Warcraft” on the sidebar and click the “install” button to get the game set up on your Linux PC.

Play World Of Warcraft on Linux

Once the Warcraft is done installing on your Linux PC, you’ll be able to play it.

To start WoW, open up your application menu and search for “Battle.net” and click on it. From there, click on “World of Warcraft” in the app, then select the “Play” button to start up the game.

Alternatively, you can start up World of Warcraft on Linux by opening up Lutris, then clicking on “Wine” in the side-bar. In the Wine section, find the WoW tile, right-click on it and start up the game!

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