How to play Red Dead Online on Linux

Red Dead Online is the online multiplayer component of Red Dead Redemption II. Red Dead Online is an interesting multiplayer game in which the user creates their old west character and dukes it out with others on the internet. In this guide, we’ll show you how to play it on Linux.

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Red Dead Online on Linux

Red Dead Online is a standalone game, separated from Red Dead Redemption II. It isn’t native to the Linux platform, but you can get it working with a little work. To start, you will need to install the Linux version of the Steam client.

Install Steam

To start the installation of the Steam Linux client, open up a terminal window on the Linux desktop. After it is open, follow along with the installation instructions below that correspond with the Linux operating system you currently use.

Ubuntu

To get the Steam client working on your Linux PC, enter the following Apt command below.

sudo apt install steam

Debian

You’ll be able to get Steam working on your Debian Linux PC quite quickly. However, it isn’t a great idea to install it straight from the Debian software repositories. Instead, download the DEB package directly from the internet using the Wget command below.

After using the Wget downloader command, you’ll be able to install Steam using the dpkg command. Keep in mind that if any errors appear, you can quickly correct them by executing the apt-get install -f command.

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

Arch Linux

On Arch Linux, you can get the Steam client up and running by making use of the following Pacman command. However, be sure you have the “multilib” software repository turned on.

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

Both Fedora and OpenSUSE Linux are able to install the Steam for Linux client. However, the native installation instructions are pretty terrible. It is much better to get the software installed through the Flatpak installation instructions.

Flatpak

The Steam app is available as a Flatpak. To get going with it, you need to install and enable the Flatpak runtime. To do that, open up a terminal window and follow along with the guide we’ve made to explain how to set up the runtime.

After setting up the Flatpak runtime, you will need to configure the Flathub app store on your computer. To set it up, make use of the following remote-add command down below.

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

Now that the Flathub app store is configured and working on your Linux PC start the installation of the Steam client on your Linux PC by making use of the following flatpak install command.

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

Red Dead Online on Linux

After installing Steam on your Linux PC, open it up and log into your account. Once you’ve logged into your account, follow the step-by-step instructions down below.

Step 1: Inside Steam, find the “Steam” menu and click on it. After you’ve clicked on the “Steam” menu, look for “Settings” and select it to go to the Steam settings area.

Inside the Steam settings area, find “Steam Play” and select it with the mouse. Then, in the Steam Play area, two boxes must be checked. These boxes are “Enable Steam Play for supported titles” and “Enable Steam Play for all other titles”.

Once they’re checked, click on “OK” to save your changes.

Step 2: Locate the “STORE” button at the top of the page and click on it to go to the Steam store. Once on the Steam store, find the search box, and type in “Red Dead Online”. Press Enter to search.

Look through the search results for “Red Dead Online” and click on it to access its Storefront page.

Step 3: On the Red Dead Online Storefront page, find the green “Add to cart” button and click on it to purchase the game for your Steam account.

Step 4: After purchasing your copy of Red Dead Online, locate the “LIBRARY” button at the top of the page and click on it. Once in “LIBRARY,” search through your game library for “Red Dead Online.”

Once you’ve found “Red Dead Online” in your game library, select it with the mouse to access its game page. On the game page, find the blue “INSTALL” button and click on it to download it to your Linux PC.

Step 5: When the download is complete, right-click on Red Dead Online in Steam, and select “Properties”. In the “Properties” area, locate “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.”

After selecting “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool”, set it to “Proton Experimental” and click the “Close” button to confirm your changes.

Step 6: Locate the green “PLAY” button in Steam for Red Dead Online, and click on it with the mouse to start the game. Given you’ve set it to “Proton Experimental,” it should work, but it may be buggy!