STALKER GAMMA Linux install

STALKER GAMMA on Linux 2025.md

STALKER GAMMA on Linux with Steam - 2025

The Linux support thread in the GAMMA Discord (invite) is a great resource overall. It has videos and up to date resources along with knowledgeable folks to help you. The below works, is short, sweet and sufficient but you may want to go there nevertheless and see what the current state of the GAMMA on Linux art is.

Overview

Mord3rca's neat gamma-launcher tool makes it possible to install STALKER GAMMA natively on Linux bypassing GAMMA's installer which needs Windows to run.

This doc is a short summary of 2 other documents but aimed at using Steam instead of Lutris to run the game.

1. gamma-launcher covers the installation of gamma-launcher. If you're on Arch or a variant of it, consider using yay -S gamma-launcher to let Arch manage the install and keep it updated for you.
2. A guide to getting S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - G.A.M.M.A. running on GNU/Linux by DravenusRex is a good guide to getting it running with Lutris. It was the basis for this document.

Read the above for reference if you need, but the below covers the entire process.

Installation

Pre-requisites

You should have Steam installed and running on your Linux machine already.

You will also need the protontricks package so install that using your distro's install tool. On Arch that would be yay -S protontricks (or pacman or equivalent if you don't use yay).

Install GAMMA

1. Install gamma-launcher as above.
2. Pick a location to store the game. You'll need 3 folders, the locations I chose are in parentheses:
   • ANOMALY install location (~/Games/STALKER/ANOMALY)
   • GAMMA install location (~/Games/STALKER/GAMMA)
   • gamma-launcher cache folder (~/Games/STALKER/gamma-launcher-cache)
   • The space needed for a full install (September 2025, GAMMA 0.9.4):

       17G ANOMALY/
       83G GAMMA/
       46G gamma-launcher-cache/
   

   • The cache will speed up updates significantly and prevent moddb from blocking you for using too much bandwidth, so you should consider leaving it there permanently
3. Run gamma-launcher to do a full install of the game:
   • gamma-launcher full-install --anomaly ~/Games/STALKER/ANOMALY --gamma ~/Games/STALKER/GAMMA --cache-directory ~/Games/STALKER/gamma-launcher-cache
   • Change the folder names to suit your preference

Add GAMMA to Steam

1. Bring up Steam and go to the Library
2. In the bottom left corner click "Add a Game" and then "Add a Non-Steam Game"
3. Navigate to ModOrganizer.exe in the GAMMA folder (/home/YOURUSERNAME/Games/STALKER/GAMMA/ModOrganizer.exe)
4. Now that you have a new game called ModOrganizer.exe in the list, right click on the game and select Properties, then go to the Compatibility tab. Select "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" so that it is ticked. From the drop-down that shows up, select the newest version of Proton listed. A Proton 10 or 9 version would be good in 2025, but you can use a later one if it exists.
5. Run MO2 by clicking the Play button and when the MO2 window pops up, hit Cancel and quit out - don't proceed further until you've done the steps below

Add dependencies

Two approaches here, one from the shell and one using the GUI. The shell is quicker as you don't have to deal with a bunch of warning pop ups from Protontricks that are quite annoying.

Shell

1. Run protontricks -l from the terminal.
2. Get the Steam id of the new ModOrganizer.exe game you added to Steam above: the number in the parentheses after your new shortcut which should look like Non-Steam shortcut: ModOrganizer.exe (3979276488).
3. Replace 3979276488 with your actual Steam id and run this from the terminal, waiting for and paying attention to any pop-ups that follow: protontricks 3979276488 cmd d3dcompiler_47 d3dx10 d3dx11_43 d3dx9 dx8vb quartz vcrun2022

• If it fails on cmd, re-run it without cmd in the line.
• Ignore any warnings about the SHA hashes not matching for vcrun2022, accept and allow the install to proceed. Microsoft update those packages all the time so the SHA signatures are often out of date.

4. Aside: We do not select dxvk here because Proton, used by Steam, already incorporates dxvk. If you're using Wine instead, perhaps through Lutrix, you should use dxvk as it's a big performance boost.

GUI

1. Run protontricks from the terminal.
2. Select Non-Steam shortcut: ModOrganizer.exe from the list and hit OK.
3. Protontricks will look like it exited, be patient - it will pop up a bunch of dialogs. Just hit OK on any warnings or errors.
4. When you get to the "Winetricks - choose a wineprefix" screen, make sure "Select the default wineprefix" is selected and hit OK.
5. In the next screen select "Install a Windows DLL or component"
6. In the next screen select each of these components before hitting OK:
   • cmd - If the install fails, unselect cmd and try again.
   • d3dcompiler_47
   • d3dx10
   • d3dx11_43
   • d3dx9
   • dx8vb
   • quartz
   • vcrun2022 - Ignore any warnings about the SHA hashes not matching when this is being installed.
7. Aside: We do not select dxvk here because Proton, used by Steam, already incorporates dxvk. If you're using Wine instead, perhaps through Lutrix, you should use dxvk as it's a big performance boost.
8. Follow the prompts to install all of the packages, one by one.

Running MO2 and the game

1. Go back to Steam and launch MO2 (the ModOrganizer 2 non-Steam game you added)
2. Pick a portable install when asked
3. When asked for the game's location pick the ANOMALY install directory (~/Games/STALKER/ANOMALY), not the GAMMA folder.
4. The defaults are correct for all other folders.
5. When MO2 comes up, the Anomaly Launcher should be visible on the right pane. Run it to play GAMMA.

OK this is based. Thoughts?

Awesome, but please use yay -S (or yay -Syu) instead of yay -Sy as the latter can cause problems.

Great guide! Works like a charm, thanks :)

One hickup I ran into was that winetricks would crash and exit when trying to install the Windows components (step 5)

Simple fix (for now without issues, runs very smooth and no crashes in 2h of gametime)

• in step 6) do not select cmd

That lets the setup complete and you can continue as instructed.

Error for reference when selecting cmd in winetricks (see also winetricks issue 609)

Executing cabextract -q --directory=/home/user/.wine/dosdevices/c:/windows/syswow64 /home/user/.cache/winetricks/cmd/Q811493_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe -F cmd.exe
/home/user/.cache/winetricks/cmd/Q811493_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe: No such file or directory

warning: Note: command cabextract -q --directory=/home/user/.wine/dosdevices/c:/windows/syswow64 /home/user/.cache/winetricks/cmd/Q811493_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe -F cmd.exe returned status 1. Aborting.

Awesome, but please use yay -S (or yay -Syu) instead of yay -Sy as the latter can cause problems.

Thanks, will fix. @YepShroub

* **in step 6) do not select cmd**

@Fabeson Thanks for the detailed diagnosis. I've left it in the guide but will add a disclaimer saying to try with cmd if protontricks fails.