Hey gang! Wanna start by thanking everyone for the kind words, advice, and commiseration over the last few days. I managed to get it set up and I’m going to turn this edit into a short tutorial for what I did. Big thanks to [email protected], they’re actually the suggestion that worked out best.

For background, I’m running bazzite on desktop PC.

ProtonUp QT is on the bazaar flatpack store and readily available for other distros in the same way. Install that, run it, pick STEAM TINKER LAUNCHER. It’s simple enough.

!IMPORTANT! You have to restart steam after you do this step or it won’t show up in the compatibility tool list.

Install your game, update it, and run it once so all the files are there and fresh. If you aren’t certain about the freshness of the files (like me after 4 different attempts with other software…) Just delete the whole game folder and have steam check the local files.

Go into the game setting, compatibility tools, tick the force compatibility and pick the Steam Tinker Launcher. Then launch the game.

If you’re like me, this will flash a window for STL and then launch the game. If you quit the game it will give you a chance to edit the STL settings. Just click the button for vortex.

This opens another window, where we click the install button. Now if you’re like me, this will immediately crash your computer. Hopefully you’re luckier. Upon rebooting and relaunching the game, vortex will inexplicably be working just fine.

Now, there are a few hangups in vortex, to download mods you’ll have to copy the URL and paste them in the download page. When you go to manage conflicts you’ll have to use arrow keys to make selections, and every so often it won’t let you drag and drop files into it until you restart.

Lastly, I suggest annually installing skse for Skyrim. Easy stuff, extract the file, rename the skse launcher to replace your Skyrim launcher, and dump all the files into the Skyrim folder. All your mods will complain, they think it’s not installed, but it is and it works fine.

I personally used a mod pack for the legacy of the dragonborn. It costs money to get those and it’s not required.

Anyways, thanks again everyone!!

  • Classy Hatter@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    15 hours ago

    I briefly tested Jackify, and it seems to be a great tool. I’m not able to fully test it because I don’t have Nexus Mods subscription. But, I was able to test it with my old Nordic Souls files.

    Guide to modding Skyrim on Linux by using a modlist:

    1. You need Nexus Mods subscription to download modlists.
    2. You most likely want to have Anniversary Edition of Skyrim, otherwise modding will be challenging because many mods requires it.
    3. Launch Skyrim normally, and if you have Anniversary Edition, let it download all Creation Club Content (CC Content). Do not Alt-Tab out of Skyrim, or it will interrupt the download. The game will claim it downloaded everything, but you’ll miss some of the CC Content. If you get any errors about files that have the letters “CC” in them, this is your problem.
    4. Once the CC Content is downloaded, close Skyrim.
    5. Head over to Jackify Releases. Download the latest Jackify.AppImage.
    6. You might need to give it executable permission. You can typically do this by pressing the second mouse button over the icon, go to Properties -> Permissions and look for the option that says executable. Or use chmod +x /path/to/Jackify.AppImage.
    7. Place Jackify.AppImage where ever you want to and launch it.
    8. Go to Modlist Tasks -> Install a Modlist.
    9. Select Skyrim as the game, and pick one of the Modlists. If you are out of ideas, and you have a decent computer, try Nordic Souls. Note, that you cannot combine modlists, but you can install more mods if you want to.
    10. Change install and download directories, so that they have the name of the modlist in them (create new folders, for example).
    11. Under the Nexus API field, there is a link. Click it, scroll to the bottom to Personal API Key section, hit the Request API Key button and copy-paste it to the API Key field. You might want to read the warning on the Nexus site, and decide yourself if you want to trust Jackify. Jackify team is planning to implement a better way to do this, but it is what it is for now.
    12. Click Start Installation button, go brew some coffee, make a dinner, wash your clothes and come back to see if the installation is finished.

    Once the installation is complete, Jackify adds the modlist to your Steam Library and configures the proton prefix. Make sure you are using Jackify 1.6.2 or newer, or the prefix configuration will likely fail. When you start the modlist, it will launch ModOrganizer2. Hit the big Play button to launch the game.

    Nordic Souls defaults to ENB for its graphic improvements. On my old Nordic Souls, it doesn’t seem to start, or it takes a very long time. Nordic Souls also comes with Community Shaders, which does the same thing. In the latest Nordic Souls version, there is a separate profile for ENB and CS. Change it from top left corner of MO2.

    If you get “too many open files” error during modlist installation, you need to edit /etc/security/limits.conf and add this line to it: your_username hard nofile 524288 and then relogin, or restart.

    Once you start a new save file, avoid changing the mod and plugin load orders (left and right side lists) in MO2. Doing so might break your save file, and fixing it will be difficult, because you probably won’t remember the old order. Also, never uninstall or upgrade a mod, unless you are sure doing so is safe. This too can break your save file. Re-installing a mod once something has broken might not fix it.

    You can install more mods using MO2. Always read the instructions given by the mod author, and follow them to a T. Pay attention to things like dependencies, incompatible mods, load orders. If the mod author doesn’t mention which of the two load orders they mean, it’s most likely the mod load order (left side).

    If a mod comes with different versions for AE and SE (Anniversary Edition, Special Edition), you most likely need AE version of it, if you are using AE. Otherwise, SE and AE are the same, and both should work for AE.

    Some modlists, such as Nordic Souls, will downgrade the Skyrim version to something like v.1.5.97. If a mod has versions for different versions of Skyrim, pay attention to this. Check the Skyrim version from the main menu of Skyrim.