The official Linux thread

[Aspyr-Blair]

Alright party penguins. We are proud to announce the launch of Civ VI Linux today (Feb 9th)!

I'll keep this thread updated with the most current info possible, so check in frequently for updates and of course to share your experience.

A huge heartfelt thanks to all the patient Linux gamers that supported our efforts. Especially those that sent cookies to our office with notes of Civ VI encouragement ;)

System requirements below:

Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04 / SteamOS
CPU Processor: Intel Core i3 530 or AMD A8-3870
CPU Speed: 2.93 GHz
Memory: 6 GB
Hard Disk Space: 15 GB
Video Card (NVIDIA): GeForce 650
Video Card (ATI): Not Supported
Video Card (Intel): Not Supported
Video Memory (VRam): 1 GB

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Some Intel i3 Processors may require an additional 2 GB Swap Partition.

If you dont meet the above system requirements, that does NOT mean you wont be able to run Civilization VI. If we know anything about the Linux community, its that you all find a way to make something work on your specific distro and comparable hardware sets. Chime in here with issues, and we will either help you get a ticket into our support system, or if unsupported there are many penguins that can help.


UPDATE 3/14/17 - We are live with Australian Summer! Linux and Mac are still in sync. Full details from the Windows announcement: http://steamcommunity.com/games/289070/announcements/detail/576861888092920827

UPDATE 4/20/17 - We are finally live with the Spring update!

UPDATE 12/10/18 - Cross platform update is finally live! All platforms are now in-sync and can play together.

UPDATE 4/2/19 - The Antarctic Late Summer Update is now live. All platforms in-sync and can continue cross platform play :)

UPDATE 9/10/19 - September 2019 update is now live! All platforms in-sync and can continue cross platform play. Enjoy Red Death!

[wizardVriska]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

That fix didnt work. I think the problem is probably with my resolution. The text is very small and the continue button just doesnt work at all and doesnt react at all. is there a way to force this into windowed mode? i cant access the setting in game

You should be able to edit both the resolution and the windowed mode in the AppOptions.txt file. Here's the relevant section from mine:

;Render width in pixels.
RenderWidth 1920

;Render height in pixels.
RenderHeight 1080

;0 : windowed, 1 : fullscreen, 2 : windowed with no title bar
FullScreen 1

The file should be located where the Steam library containing Civ VI has been installed. I think that by default this will be the ".local/share/Steam" directory in your home directory, but mine is on an external disk (under "/mnt/3b1882a8-8fdf-49f9-9d4b-5df1a651a87d/SteamLibrary") So the path is:

YourSteamLibraryLocation/steamapps/compatdata/289070/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/AppOptions.txt

(BTW, you should make sure to use Proton to run Civ VI. The Aspyr port is pretty much broken at this point.)

Im completely unable to find appoptions.txt. I've opened Civ 6 in my files and it does not seem to be anywhere. And searching for it using the search option does not work. It seems like i dont have an AppOptions.txt file. Im on Ubuntu 22.04 if thats relevant

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

Im completely unable to find appoptions.txt. I've opened Civ 6 in my files and it does not seem to be anywhere. And searching for it using the search option does not work. It seems like i dont have an AppOptions.txt file. Im on Ubuntu 22.04 if thats relevant

I've played on both Ubuntu and Fedora, and (other than where I stored my Steam library) the path was the same.

Well, it does go into a different directory if you're using the older Aspyr port of the game; if you're placing your Steam library in the standard directory, that'll be:

~/.local/share/aspyr-media/Sid Meier's Civilzation VI/AppOptions.txt

Also, if you are using "snap" to install Steam games, all the Steam stuff should be under the snap directory:

~/snap/steam/common/.local/share

instead of just "~/.local/share".

And remember that files and directories that start with a "." in the name are hidden by default in Unix; if you search without enabling hidden files, you'll miss them and anything hidden within them.

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

I cant get the game to continue past the screen where it shows the title and trademarks. i can launch the game and get through the intro fine but it just freezes on this page and eventually crashes

Yes! I had the same issue after the latest update.

After examining the system for a few minutes, I noticed that the game was consuming a lot of internet bandwidth as it was sitting there. I disconnected the machine from the net, and the next time I started the game it came up just fine.

I don't know what the game is trying to download. Might be another 2K-related bug, might be the new monthly challenge feature. I would imagine they'll get it fixed eventually, but for now isolating the game from the net (at least while starting) will get around the bug.

Just to update myself, it turns out that I was being too impatient. The game was just stuck on a low-bandwidth connection to the net, and after giving it some time to finish downloading the new Challenge of the Month mechanism, it started up just fine.

[wizardVriska]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

Im completely unable to find appoptions.txt. I've opened Civ 6 in my files and it does not seem to be anywhere. And searching for it using the search option does not work. It seems like i dont have an AppOptions.txt file. Im on Ubuntu 22.04 if thats relevant

I've played on both Ubuntu and Fedora, and (other than where I stored my Steam library) the path was the same.

Well, it does go into a different directory if you're using the older Aspyr port of the game; if you're placing your Steam library in the standard directory, that'll be:

~/.local/share/aspyr-media/Sid Meier's Civilzation VI/AppOptions.txt

Also, if you are using "snap" to install Steam games, all the Steam stuff should be under the snap directory:

~/snap/steam/common/.local/share

instead of just "~/.local/share".

And remember that files and directories that start with a "." in the name are hidden by default in Unix; if you search without enabling hidden files, you'll miss them and anything hidden within them.

I managed to locate AppOptions and edit it, but the edits seemed to do nothing so i briefly turned off proton and had to wait hours for the aspyr download. i tried it and the resolution changes worked but being aspyr it crashed immediately. i then put on proton again and waited a few more hours for that download and now its even more broken. when i turn civ on the whole screen is one colour. it starts off black and then starts shifting for the opening animations. Somehow I managed to break it even further. I think Sid Meier hates me.

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

I managed to locate AppOptions and edit it, but the edits seemed to do nothing so i briefly turned off proton and had to wait hours for the aspyr download. i tried it and the resolution changes worked but being aspyr it crashed immediately. i then put on proton again and waited a few more hours for that download and now its even more broken. when i turn civ on the whole screen is one colour. it starts off black and then starts shifting for the opening animations. Somehow I managed to break it even further. I think Sid Meier hates me.

Sid certainly seems confused at the least. :)

So, let me ask about graphics, then. What kind of GPU are you using? Are you using one of the very new Intel discrete GPU cards? Also, are your drivers up-to-date (and if using Nvidia, are you using the proprietary Nvidia driver or the open-source Nouveau driver)?

Also, are you running under X or Wayland? (Although that shouldn't matter these days, but way in the past X was better for games.)

One more thing -- I've been able to run Civ VI under pretty much all Proton versions (I'm running on experimental right now), but a small number of people have experienced trouble with certain versions. You might test something in the 7 or even 6 range to see if some new Proton feature is tripping up your hardware.

[wizardVriska]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

I managed to locate AppOptions and edit it, but the edits seemed to do nothing so i briefly turned off proton and had to wait hours for the aspyr download. i tried it and the resolution changes worked but being aspyr it crashed immediately. i then put on proton again and waited a few more hours for that download and now its even more broken. when i turn civ on the whole screen is one colour. it starts off black and then starts shifting for the opening animations. Somehow I managed to break it even further. I think Sid Meier hates me.

Sid certainly seems confused at the least. :)

So, let me ask about graphics, then. What kind of GPU are you using? Are you using one of the very new Intel discrete GPU cards? Also, are your drivers up-to-date (and if using Nvidia, are you using the proprietary Nvidia driver or the open-source Nouveau driver)?

Also, are you running under X or Wayland? (Although that shouldn't matter these days, but way in the past X was better for games.)

One more thing -- I've been able to run Civ VI under pretty much all Proton versions (I'm running on experimental right now), but a small number of people have experienced trouble with certain versions. You might test something in the 7 or even 6 range to see if some new Proton feature is tripping up your hardware.

Im using Nvidia's GeForce 940MX.i dont know how up to date my drivers are. i tried downloading the driver from nvidias website but it failed to run.
Im running under X.
Ive been using proton experimental and proton 8-0-4.

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

Im using Nvidia's GeForce 940MX.i dont know how up to date my drivers are. i tried downloading the driver from nvidias website but it failed to run.
Im running under X.
Ive been using proton experimental and proton 8-0-4.

Very good. :) The 940mx should be a fine GPU for Civ VI, so far as I know. And yeah, X is still a safer choice than Wayland.

The easiest way to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers (and yeah, they will definitely work better) is to go through Ubuntu's own driver installation mechanism. In general, this mainly involves running "sudo ubuntu-drivers install" from the command line. Here's a page from Ubuntu themselves describing this process (with an emphasis on servers, but it covers desktop installations as well):

https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/nvidia-drivers-installation

[wizardVriska]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

Very good. :) The 940mx should be a fine GPU for Civ VI, so far as I know. And yeah, X is still a safer choice than Wayland.

The easiest way to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers (and yeah, they will definitely work better) is to go through Ubuntu's own driver installation mechanism. In general, this mainly involves running "sudo ubuntu-drivers install" from the command line. Here's a page from Ubuntu themselves describing this process (with an emphasis on servers, but it covers desktop installations as well):

https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/nvidia-drivers-installation

I followed the steps and it seems my drivers were up to date already. I then tried changing to proton 7 and i couldnt open 2k launcher. i changed to proton 6 and that didnt work either

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

I followed the steps and it seems my drivers were up to date already. I then tried changing to proton 7 and i couldnt open 2k launcher. i changed to proton 6 and that didnt work either

Were you able to tell which driver you are currently using?

BTW, you can also go through the GUI if you prefer. There is an "additional drivers" tab in the "Software & Updates" application, which will show you what you are currently using and what alternatives are available. A link showing this (for Ubuntu 20, but it should still be the same I think):

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-the-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux

EDIT: I'm using version 535 of Nvidia's driver, but I'm currently on Fedora. I don't recall what Ubuntu is currently setting as its standard.

[wizardVriska]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

Were you able to tell which driver you are currently using?

BTW, you can also go through the GUI if you prefer. There is an "additional drivers" tab in the "Software & Updates" application, which will show you what you are currently using and what alternatives are available. A link showing this (for Ubuntu 20, but it should still be the same I think):

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-the-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux

EDIT: I'm using version 535 of Nvidia's driver, but I'm currently on Fedora. I don't recall what Ubuntu is currently setting as its standard.

Im using. 535 as well.
I also think ive figured out what the actual problem im having is. When i run the game using Proton it doesnt use Aspyr, and thus doesnt use the Aspyr-Media files where the appoptions.txt file is located. Thus any changes i make with appoptions dont work and the game still think it should use 1368x768. Do you have any clue for how this could be fixed?

[wizardVriska]

UPDATE: I managed to fix it. Turns out there was another appoptions.txt file that actually works. The path was
.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/289070/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization VI
that folder had appoptions and editing it actually worked. I have managed to open Civ 6 finally.

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

Im using. 535 as well.
I also think ive figured out what the actual problem im having is. When i run the game using Proton it doesnt use Aspyr, and thus doesnt use the Aspyr-Media files where the appoptions.txt file is located. Thus any changes i make with appoptions dont work and the game still think it should use 1368x768. Do you have any clue for how this could be fixed?

Yes! When Steam installs software managed by a different company, the files for that game are placed in a directory under that company's name (in the case of the old port of this game, Aspyr).

When Steam installs software that it manages itself (all Proton installations fall under this category), they are instead placed under the Steam ID number for that product within the Steam library. (This number is 289070 for Civ VI.)

As mentioned in an earlier post, the AppOptions file should be located here (unless you have moved the Steam library elsewhere):

~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/289070/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/AppOptions.txt

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by wizardVriska:

UPDATE: I managed to fix it. Turns out there was another appoptions.txt file that actually works. The path was
.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/289070/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization VI
that folder had appoptions and editing it actually worked. I have managed to open Civ 6 finally.

Good to hear!

[gregor]

help please,

Bought Civ 6 and I can start the game and play just fine BUT can't save anything (including game options)...

I tried running the game with Proton, but then it's worse because I can get to the loading screen (very small) and then nothing happens ... the game doesn't even start.

running:
Ubuntu 22.04

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by gregor:

help please,

Bought Civ 6 and I can start the game and play just fine BUT can't save anything (including game options)...

I tried running the game with Proton, but then it's worse because I can get to the loading screen (very small) and then nothing happens ... the game doesn't even start.

running:
Ubuntu 22.04

Unfortunately, you won't be able to get good results running the default (Aspyr) port for now, as Aspyr stopped even trying to update their port last year. It currently has multiple unfixed bugs. :(

Proton should be working just fine, though. Can I ask if you have a decent internet connection? The recent "challenge of the month" update requires a fairly significant initial download from the 2K servers. I thought my own copy of Civ VI was somehow broken after the update, but after letting it sit and download for a while it finally did start. Subsequent game starts didn't need to re-download all that data, and so have been plenty fast.