Modding GTA San Andreas on Linux

In this guide I will be quickly explaining you how to mod GTA San Andreas on Linux. This should work on any distro, although I've just tested it on Arch Linux. So you might need to adapt steps into your distro's model if anything differs. But mostly, it might be pretty much the same and straight forward.

So, to clarify: this guide will teach you how to install Wine, how to download a proper working downgrader executable, applying the downgrade to your Steam's GTA installation, and preparing it to run the 1.0 version directly through Steam on Linux.

Introduction

Hello, there! I hope you are all doing well.

First of all, this guide is intended for beginner Linux users.

So, if you are a bit more advanced, be patient. And also, this guide is specifically to teach you the correct way to prepare your Steam's GTA San Andreas installation to be modded without the need of using other tools or launching the game out of Steam. Although the intention is not to need any other tools to play the game and mod it, you will in fact need some things in order to be able to proceed with this guide's method. There might be other methods, but I don't think they can be more practical nor easier than this one.

I won't give you many details nor teach everything about Linux. If there's anything I didn't teach in this guide, I expect you to be able to Google or Duck it in order to find it out for yourself.

Please, feel free to post any questions about any steps or explanations that hasn't been done clear for you. I will be glad to answer and help however (whenever) I can. I will just ask you please not to ask things that aren't really related to this guide in specific or GTA SA's modding.

I really hope this guide come to be useful and helpful for any Linux user that had difficulties or frustrations trying to mod GTA, or even gave up. That happened to me, and I've decided to try again and I've managed to find out how to do it. And, like many other Linux users, I've decided to help other people possibly having the same issue as I had.

And finally, this guide is also available in Brazilian Portuguese in this link[forum.mixmods.com.br].
The link above is from a Brazilian GTA SA's modding forum and community. In that same website[www.mixmods.com.br], you might find various mods for GTA SA and other GTA games.

Dependencies

For this tutorial, you will need some tools available for use.

I will also give a brief explanation on how to install them in most of the Linux distros.

• Steam (obviously);
  
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (again, obviously, installed through Steam);
  
• Wine;
  
• A GTA SA 1.0 downgrader executable. It might work with any downgrader in that style, but I'd recommend this one[drive.google.com].

And, well... I guess we want to install mods in our GTA, so... mods. Have mods. Many of them.

Installing Wine

For this section, you have two different ways of completing Wine's installation. It will all depend on your Linux distro.

For most "complete" Linux distros, you might find a Software Store or something similar, like Play Store on Android. And for those cases, it is simple as searching for Wine on it, clicking install, and you should be done. Otherwise, or just for preference, you will need... the terminal.

Launch the terminal...

This step may vary between distros. Although you are in fact able to use other distros' package managers, this is not that common and practical, so I will consider you didn't install APT on Arch Linux or something like that.
For every single one of them, unless you are logged in as *root*, which is definitely not recommended, you will need sudo and will be prompted to type in your password.

For Debian or some distros based on it:

I don't recommend it, since it takes long af to get updates and receive some packages/resources. That's not really good for gaming, as far as I know

sudo dpkg install wine

For Ubuntu and distros based on it:

sudo apt install wine

For Arch and distros based on it:

You might need multilib enabled in your Pacman's config.

sudo pacman -S wine

You may use the AUR instead if you prefer to do so.

For other distros and other package managers, you might be experienced enough to be able to install Wine, or, at least, search how to do so.

Downgrading GTA San Andreas to 1.0

Considering you already have Wine installed and the downgrader executable available, so we go on...

In my case, I have this one as follows:

GTASA_12-9-14_Steam_to_V1_DG.exe

You might download it compressed, but simply enough, just decompress it and you are good to go.

Next, you will have to launch the executable through Wine.
To do so, you can either right-click the executable and launch it through Wine, as follows:
or, again, you will need the terminal.

So, simply launch your terminal in the same directory as the executable file, to make things easier.
Then, type in the following:

wine ./GTASA_12-9-14_Steam_to_V1_DG.exe (or the name of the file YOU HAVE.)

Yes. Simple as that.

Now, you should have something like this:
It is a ordinary setup wizard, just like in Windows, and you will also proceed like you would in Windows...

Except for this part:

Please, don't just click next. I beg you. It won't work.

What you should do next is... No, don't get disappointed. No, don't give up. You can still do it!

Find your Steam installation directory.
For this matter, I recommend you to do so through your Steam library.
You can simply right-click GTA San Andreas > Manage > Browse local files

Next, you should do the same in the setup wizard.
And I will give you one shortcut:
NASA doesn't want you to know this, but, don't worry, your secret is safe with me.
You see that text box showing you the current directory? Yes, that one; you can simply copy-paste the following in there (please, put in your actual username in "your_user_name")

/home/your_user_name/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/

And now, the hardest part:

Yes, you guessed it right. From there, you have to find in what freaking folder your GTA SA's installation is located at. I know, it is scary, but you can do it! You've got this far. Don't give up now!


Yep, that's it. After selecting GTA SA's directory, simply click ok, and then, it will definitely be like in Windows. Next, next, next, next... You got the point.
Then, just wait until it is done downgrading.

Yes, that was the hardest part of the process. And you've managed to complete it!

Launching the downgraded version directly from Steam

After downgrading and following all that long path, full of obstacles and suffering...

We've finally reached the end.

Next, all you have to do is:
Remember this?
Yes, do it again.
In your GTA SA's directory, you might have something like this:
A fresh and clean GTA 1.0 installation...

So, to finish the process:
In the following order, you will:

• Delete the file gta-sa.exe;
  
• rename the file gta_sa.exe to... You guessed it right,

  gta-sa.exe;

• optionally, you can also delete the folders ReadMe and Movies.

And you might finish with something like this:

Yes, now your GTA San Andreas is ready to be modded. Install in CLEO, ModLoader, MoonLoader or whatever you want, and they should pretty much work as expected.

In my case, that's how my directory is after finishing everything up:

Now, guess what?
Yes, you are now able to hit that JUICY, GREEN PLAY BUTTON!

Conclusion

Now, you should be able to launch GTA San Andreas directly from Steam with no problems. It will be running the 1.0 version via Proton and everything should be fine. Your playtime will count, your achievements will work. Everything working fine.

If it didn't work, I'd ask you please to try doing the process all over again. Yes, it is a bit annoying, but you've probably messed something up.

In case you redid it, and it still doesn't work, I am always available to talk or answer questions, doubts or related stuff in the comments. So, feel free to ask!

So... I suppose this is all for this guide, folks. I really hope it has been helpful and it worked fine for you like it did for me.

I apologise if any of the jokes were annoying or something like that. It is just that it is also annoying how people always say Linux is hella hard, or it is for programmers, hackers and stuff like that when it is such a good, secure, privacy-respectful and practical operating system.
All you need to do is to give some time to learn it, just like everyone did with Windows.

And after that, all you need to do is... Enjoy!

[WhosBlue]

All that work to use an inferior operating system

[Butter Bot]

Had to search for the exact downgrader you had in the photos. The one you listed doesn't like wine. But this writeup helped me get SA downgraded and working on the Steam Deck! Thank you

[Turbo Man]

Nice. I was hoping I could easily mod the GTA games on the steam deck so this will come in handy.

[StardustSam †]

This was very helpful and enjoyable to read.
I use Garuda Linux and I totally appreciate the conclusion 100%.
Rock on, penguin!

[aywee]

Be careful with posting links to Downgrader tools. Steam Moderators now consider this as a violation of Rules & Guidelines, and you might receive Community ban for this.

[Desconsideração]

Thanks.

[Киллджой]

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