Easy Manual Skyrim SE/AE Linux Setup with Mods and SKSE

This guide explains the necessary steps for a full Skyrim SE setup on any Linux distro that includes a mod manager and SKSE.
It does not depend on any installer, any scripts or anything that assumes something about your own Linux environment.
If you do not encounter unexpected bugs, it takes less than 30 minutes to finish your setup.

Why this guide exists

To answer some questions before people ask
1) "Why would I want to use a modded setup instead of vanilla Skyrim SE?"
Try out vanilla, see how horrible the performance is (thanks Todd), and you will realize why using the unofficial community patch is unavoidable if you want to prevent offing yourself after 1 hour of gameplay
2) "Why is there need for yet another Linux guide?"
Because I've personally tried several guides that need you to run some scripts or installers which might be deprecated or not suitable for some Linux configurations
3) "Why do you use Linux?"
Someone who didn't watch Rick and Morty doesn't have a sufficiently high IQ to understand why

Preparation

Before starting to configure your Skyrim setup, make sure to do the following

1. Download Skyrim SE
   
2. Right click the game in your library, and under "Compatibility" force it to use the latest Proton version
   
3. Launch the game and create a new character to test out if the vanilla game works at all
   
4. If you cannot successfully launch the vanilla game, or create a character, fix it before following the steps in this guide

General Setup

This guide will use ModOrganizer2 as an example, but you could theoretically apply this to any mod organizer.
THIS GUIDE USES "SPECIAL EDITION" (SE) AND "ANNIVERSARY EDITION" (AE) SYNONYMOUSLY.

1. Download the official ModOrganizer setup exe for Windows. Go to the directory where Skyrim SE has been installed, rename the Skyrim SE exe (e.g. by adding the suffix "_backup"), move the MO2 exe there and rename it to the original name of the Skyrim SE exe.
   
2. Launch Skyrim SE via Steam to run the MO2 installer, choose "portable instance", and install the instance in Skyrim SE's compatdata folder, i.e. <Steam Library>/steamapps/compatdata/489830/pfx/drive_c/Modding/MO2
   
3. Rename your Skyrim SE exe back to it's original name
   
4. Add a non-Steam game to your library which launches the ModOrganizer.exe in the directory from step (2) and force it to use Proton
   
5. Test out if your minimal setup works thus far
   
   1. Install the Unofficial Patch and Alternate Start in MO
      
   2. While still being in the MO launch Skyrim SE through it
      
   3. In the game menu go to "Mods" and accept the TOS
      
   4. Close the game and start it again through MO
      
   5. Create a new character to see if you get the alternate start
6. To install SKSE go to the official page, download the 7z file for the anniversary edition and follow its README. Then launch MO and create a new launch option, similar to Skyrim SE, which uses the SKSE exe instead
   
7. Test out if your SKSE setup works. To do that launch the game through MO using the new launch option, create a character, open the Skyrim console and type getskseversion

Fixing Missing NPC Audio

At the point of writing this there is a common bug on modded Linux setups, which causes NPC audio to be missing. I will document a possible fix that worked for me, but you should consult the latest reviews on protondb.

1. Install protontricks (e.g. via flatpack)
   
2. Find out the appid of the non-Steam "game" MO by executing flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks -l
   
3. Install the packages xact, xact_x64 and faudio for the instance, see one example for xact: flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks <id> xact
   
4. In Steam right click ModOrganizer and add the launch options WINEDLLOVERRIDES="xaudio2_7=n,b" PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=90 %command%

[Zhanski]

THANK YOU A LOT, im fighting 3 days with this problem!

[Lilly Fox]

Ok so I did all of this, and got SKSE to launch through MO2. Problem; it launches into the main menu, there's absolutely no sound and clicking "new game" simply doens't do anything. It acts like it's going to load, but takes away everything on screen but keeps the skyrim logo as if it's about to load. What do I do about this?

[GoboII]

If you use a high-resolution monitor and want the text in MO2 to be larger, this can be done with protontricks. The easiest-to-understand way to do this is to run protontricks --gui , select the non-steam app that launches MO2, choose "select the default wineprefix," then choose "run winecfg.
This should open a window. In the graphics tab, under the "screen resolution" section, the DPI can be increased from there.

[Turnovus]

@DK
The installer version I used (2.5.2.0) didn't have an option for a portable install, but I just went through the steps anyways and it worked fine.

If setting the install location to C:\Modding\MO2 doesn't work, then you may need to select the Z:\ drive, which should be root of you PC's own file system (The drive name may vary, just make sure you're installing it to the home\[username]\.steam folder).

Also, you can just delete the installer exe from your Skyrim game folder after step 2. After it installs successfully, you don't need the installer anymore.

[DK]

I think something's changed with the Mod Organiser because step 2 didn't provide any options except to install (no 'portable instance') and the Modding folder doesn't seem to have been created in drive_c. Also, I can't of course rename the SkyrimSE_backup.exe without either renaming or moving the MO file - but the guide doesn't mention this. Am I supposed to put it somewhere specific?

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I used to mod on Windows but I'm a little lost with all these guides for my Debian build. So many just say things like 'just install and it works!' and I'm like, but how? I need a real idiots guide for this one. XD

[Saiku]

+1

[Turnovus]

After step 5, I had a problem with the game crashing whenever I entered the overworld, even with no mods enabled.

I went to the compatdata folder, removed the folder for Mod Organizer, then replaced it with a symlink for Skyrim's folder. Now it seems to work fine.

Also, has anybody managed to get the nxm:// link associations working? I saw a workaround in MO's GitHub issues, but I can't seem to get it working.

[ranger0fshad0w]

excellent guide. followed all the steps as directed the result is as advertised. thank you 1000!

[Melee Only]

@AvidWriter you could try installing MO2 as a non Steam game from the beginning. I did that with other games, not sure if it didn't work for Skyrim or if I was just happy enough to leave it as it worked
Also ye it's possible I didn't cover 100% of my steps since this guide was created after I got it to work, which included different failed experiments

[AvidWriter]

Not working. When I rename skyrim back to normal. I have to rename MO2.exe also ofcourse but when I do I have to reinstall it and it pretends like I never ran it. Is there a missing step? If I add it as a non-steam game it forgets I already installed it? So it does not work.