Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3

156 ratings
Install BG3 Mod Manager on the Steam Deck
By TheMinotauros
How to install BG3 Mod Manager directly on the Steam Deck.
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Prerequisits
I have a mods directory in my /home/deck directory. In there, I usually create a directory for each game that I install mods for. Which means in the case of Baldurs Gate 3 I created a directory /home/deck/mods/BG3. You can use any other directory, but I will assume you also created it.

  • Beldurs Gate 3 had to be run at least once.
  • You will need to switch to the Steam Deck desktop mode (Steam Menu -> Power -> Switch to Desktop mode)
  • If you don't have Lutris installed, then go to the Discover Store and install Lutris.
  • Download BG3 Mod Manager from https://github.com/LaughingLeader/BG3ModManager/releases/latest/download/BG3ModManager_Latest.zip to /home/deck/mods/BG3/. Use Firefox or any other browser. If you don't have one installed, use the Discover store.
  • I assume you installed Baldurs Gate 3 on the internal Steam Deck drive
  • I downloaded the BasketEquipmentSFW form Nexus Mods to /home/deck/mods/BG3
Extract BG3 Mod Manger
Open DoLphin and go to "/home/deck/mods/BG3". Create a directory "BG3ModManager" by rigth clicking somewhere empty "Create New" -> "Folder" and give it the name "BG3ModManager". After the directory is created, right click on the zip file, select "Extract" -> "Extract archive to" and select BG3ModManager.

If you want to do that on the command line:
# mkdir -p /home/deck/mods/BG3/BG3ModManager # cd /home/deck/mods/BG3/BG3ModManager # wget https://github.com/LaughingLeader/BG3ModManager/releases/latest/download/BG3ModManager_Latest.zip # unzip BG3ModManager_Latest.zip
Add BG3 Mod Manager to Lutris
Open Lutris, select the hamburger menu (the three lines) on the top and select "Add games" and then "Add locally installed games"




Give it a name, e.g. BG3 Mod Manager and select Wine as runner.




Switch to Game options tab. Add the executable "/home/deck/mods/BG3/BG3ModManager/BG3ModManager.exe" and add a the wine prefix "/home/deck/mods/BG3/wine_pfx". Now save. Just as a quick explanation. A wine prefix will basically be the Windows C drive.
Install DotNet 4.7.2
Make sure you select "Wine" on the left side. Highlight your BG3 Mod Manager and then click the little wine glass beside "Play" button on the bottom. From there start winetricks, which is needed to install DotNet 4.7.2.





Starting it might take a bit as the prefix needs to be created. Don't get nervous.




When it opens, select "Select the default wineprefix" and press ok.




Select "Install a Windows DLL or compenent" and press ok.




Scroll down, select dotnet472 and click ok. It looks like nothing will be happening. Just let it run.




It is running in the background. The process took around 15 minutes on my Steam Deck. It needs to download a whole bunch of stuff and install it. Once it is done, you get back to the window where you can select to install a windows DLL, fonts and so on. Just close it completely. We are done with winetricks.

If you do want to see that things are happening you can monitor the winetricks processes on the command line.
# watch pstree -p $(ps -ef | awk '/lutris-wrapper/&&/winetricks/&&!/awk/{print $2}')

Link your BG3 user directory
Go back to Dolphin and go to "/home/deck/mods/BG3/wine_pfx/drive_c/users/deck/AppData/Local/". Right click somewhere and select "Create New" -> "Link to File or Directory". Name for the link is "Larian Studios" and the "File or directory to link to" is "/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1086940/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Larian Studios/". Click ok.

To do this on the command line, type:
# ln -s "/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1086940/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Larian Studios/" "/home/deck/mods/BG3/wine_pfx/drive_c/users/deck/AppData/Local/Larian Studios" [/code/
Start BG3 Mod Manager and install the Mod
Go back to Lutris and "Play" the BG3 Mod Manager.

It will ask you to select a folder. Just click cancel.

Go to "Settings" -> "Open Preferences"

Set "Game Data Path" to "Z:\home\deck\.steam\steam\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data" and the "Game Executable Path" to "Z:\home\deck\.steam\steam\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin\bg3.exe"

Go to "File" -> "Import Mod" and select the downloaded mod in your "Z:\home\deck\mods\BG3" folder (If you downloaded it there). You don't need to unpack it. You can give it the .zip.

After it is imoprted, drag it from the right side to the left. Then select "File" -> "Save order". Might be that the GUI glitches a bit but it will do it.

Your mod is now active. Don't start Baldurs Gate 3 from the manger. Start it from the steam client.

Happy modding.
206 Comments
Trexler ♤ Nov 1 @ 2:40pm 
how to delete mods on it so I can play vanilla again?
Edge Case Oct 15 @ 10:25am 
Part 3: Final notes

- I followed this youtube guide here and it all worked first try.

- For the script extender, I was able to use the menu in mod manager to get it and have it all just work, but failing that, you can download it manually here [github.com] and extract the DWrite.dll file to your 'bin' directory. right-click the game in steam and add this launch option: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="DWrite.dll=n,b" PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
Edge Case Oct 15 @ 9:54am 
Part 2:

- once it's done (and yeah it does take about 15 minutes), and it goes back to the winetricks menu, select "install a windows dll or component" and verify that dotnet40, dotnet45, dotnet461, dotnet462, dotnet46, and dotnet472 are all checked. that's what actually got installed. close out of all winetricks menus and that terminal window

- don't open the mod manager until you've created that symlink to your Larian Studios location. you'll know you did it right when it opens and has a profile selected.

- when it asks you for the game data directory and the executable, do NOT use that Z:\ path format... you can use the linux/unix file path format (for example, in my case, BG3 was installed to the sd card: /run/media/deck/7ba546a2-8fc9-4c47-965c-d86100bd9057/steamapps/common/Baldurs Gate 3/Data, yours might be /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Baldurs Gate 3/Data). find it in dolphin, right-click it, and click "copy location" to make it easier.
Edge Case Oct 15 @ 9:54am 
For those still struggling, i'll attempt to clarify some things.

- When entering the new BG3ModManager entry into lutris, make sure to go to the runner options tab and select wine-ge-8-26-x86_64 (default) as your wine version.

- When you're doing the winetricks dotnet install part, it will error out a lot about 32-bit vs 64-bit. just click ok on each one (or don't, they'll close automatically, so it doesn't really matter). This is apparently normal, and nothing's actually broken, but it is irritating to watch.

- yes, absolutely use that command:
watch pstree -p $(ps -ef | awk '/lutris-wrapper/&&/winetricks/&&!/awk/{print $2}')
hit ctrl+alt+t to open a terminal and paste that in or otherwise you'll be frustrated wondering if anything's happening.
Malafein Sep 19 @ 8:14pm 
Thank you for sharing this. I followed along and adapted the paths to match what I've got on my Nobara Linux install, and it worked great!

For anyone else having troubles with getting Norbyte's Script Extender to work, this page got me covered:
https://wiki.bg3.community/en/Tutorials/Mod-Use/How-to-install-Script-Extender#h-3-install-script-extender-on-linuxsteam-deck
kylemrohan Sep 5 @ 7:29pm 
All you need to do is change the bit version to 64 bit when adding the game to Lutris :)
bungus Sep 5 @ 9:23am 
Don't bother following this, you basically have to be a Linux expert and be able to troubleshoot any issues yourself.
lightlag Aug 29 @ 7:12pm 
Was working perfectly (except it didn't recognize that I had script extender installed) until maybe 5 minutes ago when I closed it after moving the Mod Configuration Menu to inactive in an attempt to bring it back, because the window was no longer visible and clicking the button in the Esc menu just made clicky sound and did nothing else. Suddenly the whole manager is broken. I'll click play in Lutris, the logo will come up, then... nothing. The button says Play, not Stop. No idea what went wrong. Checked the wine prefix, it was the same. Opened wine task manager, clicked play, and saw it come up in the task manager then immediately disappear. My mods still work but I need to access the manager and if I delete/reinstall I fear my save file will get bricked. (If anyone has tips on how to retrieve the configuration menu window that'd be great. I need to stop leveling up.)
destyneespieker Aug 22 @ 4:49pm 
Hello! So I was having a lot of issues with the 64 bit thing, all that, but I figured it out! Once I changed the version of Wine to the Latest (Something like GD_Proton?) I was able to launch BG3 Mod Manager and everything worked!
Kathrynerius Aug 14 @ 12:35am 
Wow is this ever difficult. It’s 3am now and after 20 failed steps I finally got the BG3MM open but now it tells me no .pak detected when I try to import any mod period. Even when directly dragging a .pak to it. Any ideas? I looked back about 10 pages but no fixes.