Install BG3 Mod Manager on the Steam Deck

How to install BG3 Mod Manager directly on the Steam Deck.

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"

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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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.

[Doscaw]

WARNING: As of 2 weeks ago, the latest version of BG3MM uses .NET 8, so following this guide will result in an error when trying to launch the mod manager.
On a clean prefix, use this version instead: https://github.com/LaughingLeader/BG3ModManager/releases/tag/1.0.11.1

And as another warning, do not touch the option to "check for updates" inside BG3MM if you have a working version. It will try to fetch the latest (.NET 8) version and fail, then it won't launch again and you'll have to reinstall like I did. I just spent 3 hours reinstalling and uninstalling this shit, wondering why it wasn't working this time. I even reinstalled BG3 itself. I literally went through the 5 stages of grief. Then I remembered to use the old version and it worked.

[idiot 3]

https://youtu.be/ARTiHkBaBzo

[Doscaw]

You're a lifesaver! Followed the guide step-by-step on Nobara (Fedora 41) and it worked flawlessly. The BG3MM UI is very glitchy and I did get a bunch of warnings when installing .NET, but apart from that, no issues here. I only tested it with OIO so far, but it worked, so I'm sure the mod manager is good to go. Thanks again.

[jdogg0304]

I think i'm just stupid cuz I can't get this to work

[Trexler ♤]

how to delete mods on it so I can play vanilla again?

[Edge Case]

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 {LINK REMOVIDO}here 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]

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]

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]

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

[magespace_]

All you need to do is change the bit version to 64 bit when adding the game to Lutris :)