BeamMP On Linux

Running BeamMP on Linux is easy. (Works for Steam Deck/SteamOS too)

Foreword

I noticed there was no decent guide for this on the whole internet, so I made one.

It's been a while since I made this so it's not quite so bad anymore; but my totally unbiased opinion says this is still the best guide.

There are 3 routes you can go. Native, Steam Tinker Launch and Protontricks.

Each has a step by step guide, pick one and follow it, if you have problems check the troubleshooting section.

Required Software

• Steam
  
• Steamtinkerlaunch[github.com] or Protontricks[github.com] (Not required for native)
  
• BeamNG.Drive Base Game

Tip: I strongly recommend STL over Protontricks, it both automatically solves some potential issues you might run into, and it makes it easier for you to tweak proton if necessary.

Proton Version Recommendations

You can select a proton version in some parts of this guide, here are my notes on how they've worked out. If you're using a native installation, the proton version does not matter.

• Proton GE is recommended, may improve performance and may fix the texture loading bug if ur encountering that (where pieces of the terrain are black); could be problematic on protontricks in edge cases.
  
• Proton 7 is recommended, generally seems to just work.
  
• Proton 8 is not recommended, issues seem kinda frequent with it; Especially with protontricks.

Step By Step Installation: Native

Installing BeamMP natively is probably going to be the most complicated option for many due to their only way of installing it being to compile it themselves. If you have problems following this, I would suggest using the Steam Tinker Launch route instead.

Not to mention, the native version isn't completely ready yet (which is why it's buried in the game files and not listed on steam as having official linux support) which means you're likely to encounter some issues that you wouldn't have in the windows version.

I only put this section first because I suspect quite a lot of people will want to try despite knowing all that first. Who doesn't like running games natively after all?

1. Verify that you can run the game natively by setting the BeamNG launch options to the following:
   

   ./BinLinux/BeamNG.drive.x64 %command%

   Warning: Compatibility tool must not be set to Steam Tinker Launch, because it overrides launch options which would make this step always fail.
   
2. Load into the West Coast USA map, spawn in a car and drive around a bit to make sure the game is working as intended.
   Note: The first time you load a map may require some extra time to build shader cache, so don't panic if you load in to see only a flat empty world at 3fps, it just needs time. Also if you ever fail to get past the loading screen, make sure to try again once or twice before giving up.
   
3. Install BeamMP.
   Either by following the official guide[docs.beammp.com], or if you're on an arch-based distro there's an aur package you can use:
   

   yay -S beammp-launcher-git

   Note: Steamdeck users have to jump through some hoops to install yay or paru to access AUR.
   
4. Test BeamMP (execute the compiled executable) it should simply run the game with no fuss.
   
5. Configure the BeamNG launch options to launch BeamMP when you run the game.
   Examples:
   

   /path/to/beammp-binary %command%

   /usr/bin/BeamMP-Launcher %command%

And that should be it, now when you hit play on beammp.

If you for some reason want to use native beammp with proton beamng, you can do that too, here's an official guide for that[docs.beammp.com].

Step By Step Installation: Steam Tinker Launch

1. Download BeamMP Client from the official website[beammp.com] & extract it.
   
2. In your Steam Library, right click BeamNG.Drive and go to Properties, then force it to use 'Steam Tinker Launch' under the compatibility tab.
   
3. Run the game with the Play button, then quickly press 'Main Menu' in the popup.
   
   • [Optional] Go to 'Game Menu'
     
   • [Optional] Select your desired proton prefix within then hit save and play
     
   • [Optional] Exit the game, then run it from steam again, and quickly press the 'Main Menu' button again.
4. Go to 'One Time Run'
   
5. For 'One Time Command' select the BeamMPInstaller.exe, then hit Run Command and install BeamMP to it's default location.(Custom location can cause issues unless it is somewhere within the beamng proton prefix directory)
   
6. Go to 'Game Menu'
   
7. Select BeamMPLauncher.exe as custom command.
   
   Default Location of BeamMPLauncher:
   

   ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/284160/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/BeamMP-Launcher/BeamMP-Launcher.exe

   
   STL Symlink to BeamMPLauncher:
   

   ~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch/compatdata/BeamNG.drive/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/BeamMP-Launcher/BeamMP-Launcher.exe
   

   
   Otherwise:
   

   <Path to Steam Library where BeamNG is Installed>/steamapps/compatdata/284160/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/BeamMP-Launcher/BeamMP-Launcher.exe

   
   Then make sure the settings are as in the following image:
   
8. Save and Play should launch BeamMP, and from now on running the game through Steam should run BeamMP.

If you used the STL Symlink (this path will exist for everyone, it's the only one that's just guaranteed to work if you copy paste) and have problems, try using a true path (default/otherwise) instead. It is more likely for the symlink path to cause issues on NTFS drives than anything else.

If there are any other issues, read the troubleshooting section.

Step By Step Installation: Protontricks

1. Run BeamNG.Drive through Steam/Proton (If you are on a laptop with an nvidia GPU I recommend also forcing the game to use Proton Version 7.0 for reasons explained in the troubleshooting section)
   
2. Download BeamMP Client from the official website[beammp.com] & extract it.
   
3. Open a terminal in the same directory as BeamMP-Installer.exe and run:

   protontricks-launch --appid 284160 BeamMP_Installer.exe

   • Advice: Don't change the install location of BeamMP, it should be fine but there are some corner cases where it could cause problems.
4. Open a terminal in the same directory as BeamMP-Launcher.exe and run:

   protontricks-launch --appid 284160 BeamMP-Launcher.exe

   
   Default Location of BeamMPLauncher:
   

   ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/284160/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/BeamMP-Launcher/BeamMPLauncher.exe

   
   Otherwise:
   

   <Path to Steam Library where BeamNG is Installed>/steamapps/compatdata/284160/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/BeamMP-Launcher/BeamMPLauncher.exe

Now BeamMP should run. If it doesn't, read the troubleshooting section below.

Tip: If you use the full path to BeamMPLauncher.exe in the protontricks command, you do not have to execute it from the same directory as the exe. This way, you can create a bash alias for the command to make it easier to run the game from a terminal by just typing in something like beammp.

Troubleshooting

Problems and Solutions.

1. [ERROR] Failed to find the game please launch it.

   
   
   • A problem so common, it's virtually guaranteed to happen the first time you try to run BeamMP through proton.
     
     The solution is to run the game, load into ~2 different maps and spawn cars in each one, then quit and try again.
     
     Note: To run the game normally/without BeamMP on Steam Tinker Launch, you must untick the 'Use Custom Command' setting in the Game Menu.
     
     
   • If the above solution didn't work, you may be dealing with a corner case where BeamMP must be installed inside the proton prefix dir of the game, if that's the case, you must reinstall BeamMP as before, but instead of setting a custom location for it, use the default, location or at least somewhere within what it calls drive C:\. It is more likely to occur on Steam Tinker Launch than on Protontricks.
   
   
2. Beammp installer won't run
   
   • Try using another version of Proton (Version 7.0 seems to be generally the most successful)
   
   
   
3. Multiplayer button missing from the main menu
   
   • Click on the 'Mods' button in the main menu and re-enable mods.
   
   

4.  X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
     Major opcode of failed request:  156 (NV-GLX)
     Minor opcode of failed request:  43 ()
     Serial number of failed request:  442
     Current serial number in output stream:  443

   • This happens when you're on a laptop and try to run the game on your dedicated Nvidia GPU.
     
     The solution is to use Proton 7.0 or run on your iGPU instead. You may have to reinstall BeamMP (follow all installation steps) if you had to switch prefixes.
   
   

5. ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'vdf'

   • This happens when python-vdf which is required by protontricks is not properly installed.
     
     On most distros you can solve it with this command:

     pip3 install vdf

     
     On Arch based distros you must install python-vdf from AUR.
   
   
6. My controller is screwy on BeamMP but not when I run the base game through steam!
   
   • Steam does shenanigans with controllers, and if you run via protontricks those shenanigans are not applied, so the solution is to use Steamtinkerlaunch to launch BeamMP through Steam, so that those shenanigans are applied when running BeamMP.

[Rabcor]

Ok I tried to see if I could replicate the errors. I started up my old installation which I haven't used for a while (set up same way as steam tinker launch part of this guide). Beammp updated itself and everything just worked, i got in an online match just fine. (e.g. the guide should still be working fine)

I wanted to try to uninstall and reinstall beammp to see if that'd change anything, but I hit a snag where steam tinkerlaunch won't let me set custom commands, seems to be an uncommon issue but until I figure something out to fix it I won't get further with this.

However, in light of Yilmaz04's comment, I did some testing and found I was able to get everything working on native, and I updated the guide accordingly for how to do that.

[Yilmaz04]

For anyone still having issues, BeamMP has native Linux support now, it works perfectly, you have to compile it yourself from BeamMP-Launcher's GitHub repo, instructions are in the README

[logiq]

Did you have any luck using a newer version of BeamMP?

[Rabcor]

I don't remember it's worth a shot though.

[logiq]

Yeah I tried a few times, not much success though, would an older version of BeamMP be viable, or would the server need to be on the older version also?

[Rabcor]

Just any version of proton 7 should work, probably best to go for the latest version of 7 you can find, hmm, I'm seeing 3 people within a fairly shot time here in the comments having problems (and I haven't responded because I have no clue what could be wrong for any of you, sorry).

If it's not working even with proton 7, i'd give it pretty decent odds that some change in beammp itself is behind this.

I'm gonna see if i can replicate your issues by reinstalling mine as well.

[logiq]

Is there any specific versions we should try, like Proton GE 7-xx? I've tried with the Proton 7 steam offers and GE-55.

[logiq]

I tried proton 7 at the time also, same issues.

[Rabcor]

Try proton 7.

[logiq]

Experiencing same issue as Yilmaz, using Proton GE 9-25.
Works fine when no players are connected to the server however.