Running WH40K:RT on Linux Mint (Method valid as of Jan 2025)

If you are experiencing a persistant hard crash followed by your graphics driver ceasing to function until you reboot your computer, and you happen to be running this game through Proton on a Linux Mint (or similar distro) operating system environment, then this guide may assist you in fixing the issue. As with all things, your millage may vary depending on the exact configuration of both your operating environment, your hardware, and other factors including driver versioning, the configuration of your Wine prefix, and other factors that are the bane of Linux users. If this guide doesn't work for you, and you have any suggestions as to improvements I can make, please let me know in the comments.

My Setup

My Setup: Software, Drivers, and OS

I am running Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon 6.2.9, but I know that the fix also works on the new (as of present day) 22.1 Xia update. I downgraded after doing a recent system restore, and have not got around to updating again.

I have not modified the default Wine Prefix for my system, nor am I running the game in its own prefix (I know this isn't ideal, and that this kinda sucks, but again, I had to restore from a snapshot, I need to set up my system properly when I have the time. My last snapshot was in October last year, I only finished properly setting up my custom prefixes in December).

My Proton version is the third-party custom GE-Proton 9-23, as maintained and developed by GloriousEggroll. If you do not use GE-Proton, I would highly recommend it over the official version distributed by Valve. It is fully compatible with the Steam Client, and can be selected as a compatibility tool via the client UI. You can obtain GE-Proton from the GitHub repository. The installation instructions are located in the readme. https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom

My graphics driver is Nvidia's official Linux driver, version 550.120. I do not own any machines with AMD or discrete Intel graphics, so if your machine uses drivers from those vendors, your millage may vary.

My Setup: Hardware

For the purposes of this guide, I have tested the game and the fix on a Lenovo LOQ 15IRXL gaming laptop with a 13th generation Intel i7-13650HX processor, 16 GB RAM, and a Nvidia RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU.

The issue this guide fixes, and the fix

The issue

When running the game pre-fix via GE-Proton, I was able to start the game, and play through most of the tutorial mission after character creation. However, when I reached a pre-rendered cutscene that starts when the party enters the Lord-Captain's quarters, the game would freeze, and my laptop would suffer a hard crash, after which my GPU would experience an bizarre error where it was unable to recognise its own driver. A reboot or hard restart of the computer would fix this.

The issue, or a similar one, has also been plaguing my attempts to run Owlcat's Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous CRPG, which also runs in the Unity engine, on my machine, but I have yet to verify if this fix solves the issue. With that game, the same crash also occurs, albeit in the cutscene that happens immediately after you participate in two activities in the festival scene at the start of that game. It seems that the issue is specifically linked to prerendered cutscenes running inside the game engine, but only seems to affect specific ones, as both Rogue Trader and PF:WOTR have at least two or so prerendered cutscenes prior to the ones that cause the crash in each game.

The crash is unaffected by graphics settings, occurs irrespective of whether or not you enable or disable any overlays such as the Steam or Discord overlays, and is preceded by the graphics seizing up while the cutscene audio continues to play before the screen goes black and the operating system crashes. The easiest test to check if the game has suffered this crash is if Firefox suddenly cannot be launched following a restart. There does not appear to be any permanent damage following the crash, and all issues will be fixed by a second system reboot.

The Fix

Now, I have seen a similar fix at least once before for a similar issue, but unfortunately I cannot find the source of said fix. Believe me, I know that accreditation is important, and I would if I could. Blame the people who keep posting those stupid "HoW tO wAlK" guides to the community pages and burying the actual guides under a heap of garbage.

Step 1. If you aren't already using GE-Proton, switch.

Step 2. Right click on the game in the Steam client, and go to Preferences -> Launch Options

Step 3. Paste the following command

PROTON_USE_WINE3D=1 %commands%

into the launch options.

Step 4. Run the game, but do not start a new game. Instead, go to settings, and ensure the game is NOT set to run in any mode except exclusive fullscreen. This seems to fix the bug for good, and is absent from the guide I found the launch command fix in.

Step 5. While this was not necessary for me, the machine spirit may be appeased by closing the game, reopening, and checking that the setting has stuck. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the Machine Spirit. Hail the Omnissiah.

Step 6. If all else fails, ritual ointment and prayer seals may placate the spirits and ensure correct functionality. Apply ointment moderately to the Holy Data Crypt, and ensure that you recite the appropriate scriptures. Purity seals must be affixed with sanctified wax to the exterior casing, also with appropriate rites of sacrament. If this fails, the Omnissiah has forsaken you, and you must repent your heresy against the Machine God lest he decide your toaster privileges must be revoked. Servitorisation awaits those who do not repent and declare themselves Hereteks.

Hail the Omnissiah! Hail the Cult Mechanicus! The Machine God Protects!