How to run Soldiers on Linux

A community guide offering solutions for running Soldiers Heroes of World War II on Linux.

Disclaimer: Soldiers: Heroes of World War II dooes not natively support Linux and is not guaranteed to run on Linux distributions.

Visit the Soldiers: Heroes of World War II page on ProtonDB[www.protondb.com] to engage in discussions about the game on Linux and discover additional information.

💿 Cause of the crash

If you're running Soldiers: Heroes of WWII on a Linux operating system such as Ubuntu and the game crashes when attempting to start a campaign level, the issue is likely related to a missing Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) (video/x-ms-asf) decoder. The crash is caused by Proton 9.0 not including the GStreamer Ugly Plug-ins.

ℹ️ Before you start

Irrespective of the method chosen, the latest version of GE-Proton that is compatible with Soldiers Heroes of World War II is GE-Proton9-27. Subsequent versions may result in crashes or fail to deliver optimal functionality for the game.

🛠️ Method A) Manual Installation

1. Download Proton-GE

   • Visit the Proton-GE GitHub releases page.[github.com]
     
   • Download the latest release (e.g., GE-Proton9-27.tar.gz or the latest version available).

2. Create the Compatibility Tools Directory

   • Open a terminal and create the directory where Steam stores custom compatibility tools:
     

     mkdir -p ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/

3. Extract Proton-GE

   • Move the downloaded GE-Proton9-27.tar.gz file to the compatibilitytools.d directory:
     

     mv ~/Downloads/GE-Proton9-27.tar.gz ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/

   • Navigate to the directory and extract the file:
     

     cd ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
     tar -xvzf GE-Proton9-27.tar.gz
     

   • This will unpack the Proton-GE files into a folder (e.g., GE-Proton9-27).

4. Restart Steam

   • New Proton runtimes are listed when Steam starts

5. Set Steam to Use Proton-GE

   • Open Steam and navigate to your game library.
     
   • Right-click on Soldiers: Heroes of WWII and select Properties.
     
   • Go to the Compatibility tab.
     
   • Check the box for Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
     
   • From the dropdown menu, select the Proton-GE version you installed (e.g., GE-Proton9-27).
     
   • Close the Properties window.

6. Launch the Game

Note:

This solution was discovered and validated by Curious Adam on Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS x86_64. All credit goes to him.

🛠️ Method B) Graphical Installation using ProtonUp-Qt

1. Install Flatpak

   • In the rare case that your Linux distribution did not come with flatpak installed by default, visit official setup page on Flathub[flathub.org].
     
   • Select your specific distribution and follow the instructions
   
   

2. Install ProtonUp-Qt from Flathub

   • In order to install ProtonUp-Qt[flathub.org] open the terminal and run:
     

     flatpak install flathub net.davidotek.pupgui2

   • Alternatively you can also use the software store of your distribution like Discover on Steam Deck
   
   

3. Install Proton-GE

   • Launch ProtonUp-Qt from your application menu or using terminal:
     

     flatpak run net.davidotek.pupgui2

   • Under Install for select Steam or Steam Flatpak in the drop down menu
     
   • Press Add version
     
   • Select the latest available GE-Proton version (should be selected by default)
     
   • Press Install and wait for the download and installation to finish
   
   

4. Restart Steam

   • New Proton runtimes are listed when Steam starts
   
   

5. Set Steam to Use Proton-GE

   • Open Steam and navigate to your game library.
     
   • Right-click on Soldiers: Heroes of WWII and select Properties.
     
   • Go to the Compatibility tab.
     
   • Check the box for Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
     
   • From the dropdown menu, select the Proton-GE version you installed (e.g., GE-Proton9-27).
     
   • Close the Properties window.
   
   

6. Launch the Game

Note:

This method was suggested, documented, and validated by zocker_160. All credit goes to him.

🛠️ Method C) Graphical Installation using ProtonUp-Qt AppImage

1. Download ProtonUp-Qt-x.xx.x-x86_64.AppImage

   • Head over to https://github.com/DavidoTek/ProtonUp-Qt/releases scroll down until Assets and download the latest AppImage release.
     
   • For this Guide it's ProtonUp-Qt-2.12.0-x86_64.AppImage
     
   • After your download has finished, go to your download folder, right click on ProtonUp-Qt-2.12.0-x86_64.AppImage, choose Properties tab Permissions and mark X Allow executing file as program.
     
   • Close
     
   • double click on ProtonUp-Qt-x.xx.x-x86_64.AppImage (x.xx.x stands for the version) and wait a few seconds.
     
   • Click on Add version and choose Compatibility tool: Ge-Proton and under Version: Ge-Proton9-27. Hit Install.
   
   

2. Restart Steam

   • New Proton runtimes are listed when Steam starts
   
   

3. Set Steam to Use Proton-Ge

   • Open Steam and navigate to your game library.
     
   • Right-click on Soldiers: Heroes of WWII and select Properties.
     
   • Go to the Compatibility tab.
     
   • Check the box for Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
     
   • From the dropdown menu, select the Proton-GE version you installed (e.g., GE-Proton9-27).
     
   • Close the Properties window.
   
   

4. Launch the Game

Note:

This method was suggested, documented, and validated by Matt on LMDE 6. All credit goes to him.

[[BestWay]Nobu]

Hello Zocker, thanks! I'll add it to the guide.

[zocker_160]

Thank you for caring about LInux users!

I just wanted to note that there exists an application which does that for you with just a few clicks called ProtonUp-Qt

you can get it from Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/net.davidotek.pupgui2

Don't forget to restart Steam after installation is done.