Works out of the box
I have played both on Windows, and on Linux (Ubuntu and now Arch) with no difference in performance.
After a bit of tinkering, it works almost as smoothly as on Win10. If you can call EDs notorious "optimisation" smooth, that is.
gamemoderun mangohud PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.maxDeviceMemory = 15360;" %command% /autorun /autoquit
Audio crackling when playing for prolonged amounts of time and on planetary surfaces.
Major slowdowns and stutters when playing for prolonged amounts of time and on planetary surfaces.
The game relies heavily on community tools and they're most often developed primarily for Windows, so it might become a PITA to get them to run. The community tool E:D Market Connector has a flatpak version btw.
PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.maxDeviceMemory=9126" gamemoderun %command%
Slight noise when the game window is unfocused
I use steam in flatpak and i upgraded it at some point when trying to make the game work, so it might be a problem with driver mismatch. With default config, the game launches, but the text in loading screen is completely destroyed. The launch options work for me even though i use X11
gamemoderun mangohud gamescope -w 2560 -h 1440 -f --sharpness 0.6 -- %command%
gamemoderun → Enables GameMode (performance optimizations)
mangohud → Enables MangoHud (performance overlay)
gamescope → Runs the game in a nested Wayland session
-w 2560 → Sets width to 2560 (upscales from 1080p to 1440p)
-h 1440 → Sets height to 1440 (upscales from 1080p to 1440p)
-f → Enables fullscreen
--sharpness 0.6 → Applies 0.6 sharpness to scaling
--force-grab-cursor → Forces the game to grab the mouse cursor
-- %command% → Executes the game with these options
Proton 9.0-4
It looks like it has a slight resolution loss even though I'm playing at 1080p It's not unplayable at all but it is a little noticable.
Steam defaulted it's compatibility layer to the experimental proton version and that prevented me from using my VKB NXT Gladiator Joysticks. The game could not recognize them. I switched the compatibility layer to Proton 9.0-4 and now they work just fine.
I figured out that if your sticks aren't working/ being recognized by elite launching straight from steam and the proton compatibility layer go to Steam>Settings>compatibility
Where it says "Default compatibility tool: change it either to an older version of proton or just change off of proton experimental. That got my sticks working in elite on Linux Mint. I am currently using "Proton 9.0-4"
You may have to also go to Steam>Settings>Controller and disable Steam Input.
Additionally if you want to copy your key binds to a Linux installation you must first open a "file explorer" window. Then at the top go to "View" and check the box that says "Show Hidden Files". This will allow you to see the hidden ".Steam" folder that you need access to.
Next copy your key binds from your windows installation and then follow the path below in your "File Explorer" to the bindings folder where you will paste your key binds.
Pro tip: As long as you click on home in the side bar of your "File Explorer" you will be under . From there you can see your ".Steam" Folder if you have unhidden it and then follow the path below.
/home//.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/359320/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Local Settings/Application Data/Frontier Developments/Elite Dangerous/Options/Bindings/
gamemoderun alacritty -e ./MinEdLauncher %command% /autorun /autoquit /edo
There was an update to Vulkan. I pulled the AMD card to experiment, and the game runs flawlessly now. All I did was just the pilot assessment, but given that if the game did planet generation, it would crash within a couple of minutes in the pilot assessment. Got through without a single hiccup. nvtop showed that my GPU utilization hovered around 50-60%.
Stuck in Planet Generation
Tried the suggestion from the other user with Intel Arc, and worked at first, but would crash the whole system after a while. Ended up dropping in an old AMD RX550 card just to handle the game. Plays fine that way.
Intel Arc is primary card for everything else, even displaying the game, but rendering is done on the RX550.
gamemoderun %command%
Elite: Dangerous is a great game, with not as great of a develpment team: lacks newer upscalers versions (DLSS 4, FSR 4, XeSS4), lacks any frame generation, lacks fixes to be fair. yet, game is beyond enjoyable: i can spend more than 10 hours in a day in this game. also, i DO reccomd using MinEDLauncher, this thing improves gaming expirience quite much.
Just works
it just works
Intel ARK B580 = borked
Won't get past planet gen, tried all sorts but no beuno
it is working correctly, just install and play.
It is possible to use all functions with the Xbox controller, including those that were restricted to the mouse in Windows, as SteamOS allows you to use the controller to control the mouse pointer.
PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.maxDeviceMemory=9126" gamemoderun %command%
During the first startup of the game, the game will start in fullscreen. It seems that when running the game under xwayland, only the top left corner of the game is visible when the monitor is at 1440p. This doesn't happen if the monitor is at 1080p. This also doesn't happen when running under native wayland. This issue was not tested with X11.
This game can be pretty heavy on VRAM usage. Due to Nvidia's lack of VRAM memory sharing on linux, consider setting a VRAM limit like what is in my launch options to prevent your system from having issues while playing and possible stutters due to the VRAM maxing out. Adjust it accordingly.
xterm -e "echo Aloha; ./MinEdLauncher %command% /autorun /autoquit /edo"
Game works fine out of the box. Using min-ed-launcher (available here), one can skip the launcher (which is quite slow) and hop straight into the game. Shader compilation and planet generation during startup may appear to freeze but it eventually makes it to the main menu without any issues.
With min-ed-launcher, /edo launches Odyssey, and /edh launches Horizon (included with the base game nowadays).
RADV_OVERRIDE_TESSELLATION_RATE=OFF %command%
On some planets the game has excessive tessellation when rendering the terrain, the initialization option fixes this.
It is possible to play without any adjustments, however, as I mentioned, on some planets there may be excessive tessellation in the rendering of the terrain and this can cause defects in the terrain and also a drop in performance due to the excess of rendered polygons. The drop in performance may be unnoticeable for SteamOS users on the desktop using a dedicated AMD GPU, but it can be a nuisance for those trying to play using handhelds with AMD APUs such as Steamdeck, Rog Ally, Lenovo Legion, etc.
RADV_OVERRIDE_TESSELLATION_RATE=OFF %command%
On some planets the game has excessive tessellation when rendering the terrain, the initialization option fixes this.
It is possible to play without any adjustments, however, as I mentioned, on some planets there may be excessive tessellation in the rendering of the terrain and this can cause defects in the terrain and also a drop in performance due to the excess of rendered polygons. The drop in performance may be unnoticeable for SteamOS users on the desktop using a dedicated GPU, but it can be a nuisance for those trying to play using portable devices such as SteamDeck, Rog Ally, Lenovo Legion, etc.
RADV_OVERRIDE_TESSELLATION_RATE=OFF %command%
On some planets the game has excessive tessellation when rendering the terrain, the initialization option fixes this.
It is possible to play without any adjustments, however, as I mentioned, on some planets there may be excessive tessellation in the terrain rendering.
The game is smooth and the controls even though it is limited obviously due o the game design, but everything is lie the console version.
The game runs very well, the controls is the same as console which the gae as a built in keybinds to it, holding some buttons will show additional option which really helps a lot for a controller people. Overall, this game is good to play anywhere as you go.
Not common enough to tace a cause.
Very rare and only after playing for a few hours.
With the 'current' version (as of 05/2025) every time you undock, you need to redo all your keybinds. And there a tons of them.
horizons works great! i haven't tried odyssey but given how unstable it can be on windows i expect there would be similar linux issues.
a little bit of clipping when using other applications (youtube, spotify) but i believe that it may be a limitation with my hardware.
runs great without any flaws.
Works perfectly, in VR, will all my peripherals.
I had small issues where I had to modify my binding file from windows as the game thinks, for instance, than the ² or ~ key is "F14" and other things like this in linux. This is a minor issue, however this is a game with enormous binding files, over multiple devices, and people will want to be aware that a few modifications need to be made in your bindings if you keep the same file.
I am a very long time Elite dangerous player (Over 2000 hours pre steam version). I play it with ALL my peripherals: X52 (non pro) hotas for flight, m+kb for controls on foot, razer nostromo for many bindings because I play in VR and can't see my keyboard, Xbox 360 controller for driving SRVs. All are recognized immediately and bindable in the menus. Very few changes were needed in the binding, taking the same binding file I had on windows.
It just straight up the same, and I play in VR with wivrn. After many hours of gameplay on linux, landing on planets, fighting, docking and exploring, I have not encountered a single issue.
Installation under EndeavourOS is straight foreword. Install OS, install Steam, install Game, set Compatibility to Proton - Experimental. Start the game, Launcher starts, select play. No additional tricks or something else needed. Works right OOTB
game-performance
Everything works, runs great, no issues at all. Did not need to tinker beyond setting up proton-cachyos and running with 'game-performance'.
OXR_PARALLEL_VIEWS=1 %command%
virpil hotas required protontricks >explorer>control panel>enable sdl and disable hidraw both checked. also requires regedit fixes, easily found online
may be a "tinker" report, but the tinkering was very minor, and most probably don't need to. Using the latest kernel. my build stats are out of date.
Launcher works, game does not. Hides main window and cannot switch to it.
The game launches, you can hear the intro play, and the menu audio, but you cannot get the game to display. Switching to the main game window shows it's a black screen and it auto hides itself again. Tried on Proton Hotfix, and Experimental and both exhibit the same behaviour.
I tried a few versions of Proton, mostly new ones. The one that finally worked for me was 8.0-5. The others go to the launcher, you try to launch the game and it fails to launch. 8.0-5 worked first try.
Works OOB on experimental as recommended, joystick works as intended
Poor antialiasing set to SMAA
joystick is T.16000M
Game works after adding VK_ICD_FILENAMES and VK_LAYER_PATH and checking file names in /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ and /usr/share/vulkan/
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/amd_pro_icd64.json VK_LAYER_PATH=/usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d force_vk_vendor=-1 %command% -opengl -SkipBuildPatchPrereq /edo /autoquit /autorun
Originally the game would crash at the "Planet Generation" screen at 0 complete. After trying a bunch of stuff, adding the VK_ICD_FILENAMES and VK_LAYER_PATH to the launch options fixed the issue. I had to change my VK_ICD_FILENAMES variable, by using the command "ls /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/" and then using one of the files in there as my VK_ICD_FILENAMES variable. The other fixed using VK_ICD_FILENAMES didn't have the same file names as my system.
Launch options "VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/amd_pro_icd64.json VK_LAYER_PATH=/usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d %command%" is probably all you'll need to get past the planet generation screen.
DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.maxDeviceMemory = 15360;" %command%
I've been playing this game for a long time over a lot of different hardware. For the most part, it runs very well, with almost nothing that can be blamed on Linux.
- [Proton] I've used various flavors and versions of vanilla Proton (8-9), Proton GE (9+), and Proton-cachyos (202412+), and they all work fine.
- [Stuttering] The late 2024, early+ 2025 stuttering, especially at 5 minutes past the hour, is a game issue not a Linux issue.
- [Odyssey] On-foot FPS is not nearly as bad as it was 4 years ago, but it's still not as good as in space, and not as good as it is in the Legacy version. But it's fine.
- [Shadows, lighting] Flickering shadows and weird lighting sources are a game issue not a Linux issue.
- [9070 XT - current card] As of this writing, the 9070 XT requires 3 kernel patches in amdgpu not yet in a release (all titled "Protect FPU in ...") in order to not crash the kernel/display needing a hard poweroff. With them, and a recent linux-firmware and mesa 25.0.2+, the game works very very well. In space I can sustain 150-250 FPS with 1.5x supersampling and AA on at 1440p, so I plan to cap around 120 as my monitor is 120 Hz.
- [6700 XT] Runs fine, for this old card.
- [3070 ti] 8 GB VRAM is too low and causes constant stuttering. Limiting the VRAM using DXVK environment options (as noted here) helps significantly. This shouldn't be as much of an issue on AMD cards.
- [Crashes] Some, nothing unusual compared to playing on Windows.
Runs fine with no tinkering
Having run this on windows and linux through proton, I think it actually runs better through proton. Seems to run fine out of the box and most of the issues people report are just the game itself and not the proton translation.
I had a lot of severe stutterings. I was able to reduce it significantly by reducing the details to mid (on windows11 high woked). Additionally i had to turn off ambient occlusion. I still have instable framerates, bit it is now manageble.
Works flawlessly as far as I know, never played the Windows version. Meh graphx on 1080p, might just be upscaling, but 1440p looks fine.
Flying low to planet surfaces might stutter occasionally. Not certain if that's just me or if others experience any of that.
ran just as well if not better than windows. used less ram of course, temps were lower, and i actually forgot i was playing on linux.
a little janky on first launch but easily fixed
i have a thrustmaster f16 button panel, and steam was picking it up as a regular controller with joysticks and stuff. im sure it can be fixed but im too lazy
when launching without forcing older proton, i couldnt get the game client to show up. but that was an easy fix. other than that it works perfectly! actually astonished!
