Great Battles on Linux

[Sammael]

Hi there,

after Win11 becomes more and more a kind of spyware, I decided to give linux a try. So Im a bloody noob. Nevertheless after checking protondb, BOX seems quite playable. In the old forum I found some threads about playing on linux, but not yet here in the new one. Is there any interest for this topic in the community for exchanging experiences - getting and giving advises? Maybe we can get an extra subtopic for hardware and software - like in the old forum - if there is already some comparable and i missed it - sorry for the post in general discussions 🙂 

Dont wanna get too deep at this point - just want check out the general mood. 😄 

 

kind regards - Sammael

 

[blockheadgreen_]

It functions perfectly on Linux, and in fact my performance is better on CachyOS (Arch) than Win 11 by a large margin. Installing through Lutris or the Steam version is the way to go.

[Sammael]

Very good to know - I started with Linux Mint - seems, that its recommended for people, who just switched. But I read, that the performance is weaker because of the older kernel. Is it better, to switch to a game-optimazed distro as soon as possible or are the differences not that much? I mean first of all, the hotas has been complete recognized by system (throttle, stick and pedals) without any issues, steam and proton do their jobs very well - but i fear the terminal will be faster my best friend, than i want, when i need to change distro to cachyOS and want it all got running again😄 

next step is, to get the VR-headset (Quest3) running, but I found players using ALVR for this - dont know, if steam link is already running on linux. On Win11 I used Virtual Desktop, because of the better performance of VDXR and even OpenXR-runtime was better than steams solution - maybe in near future it will change because of steam frame.

I have a highly modded IL-2 on my Windows-partition(lots of skins - some JSGME-stuff). Is it possible, to copy the data-folder in my partition, where steam installed IL-2 on Linux - including my savegames? 

 

thanks a lot and kind regards - Sammael

 

[Hanu]

Great to start this thread! I just planned to start asking questions about this as I'm getting so fed up with Win 11.

When it is possible to get IL-2 and DCS to run with all the controllers I have, I'd be ready get rid of Windows completely. But these two must be running without too much of a hassle. 

[R3animate]

19 hours ago, Sammael said:

I have a highly modded IL-2 on my Windows-partition(lots of skins - some JSGME-stuff). Is it possible, to copy the data-folder in my partition, where steam installed IL-2 on Linux - including my savegames? 

 

thanks a lot and kind regards - Sammael

 

1. Yep, Linux user here / happy to chime in. Lutris should* work for the launcher version, Steam version works great (I checked protondb for common fixes) after some tweaking.

2. (Copying your data over): Yes it is -- you can take the entire data folder from the windows side and overwrite the one in your linux folder. Your career saves are under data\career if I recall correctly, your graphics config is data\startup.ini, your input settings are all in data\input -- you can just take the whole data folder over. 

The path for mine (Steam) is like this, so yours may be similar. : /home/reanimate/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad/data/

[Edit] 3. The only thing I haven't gotten to work is OpenTrack and it's because I haven't committed the time to figure it out; I believe there's an AUR package for it though. I will likely put more effort into this when Korea is out. 

Edited January 15 by R3animate

[Sammael]

Thanks for this - I will try it as soon as possible. Im not sure, if I should change the distro to CachyOS - Im a bit afraid of the arch-architecture as a beginner, but i saw a lot of more performance compared to LM. 

@R3animate https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/17qsa5d/i_found_out_how_to_get_opentrack_to_work_on_linux/?show=original

found this, maybe it helps 🙂 

[R3animate]

I intend to build it from source at some point, there's a guide on the github page for opentrack. Also RE: Arch/Cachy - I think the performance benefits compared to Mint are over exaggerated; stick to what you're comfortable with / play around in a VM if you want to see what the other distros are like before making the jump.

[Sammael]

Thanks a lot - next lesson to learn - VM 😄 I will try

 

@Hanu just try - set up dual boot, so you can keep Windows as full operating backup-system. YT helps me a lot these days 😄

 

kind regards

[blockheadgreen_]

There’s additionally a new fork of Linuxtrack which is greatly improved, easier to use and finally lets me use my TrackIR 5 in all of my sims - I was genuinely on the verge of selling it as before a week or so ago it was impossible to make work.

 

https://gitlab.com/fwfa123/linuxtrackx-ir

[lvdsl]

Guys, how did you get launcher worked? No matter under which version of Proton/GE-proton/Wine I started it, it just show huge error message.
BUT, it keeps working in background and download content. So, IL-2 installed with this weird way works fine. Working launcher would be nice anyway.

As for Opentrack, I just run its Windows version in the same Wine prefix along with the running IL-2.

[lvdsl]

On 1/16/2026 at 3:23 AM, blockheadgreen_ said:

There’s additionally a new fork of Linuxtrack which is greatly improved, easier to use and finally lets me use my TrackIR 5 in all of my sims - I was genuinely on the verge of selling it as before a week or so ago it was impossible to make work.

 

https://gitlab.com/fwfa123/linuxtrackx-ir

I've just gave it a fast try, under Wayland it can't see my webcam and unable to map any controller button to recenter view.

[Riderocket]

for those that want to get away from windows 11, here's what i did to get IL-2 working on Kubuntu.

first thing after installing IL-2 on steam is to use Protonticks to get DX11 working, otherwise there will be an error

simply install protontricks and click on il2 sturmovik

select "default prefix" then "install a DLL or Component" and enable d3dcompiler_43, d3dcompiler_47 & d3dx11_43

click ok and wait for it to load...

 

then i added the file at /etc/udev/rules.d/99-flightsim.rules with the rule:

# ============================================================
# Flight Sim Controllers - udev rules
# ============================================================

# Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Joystick (VID: 044f, PID: 0402)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="044f", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0402", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"

# Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant (VID: 294b, PID: 1901)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="294b", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1901", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="294b", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1901", MODE="0666"

# Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals (VID: 06a3, PID: 0763)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0763", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"

please note you'll have to lookup your own devices udev rules for youself, but these were for mine.

if you want you can copy paste it with your own devices Vendor and Product IDs by using the command "lsusb"

the udev rules allows the linux system to see your devices.

you can use the command

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

to reload udev rules without system restart...

 

next thing i did was run the command "control" inside the protontricks CMD and override the devices from xinput to directinput

 

next thing i did was goto regedit and delete all the xinput data and changed it to Directinput

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Enum/WINEBUS and edit the controller entries;
CompatibleIDs - WINEBUS\WINE_COMP_HID
DeviceDesc - Wine HID compatible device
Service - winehid

 

also you can see VID_294B&PID_1901 (honeycomb throttle) had two options (there should only be one per device), sometimes the devices will renew themselves as xinput, just delete the old directinput entires and overwrite the new xinput with the changes above.

 

 

for VR users, i use WiVRn with my Quest 3, i find it works better then ALVR.

 

Edit: you have to delete the file "Devices.txt" inside the IL-2 Folder "Data/Input" before you launch the game, this will stop IL-2 from making new Joystick profiles (example Joy1, Joy2 and Joy3)

 

Edited April 28 by Riderocket

[Riderocket]

For Quest 3 use WiVRn, much better then ALVR

@Sammael

Edited April 28 by Riderocket

[Birger]

Operating System: Bazzite 44
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.26.0
Qt Version: 6.10.3
Kernel Version: 6.19.14-ogc2.1.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics
Memory: 32 GB of RAM (30.6 GB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon 780M Graphics
Graphics Processor 2: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA507UV_FA507UV

How start on Steam 
run Protontricks and install "Install a Windows DLLor component"
install "d3dcompiler_43", "d3dcompiler_47", "d3adx11_43"

and add advanced launch option
"WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3dcompiler_47=n,b" %command%"

And I got 200fps.
It's cool result for me.

P.s. Waiting native support of Linux. 👻

[Riderocket]

On 1/19/2026 at 9:54 AM, lvdsl said:

I've just gave it a fast try, under Wayland it can't see my webcam and unable to map any controller button to recenter view.

the button being unable to map is probably cause the controller is using xinput (for xbox controllers), you have to change it to directinput, see my tutorial above

[Riderocket]

Update to get IL-2 Standalone Version working on Linux using bottles you can follow this guide, please note i haven't got VR working on standalone version on Linux... 

*****

First download Bottles on flathub.

Then inside Bottles go-to Preferences then Runners to download latest version of Wine GE.

next create a new prefix set to gaming and using Wine GE as your runner.

then inside your prefix go-to dependencies and install... allfonts, dotnet472 and dotnet48 (preferably in that order)

please note a dotnet installer will pop up multiple times during this setup just click continue, accept and install for each one, if you cancel any of them it will fail and you'll have to recreate the bottle, this may take some time

after that you'll have to uninstall wine mono dependency from the bottle

next Disable DXVK & VKD3D for the launcher, goto Settings - Components then

Disable DXVK

Disable VKD3D

Launch the IL-2 launcher installer.exe inside this bottle to install/update the game using "Run Executable"

now let the game install and update

once the game has updated do not use the play button to run the game, instead close the launcher and re-enable DXVK and VKD3D and click on "add shortcut" inside the Bottle and add your il2.exe, for me it was located in...

/home/dylanw/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/IL2-Sturmovik-Great-Battles/drive_c/Program Files/IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles/bin/game/Il2.exe

when there is an update simply 

Disable DXVK

Disable VKD3D

and click add shortcut again and add the Launcher.exe shortcut. again mine was located in...

/home/dylanw/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/IL2-Sturmovik-Great-Battles/drive_c/Program Files/IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles/bin/game/Launcher.exe

 

*****

 

Also some devices with more then 10 buttons, 2 triggers, 4 axes, and 1 directional pad (D-pad) will need to change from xinput to DirectInput (xinput is for xbox controllers and enabled by default for some devices) otherwise you'll be unable to bind some buttons, here is how to fix it...

 

first you'll need to add udev rules for your devices so linux can see them properly.

run the command lsusb in a terminal to see your connected devices.

here i have highlighted my devices that i will be using.

then 

add the file at /etc/udev/rules.d/99-flightsim.rules with the rule:

# ============================================================
# Flight Sim Controllers - udev rules
# ============================================================

# Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Joystick (VID: 044f, PID: 0402)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="044f", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0402", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"

# Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant (VID: 294b, PID: 1901)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="294b", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1901", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="294b", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1901", MODE="0666"

# Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals (VID: 06a3, PID: 0763)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0763", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"

 

Please note yours will differ slightly just copy paste your own vendor and product id for each device

you can use the command

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

to reload udev rules without system restart...

Back to Bottles.

Goto control panel under legacy wine tools and override any xinput devices to directinput

 

 

then goto registry editor and delete all the xinput data and change it to Directinput

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Enum/WINEBUS and edit the controller entries;
CompatibleIDs - WINEBUS\WINE_COMP_HID
DeviceDesc - Wine HID compatible device
Service - winehid

@lvdsl

Edited May 28 by Riderocket

[Birger]

Great battles - real 'great battles' with compatibility 😀

 

[Riderocket]

1 hour ago, Birger said:

Great battles - real 'great battles' with compatibility 😀

 

worth it imo to get away from microslop