Skyrim on Linux without Steam

February 13, 2022

Setting up Skyrim on Linux is mightily easy

The only error after set up is tabbing out of game causes a freeze.

1. Download the game, wine, and wine tools.

$ sudo apt install wine winetricks

2. Run winetricks and set up a 64-bit instance on Windows7 with d3dx9_42, xact64, and vcrun2019 installed.
3. Installing both the skyrimSE.exe and skyrimSELauncher.exe are required to launch the game. Use ufw in Ubuntu if you run into issues from the DRM trying to connect to the internet in order to block it, as that is the default firewall in many distros.

It really is that simple.