Plutonium on Linux: Ultimate Cross-Distro Guide

Astrocule

Plutonium Linux Setup Guide

Updated April 2026 · Tested on Ubuntu · Debian · Arch Linux · Fedora · Solus

Note: An automation bash script & Lutris script for this setup is now available. See my GitHub repository for details.

Supported Systems

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS
Debian (Jessie and later)
Arch Linux (rolling)
Fedora
Solus

Warning: Plutonium officially supports 64-bit Windows only. Linux usage is community-supported and at your own discretion. macOS, BSD, and ARM devices are not covered by this guide.

Warning: Steam Deck LCD is incompatible with Plutonium's anti-cheat due to a HWID issue. LAN mode is available via the square button in the Plutonium Launcher, or by following the Steam Deck LAN Setup Guide. Steam Deck OLED is unaffected and can play online normally.

Overview

Install Wine and required dependencies for your Linux distribution
Create and configure a dedicated Wine prefix
Set up Plutonium via Heroic Games Launcher
Tune performance settings for optimal gameplay

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have the following:

A legitimate Steam copy of the Call of Duty title(s) you intend to play, or Family Sharing access, no pirated game files are supported.
A 64-bit Linux system running one of the supported distributions listed above
Root or sudo access on your system

Step 1: Install Distro Dependencies

Install Wine and supporting libraries for your distribution. Follow only the section that matches your system.

Ubuntu

Enable 32-bit architecture support:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Retrieve your Ubuntu codename:

cat /etc/os-release

Look for the UBUNTU_CODENAME or VERSION_CODENAME line and note the value (e.g., jammy, noble).

Download and add the WineHQ repository key:

sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -O - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key -

Add the WineHQ repository for your codename using the Debian/Ubuntu instructions on the WineHQ wiki, then install Wine:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Debian (Jessie and later)

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt update
sudo apt install wine wine32 libwine fonts-wine winetricks
sudo apt upgrade

Note: If winetricks is unavailable, add the contrib component to your APT sources. See the Debian Sources documentation for instructions.

Arch Linux

Enable the multilib repository by uncommenting the [multilib] section in /etc/pacman.conf.
Update your system and install required packages:

sudo pacman -Syu giflib lib32-giflib libpng lib32-libpng libldap lib32-libldap gnutls lib32-gnutls mpg123 lib32-mpg123 openal lib32-openal v4l-utils lib32-v4l-utils libpulse lib32-libpulse alsa-plugins lib32-alsa-plugins alsa-lib lib32-alsa-lib libjpeg-turbo lib32-libjpeg-turbo libxcomposite lib32-libxcomposite libxinerama lib32-libxinerama ncurses lib32-ncurses opencl-icd-loader lib32-opencl-icd-loader libxslt lib32-libxslt libva lib32-libva gtk3 lib32-gtk3 gst-plugins-base-libs lib32-gst-plugins-base-libs vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader dosbox

Install DXVK from the AUR:

yay -S dxvk-bin

Fedora

Note: Nobara Linux users should replace sudo dnf upgrade with sudo nobara-sync.

sudo dnf upgrade

sudo dnf install wine dxvk wine-gecko wine-mono winetricks

sudo dnf install alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 glibc-devel.i686 glibc-devel libgcc.i686 libX11-devel.i686 freetype-devel.i686 libXcursor-devel.i686 libXi-devel.i686 libXext-devel.i686 libXxf86vm-devel.i686 libXrandr-devel.i686 libXinerama-devel.i686 mesa-libGLU-devel.i686 mesa-libOSMesa-devel.i686 libXrender-devel.i686 libpcap-devel.i686 ncurses-devel.i686 libzip-devel.i686 lcms2-devel.i686 zlib-devel.i686 libv4l-devel.i686 libgphoto2-devel.i686 cups-devel.i686 libxml2-devel.i686 openldap-devel.i686 libxslt-devel.i686 gnutls-devel.i686 libpng-devel.i686 flac-libs.i686 json-c.i686 libICE.i686 libSM.i686 libXtst.i686 libasyncns.i686 liberation-narrow-fonts.noarch libieee1284.i686 libogg.i686 libsndfile.i686 libuuid.i686 libva.i686 libvorbis.i686 libwayland-client.i686 libwayland-server.i686 llvm-libs.i686 mesa-dri-drivers.i686 mesa-filesystem.i686 mesa-libEGL.i686 mesa-libgbm.i686 nss-mdns.i686 ocl-icd.i686 pulseaudio-libs.i686 sane-backends-libs.i686 tcp_wrappers-libs.i686 unixODBC.i686 samba-common-tools.x86_64 samba-libs.x86_64 samba-winbind.x86_64 samba-winbind-clients.x86_64 samba-winbind-modules.x86_64 mesa-libGL-devel.i686 fontconfig-devel.i686 libXcomposite-devel.i686 libXcursor-devel.i686 libXdamage-devel.i686 libXfixes-devel.i686 libXi-devel.i686 libXinerama-devel.i686 libXrandr-devel.i686 libXrender-devel.i686 libXtst-devel.i686 zlib-devel.i686

Solus

sudo eopkg install wine wine-devel wine-32bit-devel winetricks dxvk wine-gecko wine-mono

Driver Verification

Before proceeding, confirm your GPU drivers are correctly installed.

NVIDIA: Ensure the latest NVIDIA drivers are installed along with lib32-nvidia-utils.

AMD: Verify Vulkan is using the RADV driver:

vulkaninfo | grep driver

The output should include MESA_RADV. If it does not, your AMD Vulkan driver is not set up correctly.

Step 2: Set Up Wine Prefix

Create a dedicated Wine prefix for Plutonium and install the required Windows runtime components.

Create the prefix directory:

mkdir -p ~/wine/plutonium

Install required components via Winetricks:

WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winetricks -q --force \
  d3dcompiler_47 d3dcompiler_43 d3dx9 d3dx10 \
  msasn1 corefonts \
  vcrun2005 vcrun2012 vcrun2019 \
  xact_x64 xact xinput

Install DXVK into the prefix:

WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium setup_dxvk install

Note: If setup_dxvk fails, skip this step. DXVK may already be bundled with your Wine installation.

Set the Windows version to Windows 10:

WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winecfg -v win10

Step 3: Configure Plutonium

This step uses Heroic Games Launcher to manage the Wine prefix and launch Plutonium.

Open Heroic and select **Add Game.

Set the executable path to:

/home/username/wine/plutonium/plutonium.exe

Click Show Wine Settings and set the Wine Prefix path to:
```
/home/username/wine/plutonium
```

Launch Plutonium and point it to your Steam game directory, for example:

/home/username/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Call of Duty Black Ops II

Note: If Plutonium shows an "invalid game folder" error, enable Show dot files in winecfg under the Drives tab:
WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winecfg

Step 4: Performance Tuning

The following Heroic settings are recommended for best performance.

Tab	Setting
Wine	Version: GE-Proton (latest)
	Enable Esync/Fsync (disable if using NTSYNC)
Other	Enable Gamemode
	Disable AntiCheat runtimes
Advanced	Environment variables: `DXVK_FRAME_RATE=200 LD_PRELOAD=""`
	`PROTON_USE_NTSYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WOW64=1` (requires Kernel 6.15+)
	`PROTON_PRIORITY_HIGH=1 STAGING_SHARED_MEMORY=1 PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1`

Tip: Shader stuttering is normal on first launch. Performance improves as the shader cache builds during gameplay.

Troubleshooting

Stuttering/Erratic Mouse Behavior

Use proton-cachyos or GE-Proton (Ge-Proton10-15 minimum, latest version recommended)
Use wayland, and use PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
If you cannot or refuse to use wayland, rely on DXVK_FRAME_RATE=X for frame capping and do not use the fps cap setting in plutonium/in game. Instead keep FPS in game unlocked.

Crashing on Startup

Confirm the Wine prefix is set to Windows 10 or Windows 11.
Enable verbose logging in Heroic: Right Click Plutonium → Settings → Advanced → Enable verbose logs → Right Click again → Logs.
If the prefix appears corrupted, back up your plutonium folder inside the prefix, then recreate the prefix from Step 2.

Controller Not Detected

Open winecfg for your prefix:

WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winecfg

Go to the Libraries tab.
For each xinputX_X entry, set the override to Builtin then Native.
Apply the changes and restart Plutonium.

Controller library override settings in winecfg

FAQ

Q: BO1 or WAW runs poorly.

These older titles have notoriously poor PC ports. Try FPS capping or switching to windowed mode. For best results, use Kernel 6.15+ with NTSYNC + WOW64 and PROTON_WAYLAND enabled. See the NTSYNC documentation for enabling details. Wine CPU pinning can also help on CPU's with high core+thread counts. Mouse polling above at or above 1000hz can also cause issues.

Q: The Plutonium installer appears frozen.

Wait at least 60 seconds before taking action. If it remains unresponsive, force-stop the process via Heroic and retry.

Q: Can I use mods or custom content?

Yes. Mod folders are located at:

~/wine/plutonium/drive_c/users/[USER]/AppData/Local/plutonium

Replace [USER] with your system username when using Wine, or steamuser when using Proton.
Place any mods/skins inside the plutonium folder as instructed in the plutonium modding documentation or instructions of the mod/skin being downloaded.

Q: Can I host Plutonium servers on Linux?

Yes, though it requires additional setup and ongoing maintenance. If you are new to Linux, a Windows VPS is the simpler path. Note that Plutonium does not officially support Linux for clients or servers.

Available community resources:

Draakor's Eggs — Pterodactyl/Pelican Panel eggs
PlutoniumLinuxHosting — bare metal setup
T5Server — bare metal setup

Resources & Links

e46

Thank you for the in-depth tutorial, unlucky timing for me to try it since Web Archive is down haha (WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winetricks -q gfw)

e46

Forgot to update, but it actually worked fine for me without gfw.

OS: Arch LinuxKERNEL: 6.11.2-arch1-1
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
GPU DRIVER: NVIDIA 560.35.03
RAM: 32 GB

Hyprland v0.44.1

Asriel_Dreemurr

I just use the install script off of Lutris's website But this is good to know for just in case the script ever breaks in the future

Krired

Excellent guide. I tried like 3 different guides and none of them worked. Thanks!

XQCSquidward

Having issues with setting resolution for B01, tried changing r_monitor and r_mode but no success

steNarch

thanks,for Plutonium i use PortProton(arch linux)

Plutonium