Black Lament The Anti-Cheat may be flawed in its sense of compatibility with the steam-deck. But you need to keep in mind, this is an in-house Anti-Cheat. They made it themselves, and it had came before the steam-deck was even remotely popular among the tech community. So there was never expectations for it to not be supported by HWID misconfiguration.

As disappointing as it is to not be able to play projects like this because of these reasons, it is within understanding since they are a very small team. When larger company's (ones like Larian-Studios, Take-Two, Pearl Abyss etc) even struggle with general Linux compatibility, I wouldn't imagine it to be a feasible task for Plutonium on-top of any roadmap they have most likely been planning out at the moment.

There has always been talk of supporting the steam-deck, maybe one day Eldor will flip a switch and decide to start working on the AC for compatibility, and maybe he never will. Regardless acting like this doesn't help, I personally wouldn't want to add support to a community that acts self entitled. No one in Plutonium is telling you to install a whole new OS to play, it is just simply that they are only able to guarantee (as said by Xerxes) support on the hardware they can test it on effectively. Also as he said, Wine is always changing, it's still missing A TON of Windows Calls, Hooks, userbehavior, not to mention general differences in user/sys space.

CowboyCreeper49 Random_Doode

The game is awful code-wise so it's very hard to do anything with it, very likely not happening since the devs already tried.

Best bet is to use game_mod on Steam afaik.

rabidavocado Plutoniums client files themselves are hosted in C:/Users/user/AppData/Local/Plutonium (or %localappdata%/plutonium) and need to be put onto your SSD and copied to a new system. Plutonium is not a portable application and also cannot be treated like one.

7gsbode change your users name on your Windows System.

Plutonium Linux Setup Guide

Updated July 2025 | Tested on Ubuntu/Debian/Arch/Fedora/Solus
(FAQ & Troubleshooting at bottom)

---

Important Disclaimers

• Official Support: Plutonium only supports 64-bit Windows - Linux use at your own risk
• Game Ownership: Requires legitimate Steam copy or Family Sharing (no pirated files)
• Unsupported Systems: macOS, BSD, and ARM are not supported in this guide
• Steam Deck: Incompatible with anti-cheat, LAN mode works via square button in Plutonium Launcher or follow Steam Deck LAN Setup Guide

---

Table of Contents

1. Install Dependencies
2. Setup Wine Prefix
3. Configure Plutonium
4. Performance Tuning
5. Troubleshooting
6. FAQ

---

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Ubuntu

(if you have issues with

# If your system is 64 bit, enable 32 bit architecture:
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
# Make a note of your distribution name:
# Look for the line with either UBUNTU_CODENAME or VERSION_CODENAME. If both are present
# use the name after UBUNTU_CODENAME.
cat /etc/os-release
# Download and add the 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 -

Now Download Wine with your Distro Name https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Debian-Ubuntu#add-the-repository

Then

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

Debian (Jessie+)

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

️ Can't install winetricks? See Debian Sources Documentation for adding contrib to your sources.

Arch Linux

1. Enable multilib in /etc/pacman.conf
2. Update:

   sudo pacman -Syu
   sudo pacman -S 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
   yay -S dxvk-bin  # AUR package
   

Fedora

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

️ Nobara Users: Replace sudo dnf upgrade with sudo nobara-sync

Solus

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

️ Driver Verification

• NVIDIA: Install latest drivers + lib32-nvidia-utils
• AMD:

  vulkaninfo | grep driver  # Should show "MESA_RADV"
  

---

Step 2: Setup Wine Prefix

# Create dedicated prefix
mkdir -p ~/wine/plutonium

# Install required components
WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winetricks -q --force \
d3dcompiler_47 d3dcompiler_43 \
d3dx11_42 d3dx11_43 gfw msasn1 \
corefonts vcrun2005 vcrun2012 vcrun2019 \
xact_x64 xact xinput

# Configure DXVK and Windows version
WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium setup_dxvk install # skip if broken
WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winecfg -v win10

---

Step 3: Configure Plutonium

Heroic Launcher Setup

1. Add Game → Executable: ~/wine/plutonium/plutonium.exe
2. Wine Settings → Wine Prefix: ~/wine/plutonium
3. Launch Plutonium and point to your Steam game folder:
   ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Call of Duty Black Ops II

Invalid game folder in plutonium?
Enable "Show dot files" in winecfg → Drives tab
WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winecfg

---

Step 4: Performance Tuning

Recommended Heroic Settings:

Tab	Setting
Wine	Version: GE-Proton-Latest
	Enable Esync/Fsync (or 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 (Kernel 6.15+ required)

---

Troubleshooting

Stuttering/Crazy Mouse

• Update Wine/Proton-GE
• Disable Esync/Fsync in Heroic
• For WAW/BO1: Test CPU core pinning:

  WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY=6:0,1,2,3,4,5  # For 6-core CPU
  

Crashing on Startup

1. Verify Wine prefix uses Windows 10/11
2. Check Heroic logs:
   Game Settings → Advanced → Enable verbose logs → View logs
3. Recreate Wine prefix if corrupted

Controller Not Detected

WINEPREFIX=~/wine/plutonium winecfg

1. Go to Libraries tab
2. For each xinputX_X entry:
   Set to "Builtin then Native"
3. Apply changes and restart
   

---

FAQ

Q: BO1/BO2/WAW runs poorly

Older CoD titles have poor PC ports. Try:

• FPS capping
• Windowed mode
• Kernel 6.15+ with NTSYNC/WOW64
  NTSYNC Documentation

Q: Installer appears frozen

Wait 60 seconds before restarting. Force-stop via Heroic if needed.

Q: Can I use mods/custom content?

Yes! Mod folders are located at:
~/wine/plutonium/drive_c/users/[USER]/AppData/Local/ (user being wine/proton runner)

• Wine: Your system username
• Proton: steamuser

Q: Can I host servers on Linux?

Yes, you can also host servers on Linux. There's methods with docker/pterodactyl-pelican panel or simply through wine on your own PC, however this does require a little more maintenance so if you are new to Linux and already have a hard time, I do not recommend trying this. Instead get a VPS with windows. Also please keep in mind, as the Launcher doesn't have official Linux support, neither do servers. Plutonium only supports Windows for clients and servers.

• Draakor's Eggs (Pterodactyl/Pelican panel)
• PlutoniumLinuxHosting (baremetal)
• T5Server (baremetal)

---

Additional Resources:

• SoyKappys Guide
• Heroic Games Launcher
• WineHQ Documentation
• Plutonium Forum

Pro Tip: Performance improves as shaders cache during gameplay. Most issues resolve with playing!

AO554 No, the steam deck is just not compatible with Plutoniums AC currently (and possibly forever), Linux on its own is fine to use on Plutonium. I've been cooking up a new guide to post here since there's multiple, split up across this forum, and they all contain useful info, but not one guide has them all in one spot.

I plan to explain (in my user-end of understanding) how to use Plutonium on Linux, why its safe to, and if its worth it etc.

Miss Zeta Hello, I would assume they need to simply run "chmod +x plutonium.exe" wherever plutonium is located. The log you sent is no longer available so im just assuming based off your description.

SoyKappy Arch on Wayland using Kernel 6.7 (zen).

I pulled a rookie move and forgot to kill the old wineserver.....so nvm wine 9.0 brings no new issues. Bo1 still runs like garbo though (not surprising)

SoyKappy Hey Soy (or anyone else) would you mind seeing if you could reproduce an odd issue. I updated to wine 9.0-1 a few nights ago, and played plutonium the same day. Now, when trying to launch with lutris again, im getting thrown some errors. I downgraded to 8.21, it launched with no issue. I updated back to 9.0-1, tried running plutonium with just "wine plutonium.exe" and it ran with no issues. I tried again in Lutris, same issue as before. I tried switching my runner from system to any other runner, none of them work. It just throws me the same errors. I can only get the game to launch in Lutris if my system wine is 8.21 (assuming atp lutris isnt updated for wine 9.0-1) If someone could just confirm this is also happening to them with lutris, it would be appreciated.

Cryther VM's are blocked, wont work.
some things I can suggest is FlushDNS, make sure your Router isnt blocking downloadable files (brands like xfinity use "Advanced security" features that flag unknown websites/uncommon so files wont be installed), try using cloudfare DNS, restart router, try Revo Uninstaller to make sure your AV is actually gone (some do registry edits n such). I doubt these will work, but its worth a try if you're up to it.

FutureRave ah I meant memory, not files. I get it switched up a lot, thank you for the clarifications + additional info, But I don't think Riva Tuner could modify game memory as its meant to under-clock/overclock hardware. Maybe it can cause similar calls that get flagged or sum, but ATP id assume MSI Afterburner and other similar applications could cause bans as well.

Rivatuner doesnt actively modify game files. Were you using a mod menu for zombies or anything? an external console?

Asriel_Dreemurr Setting my wine runner to system (arch, wine 8.21) fixed this. This issue happens because your mouse input in bo1 is tied to the FPS. Because of the Stutters/min fps fluctuation so much, your mouse will constantly speed up and slow down.
Using any other runner causes bo1 (and mw3) to slow down. System Wine works just perfect on all CoD's (and all maps ive tried)