Playing in Linux

If you are looking for help running Oni on the Steam Deck, see Playing on the Steam Deck for much simpler instructions.

There is no official support for Oni in the Linux OS family. Nevertheless, it is still possible to run the game on Linux. The Anniversary Edition Installer can be made to run as well.

Installing the needed packages

Wine

A compatibility layer for running Windows applications on a Linux machine.

1. Open a Linux terminal and search for Wine packages. You need to know what your package manager is: apk, apt, dnf, emerge, pacman, yum, zypp…. Tell the package manager to search for "wine" and look for a 32-bit Wine package in the results. The package might be called "wine32" or "wine.i686". If you don't see either of those options, you may need to enable 32-bit architecture with a command such as (in Ubuntu) sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 followed by sudo apt update, then search again. In order to install Wine, the package manager may also need to install a ton of dependencies if this a fairly new Linux install, but it will probably not take too long.

Winetricks

A helper app for configuring various parts of Wine-created compatibility environments.

1. In some distros, Winetricks is installed alongside Wine itself. However it generally needs to be installed as a separate package, so search for "winetricks" and install it if it already hasn't been.

You'll need this for installing the Anniversary Edition, if you want it (the game can be patched to run without installing the AE; this is covered below):

A legacy Java Runtime Environment offline installer for the 32-bit (AKA x86) version of Windows XP

The maximum compatible version is 7u65. An installer for 7u25 is still hosted here.

Preparing the Wine prefix

1. Open a Linux terminal and create a new Wine prefix (an instance of the Wine compatibility environment) with these commands:

   export WINEARCH=win32

   export WINEPREFIX=/full/path/to/prefix (where you want the prefix to be stored, e.g. "~/Documents/Wine/Oni"; the game itself can be installed somewhere else on your hard drive – this is just the compatibility layer for it).

   winecfg

2. This creates a 32-bit Wine prefix in the requested folder and opens a "Wine configuration" GUI tool. In the GUI tool, under the "Applications" tab, change the target Windows version to "Windows XP" and click "OK".
3. Still in the same terminal (with all the export symbols defined), tell Winetricks to execute the necessary configuration changes:

   winetricks corefonts msacm32

4. If you're going to install the AE: Still in the same terminal (with all the export symbols defined), use the "cd" command to navigate to the folder with the Java Runtime Environment installer. Install the JRE into the given Wine prefix like this (assuming the installer is named "jre-7u25-windows-i586.exe"):

   cd /full/path/to/JRE/installer

   wine jre-7u25-windows-i586.exe

5. The "Oni" Wine prefix is now ready. Remember, that in order to run either Oni or the AE Installer, the path to this prefix file must be specified (exported). If it is not specified, then the Wine session will use a default prefix file, one which is probably set to represent 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 10 (which is quite sensible for most applications, but unfortunately not good enough for Oni).

Installing Oni

Skip to the next section if you have an existing installation of Oni.

1. Insert your Oni CD-ROM into the disc drive (if installing from the CD, 2001-style ^_^).
2. Open a Linux terminal, export the "Oni" prefix file, navigate to the folder with the contents of the mounted CD, and initiate the installation process.

   export WINEPREFIX=/full/path/to/prefix

   cd /path/to/Oni/CD (you may have to open the CD in your file manager to see its path, e.g. /run/media/[user name]/001228_1801/ or /media/[user name]/001228_1801/)

   wine onisetup.exe or wine OniSetup.exe (the capitalization of the EXE varies)

3. During the installation process, it is recommended to NOT place the game inside the prefix file's compatibility environment folder (that is, do not place it anywhere on the faux "C:\" drive). Instead, choose an appropriate place somewhere in your Linux machine's directory tree. The computer's native directory tree should be mapped by default as a different faux drive (usually "Z:\").
4. The game should install without problems. When GLSetup runs and offers to install OpenGL, make sure to say "No".
5. DO NOT RUN THE GAME YET!!! An attempt to run an unpatched copy of Oni on a modern system is almost guaranteed to fail. The game needs to be patched via the AE Installer.

Installing AE Installer

This is a rather straightforward process which builds on an Oni installation.

1. Download the latest Windows version of the AE Installer from the Oni Mod Depot (click here).
2. Open a Linux terminal, export the "Oni" prefix, navigate to the folder with the AE Installer, and initiate the installation process.

   export WINEPREFIX=/full/path/to/prefix

   cd /full/path/to/folder/with/AE/Setup

   wine Anniversary-Edition-Setup-vXX.YY_ZZ.exe

3. During the AE Installer installation, there will be a prompt to provide Oni's installation directory. Navigate to the appropriate directory. Your Linux system's directory tree should be mapped to "/".
4. At the end of the installation, the AE Installer will be automatically executed and will attempt to fetch updates. During the fetching process, it may appear that the AE Installer has hanged. That is not true, it just does not indicate that there is work being done in the background. Be patient.

Launching AE Installer

The AE Installer will be automatically launched after it is installed. However, any other time you want to launch the AE Installer, open a Linux terminal, export the "Oni" prefix, navigate to the folder with the AEInstaller2Updater.jar file, and launch the .jar file through Wine Java Runtime Environment:

export WINEPREFIX=/full/path/to/prefix

cd /full/path/to/folder/with/AE/Installer

wine start /ProgIDOpen jarfile AEInstaller2Updater.jar

Patching/modding Oni via AE Installer

Simply let the AE Installer do its magic. ^_^

Launching patched Oni

There are two possible ways to launch Oni:
A. Launch the game through the AE Installer application.
B. Open a Linux terminal, export the "Oni" prefix, navigate to the folder with the patched Oni.exe file, and launch it via Wine.

export WINEPREFIX=/full/path/to/prefix

cd /full/path/to/folder/with/patched/Oni/EXE

wine Oni.exe

Troubleshooting

Gunfire kills the frame rate

Some users experience a large drop in frame rate when certain actions occur such as firing a gun. This is a sound-related bug which indicates that you didn't follow step 3 under "Preparing the Wine prefix" :-) Make sure to install msacm32 with winetricks.

Sound stutters so badly that it's mostly inaudible

This is only known to happen if you are running Linux inside of a VM, particularly Fedora Linux. The audio server, pipewire, does not allow enough headroom for virtualization. This can be fixed by making a copy of the config file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d

cp /usr/share/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua ~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d

…and then editing ~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua to change this portion of the file as follows:

 ["vm.node.defaults"] = {
   ["api.alsa.period-size"] = 2048,
   ["api.alsa.headroom"] = 16384,
 },

You may be able to get by with the numbers 1024 and 8192, but if that doesn't work, try raising them to the above figures. Unfortunately, the higher the numbers, the more latency Oni's sound will have.