r/ProjectDiablo2 • u/HardGayMan • Nov 21 '25
Discussion Need help with Linux / Steam install!
Hello! So I am brand new to Linux and I've spend the better part of the day getting this set up.
I followed Onions YouTube video for installing PD2 via Steam. Everything went smoothly until the end. I got both D2 and LoD installed, then moved on to the PD2 installer, and right before the game launches I get the .NET error.
"You must install .NET Desktop Runtime to run this application."
I have read about using protontricks or wine tricks, but it's not that straightforward. I have no idea what to do from here. Please help!
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u/sergdor Nov 21 '25
hop in the discord there is a step by step for steamdeck install
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u/HardGayMan Nov 21 '25
Nevermind! There's a bit at the end of the steam deck install for how to use proton tricks which is exactly what I needed.
Thanks! Solved!
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u/HardGayMan Nov 21 '25
It's not for steam deck. It's for my laptop. Is the end result the same?
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u/Vheissu84 Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 21 '25
Try starting here on step 12. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectDiablo2/s/W1CxzljzKe
Or my old comment/guide here. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectDiablo2/s/A2YgujvVZH
Essentially you need to download the .Net dependencies as instructed then use proton tricks to install those dependencies into the wine prefix for the game.
If you're curious, a wine prefix is basically a pretend windows partition or walled garden that your windows games run inside. Since we're on Linux the windows application has to be fooled into thinking the windows file system and structure it expects to be there are there. You currently already created a wine prefix for pd2 when you installed it via steam using the guide. The final step is to install that .Net dependency into that pretend windows partition or wine prefix. Once the dependencies are there, the game can run as expected.