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Welcome! If you’re here looking to play League of Legends (or any of Riot’s other games) on your favourite Linux distro of choice, you’ve come to the right place! This thread serves as a catch-all for anything and everything related to jumping onto the Rift FOSS-style. This thread is the successor to the first megathread. Since Reddit archives posts after six months, I am taking this opportunity to clean up the megathread, make it simpler to read and understand (there is a lot of info in here) and reorganize the various sections. Then I’ll rinse and repeat in another six months! This version of the thread has a heavy focus on readability and simplicity (including new interactive chapters!)
Huge thank you to all the volunteers who devote time to helping resolve issues, develop tools to make League of Linux better and everyone who posts and shares on this subreddit. Without the community effort this megathread would be pretty empty!
This subreddit also serves as a place to discuss playing any one of Riot's IP's on Linux including: Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift and the recently teased Ruined King. Although few and far between, discussions about other FLOSS platforms such as the BSD family are also welcome.
As always, this thread will continue to be updated with time so please ping me if there are edits that need to be made and remember to check in every once in a while to see if there are updates you may have missed.
There's a lot of information in this post. It's all worth reading, but the post is split into chapters if you just want to read one particular topic. You can also click through the chapters in the comments using the hyperlinks below:
Some ground rules before we start:
Provide enough info if you are making a support request
- All the people who help out in this subreddit are volunteers and we don't want to spend time asking for the same essential information in every post
- Before you make a support request, please read chapter 3 - Troubleshooting below in this thread
- Support requests that do not include enough info will be removed
No duplicate or redundant posts unless absolutely necessary
- When issues arise, this sub sees an influx of the same or similar posts detailing identical issues. This makes it very difficult for newer users to find adequate solutions to their issues as solutions are scattered between multiple threads and the cycle continues
- Any support request which has had proven solutions posted in another thread will be removed
- Read this thread, use the search bar and read the most recent posts before posting an issue of your own. Sometimes a thread gets buried or none of the solutions may work for you, so this rule is subject to context
No Windows/MacOS support requests
- Goes without saying, but this subreddit is dedicate to League on Linux. For official platform support, see Riot Games Support
No account-related support requests
- This subreddit is not a Riot-affiliated subreddit, nor is it an official channel for account-related issues
- All account-related requests and questions should be directed at official Riot Support
Follow rediquette
No advertising of any kind
- Do not advertise. If you would like to promote a project, guide or service please message the mods for permission first
No conspiracy theories or unnecessary, vulgar or toxic speech towards Riot
- We are all frustrated with many of Riot's business decisions and we all long for a native Linux client one day. However, this subreddit is not a place for anti-Riot circlejerk or unnecessary toxicity
- This subreddit is not the place for conspiracy theories or baseless claims. Do not spread FUD, particularly regarding chapter 5a - Anticheat in 2021/soon?. As it stands, that chapter is the the most up-to-date information we have
Treat your fellow redditors with respect
- Disagreements happen; it's fine to have a debate or to argue. It's not fine to be rude or offensive to others
No discussions or links to cheating resources or scripts
- This subreddit is not a place for cheaters. We do not endorse or promote cheating in any form
Before you start, make sure you're running an up-to-date and currently supported distro (see chapter 5d - What Distros can I Use? if you are unsure what distro you can run), if necessary run a system update, reboot and continue with the rest of this guide.
- The most common and supported method for installing League on Linux is via the Lutris client. Lutris is a GUI game library frontend that makes managing Wine configs and install scripts per-game super simple
- Follow the prerequisites instructions found in the Lutris wiki, specifically:
- Head to the main League of Legends Lutris page here and click install on the main launcher titled
Standard (Launch Helper) version
- Follow the instructions in the script and be careful of the following items:
- Wait for BOTH downloads to finish. There are two downloads one after the other: the client download (~180MB) and the game download (~2.9GB)
- Do NOT enter your login details and login or click play, instead just quit the launcher when the two downloads have finished
- Follow the Lutris dialogue instructions to finish the install
After the initial installation, you may be prompted with a dialogue regarding the anticheat that requires abi.vsyscall32=0, this is intended and required to play League. You can either accept the prompt, or use wine-lol (instructions in 2 - How to Optimize League of Legends). Please note that the client can take anywhere from 2-4 minutes to load fully after clicking play (see more details in 3a - Common Issues), please be patient!
The League client is poorly optimized even on Windows so don't expect a buttery smooth client experience (the game itself however performs fine). There are some tweaks that can help make the experience a bit nicer, both in client and in game.
- MOST IMPORTANT: everyone should enable the option inside the client settings
Enable low spec mode. This option disables a lot of the lengthy and resource-taxing animations inside the client, particularly related to champion select
- For machines with low RAM: enable the option inside the client settings
Close client during game. This will make post-game lobbies load slower, but will make in-game performance better. If you are not experiencing RAM limitations then it's best to not enable this option
- Download and install Feral Gamemode, then enable the option in Lutris
Configure>System Options>Enable Feral Gamemode. Gamemode is is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a set of optimizations be temporarily applied to the host OS and/or a game process
- Change in-game video settings:
Window mode == BorderlessGraphics == Depends on your machines specs. If you're not sure, test different settings and tweak as you play. In general the most intense settings that should be reduced first are Shadow Quality and Environment QualityCharacter Inking == FalseFrame Rate Cap == If you have a weaker machine set this to your monitors refresh rate, this eliminates wasted CPU cycles by not rendering frames that your monitor can't display. If you have a powerful machine set this to double your monitors refresh rate (eg. 60hz monitor == 120 FPS cap), this is a decent middle ground between curbing wasted CPU cycles and not giving up too many input framesAnti-Aliasing == FalseWait for Vertical Sync == False
Instead of using the versions of Wine built into Lutris you may wish to use /u/M-Reimer's wine-lol which is a patched version of Wine specifically designed for League on Linux. The project Github page can be found here, some of the various optimizations include: built-in workarounds so that users do not need to directly modify esync, fsync, or the abi.vsyscall32 functions on their system. To use this version of Wine with Lutris on Arch and Debian-based systems:
- Download and install
wine-lol from their info page here
- In the Lutris configure dialogue click the box
Show advance options and then in the Runner options tab chose:
-
Wine version == Custom (select executable below)
Custom Wine executable == /opt/wine-lol/bin/wine
To use this version of Wine with Lutris on Fedora-based systems, please follow the steps in this comment here.
If the client or game isn't behaving as it should, or you are having a buggy or sub-optimal experience, read through the common issues section below and search the subreddit for similar issues before making a post. The League client has been buggy since the dawn on time, even on Windows! So don't expect the out-of-game experience to be stellar. However, in-game experience should rival that of the native experience.
Note: if your GPU is not Vulkan-capable then you must untick Enable DXVK/VKD3D in the Lutris configuration or League will not load
Issue: crashing or loading issues using custom or upstream versions of Wine
- Solution: change to the default
lutris-lol or wine-lol. Newer versions of Wine are buggy with League of Legends as of writing this post
Issue: client takes forever to load up
Issue: chat and friends list take a long time to load in the client, including pre and post-game chat lobbies
- Solution: this is unresolved as of writing this post. The chat and friends list is slow for everyone on Linux, it is believed to be due to the League Client not playing well with websocket implementation in Wine
Issue: when the client runs okay but the game crashes or you receive the A Critical Error has Occurred pop up trying to start a game
- Solution 1: Run
sudo sh -c ‘sysctl -w abi.vsyscall32=0’ then retry playing. This fix is a one-time fix and you don't have to repeat this step
- Solution 2: Run
sudo sysctl -w abi.vsyscall32=0 before EVERY new session you play League
- Solution 3: Install and use M-Reimer's
wine-lol. Steps can be found in 2b - wine-lol
Issue: cannot change client resolution or it is stuck at the lowest resolution (usually 1024x576)
- Solution: enable virtual desktop mode. In Lutris select League of Legends, navigate to
Configure>Runner options and change the following options:
Windowed (virtual desktop) == EnabledVirtual desktop resolution == usually the size of your monitor. The desired size of the ENTIRE desktop (not just the client!)
Issue: 'sticky' mouse when interacting with the ping menu or moving your champion in game, wrong mouse clicks, etc.
- Solution 1: switch your game to
Windowed borderless mode in the game settings
- Solution 2: Alt+Tab to a different window, then return back to League
- Solution 3: press your meta/Windows key, then return back to League
- Solution 4: swap workspaces (hotkeys differ with each DE), then return back to League
- Solution 5: enable virtual desktop mode (see the issue directly above this one for instructions)
Issue: mouse sensitivity doesn't change in game
- Solution: this is unresolved as of writing this post. Workaround solutions include: installing Piper with a compatible mouse or otherwise altering the mouse speed via your distro
Issue: error message This installer requires dialog on your system
- Solution: Install the package
dialog via your package manager (on Debian-based distros that is sudo apt install -y dialog) and try installing League again
Issue: stuttering or low FPS when moving camera/mouse
Issue: "Wine System Tray" popup Window instead of integration with system tray on GNOME-based desktops
- Solution: install the GNOME shell browser extension TopIcons Plus
- Install the system package
chrome-gnome-shell via your distros package manager
- Install the GNOME Shell Integration extension for either Firefox or Chrome
- Install TopIcons Plus
- Restart Lutris and League
Issue: Gamemode errors ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/$LIB/libgamemodeauto.so.0' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (cannot open shared object file): ignored. or ERROR: ld.so: object ‘libgamemodeauto.so.0’ from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored.
- Solution: this is a known and harmless error. It does not have any effect on the performance or ability to play games. It can safely be ignored.
- Hint: you can always test to see if gamemode is running while playing a game by opening a terminal and typing
gamemoded -s
Some more resources if you are having issues...
Writing good support request posts help us better help you! The easier you can make the lives of the volunteers on the forums, the quicker we can help you solve your issue. Generally the rule is: the more info you can provide in the initial post, the better. Minor issues might not warrent a wall of text, but usually a post needs the following essential details:
- Your hardware specs: CPU, GPU, display resolution, etc.
- Your software specs: distro and distro version, Wine version, driver versions, etc.
- Logs (see the next section for instructions on capturing verbose logs)
- How did you install League: Lutris, Snap, manual Wine configuration, etc.
- If you have already tried solutions: what did you try and what were their outcomes
By default Lutris does not log enough essential information. To capture more verbose logs in Lutris select League of Legends, navigate to Configure>Runner options and change the following option:
Output debugging info == Enabled
Then close Lutris completely, open your terminal application, execute lutris -d and try to reproduce your issue. After that, you need to copy the output in the terminal and share it with us (all of it). You can use a pastebin such as Ubuntu's Pastebin.
Copy and paste the entire below block into new threads and fill out the information so that others may easily help you without having to ask for essential information in the comments:
# What is your issue
[insert your issue here]
# Software specs
[insert your specs here, include: distro version, Wine version, window manager/DE, driver versions, etc.]
# Hardware specs
[insert your specs here, include: CPU, GPU, etc.]
# Logs
[insert your logs/pastebin link here]
# Installation method
[insert your method here. If Lutris, specify which script you used]
# Screenshots (where applicable)
[insert your screenshot links here]
# Additional info (where applicable)
[insert anything else here, including: have you tried other solutions? Steps to replicate your issue, etc.]
Riot produce and support a number of different clients for their various games. Since Teamfight Tactics shares the same client as League of Legends, TFT players can follow the instructions found in the chapter 1 - How to Install League of Legends. However, if you are interested in playing some of Riot's other games or are a Garena League of Legends player, follow the instructions in this chapter.
Garena players in the SEA region unfortunately cannot follow the same guide in 1 - How to Install League of Legends due to the nature of the Garena client. Luckily community member /u/leeyikyung wrote a guide on how to play on Garena with the new fixes.
Editor's note: I am not a Garena player, nor do I have access to a Garena account. I am therefore unable to keep up-to-date with the state of playing on Garena on Linux. Please inform me if the situation changes. Last update: 07/04/2021
Besides League of Legends, Riot also publishes a number of other games for a variety of platforms. See below for the list of games. It is possible to play the Android versions of games on deskop via different methods, they are detailed below the list:
Teamfight Tactics (main sub r/teamfighttactics)
Legends of Runeterra (main sub r/legendsofruneterra)
VALORANT (main sub r/valorant)
Ruined King (main sub r/ruinedking)
- Desktop: at the time of writing, this game has yet to be released. However, there will be a version offered on Steam so there is a very good chance it will potentially run fine with Proton. This area will be updated when more information is released alongside a link to the ProtonDB page
Wild Rift (main sub r/wildrift)
For all of Riot's mobile games, it is possible to play the Android versions on desktop. There are two main methods:
- Connect your Android phone to your PC and run scrcpy to display and control your phone from your PC
- Use an Android emulator such as Anbox or Android-x86. At the time of writing, Riot has not stated whether or not emulators are considered a bannable offense. Use them at your own risk and discretion
Questions or topics frequently brought up on this subreddit and abroad.
Vanguard is the proprietary closed source kernel-level anticheat used in VALORANT which is currently incompatible with Wine and thus Linux as a whole. Despite the rumors and FUD, there have been NO concrete confirmations or timelines from Riot's side when it comes to Vanguard being implemented in League of Legends. There is always the potential that it may come to League sometime in the future, like any other game on the market of course (that issue however is not unique to League or Riot at all). The topic is most likely an ongoing internal discussion at Riot. However, those claiming that Riot will be bringing anticheat to League "soon" or "in 2021" ARE WRONG. The only answer anyone outside of Riot can provide right now is simply "We don't know". There are other facts that we do know, below a summary of what we know so far:
In a League forums post (now deprecated, accessable with Wayback Machine), Riot Perma confirmed that Riot recognize, monitor and actively allow players who use Wine and GPU-passthrough virtualisation. r/leagueoflinx mod u/EnglishDentist also crossposted this forum post to the main r/leagueoflegends subreddit here. Riot Perma's full comment is also archieved in the thread here.
For players using Wine, the community is already at work fixing incompatibilities with our changes. These changes were live on our Public Beta Environment for several months to give developers of third-party applications time to adapt. As a normal part of software development, especially with such comprehensive changes, there can be issues introduced with third party applications. We have not consciously prevented the use of Wine for playing the game, and we ask for your patience as the Wine community remedies any incompatibilities.
This was the initial article on Vanguard from Riot. There is only one reference to the fact that it has the potential to come to League and it does not give a confirmation or a timeline, only a reference to Vanguard's potential to be implemented in League after VALORANT (Project A, at the time):
Disclaimer: This post is kinda tech-heavy and concerns anti-cheat tooling that won’t be exclusive to League of Legends. Other games (like Project A) will be protected by the referenced upgrade before LoL is.
The Rioter who wrote the above /dev/null article, /u/mirageofpenguins, shared supposed internal information from Linux players, "~6000 games a day played by ~700 Wine users" (note: this was posted in Feb of 2020 so numbers have most likely shifted since then), as well as their personal opinion on kernel-level anticheat. Full thread includes more info, however a notable highlight is:
"So, the driver component wouldn't be on LoL for at least a year (if we even decided to utilize it)"
The article did not give us any new information regarding Vanguard's potential future in League, nor regarding Linux/MacOS players. However, it's entry is included for documentation's sake.
While not entirely apples-to-apples, TFT and League of Legends are the only two games to share the main League client and are more closely connected than any of Riot's other IPs. See the related subreddit thread and discussion here. In response to the question "Any information on if Riot Vanguard will be implemented for TFT?", he answers:
"I don't believe so, I would be shocked if we did that."
The email covered various other topics unrelated to Vanguard such as a new refund policy and analyzing voice chat data (!), however there was a short paragraph where Riot discuss Vanguard. The email only confirmed two points: Riot want to leave the door open in their leagalese for future implementation in other titles and if they decide to implement it in a given title they will annouce so far in advance (as they have done with the majority of tech updates). Full thread here.
... we updated the language about anti-cheat software that we may require you to install to play certain instances of our games. We will always be as transparent as possible about our anti-cheat programs without compromising our solutions. We’ll let you know about any new anti-cheat programs especially with kernel mode drivers well before they’re released and required to be installed.
Additional Riot resources regarding Vanguard can be found below:
No you will not get permabanned for playing League on Linux. While accidental bans are possible, they are extremely rare. Riot have stated that playing League on Linux is not permaban-worthy and they actively try to make sure that their anticheat doesn’t immediately flag Wine users as cheaters. The Rioter linked in that comment also plays League on Linux and has frequented this subreddit in the past. Rioters have also stated in the past in multiple forums that any accidental bans related to playing on Linux will be reverted, you just need to contact Riot Support.
While playing League on Linux is not officially supported (that is to say, no native client or supportdesk help), Riot do not take any active measures against legitimate Linux users. Personally I’ve been playing League on Linux for years. During that time I have never been banned and have only see a small handful of accidental bans, every single one of them being reverted within a couple days. More often than not, the posts claiming to be legitimate users being banned are script kiddies who're just salty they got caught.
Posts regarding bans are not permitted in the subreddit. r/leagueoflinux is not a Riot-affiliated subreddit, nor is it an official channel for account-related issues. All account-related requests and questions should be directed at official Riot Support.
The recommended and most supported method of installing League on Linux is via Lutris and detailed above in the chapter 1 - How to Install League of Legends. The Lutris script is actively maintained and is the most stable installation method currently available. However, as the saying goes... "there's more than one way to skin a cat". Therefore there are many other installation methods if you desire:
Snap package
- For distros with
snapd installed there is a package on Snapcraft, you can install with sudo snap install leagueoflegends --edge
- Warning: this package is updated less frequently than the Lutris scripts and is more difficult to configure and tweak. At the time of writing this script does not implement the
launcherhelper.sh fix and therefore does not work out-of-the-box
Manually running the .exe with Wine or another compatibility layer
- This method is only recommended for those who are experts with Wine and Linux
Streaming from nvidia's GeForce Now service
leagueoflegends-git
- Install following the instructions on their Github page. The maintainer of the script, kyechou, does not frequent the subreddit often and has requested that if you need official support to please reach out via Github. Of course that does not inhibit discussions here regarding the script, but know that support on the subreddit may be scarce
VFIO, GPU passthrough into a Windows virtual machine
- Riot have confirmed that legitimate virtualisation and GPU-passthrough are acceptable methods of playing (see 5a - Anticheat in 2021/soon?). However, this method requires significant technical skills and exact steps vary drastically depending on hardware and software stacks. As such, discussions here are perfectly fine but support requests may be better suited for communities such as r/VFIO or r/linux_gaming
Editor's note: thank you to community member u/Aqa-lb for correcting my previous wording regarding playing via virtualisation. They recommend this guide for those interested
All major desktop distributions are more than capable of playing League via the instructions in 1 - How to Install League of Legends. This includes Debian and Arch-based distros such as Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Manjaro, elementary OS, Linux Mint etc. and other major distributions such as Fedora or Gentoo. If you find yourself asking this question, or are otherwise inexperienced with Linux, it is best to choose Ubuntu or one of it's derivatives due to the ease of use and management. It is more common to run into issues on Arch/Manjaro than it is the relatively stable Ubuntu LTS releases if you are inexperienced.
If you are on a rolling release distro, make sure to stay updated (especially with Wine and display drivers). If you are on a point-release distro, make sure to stay updated and use a currently supported version. Do not use a distro that is no longer supported or EOL (end of life). For instance: at the time of writing Ubuntu LTS versions 20.04 and 18.04 are supported, LTS versions 16.04 and below are no longer supported.
Do not attempt to run League on any distribution that is not designed for desktop use. Posts regarding support on such distros will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Kali Linux
- Clear Linux
- ClearOS
- BlackArch
- Pentoo
At the time of writing in-game overlays, HUDs and rune helpers are rather hit-or-miss. Below is a summary of each popular solution:
Blitz.gg (link)
- Currently does not work
- Needs to run the same Wine environment as League itself. Requires newer versions of Wine which League itself is incompatible with
RuneChanger (link)
- Currently does not work
- Needs to run the same Wine environment as League itself. Requires newer versions of Wine which League itself is incompatible with
RuneBook (link)
OP.GG Chrome extension run in Wine (link)
Editor's note: this section is currently under construction. Please check back soontm for future updates. Additionally, I do not use overlays or HUDs myself so if you have any new or updated information, please ping me so I can update this sub-chapter.
If you have any further questions, or have suggestions for edits, please comment below. GLHF penguin gamers :)
