I’m genuinely this desperate. I’m a working dad going to college, I just started double classes, and I’ve just spent all of my free time for the last 4 days trying to figure out how to get modded Skyrim to run on my computer. I’m not good at this, nothing I do works, and all I want is to relax and do something fun for myself.
I’ll PayPal the money, it’s not much but it’s literally twice what I paid for Skyrim itself. I’m just so desperate to have something comfortable and newish.
This might not be exactly what you are after but Enderal: Forgotten Stories, an incredible total conversion for Skyrim that in my opinion easily surpasses Skyrim in quality, is available on Steam and works out of the box.
For the Linux side, I’ve used Mod Organizer 2 on Linux via https://github.com/Furglitch/modorganizer2-linux-installer
The problem is that the Linux compatibility stuff is the first step, and as the Skyrim modding forums will tell you, getting Skyrim modded is basically a game in-and-of itself. There are various incompatibilities between different mods, load orders matter, and so forth. It’s not a low-effort path.
Like, the real answer is that I don’t think that there is really a great low-effort way to get just “modernized Skyrim” up and running. That’s not that I don’t sympathize — I think that there is real demand for someone who just wants a vanilla-with-a-lot-of-community-updates Skyrim with minimal effort and troubleshooting. I’ve done it, and it takes time to debug issues.
Also, there isn’t just one “modded Skyrim”. There are people who want to play a vanilla game, just with higher-res textures and higher-polygon models. There are people who want more changes, like cities that smoothly transition into the open world. Some people want a seriously modified game, like a survival game. There are people on LoversLab and similar who want an erotic open-world game. And those just aren’t really compatible with each other.
I have never used Wabbajack on Linux successfully — haven’t tried recently, either — but it downloads entire collections of pre-set-up mods. The idea is that it has some “pre-modded” configurations to start from that someone’s tested. You don’t get to configure everything, but in theory, it should “just work” on the Skyrim side of things, and it’s the closest to that that I’m aware of.
EDIT: It looks like Wabbajack has “unofficial Linux guides” up off their main page, so some people are clearly using it on Linux these days.
Blows my mind that there aren’t common modpacks for Skyrim. Last time I tried getting into it I spent probably a week getting everything together… then launched the game, played a couple of hours, then got distracted by life.
Never went back to it because I didn’t want to go through the exercise of maintaining it.
There ARE common mod packs that’s the entire point of wabbajack it even has Linux support.
There is zero fucking effort in modding Skyrim nowadays.
Sounds like it might be worth looking into again then.
What you’re looking for is called “Wabbajack”. It’s a pretty impressive system, because it actually pulls all the mods from their official nexus mods source, rather than requiring you get permission from every mod you want to include to be compiled into some new package that then has to be maintained and updated whenever anything updates.
It’s like setting up a full-blown, fully tweaked modlist in a single click. Really impressive solution to navigating a lot of the thorniness that would come from redistributing other people’s work in a “traditional” modpack.
Never went back to it because I didn’t want to go through the exercise of maintaining it.
You shouldn’t be actively trying to maintain it. Some mods and patchers like DynDoLOD will break if you change your load order during a playthrough.
Best practice is to get it set up and stick with it until you’re ready to start a new game
Honestly, I think that one thing that people don’t appreciate about Linux is how much work has been done on a common license front (BSD/LGPL/GPL/MIT) to help unify work, and how much work has been done by packaging and testing people, the distro guys. Like, if people had to spin their own Linux setup out of open-source repos — some on GitHub, some one SourceForge, etc — it’d be a lot harder. That’s kinda what the Skyrim modding world is like.
The Skyrim modding crowd has several sources of fragmentation, I think:
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Bethesda doesn’t actually make money off mods at all, unless it’s from the Creation Club and paid, of which there is not much. Skyrim is closed source, so they’re the only people who can work on that. My guess is that some stuff, like Skyrim Script Extender, really should have been folded into the base game…but there’s just not money in it for Bethesda, and they aren’t a volunteer project. If you look at a favorite open source game of mine, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, there are surprisingly few mods…because over the years, things that would have been “mods” for a lot of commercial games were just added to the base game.
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Bethesda has been comparatively-restrictive on what content they’ll host, so “just put a mod on Bethesda’s site” isn’t going to be a universal solution.
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NexusMods, probably the largest mod distribution site, is a company, and has no incentive to help facilitate other sources of mod distribution. So their mod managers only support automatic download of mods from NexusMods.
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Some mods are going to cause moral outrage or are even outright illegal in some places.
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Because many mods don’t allow redistribution, they can’t be moved to another site. That also limits the clients that can automatically handle them.
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Because mods generally are not under licenses that permit forking, people can’t just go out and fix some of these compatibility problems and release a fork that works.
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Sometimes people take down mods. Maybe they don’t want people to know that they were producing an erotic mod. Maybe they just get angry or frustrated and want to stop. Maybe they get in a fight with someone else. Maybe they’re doing a political protest (I remember some users doing this when Russia invaded Ukraine). With FOSS software, that’s not much of a problem, because the rest of the world can fork and continue development. That’s often not the case with Skyrim mods.
And a lot of these problems affect modding of games other than Skyrim. It’s just a particularly big problem because Skyrim is an extremely-heavily-modded game.
I’d like to see a cross-platform game-agnostic mod manager. Something that’d have enough scale that it could be maintained on an ongoing basis, past a single game’s lifetime. Support non-interactive operation, conflict resolution (automatically disabling various sets of mods, restarting game, asking user if problem is gone), downloading from a variety of sites automatically. Downloading deltas efficiently, rather than whole archives, if a user has a recent version already. Then, if any game-specific support is required, just have a small extension to add that. That won’t solve all the problems — the license problem on Skyrim mods is, I think, a big root cause — but at least it’d be a starting point.
Like, if people had to spin their own Linux setup out of open-source repos — some on GitHub, some one SourceForge, etc — it’d be a lot harder.
There’s a name for that: it’s called “Linux From Scratch.”
I’d like to see a cross-platform game-agnostic mod manager
Tbf, Mod Organizer is mostly that
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Does the Nexusmods method just not work on Linux?
Vortex mod manager doesn’t, but you can still use the api key to attach another mod manager. In theory, the only one I’ve found that allows it won’t actually download anything and doesn’t explain why.
you can install Mo2 easily via instructions here https://github.com/Anon00b/MO2
and you can install seperate instances for each game, so theres no need to manage profiles or anything.
it launches when the game starts, so you just associate it with nxm links, connect your account, and you are one click installing mods from nexus.
For the sake of the community, I ask that whoever is the one to help to post the issue/fix if possible in case it helps others in the future.
I’d offer to help myself, but I’ve only modded Skyrim on Windows so far. Some people on here have done it in Linux and thus are more qualified
If I get it working I’ll even make the tutorial myself. I just want a chance to play.
If you want, I looked up a step-by-step Youtube tutorial on how to set up Mod Organizer on Linux after I saw yohr post. Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/OEbZ3hNcoRg
Also, top comment mentions that the process is different if Steam and Proton Tricks are installed as Flatpaks. Apparently you’ll then need to give them permission to access the MO2 folder.
Hope this helps, sorry I can’t do more at the moment
Hey I actually got it going with STL and vortex, check the updated post if you’re interested. Thanks again for the help!
Getting paid to access someone’s computer by its owner… Interesting 🤔
I have no idea of how it o do it, but OP please be careful on who you let in your system. Kind strangers, be careful who’s computer you go into
As foolish as this request is, I really hope it makes a point to my desperation. Videogames are my self care and this has been eating up every minute of destress time I have for a solid week now. I’m literally too broken by my repeated failures to really mind the risk at this point.
Jesus people they didn’t ask for 20 questions, they asked you to do a thing for them. You want the $20 or not?
Honestly I’m starting to wonder if the modding community is just a hoax I’ve fallen for because every mention of it turns into this same thread. Plenty of “it works for me” and absolutely nothing substantial.
I guess I used this to install modorganizer 2 on my computer.
https://github.com/Furglitch/modorganizer2-linux-installer
I use MO2 without issue. I juste download the mods manually from nexusmod and it’s fine.
I used this one for FNV, and could download mods straight from Nexus to mod organizer.
Worked very easy for me.
before spending money: check out the software called wabbajack, which has pre-configured mod-packages you can install :)
otherwise hmu, you can hop on my discord and me or my nerdy friends will help you for free :)
Buddy, if I knew how I’d do it for free, I feel your pain.
You can skip the hassle and use this https://www.wabbajack.org/
deleted by creator
Ahh that’s on me, I didn’t notice the community this was posted to, my bad!
wabbajackwabbajackwabbajack
If you shoot me a message, I would be happy to help you out if I can, free of charge. I used to mod skyrim a lot and havnt done it on Linux yet, but I’d be willing to give it a go.
I found this github for a lutris setup with vortex: https://github.com/monyarm/lutris-skyrimse-installers … if anyone wants to figure this out for op.
It’s been so long that I forgot I’ve tried this method. My experience with lutris is actually what turned me on to bazzite. It’s fantastic for gaming so long as you don’t mind running everything in steam.
What distribution are you on? What mod manager have you tried using? And what mods are you trying to install?
Also have you tried Skyrim Anniversary edition? It has some basic built in modding capabilities.
Bazzite I’ve tried vortex, MO2, and Limo
Mods are the top 25 most downloaded quality of life, graphics, and patch mods as well as everything for Legacy of the dragonborn. I played it once a few years ago and I just want to enjoy that gain.
Edit: You can now add wabbajack to that list. I got it to run but it freezes if I click literally anything and I have to kill it to see my screen.
Mods are the top 25 most downloaded
Some of those mods are old and outdated. Not sure which off the top of my head though.
Did you install all the dependencies for these mods? Nexus should have a grey tab labelled ‘Requirements’ to link to the necessary pages. Also, some of the mods requure SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender) which is on a different site and uses a different install process.
Also, did you boot the game up before trying to start modding it? At least on Windows you need to do that first because the game generates some .dll files you need for it to work.
One more thing: which version of Skyrim did you get from Steam/GOG?
“Skyrim”, also known as “Skyrim Legendary Edition” or “LE” for short, is a 32-bit game and is listed as just “Skyrim” on Nexus Mods.
“Skyrim Special Edition”, also known as “SSE”, and “Skyrim Anniversary Edition”, also known as “AE”, are the 64-bit versions, and mods for them are listed under “Skyrim Special Edition” on Nexus Mods.
Also, SSE and AE are the same thing, assuming SSE is updated to the newest version. The only difference is that SSE comes with 4 free Creation Club mods, while AE gives you access to “all” Creation Club content.
Long story short, if you bought the 64-bit version and are trying to install mods from the 32-bit version (or vice versa), a lot of mods won’t work
I’m not entirely new to modding and I’ve done all the basics. The the big problem is that the best options for mod managers don’t run on Linux and the only options I can find on Linux either don’t work or don’t offer any explanations for why the game doesn’t work.
MO2 runs just fine for me. I don’t actually use it for Skyrim — I do that all manually — but it worked for e.g. Fallout 4 without me doing anything special. I just ran its installer the same way I’d run skse64_loader.exe using the same prefix as the game.
I had a little luck with that for fallout 4 but for some reason the text in mo2 was all so small I had to use screenshots and guesswork to navigate it and even then only half the mods worked.
You can adjust the dpi setting in winecfg to fix the font size, but in recent beta versions of proton I find it necessary to set it back to the default (and restart wine) to actually play the game.
There was one fairly popular fo4 mod that didn’t work for me, but the only skyrim one I found that seemed to have a problem with linux was nemesis, and that has now been replaced with pandora. All the other thousand or so mods I tried (currently using 600 or so) seem to work about as well as they do for anyone else.
It looks like Jackify is the answer you are looking for. It’s a tool for Linux users to install Wabbajack modlists and set up everything needed. Wabbajack is a Windows tool to install modlists for various games.
You could install mods for Skyrim one by one, but that is going to take many, many hours and at least one whole bottle of painkillers for the headaches it causes. A better solution is to download an entire modlist, and Jackify looks to be one stop solution for that. Just install and run it, choose modlist, wait for it to download and install, and just sit back and enjoy. I recommend Nordic Souls, which is about 1300 or so mods. It is a great modlist, but be warned that it takes several minutes to launch Skyrim with that modlist. To install modlists, you will need a paid subscription for Nexus Mods.
Also, make sure you have Anniversary Edition of Skyrim, or modding is going to be way more complicated.
EDIT: I almost forgot to mention that, yes, I did set up and play modded Skyrim (Nordic Souls) under Linux. But, I did it the hard way by installing SteamTinkerLaunch, ModOrganizer2 and Wabbajack. Wabbajack, especially, was problematic under Linux. But, once everything was set up, it was smooth sailing.
Wow. I’m doing the same thing right now. I bought and installed Skyrim for the first time a few days ago. Then I thought, if I’m going to play it, it should be with all the graphics mods. Which I haven’t figured out so I haven’t played.
Honestly, just play the game. You don’t need mods. If you really like the game, you can revisit mods later.
That’s usually what I do. First play through on a game I’ll do without/minimal mods. After that though… game on! My Skyrim has 141 mods now and is hardly the same game anymore.
Any chance you’d be willing to zip up your intall and send it my way?
I’m running most of the mods through Mod Organizer 2 on Skyrim Anniversary Edition on an old assed pc, so I don’t think it would work for you without a lot of effort and tinkering. it took me a lot of swearing and hair pulling to get it to work right on mine lol!
I don’t want mods to change the game. I only want mods to update the graphics.
It’s not like I’ll play it through again even if it’s great. I’m 15 years behind on games.
My advice remains exactly the same. Graphics mods are mods. Just play the game without mods. It’s still a good game.
It’s worth plying without mods if you wanna save the headache, but I’ve been playing it for 9 years now so something new would be nice.
Currently trying to mod Skyrim on Linux myself. I’ve got it to work now but it was a pain. I’m using MO2, it was really janky for a bit and still acts up a lot. I’m at the point now of always having MO2 open even if I’m not playing Skyrim, because closing and reopening it causes issues for me. Have you had any luck since posting this? I’m in the same boat as you, just a couple steps ahead, so I might be able to help out a little.
The easiest way to mod Skyrim on Linux is to install a modlist with a tool called Jackify. See my other comment for a guide. Downloading modlists will cost one month’s subscription fee to Nexus Mods, but it saves a lot of time and effort.
Mods typically have very limited scope: they often do only one small thing. And they have dependencies, and the dependencies might have dependencies. To install a mod, you need to install all the dependencies, and then you need to set them up correctly. You’ll end up reading a novel’s worth of install instructions and spending hours upon hours of your time for all of that.
Using Jackify configures the Wine/Proton prefix so that the modlist, Skyrim and ModOrganizer2 works more or less correctly. Modlists can contain hundreds of mods, and all you need to do is pay the subscription fee and Jackify takes care of the rest.
So jackify may have actually been a better option than the one I settled on as it seemed to work entirely out of the box. The only reason I didn’t use it WA’s because I’m desperately trying to play LotDB and the only packs with it were huge day long downloads that i didn’t want to commit to only to find out it didn’t work.
Tempus Maledictum might be a good modlist for you. It has Legacy of the Dragonborn, and uses Community Shaders instead of ENB, so it’s Linux friendly modlist. I had trouble with ENB, and didn’t bother to troubleshoot it to try and get it working. It’s Wabbajack modlist, so it can be installed with Jackify.
I’m no stranger to modding Skyrim, I did it a ton on windows and Xbox, it’s just MO2 specifically that I’m having issues with. I don’t mind learning mod dependencies and such, I’m used to that stuff.
That being said, I appreciate your comment and I’ll look into it a bit more. I’ve never considered mod packs before, because why waste the money if I can do it myself? But I’m in a similar situation as OP now (newborn plus work, considering school again) so maybe it’ll be worth the cost to have some free time back.
I’d say the main reason to spend the money is simply the sheer number of mods available. For example, say you want to improve the graphics to bring it closer to today’s graphical quality. How many mods do you need to install? You need mods for models, textures, animations, and you need them for characters, enemies, animals, buildings, terrains, etc. Then you also need ENB or Community Shaders, and all the required mods. That’s easily tens or hundreds of mods just to make the game look prettier. Are you going to investigate what all mods you should install, and then download, install and configure everything one by one? With a modlist, that’s 10 euros and one click, and you get more than just prettier graphics.
Fair enough. I don’t usually bother with graphics mods, I tend to stick with gameplay mods, which aren’t that hard to configure correctly. But if I decide to give Skyrim a fresh coat of paint I’ll definitely look into mod packs more.
That is entirely valid reason to not using a modlist. Little reason paying 10 euros to install couple tens of mods.
Hey, come check for my edit here some time in the next 24 hours. I managed to get something to actually work and I’m going to lay out a tutorial for it.
Maybe add [SOLVED] or something to the post title so that others know you found a working solution.
Done!
Looking forward to the update.
It’s been edited, hope it helps the next poor soul!
Glad to hear you got it to a working state!
