XWAU 2025 on Linux

Status: fully playable — X-Wing Alliance with the XWAU 2025 mod running end-to-end on Linux/wine: HD concourse with crisp text, 30fps HD cutscenes, briefings, missions and the simulator. Works with both the GOG and Steam versions of the game.

This repository hosts the Linux-specific pieces and a one-script installer. The substantive fixes live as pull requests against the XWAU code repositories, designed so that the stock Windows builds are byte-for-byte unaffected — Linux behavior comes from runtime wine detection and config keys whose defaults preserve stock behavior:

Where	What
Prof-Butts/xwa_ddraw_d3d11#125	portability fixes (enables non-MSVC builds)
Prof-Butts/xwa_ddraw_d3d11#126	WineD2DEffectShim: HD concourse + swapchain movie present under wine
JeremyAnsel/xwa_TgSmush#4	bugfixes + configurable backends + MF D3D-present mode
JeremyAnsel/xwa_hooks#20	findings + out-of-process hooks discussion
WineHQ (pending)	d2d1: custom effects render nothing — report + proposed patches

Which installer do I use?

Two installers — pick the one for where you own the game:

• Steam → install-xwau-steam.sh . Uses Steam's Proton (≥ wine-11: "Proton Hotfix" / "Experimental" / "Proton 11"), which already provides wine-11 + DXVK + libvkd3d + gstreamer codecs + wine-mono in its Steam Linux Runtime container. The script lays down the game files + config and auto-configures Steam (sets the Proton compat tool + Launch Options for you — Steam must be closed; if it's running it tells you to re-run with --steam-config-only). No bundled wine. (Be patient on the first launch — it compiles the DXVK shader cache and can look frozen for a minute; later launches are fast.)

• GOG (or any non-Steam copy) → install-xwau-linux.sh . Bundles Kron4ek wine-11 + wine-mono, and uses a GE-Proton as the DXVK + gstreamer-codec donor. It builds its own wine prefix and writes a launcher — no Steam required. See the GOG setup below.

Both installers need the two XWAU 2025 zips, which you download yourself from xwaupgrade.com: XWAU2025_Full_1.0.0.zip and XWAU2025_UPD_1.1.0.zip. By default the installer downloads the prebuilt Linux binaries from the latest release; pass --bin-dir only if you want to use a local build instead.

Get the installer

You don't need git — grab the release tarball and unpack it (the installer is a small tree of scripts, not a single file, so download the whole thing):

curl -fL https://github.com/psoetens/xwau-linux/archive/refs/tags/v0.5.2.tar.gz | tar xz
cd xwau-linux-0.5.2

That tag's scripts are pinned to download the matching prebuilt binaries, so the two always stay in sync. For a different version, swap v0.5.2 for any tag on the Releases page.

If you do have git (e.g. to contribute or track main):

git clone https://github.com/psoetens/xwau-linux.git
cd xwau-linux

GOG users: installation instructions

Download game + extract

Download the offline backup installer from your GOG account — the file named like setup_star_wars_-_x-wing_alliance_2.02_(NNNNN).exe. Do not use the small "GOG Galaxy" installer stub: it only downloads the game at runtime and can't be unpacked offline.

The offline installer is an Inno Setup archive — unpack it on Linux with innoextract (no Wine needed):

sudo apt install innoextract          # or your distro's package
cd ~/Downloads                         # wherever the setup exe lives
innoextract -I app "setup_star_wars_-_x-wing_alliance_2.02_(NNNNN).exe" # replace NNNNN with the actual filename number
# -> creates ./app/ with the vanilla game (Alliance.EXE, XWINGALLIANCE.EXE, ...)

That app/ directory is your game dir — pass it as --game-dir below.

Install Example for GOG

./install-xwau-linux.sh \
  --game-dir  ~/Downloads/app \
  --xwau-full ~/Downloads/XWAU2025_Full_1.0.0.zip \
  --xwau-upd  ~/Downloads/XWAU2025_UPD_1.1.0.zip

This builds the wine prefix, installs XWAU 2025 into the game dir (keeping a .vanilla backup next to it), downloads the Linux binaries from the release, and writes an xwa-linux-launch.sh launcher into the game dir.

Run for GOG

Go into your app/ directory and run the launch command:

cd ~/Downloads/app
./xwa-linux-launch.sh

This opens the X-Wing Alliance launcher; press Play to start the game.

Steam users: installation instructions

Purchase and Download the game

In your steam library purchase and download the original 'STAR WARS: X-Wing Alliance' game.

Then close Steam.

Install Example for Steam

./install-xwau-steam.sh \
  --xwau-full ~/Downloads/XWAU2025_Full_1.0.0.zip \
  --xwau-upd  ~/Downloads/XWAU2025_UPD_1.1.0.zip

The script will find your Steam installation from above and do the proper steps. If you did not close Steam, it will refuse to run.

Run from Steam

Re-launch steam and press the PLAY button of the 'STAR WARS: X-Wing Alliance' game.

Uninstalling

--remove restores the original (vanilla) game from the backup the installer made at first run (kept alongside the game dir as <game-dir>.vanilla):

./install-xwau-steam.sh --remove          # Steam copy
./install-xwau-linux.sh --remove          # GOG / standalone copy

• On Steam, it also clears the compat tool + launch options the installer set, so Steam must be fully closed — the installer aborts up front if Steam is running (pass --no-steam-config to skip touching Steam's config and run with Steam open).
• The Proton prefix (compatdata/<appid>) and the standalone wine prefix are left in place — they're reused on the next launch/install. Delete them yourself if you want a completely clean slate.
• Your pilots and settings are kept — the installer preserves your pilots (UserData/XWAU/Pilot/) and config files (config.cfg, effect/cockpit .cfgs, etc.) across the restore. Only Hooks.ini is regenerated (it's mod-managed; your resolution/preset choices come back from the recorded install options).
• Note: a pilot kept after --remove stays in the XWAU location (UserData/XWAU/Pilot/). The pilot format is identical to the original game, but a pure-vanilla X-Wing Alliance looks for pilots in the game root — copy the .plt there if you want to fly it without the mod.

Upgrading (reinstall)

--reinstall reuses the XWAU zip paths and options (ratio / preset / resolution) recorded in <game-dir>/.xwau-install.json at first install, so you don't re-pass the ~6.6 GB --xwau-full / --xwau-upd arguments:

cd xwau-linux-0.5.2                        # the newer release you downloaded
./install-xwau-steam.sh --reinstall        # tears down the old version, installs this one

• To upgrade: download the newer release (see Get the installer), cd into it, and run --reinstall. It cleans up the currently-installed version and lays down the new one — reusing the mod zips you already have.
• Your pilots and settings carry over — reinstall preserves your pilots and config files and re-applies the new version's required settings on top; only Hooks.ini is regenerated.
• Pass --xwau-full / --xwau-upd (or --ratio / --preset / --resolution) to override what the manifest recorded — e.g. if you moved the zip files.
• If you first installed with a build that predates the manifest (no .xwau-install.json in the game dir), the first --reinstall needs --xwau-full / --xwau-upd passed explicitly; after that it's recorded.
• On Steam, close Steam first (same reason as --remove).

Troubleshooting

• HD cutscenes are black (audio only): GE's 32-bit cutscene codecs need a slice of the host's 32-bit (multilib) userland that GE itself does not ship. The standalone installer checks for it up front — before any large download — and if it's missing it stops and prints the exact one-line apt/dnf/pacman command to install it (pass --skip-codec-check to install anyway with audio-only cutscenes). Two libraries are staged automatically into <game-dir>/.linux-lib32/ because no distro ships them under the name GE wants — libvpx.so.6 (soname retired everywhere) and libbz2.so.1.0 (Fedora patches bzip2's soname to libbz2.so.1); if neither a local copy nor the release asset is available, drop them there by hand. Note on immutable/atomic distros (Bazzite, Silverblue): the needed 32-bit libs usually ship preinstalled, so this rarely triggers — avoid layering codec libs with rpm-ostree unless the check actually flags something.
• The game exits immediately: X-Wing Alliance quits if no joystick/controller is connected — plug one in.
• First launch is slow / briefly shows the desktop: it's compiling the DXVK shader cache (one time; later launches are fast). The installer already silences GNOME's "not responding" popup for the duration. If the brief desktop flash bothers you, launching under gamescope avoids it (optional).

What's in this repo

• hook-patcher-native/ — a native (unmanaged) C++ reimplementation of XWAU's managed hook_patcher. The upstream one is a managed IJW assembly that bootstraps the CLR in DllMain; the native port removes that so the game can run under wine-mono (no ~400 MB dotnet48 install). See its README.
• installer/ — shared installer logic (common.sh, Steam auto-config).
• tools/ — the standalone launcher template.
• docs/ — architecture notes and the historical 32-bit memory-pressure limitation.

Requirements (summary)

• X-Wing Alliance (GOG or Steam) + the XWAU 2025 zips
• wine-11 — needed for HD-video Media Foundation and the in-process hooks. The standalone installer bundles it (Kron4ek); the Steam installer uses Proton.
• A CLR runtime in the prefix: wine-mono (default) or dotnet48
• DXVK (32-bit DLLs for the game) + 32-bit Vulkan drivers

License

MIT (this repository). The prebuilt binaries are built from the MIT upstream projects plus the PR branches above. ShimBitmapPS.hlsl inside the ddraw binary is a port of xwa_hook_concourse's BitmapPixelShader (see Prof-Butts/xwa_ddraw_d3d11#126 for provenance discussion).