Linux QuickStart / FAQs

stuff to know that get asked frequently

Updated 1 day ago Edit Page Revisions

Where to get the engine

  1. get the binary builds https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/linux
  2. compile from source https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine
  • follow instructions on the repo. don't do as root (do not use sudo). (Clone, ./Setup.sh, ./GenerateProjectFiles.sh, make, wait. done.)

How good does it works?

Depens on your needs. It's usable, stable and production ready. There are some features that don't work as well (or at all) compared to windows. (TODO make a list)

Which editor?

Associations

You can edit a config file, with the version number instead of the UUID, and projects will open normally. (TODO expand) You need an entry in ~/.config/Epic/UnrealEngine/Install.ini which point on your engine directory, so that it can find the associated engine (-Ben) Then on the .uproject file you can use the version instead.

What are the requirements? What machine do i need?

https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/linux-development-requirements-for-unreal-engine

Unreal is a demanding engine. So be it requires a good amound of hard-disk, cpu, gpu, and ram to function well. Running on laptops (or trying to run on steamdeck) won't be without some annoyonces.

Which distro works?

  • k/ubuntu, gentoo, arch, fedora, others. stability varies. depends on each person. ubuntu is the default used by epic.

Wayland/X11

X11 has the best support. Wayland has some issues, it's not recommended.

Drivers

nVidia drivers 555/560/565 have known issues with Unreal Engine on Linux, 550 is recommended. 565.77 (the .77 release specifically) has been reported to work well. check the official nVidia forum threads for more informations and updates [555] [560] [565]

amd haven't been mentioned much. potentially works just fine.

But, depending on your workflow and distro they might just work fine. Some bugs affect only Wayland, others only X11.

Windows packaging: Can i package to windows?

Not directly. Licence issue with MS includes (afaik).

You can by using a virtual machine. Does not need to have gpu access. Virtualbox or QEmu/KVM works fine.

With QEmu you can use passthrough PCI to have a dedicated gpu, but you'll need an extra gpu card on your machine.

You trigger the packaging via command line. Something like this on a bat file works.

pushd %UNREAL_ENGINE_ROOT% || exit /b 1
call ./Engine/Build/BatchFiles/RunUAT.bat BuildCookRun -project="%WORKSPACE%/%PROJECT_NAME%.uproject" -noP4 -platform=Win64 -clientconfig=%CONFIG% -serverconfig=%CONFIG% -clean -cook -allmaps -build -stage -pak -stage -stagingdirectory="%WORKSPACE%/Build/" -AdditionalCookerOptions="-cookprocesscount=4"
popd

Test

To test the build you can use Proton through steam, or bottles.

Launcher

There are two replacement for the ue launcher.

When installing from source, you get context-menu actions on kde.

Fab

UI Scale and HighDPI

When running on high dpi (4k), the ui might look tiny. Here are some options:

  • On 5.4 (at least, but not on 5.2) There's a functionality on the engine. Editor Preferences> Appearance > Application Scale.
  • There are a few plugins around that does it, but for previous versions. On github they are free and a few. ** https://github.com/zouiqad/UE5_Plugin-EditorUIScale

Others

Projects

if you put this in ~/.config/Unreal Engine/UnrealBuildTool/ you can control which project files get generated, i have mine set for MakeFiles and Rider to keep things a little cleaner.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Configuration xmlns="https://www.unrealengine.com/BuildConfiguration">
    <ProjectFileGenerator>
        <Format>Make+Rider</Format>
    </ProjectFileGenerator>
</Configuration>

More info

Common issues

Wayland issue right click can't type

" If you are on KDE Plasma + Wayland and are experiencing a bug where the right click Blueprint menu won't let you type initially, go into System Settings -> Application Permissions -> Legacy X11 App Support and change Allow legacy X11 apps to read keystrokes typed in all apps to Always It warns about a security risk however if you know what X11 apps you're running you're fine. " https://discord.com/channels/187217643009212416/375022233875382274/1317022288062709781 https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue5-3-cannot-input-text-find-function-on-linux-wayland/1799561/8?u=nande

image

Issue with mouse acceleration

On some systems (gnome at least. x11 at least) mouse acceleration can create issues. For example adding some offset on certain tasks.

Issue with locked fps at 60

Try resizing the window, happens on some vulkan apps. https://discord.com/channels/187217643009212416/375022233875382274/1335780797550166117 Someone was going to report a bug, not sure what happened.

Issue with packaging error on random files, specially on .generated.h

Disable UBA.

Create a new file named ~/.config/Epic/UnrealBuildTool/BuildConfiguration.xml containing the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<Configuration xmlns="https://www.unrealengine.com/BuildConfiguration">
    <BuildConfiguration>
        <bAllowUBAExecutor>false</bAllowUBAExecutor>
        <bAllowUBALocalExecutor>false</bAllowUBALocalExecutor>
    </BuildConfiguration>
</Configuration>