Skip to main content [Guide] So, you want to play MTGO on Linux : r/MTGO
Go to MTGO
r/MTGO •
Eldebryn

[Guide] So, you want to play MTGO on Linux

For the record I'm gaming with Arch Linux on a hybrid Intel/Nvidia (optimus) laptop, for which I'm just using the nvidia non-free drivers and ignore the iGPU.

The following gives me the best/smoother experience and I thought I'd share.

  1. Install Lutris through your package manager, if you haven't already.

  2. Go to https://lutris.net/games/magic-the-gathering-online/ and install the "Regular" version. The "Latest" didn't work for me at all. Even though "Regular" says you need to manually select the executable that wasn't the case for me and we won't be needing that.

  3. Out-of-the-box, this seems to work through Lutris, but seems to have poor performance and frequent freezes where the MTGO client becomes unresponsive for quite a few minutes. If it works fine for you, no need to read further :)

    • At this step, you can experiment with disabling DXVK, D3D and/or the Lutris Runtime through the "right click > configure" menu of the game as seen here. Again, if this provides a great experience, you can stop reading.

  4. If you still experience freezes, follow the advice from zaart's comment on the lutris page:

Same here, but disabling DXVK/VKD3D isn't sufficient for me. It makes it so MTGO doesn't immediately crash, but it still gets much slower, and will frequently crash. It looks like launching mtgo without lutris (after lutris install) fixes it though ("$:WINEPREFIX=$(pwd -P) wine ./drive_c/MTGO/setup.exe" in the correct folder). Disabling Lutris Runtime isn't enough either

Effectively, to make things easier for me I created a small script file to launch the game based on the directory that I installed it in, which seems to offer the best run so far.

mtgo.sh contents and then marked as executable: 

#!/bin/bash
WINEPREFIX=/home/<user_DIR>/Games/magic-the-gathering-online wine /home/<user_DIR>/Games/magic-the-gathering-online/drive_c/MTGO/setup.exe

You need to be a bit careful with the exact path leading to the drive_c created by Lutris' installation but it should be good once you do.

Hope this helps somebody out there. :)

34 comments
victor_marcian0
•

In case some one comes here as I did, I`ll tell how i made it functional in my case: I've been tweaking playing on linux but I used to have the floating dialogues to not apear for me until i reached this configuration:

Pop OS 22.04 - Intel and NVidia Gpus (i`m on a notebook) - Lutris.

> Using MTGO latest from lutris.## Configure > Runner options:

  • Disabled all graphics

  • wine version: lutris-GE-proton8-14x86_64

## Configure > System options:

  • Disable Lutris Runtime: true

  • Prefer system libraries: true

  • restrict the number of cpu cores: false

Now the game is working fine with good performance and all the visual itens necessary to play are displaying.Thanks u/Eldebryn for the tips!

4
Oxtarius
•

I am using Pop!OS too and got it to be running fine.

My issue comes from when browsing my collection. When i mouse hover cards, the program looks like it closes then pops back up every single time i hover another card.

Did you experience this kind of behavior?

Still trying to find out how to prevent it from happening.

1
Continue this thread Continue this thread
[deleted]
•

Hey I used the latest version and have an issue where the eula disclaimer won't load was that your issue as well? Gonna try this when I get home!

2
Eldebryn
•

Huh no I've never seen that before. Admittedly I had performance/freezes with most DEs/window managers except Openbox so I ended up going with a VM for Mtgo to avoid losing every 3rd match or so :/.

1
Continue this thread Continue this thread
SolarDynasty
•

So NET ends up going into an install loop when I try to install it...

1
x2kawaii4u
•

In the event someone trying to use this guide as of 2025 just update the installer json "{"filename":"setup.exe","url":"https://mtgo.patch.daybreakgames.com/patch/mtg/live/client/setup.exe?v=15"}}]" field with the new download link. Does not run well within wayland, try using x11 instead.

1
[deleted]
•

cute dog

1
Eldebryn
•

Freaking imgur...

This is the correct image but I'm not allowed to edit the post I think. Maybe r/MTGO mods can help.

1
Continue this thread Continue this thread
operyion
•

One of things I have had trouble with is the mouse dropping inputs (of at least it feels like that). Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Other than that this has also worked for me.

1
Continue this thread