How To: Zwift on Debian Linux

[Tommy_Miland (Tommy)]

How to Zwift on Debian 11

Here’s a guide on how to make Zwift run on Debian 11, together with all the settings.

Using:

Wine 7.18 (Staging)

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 

Add winehq repo and run:

sudo apt install wine-staging-amd64 wine-staging-i386 wine-staging winehq-staging

or

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Add Lutris repo and install latest: Lutris 0.5.11

Install Zwift and Wine dependencies using Lutris script, but do not launch Zwift: Zwift - Lutris

Note: If you’re having issues installing, you could install Zwift on a windows PC and copy all the files into the wineprefix. (I did)

Settings:

• Runner options: Use system wintricks (20220411-next)

• Download the latest winetricks script (master=“latest version”) from Github:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks

• Mark the winetricks script (we’ve just downloaded) as executable. See:
  https://www.tldp.org/LDP/GNU-Linux-Tools-Summary/html/x9543.htm

chmod +x winetricks

• Move the winetricks script to a location which will be in the standard user PATH. See:
  https://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html

sudo mv winetricks /usr/bin

• Runner options: Turn on Windowed (virtual desktop) and set resolution.

  • This will allow ALT + TAB to other windows while in game without it minimizing when used with Borderless gaming.
  • System options: Disable Lutris Runtime

• Run:

WINEPREFIX=/home/tommy/Games/zwift winetricks -q -v d3dcompiler_47 dotnet20 dotnet40 dotnet48

Includes d3dcompiler_47 (workaround crash issue)

• Download WebView2 Evergreen Standalone installer: Microsoft Edge WebView2 | Microsoft Edge Developer
• In Lutris, Run EXE inside Wine prefix and install the downloaded MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe

Next up:

• Duplicate the Zwift game in Lutris and edit it
• Change the name to Zwift Launcher
• Edit the Executable to the path of ZwiftLauncher.exe (~/Games/zwift/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Zwift/ZwiftLauncher.exe)
• Remove the arguments
• Save

Credits to this Reddit post

Added bonus: Borderless Gaming

• Download BorderlessGaming9.5.6_admin_setup.exe to wineprefix

• In Lutris, Run EXE inside Wine prefix and install the downloaded BorderlessGaming9.5.6_admin_setup.exe

• In Lutris, click on the + sign in top left corner and fill in:

  • Name: Borderless Gaming
  • Runner: Wine
  • Game options:
  • Executable: ~/Games/zwift/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Borderless Gaming/BorderlessGaming.exe
  • Working Directory: ~/Games/zwift/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Borderless Gaming
  • Wine prefix: ~/Games/zwift

Download this image and add it in the Game info tab.

Running Zwift

1. Open Lutris

2. Open Zwift Launcher

3. Open Zwift

4. Open Bordeless Gaming and add Zwift to favorites

5. Open Zwift Companion app for Bluetooth

• (Only needed for heart rate monitor if you are running a Kickr V5 or V6 with Direct Connect)

6. Ride on

Tested (Oct 9, 2022) with a 100 km + ride without fault, and runs way better with less load than on Windows 10.

Enjoy!

[Arend_teRaa (Arend)]

That’s cool. Do updates work once it’s going?

[Tommy_Miland (Tommy)]

Remains to be seen. Should work.

If not, update/install in windows, copy over the files.

UPDATE
Updating to 1.30.0 went smooth. All working nicely. ‍

[Kim_Eik]

Psst. this might pique your interest. GitHub - netbrain/zwift: Easily zwift on linux.

[Guillaume_Jouis (Guillaume)]

Hi! Thanks for the detailed instructions! I’m trying to have it work, but I get error 0xc0000005 when installing MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe
Neither ZwiftLauncher nor Zwift would work (just start for a few seconds then close (exit code 13568 for ZwiftLauncher and exit code 65280 for Zwift)
Any idea?

[Andrew_Koros (Andrew)]

Tried the docker image on Fedora36 but did not succeed. It exited with the following lones:

…

+ echo 'Waiting for zwift to start ...'
+ sleep 1
0184:err:ole:CoGetContextToken apartment not initialised
+ pgrep ZwiftApp.exe
+ echo 'Killing uneccesary applications'
+ pkill ZwiftLauncher
Killing uneccesary applications
+ pkill MicrosoftEdgeUp
+ pkill ZwiftWindowsCra

[Andrew_Koros (Andrew)]

With a little modification these instructions also worked for Fedora36!

Great!

 $ uname -a
Linux tux 6.0.7-200.fc36.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Nov 3 17:09:02 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux


]$ rpm -q wine lutris winetricks
wine-7.22-2.fc36.x86_64
wine-7.22-2.fc36.i686
lutris-0.5.11-1.fc36.x86_64
winetricks-20220411-1.fc36.noarch

[Kim_Eik]

I see no errors in that output. Have you followed the instructions at GitHub?

[Raffaele_Morelli (Raffaele)]

Doesn’t work here.

Started initial process 27358 from /home/rmorelli/.local/share/lutris/runtime/winetricks/winetricks --unattended dotnet20 win10
Start monitoring process.
------------------------------------------------------
warning: You are running winetricks-20220411-next, latest upstream is winetricks-20230212!
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
warning: You should update using your distribution's package manager, --self-update, or manually.
------------------------------------------------------
Executing mkdir -p /home/rmorelli/Games
------------------------------------------------------
warning: You are using a 64-bit WINEPREFIX. Note that many verbs only install 32-bit versions of packages. If you encounter problems, please retest in a clean 32-bit WINEPREFIX before reporting a bug.
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
WINEPREFIX INFO:
Drive C: totale 28
drwxr-xr-x  7 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.44 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.45 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.39 ProgramData
drwxr-xr-x  6 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.39 Program Files
drwxr-xr-x  7 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.42 Program Files (x86)
drwxr-xr-x  4 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.39 users
drwxr-xr-x 23 rmorelli rmorelli 4096 19 feb 16.44 windows

Registry info:
/home/rmorelli/Games/zwift/system.reg:#arch=win64
/home/rmorelli/Games/zwift/user.reg:#arch=win64
/home/rmorelli/Games/zwift/userdef.reg:#arch=win64
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
warning: /home/rmorelli/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/lutris-7.2-2-x86_64/bin/wine cmd.exe /c echo '%AppData%' returned empty string, error message "" 
------------------------------------------------------
Monitored process exited.
Initial process has exited (return code: 256)
All processes have quit
Exit with return code 256

[Raffaele_Morelli (Raffaele)]

warning: Note: command /home/rmorelli/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/lutris-7.2-2-x86_64/bin/wine dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe /q /c:install.exe /q returned status 1. Aborting.

for this error you need do follow this instructions
You need a WINEPREFIX for 32 bit.

$ WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine/32  winecfg 

After that,

$ env WINEPREFIX=~/.wine/32 bash winetricks dotnet20

From linux mint forum
viewtopic.php?t=146587

[Tobi_P (Tobi)]

Is this still working? I desperately need to get back on the bike willing to renew my subscription. But all Linux over here nowadays.
Tried to follow every suggested method I could find, I’m able to install Zwift Launcher and WebView, but when starting Launcher it just brings up a tiny window saying “Zwift error”. What am I doing wrong?

[Tommy_Miland (Tommy)]

Just tested my setup, and it’s still working.

[Tobi_P (Tobi)]

Thanks for your reply. I now got it working using the netbrain/zwift docker approach, as a “native” wine/lutris installations seems to not like my setup. I’ll keep trying to do a wine install from time to time as I would prefer such a setup, but in the time being it seems to be working for me that way.

[oldnapalm (Cassio Davi Emer)]

I got it working on Ubuntu 22.04 (Wine only, no Lutris), had to use this version (earlier or later wouldn’t work)

wine-stable-amd64/now 8.0.2~jammy-1 amd64 [installed,local]
wine-stable-i386/now 8.0.2~jammy-1 i386 [installed,local]
wine-stable/now 8.0.2~jammy-1 amd64 [installed,local]
winehq-stable/now 8.0.2~jammy-1 amd64 [installed,local]

Also used these versions of wine-mono and winetricks (same used in https://github.com/netbrain/zwift/blob/master/Dockerfile at the time).

https://dl.winehq.org/wine/wine-mono/8.1.0/wine-mono-8.1.0-x86.msi
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/20220521/src/winetricks

The advantage over using Docker is that I don’t need to download the full Zwift app every update.

[V.Ampiro_del_Mar (Victor)]

I am using netbrains Zwift Implementation on Debian from time to time.

On former Versions my exerience was, that after ~30 Minutes Zwift freezes and I had to drop the session.

Lately I upgraded to Debian 13, Plasma, Nvidia 590 driver and Podman instead of Docker. Fiddled around with env variables and direct connect is now working. But becaus of Wine 10 is not properly identifying BLE Equipment, I have to use CA as a BT bridge for Zwift Play and HR. Maybe in Wine11 it will work. But the netbrain container is in current configuration now rock solid! Well done.

Things to investigate:

To my impression the Graphics look somehow sharper? I am using 1920x1080 on TV, UHD4k in Game. On Debian the FPS sticks to 60fps. On Win ~120fps an same Route. Have to make videos to check side2side.

Things to do to get rid of Win11:

• copy Streamdeck Plugins and Profiles from Win to Linux
• copy Sauce4Zwift config from Win to Linux
• get OpenRGB running

[V.Ampiro_del_Mar (Victor)]

Update:

in order to use sauce4zwift dont use wayland, use x11 instead (test with plasma on x11). Get the github script borderless-fullscreen to substitute borderless gaming from windows. All s4z windows reappear on their positions, Top Window Bar hidden! Great.

For streamdeck i am testing open deck. Zwift Profile does not load.

[V.Ampiro_del_Mar (Victor)]

Streamdeck is working now with opendeck.

Now i am testing openrgb for asus stuff.