Setting Up FAF Linux

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (the game) runs under Linux using wine.

The community client (the client) is written in Python3/PyQt5, which means that the client runs straight away on Linux.

Install the python client

Arch Linux

You need AUR access, so install something like yaourt. Then install my package with

yaourt -S python-fafclient

This should install wine as a dependency. Now you can install the game using wine. You can use your default wine prefix or create a new one. A nice UI tool for handling wine prefixes is PlayOnLinux.

Debian/Ubuntu

There's no .deb package yet, please create one. Some discussion about that is in http://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4507&p=141217&hilit=linux#p141217

Client 0.16.1 runs on Ubuntu 17.04 using system packages only. Install instructions follow:

• Install required packages:

 sudo apt-get install python3-idna python3-semantic-version python3-pyqt5 python3-pyqt5.qtwebengine python3-pyqt5.qtmultimedia

• Download the latest client source tar.gz (for example from here)
• Download and install the faf-uid smurf protection executable:

 sudo wget https://github.com/FAForever/uid/releases/download/v4.0.5/faf-uid -O /usr/local/bin/faf-uid
 sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/faf-uid
 (Note that faf-uid runs xrandr, lspci, lsblk and uname. You need an lspci version that supports the --json switch, which is util-linux-2.27 or greater.)

• Create a version file:

 echo "0.16.1" > res/RELEASE-VERSION

• Run the client (from source root directory):

 python3 src/__main__.py

Gentoo

There is an experimental overlay available at https://github.com/Wesmania/faforever, along with installation instructions. You will need layman to set it up. Note that wine is not a dependency of these packages, you will have to install it on your own.

Run from source

See basic instructions at https://github.com/faforever/client#running-on-linux

Install Supreme Commander : Forged Alliance

Install using steam

You can download FA using a steam installation in wine. The following steps describe how to download FA using using [1] (steamcmd) on Arch linux:

Install steamcmd:

yaourt -S steamcmd

Now you need to run steamcmd once as root to let it install its updates:

sudo steamcmd

now run steamcmd as your normal user to download your copy of FA and run the following commands in its shell:

login [my_steam_username]
@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows
force_install_dir [my/desired/installlocation]
app_update 9420 validate

Install using the retail ISO

Just launch the setup from the CD (ISO).

After installation

Run

winecfg

and enable "emulate virtual screen" option in graphics tab and enter you display resolution.

After installation run the game without the client, setup graphics and make sure everything works like sound etc. The bloom renderer graphics setting may not work. If the game does not start again, delete the #Game.prefs

Client setup

First thing is to point your client to your game directory using Options -> Settings -> Game Path... If you install FA using the Retail ISO, your game path probably is

~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/THQ/Gas Powered Games/Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance

When using the steam download, your game path probably is

~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/ForgedAlliance

I created some client settings so you can adjust how the client starts the game using wine. The are only accessible through the #FA Lobby.ini file while the client is not running (because it overwrites the file on close).

[wine]
exe=/usr/bin/wine                                         <- points to your wine binary, defaults to 'wine'
prefix=/home/linuxmasterrace/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/faf  <- points to your WINEPREFIX path, defaults to '~/.wine'
cmd_prefix=primusrun                                      <- prefix the program start for something like switchable graphics

File locations

FA Lobby.ini

The settings file of the client is located at

~/.config/ForgedAllianceForever/FA Lobby.ini

It contains all settings of the client.

Logs

~/FAForever/logs

Look here if something goes wrong.

Maps

Your maps are located at

~/Documents/My Games/Gas Powered Games/Supreme Commander Forged Alliance/Maps

but this path may be altered by the documents directory set up in wine and localization of your system.

Game.prefs

Your game.prefs contains all game settings, like graphics settings, keybindings and active UI mods. It is located at

~/.wine/drive_c/users/USER/Local Settings/Application Data/Gas Powered Games/Supreme Commander Forged Alliance/Game.prefs

but this path depends on your WINEPREFIX and probably on the Windows version you set up in wine.

Java-Client on Linux

Support for the java-client is planned. Their are already versions that work on Linux, but no offical release.