Rocksmith 2014 on Linux

These are a few Guides to get Rocksmith 2014 running on Linux. In case you haven't tried gaming on Linux yet, other than not working, it won't get harder than this by far for other games.

Disclaimer

This is the bare minimum to get it to work. I don't know if certain changes recommended by other people have a performance impact.

I tested it on Manjaro, Arch and a Linux Mint VM. Due to the VM factor, I was actually able to start the game, but I got about 1fps, definitely not playable.

I have only tested the Steam version.

I take no responsibility and will not guarantee for this working.

Prerequisites

Don't install or copy Rocksmith from/to an NTFS drive. It will not start. (I think that's because of permissions, but I'm not sure.) There's probably a way, but it's easier not having to bother with it.

If you use Proton-GE, install scripts sometimes don't run. In that case, use Valve's Proton for the first start, then switch to Proton-GE.

We will need wine, which is installed in the first step.

Common paths

I will refer to them with variables. You use them by running variablename=value (this will only apply to the terminal window you ran it in) and just copy-paste the commands, or replace the variables yourself whenever they come up in a command.

• $HOME: Already set, don't worry about it. (redirects to /home/<username>)
• $STEAMLIBRARY: The Steam Library, where Rocksmith is installed in. You can check it by opening Steam, then going to Steam -> Settings -> Storage. Above the disk usage indicator, there's a path. that's the one we need.
• $PROTON: A specific location inside your Proton installation
  • Valve Release: (Example with Proton 7) /path/to/steamapps/common/Proton\ 7.0/dist
  • Valve Beta/Experimental: (Example with Experimental) /path/to/steamapps/common/Proton\ -\ Experimental/files
  • Custom Proton: (Example with GE-Proton 9.11) $HOME/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/GE-Proton9-11/files
  • Lutris Runners: (Example with lutris-7.2-2) No specific location, just $HOME/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/lutris-7.2-2-x86_64

Example for default paths and Proton 8:

STEAMLIBRARY=$HOME/.steam/steam/
PROTON=$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 8.0/dist/

Guides

There are two ways to do this. The one most people on ProtonDB use is quicker, but results in high delay and distorted sound. It routes the sound through ALSA. This can be found in "Other Guides".

Then there's the way of routing the audio through JACK -> wineASIO -> RS_ASIO, which has less delay and sounds better, but also takes longer to set up. These can be found in the table below.

Recent Proton versions:

	pipewire	non-pipewire
Arch	Guide	Guide
Debian	Guide	Guide
Fedora	Guide	N/A
Steam Deck	Guide	N/A
NixOS	Guide	missing

Other Guides:

• OBS guide for these setups
• Differences: Proton versions 6.5 and below
• ALSA - Quick and dirty
• Different sound processing with Tonelib-GFX

Other information:

• Steps I cut out
• Why all of this works

Scripts

These are outated. I'll leave the content here just in case.

Because someone asked, I have written scripts that do everything for you.

For native Steam: wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/theNizo/linux_rocksmith/main/scripts/native-steam.sh && ./native-steam.sh && rm native-steam.sh

For other Rocksmith installations: wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/theNizo/linux_rocksmith/main/scripts/other.sh && ./other.sh && rm other.sh

Credits

• preflex for showing me how to do it on Arch-based distros.
• u/JacKeTUs for publishing a Debian-based Guide on r/linux_gaming
• the_Nizo, for using that information and updating it regularly in the past. My original Guide was posted here.
• BWagener for writing the Steam Deck Guide.
• Siarkowy for replacing the "JustInCaseWeNeedIt" workaround and the shortcut in Steam.
• TimP4w for the NixOS guide.

Thank you all for the work ^^