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Roblox on Linux

Roblox Player working on Arch Linux under Wine on June 13, 2021

While Roblox does not officially support Linux, the Wine compatibility layer for running Windows programs can run Roblox Player and Roblox Studio on Linux.

Running Roblox with Wine requires Wine 6.11 or a more recent version. As of June 19, 2021, this requires using a development release. Wine 6.11 is available in Arch Linux and Void Linux and WineHQ provides binary packages for development releases for Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu.[1]

For help installing Roblox on Linux, the Grapejuice Discord server can be consulted. Users with some knowledge of the terminal and software compilation should not have much trouble with the install process.

History

On July 28, 2012, John Shedletsky confirmed that progress on Roblox on Linux was 97% complete. Shedletsky claimed that the problem with Linux is the poor driver support. Another blog post by Shedletsky claimed that they could spend months on Linux or they could work on a highly requested feature.

We’re probably 97% of the way to a Linux port, now that we’ve all the work necessary to port ROBLOX to OSX – which, as you probably know, is based on the UNIX kernel. I think the problem that we would likely run into on Linux is poor video driver support. I’ve heard horror stories from other developers. However, as Linux becomes more popular, I expect this hurdle to disappear.

We could spend six months porting ROBLOX to Linux, or we could deliver other highly requested features. If we’re going to be porting ROBLOX to another platform, Android is definitely next in line. Consoles are a close second–maybe that would involve a Linux port, particularly if the Steam OS takes off. We’ll see.

John Shedletsky, Feedback Loop: BLOXcast Edition

During the RDC 2020 Q&A session, it was confirmed that there were currently no plans to bring Roblox to Linux due to its small desktop market share. However, Arseny Kapoulkine has said that there will be plans if "Linux becomes the platform of choice for gamers".[2][3]

Roblox has been tested multiple times, with success until 2015. On May 15, 2015, Roblox received a "Gold" rating in the Wine App Database.[4]

From 2015 to 2021, it was not possible to run Roblox Player on Linux, as joining a game resulted in the connection being dropped with the error "This game has shut down."[5] This was originally assumed to be due to anti-cheat software, but Kalen Alwardt later stated this "was not the cause of the issue."[6]

On June 11, 2021, a user by the name of ImSlappy826 (Slappy826#0001 on Discord) created a one-line patch for Wine that allowed the Roblox Player to work again on a GNU/Linux or BSD system. The patch implements the ZwFilterToken function, which was supposed to be implemented along NtFilterToken, into ntdll. The patch has been committed to the Wine development tree[7] and is included in Wine 6.11.[8] User Brinker released a pre-patched version for Arch-based Linux distributions, while user robigan created a patch for Debian based distros.

Using Roblox on Linux

Roblox works on Wine 6.11 or higher.

There is an issue with the mouse when using Wine. Build from source with the following patch to correct it:

From dba1a3c3bf5946cd766a439b7db4c8965c92f15e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: BrinkerVII <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2021 11:00:06 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Turbo jank mouse fix

---
 dlls/winex11.drv/mouse.c | 4 ++++
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)

diff --git a/dlls/winex11.drv/mouse.c b/dlls/winex11.drv/mouse.c
index 42bac332664..0549c2d653b 100644
--- a/dlls/winex11.drv/mouse.c
+++ b/dlls/winex11.drv/mouse.c
@@ -648,6 +648,10 @@ static void send_mouse_input( HWND hwnd, Window window, unsigned int state, INPU
 
     if (!hwnd)
     {
+        if (input->u.mi.dwFlags & MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP) {
+            reset_clipping_window();
+        }
+
         struct x11drv_thread_data *thread_data = x11drv_thread_data();
         HWND clip_hwnd = thread_data->clip_hwnd;
 
-- 
2.32.0

Roblox Player and Roblox Studio can be launched like normal if the correct version is used. Roblox Studio has a gold rating in winedb.[9]

Setting up a FPS unlocker

The Roblox FPS Unlocker is also compatible and can be used to reach higher framerates. Requires Grapejuice.

1. Download the Roblox FPS unlocker at https://github.com/axstin/rbxfpsunlocker/releases/latest
2. Extract the file
3. Open Grapejuice
4. Go to the "Wine" section on Grapejuice, and open the Wine Explorer
5. Go to the directory of the extracted folder (Linux drive in Wine is usually Z:\)
6. Find the .exe file, open it through the Wine Explorer. It should minimize to tray
7. Open Roblox through the website
8. Click/Right-click on the tray icon and set FPS cap. (To check FPS use Shift+F5)

This will not ban your account, as it doesn't inject anything into Roblox.

Changing the graphical engine on the Roblox Player and Roblox Studio

Before starting the guide, make sure you can run the terminal command "vkcube", and make sure you have all Vulkan and OpenGL drivers. Requires Grapejuice Version 3.4.1 or above.

1. Open Grapejuice
2. Open the "Roblox FFlag editor" (If the FFlag editor won't open, try running Roblox Studio once, and then it should work.)
3. If a warning shows up, click "Open editor"
4. To use another engine other than DirectX, search "Direct3D11" and enable FFlagDebugGraphicsDisableDirect3D11
5. To use Vulkan, search "vulkan" and enable FFlagDebugGraphicsPreferVulkan (GPU must support Vulkan, otherwise use Direct3D11)
6. To use OpenGL, search "opengl", and enable FFlagDebugGraphicsPreferOpenGL
7. Click save on the top left corner

Running Roblox Player using Wine is not perfect, as it has some reported issues:

• Any form of moving the ingame camera via the mouse (eg. Right-clicking, shift lock, and first person), will freeze the mouse in place after scrolling out in first person, toggling off the shift lock by pressing shift, and right-clicking. Right-clicking has a scuffy-ish patch made by the maintainer of Grapejuice, Brinker. It's downloadable on Arch Linux at the Grapejuice Discord.

• Recording with F12 cannot be stopped, or the frame's stuck.

• Graphical errors on maximum settings on some GPUs

• Intense lag for some users

• Roblox Player maxing out all CPU cores at 100% usage for some people

• Roblox Player might not have working sound (this may be fixed by installing 32-bit audio packages, e.g. lib32-alsa-plugins, lib32-libpulse, lib32-openal on Arch)

• Using Vulkan/OpenGL might tell you the drivers are outdated, this is fixable by installing your Vulkan or OpenGL drivers.
• Sometimes, on Chromium and some other Chromium-based browsers, playing Roblox from the website might open a new Chromium instance, this won't happen on Firefox

Running Roblox Studio using Wine is also not perfect, and you can encounter the following bugs:

• Various Unicode characters (such as emojis, for example) cause Roblox Studio to crash
• Login authentication errors
• Shadows flickering when using DirectX 11, unless EagerBulkExecution is turned on in the Studio settings
• Anti-aliasing doesn't work on graphics 8 and above when using DirectX 11
• Flickering occurs on plugin GUIs and recently updated UI elements (such as Toolbox, Game Settings and Publish to Roblox screen for example) when using OpenGL
• Studio crashes on startup when using Vulkan

When Roblox worked using Wine pre-2015, there were bugs present, including the following:

• The Shift or Caps Lock keys do not work when using the chat window.
• Sometimes after joining, you may get a lag spike and can only move in one direction.
• Roblox Studio crashes when loading a game.
• The sound may be unbearably glitchy on a few games.
• When moving your camera while the player is moving, your mouse will be stuck moving the camera (this can be fixed by right-clicking a few times quickly)
• Sometimes you can see a window saying "RobloxPlayerBeta.exe has encountered a serious error and must close!" message.

References