Linux Support

[sirprosik]

I am having an issue with the GoG version and the Steam version not coexisting without a reboot of the computer.
The rest is just added stuff.

I can not go from GoG to Steam or Steam to GoG without a reboot. "Something" is holding on to a single X4 and will not
let the other run until the system is rebooted.

[xrogaan]

First a question to CBJ: how can the steam and GOGcom version interfere with each other? My understanding is that each version use a unique path for the user profile, since steam uses the steam user ID.

I am having an issue with the GoG version and the Steam version not coexisting without a reboot of the computer.
The rest is just added stuff.

I can not go from GoG to Steam or Steam to GoG without a reboot. "Something" is holding on to a single X4 and will not
let the other run until the system is rebooted.

The game does not seem to be closing properly. I don't know which Desktop Environment you use, otherwise I would give you the GUI to use. But it may be better to know an universal troubleshooting method, so I'll give you an universal way to check on things.

First, Open a terminal.

To know if X4 is still running write:

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ps aux | grep X4

Here's the explanation of the command: https://explainshell.com/explain?cmd=ps+aux+%7C+grep+X4

Basically, we search for the string "X4" within le this of processes running on your machine. It'll return at least one result, which is itself (grep X4).

If there's more than one, take the number next to your username. That's the process id (PID). You can kill that process using the command (where you replace PID by the number):

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kill -9 PID

The '-9' option is the signal to send, which is a shorthand for SIGKILL. It means that the kernel will terminate the process regardless of its will. The default behavior of the kill command is to send a SIGTERM, which ask the process to terminate itself. Since we are operating under the assumption that the process is rebelling and doesn't want to (or can't) stop, we go directly for the kill option.

Once the process cleaned, you should be able to restart the game.

That being said, I don't know why you would want to run both copies. On a side note, I have the nosteam binary and it would run just fine by itself.

[chew-ie]

I am having an issue with the GoG version and the Steam version not coexisting without a reboot of the computer.
The rest is just added stuff.

I can not go from GoG to Steam or Steam to GoG without a reboot. "Something" is holding on to a single X4 and will not
let the other run until the system is rebooted.

Now that's a way more detailed problem description then the other posts. Sounds to me like your X4 process is still running - you can check this e.g. like this on a linux terminal:

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ps -x | grep X4

You should see something like that:

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  42621 ?        Sl     1:17 ./X4 -- %command% -skipintro -nosoundthrottle -nocputhrottle -showfps

If you kill that process you don't have to do a reboot. Killing that process is e.g. done this way on a linux terminal:

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kill -9 <pid> 

Replace <pid> with the process id you found out with ps -x - in my example that's the number 42621.

edit: ninja'd by xrogaan

[sirprosik]

The game closes just fine. I can play the GoG version every day until I decide to play the steam version.

[Rastuasi]

Other issue is starting the GoG version only works through the CLI which is a known issue messages above say it is being looked into.

What known issue are you refering to?

I play the native X4 version from GOG on Fedora 43 with KDE Plasma / Wayland by using Lutris and have zero issues with that - and I don't need any additional "console tricks". So it might be very well a matter of the linux distribution in question and (more likely) the driver / software setup. (Fedora is kind of a bleeding-edge which might explain why my Wayland setup doesn't have the same issues as "CachyOS" as Rastuasi pointed out)

I have issues with Wayland on Arch, which puts Debian to shame on "bleeding edge". Wayland is about 5 years from production ready based on all the other issues I've come across. Beyond that, the issue lies in that there's mouse capture issues in a few systems when it comes to X4 + Wayland

[sirprosik]

When I run. ps -x | grep X4
I get 5278 pts/0 S+ 0.00 grep X4

Like I said something is keeping the system locked to a specific X4 until reboot.

One reason to have both directories is to run the beta when it comes out
and still have GoG for current game check for bugs/differences.
Also might be useful for those which might want to have modded and unmodded
on the same system.

[knight-of-ni]

Hello all!

After this came up again, I took a look at the GOG build and... I managed to reproduce the issue!

The good news is that we will be fixing this in future builds, so it should no longer be an issue going forwards.
In the meantime we cannot suggest any better solution for existing versions of the game, other than just doing what you're doing and enabling the logfiles.

Thanks to allpurposemat for help with this one!

- PG

Thank you!

[X_30002000]

I had an issue with Linux GOG installer Update 8 hotfix 4 Base game (latest) on Ubuntu 25.10. All goes ok until it starts postinstall.sh It gives error "line 12 pipe is broken ...". I know basic scripting so I realized that there a lot of fancy lines of code to display progress for simple cat command to combine 2 files. I had to kill the postinstall.sh delete 01.dat that never finished cat and did cat manually for 01.dat and 03.dat. Game works now but why do you split these files in 1st place before adding them to the installer? Linux supports files more then 4Gb, so add them as is and remove postintall.sh. No postinstall.sh - no issue

[CBJ]

We don't create the installer, GOG do.

[beko]

I had an issue with Linux GOG installer Update 8 hotfix 4 Base game (latest) on Ubuntu 25.10. All goes ok until it starts postinstall.sh It gives error "line 12 pipe is broken ...". I know basic scripting so I realized that there a lot of fancy lines of code to display progress for simple cat command to combine 2 files. I had to kill the postinstall.sh delete 01.dat that never finished cat and did cat manually for 01.dat and 03.dat. Game works now but why do you split these files in 1st place before adding them to the installer? Linux supports files more then 4Gb, so add them as is and remove postintall.sh. No postinstall.sh - no issue

Sadly this is really on GOG and just how their process works. It can not be fixed from the outside.

See also https://beko.famkos.net/2021/03/17/x4-c ... x-and-gog/ how I used "innoextract" before with the Windows files, when the Linux files were not even provided. You may find this useful in the future when the next DLC drops and GOG takes it's sweet time.

I gave up on the GOG version btw and just got everything else on Steam during a sale. I like the idea of GOG but I hate the pain that comes with it. Simply not worth it for games that are still alive and updating.