I’ve been using Linux exclusively for over seven years now, including for gaming (believe it or not), but only now is the first time I’ve been in the mood to get mods for my TES games working.
Anyway, I searched how to do it and, as per usual when it comes to Linux, found a bunch of different instructions documents with a bunch of different approaches. Anybody have an opinionated recommendation for the one that’s the most up-to-date/preferred by the community currently?
In the future, the easiest way will probably to be Nexus Mod’s new native app. But that’s still in alpha.
I’ve found it simplest to just manually copy the mods into my install folder and add all the .esp’s to my Plugins.txt.
To make the game start with SKSE on Steam, I would rename SkyrimSELauncher.exe to SkyrimSELauncher.exe.backup and rename skse64_loader.exe to SkyrimSELauncher.exe. But I rebought the game on GOG and use the Heroic Games, which let’s me change which exe to run so I don’t have to rename things.
Another thing to keep in mind when installing mods is that Linux uses case-sensitive filesystems. That means the folder skse is different from SKSE. Some mods use lowercase, other mods use uppercase. But Skyrim will only recognize one of these folders, so you would have to rename the folder before merging it into your skyrim install folder.
I’ll also say that I never did any major modding. I’ve used maybe at most 2 dozen quality of life mods.
I think manually modding really sucks. I got it working in the past using MO2 but the easiest way is probably to use SteamTinkerLaunch to install MO2 or Vortex, it does everything for you. That’s also how I mod Cyberpunk using Vortex in my system, works perfectly fine.
Trying to use SteamTinkerLaunch to install Nexus Mods was a nightmare for me. It was so bad that I wiped my Linux install and installed Windows.
That Windows install didn’t last long, but ever since I’ve just done things manually. I’m going to keep doing that way until NexusMods.App is ready.
I’ll second this method for the Skyrim Special Edition. Works for me, although I don’t have an extensive mod list. Just:
SKSE, SkyUI, Vilya in Skyrim, Unofficial skyrim patch, Achievements Mod Enabler.
Will be moving to the new Nexus app when it is out of alpha or enables Bethesda games.
For Oblivion, I’d do something similar.
For Morrowind, you should use OpenMW and install mods through that as they describe in their docs.
Assuming the new app doesn’t suck. Vortex was pretty shitty even on Windows. Manual modding is trash because it is impossible to keep track of your mods (unless you’re a very casual modder with only a handful of mods), which means eventually you just have to nuke the whole folder and start fresh. That’s why you want to use a proper mod organizer.