DayZ Linux CLI Launcher

About

This is an experimental launcher script for DayZ standalone on Linux when running the game via Proton.

Proton is currently unable to start the game's own regular launcher application which sets up mods and launch parameters for the game client. The game however does work fine when launching the client directly, so mods can be set up and configured manually, which is what this script does, similar to what the launcher would do.

Automatic Steam workshop mod downloads are currently unsupported due to a limitation of Steam's CLI. Workshop mods will therefore need to be subscribed manually via the web browser. A URL for each missing mod will be printed to the output.

Please see the "Install DayZ" section down below on how to get the game running on Linux.

Usage

Usage: dayz-launcher.sh [OPTION]... [MODID]...

Automatically set up mods for DayZ, launch the game and connect to a server,
or print the game's -mod command line argument for custom configuration.

Command line options:

  -h
  --help
    Print this help text.

  -d
  --debug
    Print debug messages to output.

  --steam <"" | flatpak | /path/to/steam/executable>
    If set to flatpak, use the flatpak version of Steam (com.valvesoftware.Steam).
    Steam needs to already be running in the flatpak container.
    Default is: "" (automatic detection - prefers flatpak if available)

  -l
  --launch
    Launch DayZ after resolving and setting up mods instead of
    printing the game's -mod command line argument.

  -n <name>
  --name <name>
    Set the profile name when launching the game via --launch.
    Some community servers require a profile name when trying to connect.

  -s <address[:port]>
  --server <address[:port]>
    Retrieve a server's mod list and add it to the remaining input.
    Uses the daemonforge.dev DayZ server JSON API.
    If --launch is set, it will automatically connect to the server.

  -p <port>
  --port <port>
    The server's query port, not to be confused with the server's game port.
    Default is: 27016

Environment variables:

  STEAM_ROOT
    Set a custom path to Steam's root directory. Default is:
    ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-${HOME}/.local/share}/Steam
    which defaults to ~/.local/share/Steam

    If the flatpak package is being used, then the default is:
    ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam

    If the game is stored in a different Steam library directory, then this
    environment variable needs to be set/changed.

    For example, if the game has been installed in the game library located in
      /media/games/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/DayZ
    then the STEAM_ROOT env var needs to be set like this:
      STEAM_ROOT=/media/games/SteamLibrary

TODO

• Don't use a custom server query API and query the server directly
• Install mods automatically
  Unfortunately, Steam doesn't support downloading workshop mods via the CLI and only the steamcmd CLI utility seems to be able to do this from a command line shell context, but this requires a Steam login via CLI parameters, which is a bit unpractical.
• If possible, resolve mod dependencies

Install

To install the launcher script, simply clone the git repository:

git clone https://github.com/bastimeyer/dayz-linux-cli-launcher.git
cd dayz-linux-cli-launcher
./dayz-launcher.sh ...

or download the raw script file from GitHub and make it executable (check the script file contents first before running it):

curl -SL -o dayz-launcher.sh 'https://github.com/bastimeyer/dayz-linux-cli-launcher/raw/master/dayz-launcher.sh'
chmod +x dayz-launcher.sh
./dayz-launcher.sh ...

Install DayZ

Support for BattlEye anti-cheat for Proton on Linux has been officially announced by Valve on 2021-12-03.

In order to get the game running on Linux, you first have to install the Steam beta client (see Steam's settings menu). Then install Proton Experimental and the Proton BattlEye Runtime (filter by "tools" in your games library). After that, set the "Steam play compatibility tool" for DayZ to "Proton Experimental" (right-click the game and go to properties).

Important notes

In order for the game to actually run on Linux via Proton, the vm.max_map_count kernel parameter needs to be increased, because otherwise the game will freeze while loading the main menu or after playing for a couple of minutes. Some custom kernels like TK-Glitch for example already increase this value from its default value of 64*1024-6 to 512*1024, but even this won't work reliably. Increasing it to 1024*1024 seems to work.

​sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=1048576

Or apply it permanently:

​echo 'vm.max_map_count=1048576' | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/vm.max_map_count.conf