How can I transfer non-steam games between Linux devices.

λλλ@programming.dev to Linux@lemmy.ml – 59 points –

I have a desktop and a steam deck. I would like to setup some old games I have on disc on the desktop. Then compress them and decompress on my Steam Deck without doing the full install again. I understand that with wine/proton prefixes they should be installed to a "fake c:/ windows hierarchy" can I just compress that and copy to a different Linux machine? Does it save which proton version was used? If I use something like Lutris or bottles can I import into them?

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Wow. You wrote a guide on it. I'll try to find time to read it tonight! I do have a question, what if a game makes use of the windows registry? Would that change the prefix?

Guide is maybe not the right word lol, it just exactly what I click to set up the majority of my games

I'm not 100% sure, but from my understanding yes the regisrty in the "prefix" folder would be changed. You can manually edit the wine prefix registry with regedit https://www.winehq.org/docs/wineusr-guid%3Cbr%20/%3Ee/using-regedit and Lutris supports this, just click the arrow that brings up the winetricks option and its under Wine Registry

Sounds like a guide to me ☺️

The registry is one of the reasons I was thinking I would need separate prefixes that I can copy. But, I also understand that games that actually use the registry are few and far between. If I actually come across one that needs registry edits I can just pack that differently.