Quake 4 on Linux

Quake 4 is one of those games from id Software which does has a native Linux version but was never released under an open source license. Therefore no source ports do exist to play this game on Linux today. One way is to just use Wine or Proton to play it. If some does prefer the native version it can still be run on a modern Linux distribution with all the latest techs such as Wayland, Pipewire and even without 32bit support.

Install Quake 4

In order to run the game on Linux you need the original game date from either the retail CDs or Steam.

• Download the game and copy q4base from the Windows version to any location where you want the Linux version to be installed.
• Download the installer from here. However on a modern 64bit Linux distribution this installer can not be executed as it does perform some system checks. To circumvent these checks run the installer as follows:

chmod +x ./quake4-linux-1.4.2.x86.run
./quake4-linux-1.4.2.x86.run --target quake4linux

• Then merge quake4linux/q4base to the location with the previously copied q4base form the Windows version.
• Next also merge quake4linux/us/q4base or quake4linux/germany/q4base depending on your games langauge with the previously copied q4base
• Copy all files from bin/Linux/x86/ next to q4base (not inside it)
• Run quake4.x86

For systems without 32bit support we recommend running the game via Lutris as a flatpak. Perform the setup as described above. Then add a new game to Lutris by choosing locally installed game and set it up to run quake4.x86 form the game directory.

Note: quake4smp.x86 does not work properly as it requires the provided libSDL-1.2.id.so.0 which creates a garbage window

Sources

• Linux Installer: https://lutris.net/files/games/quake-4/quake4-linux-1.4.2.x86.run
• Quake 4 on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2210/Quake_4/