Help:Installing/Linux

This content was checked on version 2025.11.8.2847. The most recent version is 2026.1.3.3194.

The whole installation process is relatively easy and can be done under 10 minutes.

Installing KSA with Wine

This method installs KSA using nothing but the Wine windows emulation layer, available on most Linux distributions. While probably the most straightforward method, it requires use of the terminal and a little bit of prerequisite knowledge which not everyone has. The next method, Installing via Bottles, might be more new-user-friendly. Every method of installing KSA (or any Windows application!) is essentially a wrapper on doing exactly this, sometimes adding in extra dependencies that might be needed.

Prerequisites

• A 64-bit installation of Wine.
  • For more information, see Wine's documentation.
• Optional - WineTricks is a utility that can skip a step here, but it's not required.
• A copy of the KSA installer, available here.
• A copy of the .NET Desktop 10 Runtime installer, 64 bit for Windows, available here from Microsoft.

Instructions

The goal here is to make a new wineprefix, and install DotNet and KSA into it.

1. Create a directory (aka a folder) to install Kitten Space Agency into - for example, ~/Games/KSA/.
2. Download the KSA and dotNET installers, and for convenience, place them somewhere nearby. I'll assume you've placed setup_ksa_v2025.10.8.2502.exe and windowsdesktop-runtime-10.0.1-win-x64 in ~/Games/KSA/

Run the following command;

  WINEPREFIX='~/Games/KSA/' wine ~/Games/KSA/windowsdesktop-runtime-10.0.1-win-x64.exe

and follow the installer prompts to install dotNET. Now, run the following command, swapping out the installer location and filename as appropriate;

  WINEPREFIX='~/Games/KSA/' wine ~/Games/KSA/setup_ksa_v2025.10.8.2502.exe

and KSA should have installed successfully into the prefix. Assuming you chose the default install location, you should find the KSA executable at:

   ~/Games/KSA/drive_c/Program Files/Kitten Space Agency/KSA.exe

To run KSA, run the following command (swapping out the install location for wherever is appropriate on your system!):

  WINEPREFIX='~/Games/KSA/' wine ~/Games/KSA/drive_c/Program Files/Kitten Space Agency/KSA.exe

Installing KSA with Bottles

This method installs KSA into a container managed by Bottles, which is easy to replicate or replace if needed.

Prerequisites

• Bottles, either installed as a Flatpak (reccomended by the Flatpak team) or as a system package.
  • For more information, and support for Bottles, see the Bottles documentation.
• A copy of the KSA installer, available here.

Instructions

1. Open bottles, and create a new bottle. Name it whatever you like, and choose the "Gaming" preset.
2. In the *Dependencies* Menu, install `dotnet10`.
3. Click " Install Programs", and then select the KSA installer.
   1. If you're installing dotNet 10 manually (because your distribution's latest version of winetricks doesn't have it yet), install it in the same way.
4. You should now be able to run KSA with either "Run Executable", or by running the program from the list of programs.

Settings

Bottles gives a number of options that can change how or if KSA runs on your computer. Notable settings are

• Runner
  • By Default, Bottles uses it's own version of Wine called "Soda". (Proton is another such 'spin' of Wine)
  • You can choose to use the version of Wine installed with your system. This might be newer, and might run better.
• DVXK / VKD3D
  • KSA does not use Direct3D or DirectX, so these settings should not matter.

Installing KSA via Steam Proton with ProtonTricks

This method uses Steam's built-in Proton wrapper for WINE to install Kitten Space Agency as a game in your Steam library. It's probably one of the more complicated methods, but may make the game run more reliably.

Prerequisites

You will need:

• A working Steam installation
• ProtonTricks.
  • For more information, see the ProtonTricks documentation
• A copy of the KSA installer, available here.

Instructions

Install KSA into a Steam proton 'prefix'

1. Open Steam
2. On the bottom-left, click on "Add a game", then select "Add a Non-Steam Game..."
3. In the new Window, click "Browse" then select the setup_ksa executable.
4. Click on "Add selected program" - The setup_ksa is now in your Steam library, search and found it.
5. Right click on the "game" title (the Steam shortcut) and select "Properties..."
6. Under "Compatibility", select "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool", then select Proton 10.0-3 (please check if this parameter is still here once selected, you may have to select it twice)
7. Launch the installer by clicking "Play" as if you were lauching a game.
8. In the installer, select "Install for all users (recommended)" ("Install for me only" does not work and just give the error "internal error: Failed to expand shell folder constant autopf")
9. Click Next, Next, Install (leave all default values)
10. Once installed, tick the "Play KSA" checkbox and validate.
11. A window will ask you to download .NET 10.0 Desktop, click No.

Copy the KSA installation directory

In a terminal, get the Steam AppID of the setup_ksa "game" you have installed:

   protontricks -l | grep setup_ksa_

Search for the installation directory, it must be in a place like (replace <AppID> with the number you have found):

   "${HOME}/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/<AppID>/pfx/dosdevices/C:/Program Files/Kitten Space Agency"

If Steam has been installed via flatpak, it may be something like this:

   "${HOME}/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<AppID>/pfx/dosdevices/C:/Program Files/Kitten Space Agency"

Alternatively, if you want to search at both locations without having to copy the AppID, you can use find in a terminal

   find ${HOME}/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/ ${HOME}/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/ -type d -exec bash -c '[ -f "{}/KSA.exe" ] && echo "{}"' \; 2>/dev/null

Copy this folder where you want the final game files to be (for example, ~/Games/).

In Steam, you can now delete the "installer game": right-click on the setup_ksa shortcut, select "Manage", then "Remove non-steam game from your library".

Create a Steam Shortcut for KSA

• Add a new non-Steam game as previously, but this time choose the KSA.exe binary in the "Kitten Space Agency" folder you've copied previously
• Select Proton 10 as previously for this new non-steam game
• Launch the game by clicking "Play", it will not work but do it anyway (refuse the download of .NET Desktop 10 again)

Setup Proton KSA WinePrefix and install .NET Desktop 10

Open a terminal (with your unprivileged user, no need to be root), and paste, one line at a time:

   ksa_steam_appid="$(protontricks -l |grep KSA.exe | awk -F'[()]' '{print $2}')"
   protontricks "${ksa_steam_appid}" settings win10
   protontricks "${ksa_steam_appid}" dotnetdesktop10

• The first line will get the game Steam AppID for KSA and save it to the variable ksa_steam_appid
• The second line will set the Windows 10 compatibility to the KSA WinePrefix, using the variable ksa_steam_appid
• The third line will download and install .NET Desktop 10 inside the KSA WinePrefix, using the variable ksa_steam_appid

You will see some warnings in the terminal output when using ProtonTricks, nothing to worry about, just ignore them. Follow the .NET Desktop 10 installation process (it will be presented twice, for x86 then for x64, just follow it twice).

KSA should now run successfully.

(Optional) Rename and add images to the KSA Steam Shortcut

Rename the Steam Shortcut: Right click on the "game" title (the Steam shortcut) and select "Properties...", in "Shortcut" tab, you can rename KSA.exe (use "Kitten Space Agency" for example).

Download an image to be used as an icon (256x256 pixels reccomended, .jpg or .png) - and click the blank square at the left from where you have renamed the shortcut to select the image You can customize all other images for the game by right-clicking on the shortcut, in the "Customize" Tab.

• 

  One of our brave Kittenauts! An example game icon you can use.
• 

  KSA in a user's steam library.

Troubleshooting

• If you get stuck, feel free to ask on the Kitten Space Agency forums!
  • Be sure to include your system information (hardware, what Linux distro and desktop) as well as let people know which installation method(s) you tried.
  • Check out this thread with more troubleshooting help.
• If your game crashes, check the log files. These will be stored wherever the Wineprefix thinks your My Documents folder should be, which is likely ~/My Games/Kitten Space Agency/Logs, or in the wineprefix you installed KSA to, under .../drive_c/users/<your_username>/Documents or .../drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents.
• If you see an error about Vulkan not being able to enumerate hardware features on launch, you might have some luck by installing the Vulkan Software Development Kit for Windows inside the wineprefix (see linked forum thread above).
• At time of writing (2025-12), some AMD graphics cards have notable issues. Check the issue you're having isn't a hardware bug, not a Linux issue!