How to play Sonic Mania on Linux
Sonic Mania is a 2017 platformer developed by PagodaWest Games and Headcannon and published by Sega. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, and Knuckles in a classic adventure to stop Dr. Eggman (AKA Robotnik.) Sega released this game to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original Sonic game.
Sonic Mania was released on Switch, Xbox, PS4, and Windows 10 with no Linux release. However, thanks to amazing technology like Proton, it is possible to run it on the Linux platform. In this guide, we’ll show you how.
Setting up Sonic Mania
Sonic Mania, like many modern Windows games, runs pretty well on Linux thanks to Proton and Steam Play. Sonic Mania is rated “Platinum” on ProtonDB, and will play quite well. To start the installation, follow the step-by-step instructions outlined below.
Step 1: Sonic Mania needs to be installed on Linux through the Steam Linux client. So, we must demonstrate how to set up the Steam Linux client on your PC. To set up Steam, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, enter the commands below that corresponds to the Linux OS you currently use.
Ubuntu
If you’re an Ubuntu user, you’ll be able to get Steam up and running with the following Apt command.
sudo apt install steam
Debian
Debian Linux has the Steam app in its “Non-free” software repository, and you’ll be able to install it that way. That said, it’s much easier just to download the latest Steam DEB package from the internet and use the dpkg tool to set it up.
wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
Once you’ve grabbed the latest Steam DEB package on your computer and installed it, you will notice errors appear on the screen. To fix these errors, use the following apt-get install -f command in the terminal. Or, follow our in-depth guide on correcting Debian dependencies.
sudo apt-get install -f
Arch Linux
Need to get Steam working on Arch Linux? Run the following pacman command in the terminal window.
sudo pacman -S steam
Fedora/OpenSUSE
Both Fedora and OpenSUSE have Steam packages available. That being said, getting these packages can sometimes be tedious, especially if you’re not a fan of third-party software repositories or anything like that. For this reason, we highly recommend getting the Steam Flatpak instead.
Flatpak
You can get Steam from the Flathub app store as a Flatpak. To start the installation, you must set up the Flatpak runtime on your Linux PC. Once the runtime is up and running on your computer, enter the command below to add the Flathub app store to your Flatpak app sources.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Now that the Flathub app store is added to your Flatpak app sources, the installation of the Steam Flatpak can begin. Using the flatpak install command below, get the Steam Flatpak app up and running.
flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam
Step 2: After setting up Steam on your computer, launch the app on your computer by searching for it in the app menu. Then, log into your account using your password and username.
Once you’ve logged into your account, find the “Steam” menu, and click on it with the mouse. Then, click on “Settings” to open up the Steam settings area.
Step 3: In the Steam settings area, find the “Steam Play” section, and click on it with the mouse. Inside of the Steam Play area, check the box next to “Enable Steam Play for supported titles,” and the “Enable Steam Play for all titles” boxes. Turning on these options will make it possible to run Sonic Mania on your system.
Click “OK” to close the window.
Step 4: Locate the “STORE” button in Steam, and click it to access the Steam Storefront. When you’ve made it to the Steam Storefront, click on the search box and type in “Sonic Mania.”
In the search results, click on “Sonic Mania.” By clicking on “Sonic Mania,” you will be taken to its Steam Storefront page.
Step 5: On the Storefront page, look for the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the game. Then, click on the “LIBRARY” button to move to your Steam game library.
Step 6: In the Steam game library, look for “Sonic Mania” and click on it to access its Steam game page. Then, on the game page, click on the blue “INSTALL” button to download and set up Sonic Mania on your Linux PC.
When Sonic Mania finishes downloading and installing through the Linux Steam client, the blue “INSTALL” button will turn into a green “PLAY” button. Select the green “PLAY” button to enjoy Sonic Mania on Linux!
Troubleshooting Sonic Mania
Sonic Mania is rated as Platinum on ProtonDB. That said, no game is 100% perfect and runs flawlessly 100% of the time. If you have problems playing this game on your Linux PC, please check out the Sonic Mania ProtonDB page to troubleshoot.
