Roblox on Linux (Everything summarized in 1 post) (outdated)

READ THIS FIRST

Hey, I made a new post about RoL as this post needed a complete rewrite, you can still read this if you want, just be aware that many of the things said here I no longer agree with.

Go to this post instead, as it’s much higher quality, there are sources for all of my claims & there is a guide that will last the next the next few years (Single KVM-GPU Passthrough Guide). Meaning it likely won’t be outdated for many years to come.

There’s a lot to learn, and a lot to do, so if you want to learn something new, you should go to the new post.

Why Is this in Community resources?

There is no real specific section for a post like this, in theory, this can be a feature request, an engine request (both of which I can’t make a topic inside of), a community tutorial and a community resource at the same time, and it’s pretty hard to choose between these 4 if if you want to combine all 4 into 1 post, it’s pretty inconvenient to post 4 posts about the same thing, so let’s put this all in one

What are we going to go over?

We are going to go over a few things, which I will list here:

1. Why official Linux support will likely never happen
2, Why Roblox might be wrong about what they look at Linux
3. How you can play roblox under linux unofficially (step by step)

This post isn’t me forcing roblox to make official support, this isn’t a petition.

Why official Linux support will likely never happen

Well there are a few reasons why Roblox may not want to make official support for linux, while yes, they are a multi billion $ company with tons of resources, it really isn’t a good idea in the short term.

So starting over with the obvious, cost, while yes, it’s not really cost effective in the short term, in the long term however, it is a thing to consider. As Linux is a growing market that barely any company touches, this is a dream for a company like Roblox, as there’s no competition, what are you gonna compete against? air? yeah right. But Roblox doesn’t see any market in Linux yet.

Let’s look at Roblox’s point of view, Linux was never made for the general PC market, the marketshare is low, and that Linux users are unlikely to pay for stuff like Robux, or Premium, because of how we advocate about how we got our OS for free, and Roblox isn’t going to spend time to train their huge arsenal of employees to be able to use Linux, just for 3% of the PC marketshare. And the amount of linux distros you have to support is simply out of the question

Roblox even confirmed on On July 28, 2012 that Linux support is 97% complete but on RDC 2020’s QnA section, they have said there are no plans for linux support, they likely saw what it is.

2, Why Roblox might be wrong about what they look at Linux

As briefly mentioned in the statements above, There is no competition for a growing market, while yes, you can look at the 3% of people that do use linux and say “well noone uses that”, but let’s do some quick maths,

There are 8 billion people on earth, let’s divide that by 50%, and we have 4 billion people that own a computer and use a computer, and let’s multiply that by 3%, we get 120,000,000 Linux users worldwide that currently use Linux as their main PC OS, that’s a huge market. You can do this math yourself, you will come to the same conclusion.

So if Linux has 120,000,000 users, then why is no company going to for Linux? Well, they aren’t going to waste time making support for Linux if there’s only 3% of people that use the OS, they see 3% as a small insignificant market, but they are wrong, and some companies like Google and Steam realized that. Currently Steam is working on improving gaming on Linux, and as of right now, Gaming on linux has been the best it’s ever been, and Google uses Linux for a bunch of different things meant for consumers (even though I don’t support google’s use of Linux, they still use Linux), Android is based on Linux, along with ChromeOS. So there is a huge market with little competition

And there’s an added bonus if you support Linux, as you aren’t just going after the PC market, you are going for potentially the entire world, how? well, 99% of global servers use linux because it’s stable, most banks ATMs use linux for security, the ISS uses linux to stay up in the air, your router probably uses some sort of linux flavour, and your smart toaster that connects to wifi for some reason, probably uses linux. You simply can’t not use linux, don’t believe me? go google it. do your own research.

Let’s go with the “there are too many distros to support” argument, which is pretty stupid in my opinion, because if you look at it bare bones, every single distro is the same thing, all you really need to create a linux distro is an package manager (apt, pacman ext.), a desktop environment, a few utilities and drivers and you are good to go, that’s all you need, Roblox could probably just put support for arch linux and debian, and you automatically support 99% of every modern distro.

Roblox technically already has Linux support, as they support Android, which is based on Linux, and it works pretty well under ChromeOS, do a little bit of tweaking around to make it work with Linux, and you now have Linux support with barely any effort.

Let’s transition from fact to more fact with my opinion sprinkled on top:

Looking at the “we won’t pay for a robux or premium if we don’t wanna pay for our OS” argument, which is also pretty stupid, most of us in the linux community have matured up, and we are more than willing to pay for stuff to support a project, most of us are security and privacy conscious and don’t want to deal with Microsoft’s bloated inconsistent ever-closing spyware and don’t want to pay a liver for a Mac. Linux gives us the freedom, security and privacy to let us do what we want to do with our computers & hardware.

Alongside the fact that we have essentially built the best OS to code on and innovate, there’s a reason why coders like using Linux, and this is also a huge advantage, as you can expect actual good experiences on roblox, because most of us aren’t children and know what we are doing, and let alone we have an actual brain to know what is fun and what isn’t. what’s a cash grab and what isn’t, what is okay and what isn’t, we are mature, not stupid. (You may deny with me, this is my opinion again)
Transitioning back to facts as this is the end of the section

How you can play roblox under linux unofficially (step by step)

Well even if roblox is not likely to make it official, we can still get a reasonably good roblox experience under Linux. I will go over 2 main distros (Arch & Debian), as you are going to be likely using at least one of these

You need to have these specs to run:

  • x86_64 CPU
  • GPU that supports OpenGL 4.0 or Vulkan (both are available under a modern GPU)
  • x86_64 GNU/Linux system with glibc or amd64 FreeBSD 13.0+ system

Not required to have, but a nice to have if you use these day to day

  • Pipewire with pipewire-pulse to be able to use voice chat
  • Wayland with XWayland for better performance

Let’s start off with debian based distros

First, you need the i386 architecture, you can do this by executing
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
on your terminal of choice

Second, you will need to install the grapejuice keyring you can do this by executing
curl https://gitlab.com/brinkervii/grapejuice/-/raw/master/ci_scripts/signing_keys/public_key.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/grapejuice-archive-keyring.gpg
on your terminal

Third, to access the packagefor grapejuice, you need to add it to your repo, do that by using
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grapejuice.list <<< 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/grapejuice-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brinkervii.gitlab.io/grapejuice/repositories/debian/ universal main'
on your terminal

Now since a new repo has been added, you have to update your your system that way it is found
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Before we go install grapejuice, if you haven’t already, please install wine
sudo apt install wine
You should get the latest version if you don’t have it installed already,

Now that you have wine, go and install the package for grapejuice
sudo apt install grapejuice

And now you can open up grapejuice, and hit install roblox, and you are good to go.

Now let’s go over arch based distros

We are gonna install it using makepkg, which is a straight forward process:

git clone --depth=1 https://aur.archlinux.org/grapejuice-git.git /tmp/grapejuice-git
cd /tmp/grapejuice-git
makepkg -si

You should be good to go and open grapejuice and install roblox using GUI.

I have issues with the roblox client

Incase you have issues with wine // other stuff, you can install a prebuild patched version of wine that fixes a lot of the issues (however I recommend you don’t do this unless necessary)

Run the commands below to automatically download a pre-compiled Wine:

cd /tmp
wget https://pastebin.com/raw/5SeVb005 -O install.py
python3 install.py

If you have other issues, and I didn’t feature your issue, please check grapejuice documentation for more info:

I hope y’all found this post a bit informational, and have gotten a little bit more educated about the topic. This post has taken up 2 hours to write down alone. lol (not counting research or other stuff) If I missed something, please let me know, I am a human, I am not perfect, so feel free to ask around, and give feedback.

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It caught me up here that I’ve somehow remembered this message from a staff, Android of course is based on Linux and heavily modified but like what they said it has it’s OS API which is making it easier for them to port for certain devices that supports each OSes, I don’t even think most distro looks the same and driver support is almost frustrating to me.

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I believe some developers of the Linux Kernel are working on it if I remember correctly.

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I disagree. Do you have any real source or statistics for this? If the value of Linux users is so low, how come more and more game development studios are starting to feel the need to offer native linux support or good compatibility with Wine?

The Linux kernel itself does maintain API and ABI stability with userspace. This means that as long as the kernel isn’t outdated, userspace programs like a hypothetical Roblox Linux client shouldn’t have any issues.
The concerns with common libraries used to be very valid, but honestly nowadays aren’t really an issue. We can package programs with Flatpak/Snap nowadays, which avoids the package hell and outdated distribution libs Roblox was worried about, while also allowing universal packaging for nearly all distros.
I think it’s time for Roblox to revisit officially supporting Linux.
Many of their issues and complaints have been addressed, and Linux is growing more relevant as more users join its marketshare (including some of Roblox’s own developer userbase) and more desktop software and game development companies start officially acknowledging Linux and either offer full native ports of their products or at least assure support with compatibility layers.

I truly believe it’s time for Roblox to re-evaluate its stance on Linux, and that sooner or later, they will be forced to, as many other companies already have been.

Linux is not just an “irrelevant hobby OS”. Although its marketshare for desktops isn’t big, you have to consider that the amount of Linux users that are also software developers is disproportionally high. Some of this platform’s high-value developers strictly use Linux only. Let’s not mention the huge backing the Linux kernel and Linux desktop have from the likes of Intel, AMD, Red Hat, IBM, Valve, CodeWeavers and many other companies that are investing many resources into this market.

With so many improvements made (Wayland, Flatpak, Freedesktop guidelines, Pipewire, Mesa, Kernel-Mode Setting, etc.) and so many additional improvements coming in the near future (HDR and Color Management, Nvidia Open Kernel Module, Native Wayland Wine, better gtk-to-qt compatibility, etc.), I feel like Roblox’s arguments for not developing a Linux port simply do not apply today.

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Even better than this, literally just a flatpak.

Even worse Roblox quite literally removed Wine unofficial support a few days ago with an update, it no longer works due to the new anti-hack ;-;

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I did say that’s what roblox likely thinks, and is likely their point of view, not neccesarily what it actually is. I feel like you kinda quickly scimmed through that, don’t blame ya, ofc that might be up to debate but I’d say that’s what roblox might think of GNU/Linux users in general

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Yeah I have seen that. I switched to Windows cuz of that, I don’t have a second screen for a GPU passthrough so I can’t do much, I did buy a second screen, it’s arriving sometime 31st (or atleast it should).

I’ve seen people have success in running roblox with anbox, but honestly, that’s just more clunky and over complicated than it already was, and likely will give ya a bit more lag, haven’t tried it though due to me having issues with anbox in the past, but might as well experiment with it and see what happens when I do get back on gnu/linux

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Then I reccomend you perform a single GPU passthrough with hyperv enlightments & other improvements

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looks like something aged like milk

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While I am a full on Apple User (macOS, iOS, iPadOS), I believe that Roblox should easily be able to port Roblox over to Linux due to Roblox using QT for their platform, which has native Linux support.

This doesnt seem like an excuse like Apple Silicon native took a long time because QT didn’t support it, it seems like they don’t want to click 1 button in QT and compile for Linux for whatever reason then distribute it, it sounds like putting it on Roblox, checking the user agent, and allowing downloads for the Linux version is the hardest part, since Roblox is built off of QT.

Hope Roblox reconsiders.

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Linux has different API of course. To have native Linux support, you would really need to program the client form the ground up which is not ideal. Grape juice and Wine work fine.

Obviously this is a possibility, but unlikely soon.

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can you actually use roblox studio on linux or no since roblox studio is still 32 bits

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Roblox studio was ported to 64-Bits As well, Roblox studio works fine on linux thanks to Bitdancer however he said that he only did limited testing, i don’t know if that’s still the case.

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Sadly, Roblox will probably never “officially” be on Linux.

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Right now they have no plans to make a native client, that doesn’t mean that Roblox will never make one, it just means that the marketshare of linux is too low for them to justify it. They will probably make plans if the marketshare of linux continues to grow.

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Every day i am in pain knowing i am forced to continue supporting microsoft because of this. When microsoft stops supporting windows 10, what then? Would Roblox ever consider it ? :sob:

Companies don’t support Linux because not many people use it. Not many people use it because some companies don’t support it. it’s a paradox.

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I feel the same exact way. The only thing that is stopping me from have a privacy and developer centric environment is the lack of true support. We’re not getting a Linux client all because we aren’t getting a Linux client.

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Sorry for continuing this dead thread.

If I recall correctly, it is Roblox Studio that utilises Qt, rather than the actual Roblox player app itself. The Roblox player app is intricate in terms of graphics APIs, complicating the prospect of definitively porting Roblox to Linux. Windows relies on the DirectX Graphics API, whilst macOS utilises their own API, Metal.

You can specify the API you want to use for rendering in Studio by navigating to the “Graphics” tab in settings, where you will find options for DirectX, Metal, Vulkan, OpenGL, and various other graphics APIs. However, it is unclear whether this change affects both Studio and the Roblox player app itself globally. Based on my personal experience, altering studio settings will not impact the player app’s rendering settings. Each operating system clearly seems to favour an API optimised for itself, and the player app doesn’t provide a clear method to enforce the use of a specific API in the player app.

Vulkan stands out as an exception from the list, as it isn’t specifically favoured by any OS. In fact, it may even be the “saviour” in terms of a solution for interoperability between OSes. Vulkan is compatible with Windows, macOS, and even Linux, raising the question of why there isn’t a native Linux port if Vulkan is available for rendering anyways.

However, its also important to note that usually there isn’t a simple “compile” button to generate bulds for all platforms simultaneously, including Linux. Being a software developer myself for Numelon, it would be a bit of an understatement for me to say that compiling for every single platform is chaotic, let alone Linux… Compiling for Linux necessitates performing the compilation on a Linux system itself, using relevant libraries tailored to specific Linux distributions.

In an ideal scenario, and I wish, compiling for Linux would be a straightforward process, but the reality is more complex due to the diverse nature of Linux distributions, each with their own unique characteristics. Despite sharing the same kernel, the handling of various aspects differs drastically, making it challenging to standardise the compilation process across multiple operating systems and different Linux flavours.

You dont have to dig deep to find out that any application with support for Linux has a partially chaotic download page, also revealing the chaotic nature of Linux support. Each distribution has its own package manager, software installation, settings, window manager, settings, etc. For instance, OpenRGB offers five download links for different Linux distributions, and for different VERSIONS of each distribution (excluding all the separate links that are for different architectures and bits), highlighting the need for tailored installation methods. There’s deb, tar, bin, flathub, and so much more… Obviously I wouldn’t expect Roblox to be in a package manager or on FlatHub, but thats still something important to note.

For Roblox to support Linux effectively, it would require a comprehensive strategy to ensure consistent installation across all distributions, despite all of the differences I mentioned above, including graphics.

Furthermore, the challenge of just porting in general is kind of exacerbated by the fact that Roblox uses its own proprietary, in-house game engine. Building everything internally poses another layer of complexity, and whilst what Roblox does with its engine is absolutely impressive, this internal approach also strains human resources. Developing and maintaining a sophisticated game engine is no easy task, and demands the continuous efforts of numerous skilled engineers.

Roblox’s struggle with multi-platform support has been evident since the very start. It was initially available only on Windows around 2005/2006, which is as expected when a small piece of software or game starts off, but it took Roblox a a full six years to complete the port to OS X (older macOS) by 2011.
In 2021, Apple then introduced its M1 Chips based on the ARM architecture, however, it wasn’t until 2023 (two ENTIRE YEARS) that Roblox managed to natively port its game engine to ARM / Apple Silicon. This lengthy process highlights that the challenges extend beyond just operating systems. Despite Roblox being present on macOS for an entire decade and the minimal differences between architectures within the same OS, such as the tiny kernel additions to support ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture, the porting process was obviously time consuming. Even though it is easy to assume that porting to a different architecture on the same OS would be straightforward - simply compiling on the target architecture - the reality is just far from that and more complex, particularly for Roblox which develops its own engine, adding an entire additional layer of difficulty to the task.

I know I’ve said a lot already, but more and more of these additional complex layers just pile up. Roblox’s implementation of Hyperion, their new anti cheat system, now demands extensive research and development efforts from not only Roblox, but ALSO the Hyperion team to ensure seamless integration of Roblox with the anti cheat across different platforms. This obviously further complicates the already challenging task of multi-platform support, as it adds another dimension of coordination and compatibility testing to the process. It wasn’t until recently that Roblox just gave up with Linux entirely because they (what I would think of as foolishly) favoured security instead of actual playability on a platform that couldn’t exploit anyways.

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Studio does work on linux, as it doesnt have anti cheat, but as for the client itself, its probably going to stay blocked on linux. still dont get why roblox cant just activate that blocker if it detects reverse engineering tools or a reverse engineering/hacking distro. and anybody can still reverse engineer on windows with tools like ghidra

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I entirely agree with this, while yes I agree with the fact that Linux is pretty complicated and it’s not easy to make it straight forward for everyone, overtime I do believe Roblox will change it’s mind

Linux’s marketshare is now growing fairly fast, according to Statcounter, about 1% of the global marketshare has been gained in the past 6 months alone, if we are optimistic and throw out some realism, a growth rate of 1% per 6 months would lead us to 10% in 3 years. This is a fairly static and unreasonable math I did in 5 minutes for this post, but you can see why it would make sense to start eyeing up Linux. Their main gripe was that there aren’t many users to make it worthwhile.

That also brings us onto other factors like the Steam Deck bringing Linux about a million different users that are just there for gaming, this also brings an example that if you support Linux, you would also support the Steam Deck, and potentially a lot of different devices, hell you’d support the ISS.

However again bringing us back to APIs, it is going to be very VERY difficult to port because of the amount of API functions and such. However I would also argue that you shouldn’t support Hannah Montana Linux, because just why? Just support Debian, Fedora and Arch and you’d pretty much already cover 99% of distros you’d actually use just like that, (that would actually also indirectly support Hannah Montana Linux because it’s based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian) and for the heck of it, you could half bake Arch and tell those people to compile the thing themselfs. They would do it, they already installed their system the MS DOS way anyway.

Either way though, it will take years, hell maybe even a decade, but we are giving the more and more reasons to do so due to the growing market, and especially growing gaming market. (It could be a potential investment? maybe?) I mean I switched over to Windows because of Roblox and Adobe, but the second Roblox starts supporting Linux I am heading right back in. And I am probably not the only one that thinks this way.

(Also Roblox technically already has some hold in Linux, Android is basically Linux disguised under a phone, and ChromeOS is from what I can tell, supported****, they already technically have a good starting point already.***)

This is mostly just my opinion, I am not saying this will be easy, this is far too difficult and I understand that, I made this a year ago and even I laugh at myself a year later I didn’t think of something as obvious as APIs.

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