Manual Installation On Linux

Caution

We strongly recommend to use the IW4x Launcher described in the Quickstart Guide.
It’s the easiest and most reliable way to install and keep IW4x up to date
However, if you prefer to install IW4x manually, you can follow the steps outlined below.
Important: If you manually install IW4x, you’ll need to repeat all of these steps each time a new update is released.

Since the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 was never released on Linux systems, installing is a little bit trickier.

Today, two practical ways exist:

Method 1: Using Proton, Steam’s built-in compatibility layer.
Method 2: Using a custom Wine prefix, managed by the user.

Just like on Windows, both approaches require IW4x to be installed in the game directory of MW2.

1. Using Proton

Steam now enables Proton for Windows-only titles by default.
This means that, once installed through Steam, Modern Warfare 2 is ready to go with no special configuration required.
Installing IW4x then only requires downloading and extracting the necessary files into the MW2 Proton directory.

For example, assuming $STEAMLIBRARY points to your Steam library, IW4x can be installed with the following commands:

1. Download iw4x.dll

   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-client/releases/latest/download/iw4x.dll -o iw4x.dll

2. Download iw4x.exe

   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x.exe -o iw4x.exe

3. Download raw files

   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/release.zip -o release.zip

4. Extract archive

   unzip -o release.zip -d "$STEAMLIBRARY/steamapps/common/Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2"

5. Download iwd files

   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_00.iwd -o iw4x/iw4x_00.iwd
   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_01.iwd -o iw4x/iw4x_01.iwd
   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_02.iwd -o iw4x/iw4x_02.iwd
   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_03.iwd -o iw4x/iw4x_03.iwd
   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_04.iwd -o iw4x/iw4x_04.iwd
   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_05.iwd -o iw4x/iw4x_05.iwd

From there, launching Modern Warfare 2 through Steam also launches IW4x, and the Proton layer handles all necessary translations in the background.

2. Using Wine Prefix

Others prefer not to rely on Proton’s managed environment. In that case, a dedicated Wine prefix must be created and configured. The process requires several steps, which are described below:

1. Create a new prefix

   WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-mw2 wineboot

2. Install required runtimes

   IW4x and Modern Warfare 2 expect a number of Microsoft libraries to be present.
   These can be installed with winetricks:

   WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-mw2 winetricks vcrun2019 d3dcompiler_47 dxvk

3. Acquire Modern Warfare 2

   The game can be installed through Steam running inside that prefix.
   Or, alternatively, by retrieving the files directly using DepotDownloader:

   ./DepotDownloader -app 10190 -username <username> -password <password>

4. Add IW4x

   With the base game in place, the IW4x files can be downloaded into the prefix’s game directory:

   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-client/releases/latest/download/iw4x.dll -o iw4x.dll
   curl -L https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/release.zip -o release.zip
   unzip -o release.zip -d ~/.wine-mw2/drive_c/Program\ Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Call\ of\ Duty\ Modern\ Warfare\ 2

Once the base game is present and the IW4x files downloaded and extracted, we are ready to run the game.
All you have to do is invoking Wine explicitly:

bash

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-mw2 wine iw4x.exe

Though more involved, this method grants precise control over the runtime environment, which some users may prefer.

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Install using POSIX Shell Script

Once of our awesome community members maintains script that automates installing and updating IW4x on Linux!
You can check it out here: https://github.com/kkrruumm/iw4x-updoot
Make sure to read through their README for usage instructions and details.

Huge thanks to @krum for creating, maintaining and also testing the script on various systems! 💖