Kerbal Space Program
As described on its website, Kerbal Space Program is a game where you:
- take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that fly (or don’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics. Launch your Kerbal crew into orbit and beyond (while keeping them alive) to explore moons and planets in the Kerbol solar system, constructing bases and space stations to expand the reach of your expedition.
Since version 0.19, Kerbal Space Program includes a native Linux version. However, only Ubuntu is officially supported, so it may not work on Arch Linux out of the box.
Installation
Install Kerbal Space Program in the Steam client if you bought that version of the game.
For non Steam users, the Kerbal Space Program website currently offers a pre-built Linux version as a .zip file. Download and extract that file to your chosen install location, execute the game using:
$ ./KSP.x86_64
Mod Support
For ease of installation and mod management, currently most modifications are available using ckanAUR which will automatically resolve dependencies and install / remove mods.
It is worth noting that not all mods are available for all release versions, if you have your heart set on using a particular mod it may be worth researching and installing an older KSP version first.
Known issues
Game won't load after Private Division launcher appears
In the Steam game properties "Compatibility panel", make sure that "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility Tool" is unchecked.
Game never progresses past initial loading
To fix this, set:
LC_ALL=C
This is also relevant if your rocket's parts do not connect.
Game segfaults before launching, v1.1+
The Unity 5 engine expects you to be running PulseAudio. You can install pulsenomoreAUR or download it from the KSP bug tracker as a workaround until this is fixed by the Unity developers.
No text display
The game requires Arial and Arial Black fonts installed, provided in the ttf-ms-fontsAUR package.
Another alternative is to try to use gnu-free-fonts.
Some resolutions cause menus to appear empty. Try using your settings.cfg file to enable fullscreen and/or change your resolution by a few pixels, e.g. 1366x768 to 1363x768.
Imperfect resolutions can cause poor font rendering. If this happens you can use the AnyRes mod to change your resolution in-game to find a good one, rather than launching the game for every change.
Another solution that may work on some architectures is to add -force-glcore as a launch option, or to pass it in as a command line flag. For Steam: go to Library, right click on KSP, Properties, Set up launch options, and add -force-glcore. The game engine will try to run the game with the best OpenGL version possible and all available OpenGL extensions. With this option enabled you may encounter shadow glitches, try few different settings in-game in the setting panel to resolve the problem.
Graphics flickering when using primusrun
Run with PRIMUS_SYNC=2, but you will get reduced frame rate this way. Alternatively run KSP using optirun.
Game crashes when accessing settings or saves on 64 bit systems on Steam
In the properties for Kerbal Space program, set the launch options as:
LC_ALL=C %command%_64
The _64 part makes sure that Steam launches the 64-bit version of the game and not the 32-bit one.
Game has garbled graphics when running on x86_64 with all lib32 drivers installed
Steam launches the KSP.x86 executable instead of the KSP.x86_64 executable. Navigate to
"/home/$USER/.local/share/Steam/SteamApps/common/Kerbal Space Program/"
Launch with
$ ./KSP.x86_64
Alternatively, to launch it from steam, set the following launch option:
%command%_64
No audio on 64-bit systems
Run the 64-bit executable: see #Game has garbled graphics when running on x86_64 with all lib32 drivers installed.
Alternatively, right click on Kerbal Space Program on your game list, click on Properties, click on SET LAUNCH OPTIONS, then add:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" LC_ALL=C %command%_64
Black in-game textures
Disable "Edge Highlighting (PPFX)" in the graphics settings in-game.
Joystick inputs are not recognized, v1.4+
This is a bug in KSP. As it has existed for a while now and depends on an upstream bug in the Unity engine it is unlikely to be fixed soon. Currently your only options are reverting to an older version of KSP (1.3 or lower) that used an older version of Unity, to emulate an XBox Controller, or to use a third party mod like AFBW. With some configuration the latter one comes pretty close to the vanilla behavior and even grants some additional features.
Alt key not working
In the Linux version, the modifier key is mapped to RShift since some window managers use Alt+Click for moving windows.