How to Install and play repacked games on Linux using bottles

Thanvir Diouf S — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:55:08 +0000

Repacks are not cracks. It is just a version of the game that removes unnecessary bloat and are useful to people who have storage constraints.

Step 1: Install flatpak
Just go to Flathub setup page and set up flatpak by following the instructions.

Step 2: Install bottles and flatseal
Open up your terminal and type

flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal com.usebottles.bottles

and just confirm on all the prompts.

Step 3: Set up flatseal
In the terminal, type:

flatpak run com.github.tchx84.Flatseal & disown

This window opens up:

Step 4: Change settings for bottles
The main settings to change are:
Device:

Allow and Filesystem:

Now close flatseal and open a terminal again:

Step 5: Make a bottle for the installer
Open terminal and type:

flatpak run com.usebottles.bottles & disown

Just click next and next in the prompts. It will take some time the first time you open.
Click on the + icon on the top left corner.
Give this bottle a name like "installer" and select the "Application" option and click create.

This will take some time as it is downloading the translation layer.
Step 6: Installing the game
For this tutorial, I will be installing Skyrim. Download the files and keep it read and go to the bottle.
Click on the installer bottle:

Click on add shortcuts in the Programs section:

Browse to your setup.exe and open it:

Setup appears in your list. Click play:

It opens up. CLick okay and next

Click okay and next till you reach the destination location:

In your file host file manager. Make a Folder named Games in the home directory. Then browse to that folder in the installer. Make sure that the location is in Z: and not in C:.

In the next page, pay attention to the programs needed.

For me, it is direct x, and redist 2015-2019. This may not be the same for the game you are playing. Deselect them. We need to install these later manually before running the game.

Now click on install and wait for it to finish.

Do not launch the game when it finishes installing
Deselect everything and click finish
Open file explorer and navigate to the installed location.

You will find the installed files.

Step 7: Setting up the bottle that runs the game

Add a new bottle

Name the bottle and select the Gaming option and click create.

This will take some time as it is downloading a bunch of stuff that helps to translate windows graphics API calls to something linux can understand.

Click Close once it is done

Open the gamer bottle.
Now we need to install some of the game dependencies.
For me it was:

Directx is already handled by bottles. Lets just get the redist.
Go to dependencies under options:

Search vcredist:
I am going to install these 2:

That is done.
Next, go to settings

and advanced display settings

Change Renderer to Vulkan and save it.

Click on add shortcut:

And browse to your game binary:

And now run the game:

And the game works:

Congrats and happy gaming!!

DEV Community: Thanvir Diouf S

How to Install and play repacked games on Linux using bottles