Crusader Kings 2 graphical problem on Debian based LMDE7

[u/ffdghjk]

Hello,

(1st image is the game's main menu, 2nd image is playing, 3rd image is the (unchanged) "Runner options" in Lutris for the game)

I am having a GRAPHICAL issue (only) with Crusader Kings 2 on my LMDE7 PC. This same PC used to run the game, no issues, on Windows 11. And I will list the specs below. I am pretty sure this is not a hardware issue.

The game itself ACTUALLY WORKS and runs smoothly, but the BIG issue is that the MAP (the main way to interact with the game) is cooked, the GUI and everything else seems to work great actually (I did not do a long testing session for obvious reasons, but it seems to work).

My game setup (for Windows games) is Lutris with GOG.com offline installers. I do not wish to use Steam or any other launcher needing online authentication (Heroic). I use Lutris, but not it's online components.

Also, I am aware that Crusader Kings 2 has native Linux support. However (after contacting the devs myself) I was told that there is no plan to ever make those version available on other platforms other than Steam, as the game is not being developed anymore. So I am left with .exe installers only.

PC Specs:

• GPU: Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7600 8G
• CPU: 6-core 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F
• MOBO: ASrock B760M-HDV/M.2 D4
• Storage: a 512GB NVME SSD (plenty of free space)
• Dual monitor setup

Tech specs:

• OS: LMDE 7 (gigi) x86_64
• Kernel: 6.12.111+deb13-amd64 x86_64
• DE: Cinnamon 6.6.9
• WM: Muffin (X11)
• GL info:
  • OpenGL vendor string: AMD
  • OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon RX 7600 (radeonsi, navi33, LLVM 19.1.7, DRM 3.61, 6.12.111+deb13-amd64)
  • OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.0.7-2+deb13u1
• Wine version (Lutris): GE-Proton (Latest)
• "Wine --version": wine-11.0

I also wanna add, that this is a recent install, I did not do anything crazy like changing the DE or the kernel version. I am new to Linux. All I have ever done on this PC is download flatpaks, images and native Linux games. So it is pretty much the most basic out of the box version of LMDE7. And YES, I did "sudo apt upgrade/update" and restart my PC afterwards.

Also, other games do work. Native, GOG Linux native, Windows through Lutris, those all work, some with tinkering, some ootb. Even similar games, like EU4 (also a "map game") which works no issue.

I could not find anyone else struggling with the same issue. I am guessing it's because it's a niche withing a niche (DRM-free gaming + Linux) lol. ProtonDB was no help, as it is Steam-centric.

All I tried so far is changing the graphical in game settings (including swapping between windowed and fullscreen), which did nothing.

If needed I am ready to provide more info or test stuff. I am new to Linux so I don't really know about Linux, I am still learning. My Main goal right now is to set up all my main games so they just work and are stable.

[u/Two-Of-Nine]

Since you are on LMDE, you should have Debian Backports enabled by default, so I would heavily recommend you install Mesa backports (for AMD GPU) and kernel backports (because why not) if you are trying to game in general. It just makes sense for performance especially on an RDNA 3 GPU. One thing to keep in mind is that CK2 and EU4 by extension are pre-Vulkan games so if you ever ran GOverlay in the Linux build, it would report OpenGL instead of Vulkan.

You might hate to hear this also, but I'd recommend getting it from Steam directly just because Linux native titles like this are going to be optimized especially on their platform. I play EU4 a lot and I get performance drawbacks trying to run it on Proton versus Native. Graphics issues are likely because it's being run as a Windows title through Lutris (and I have no idea what you're using as your Wine runner).

[u/ffdghjk → u/Two-Of-Nine]

Hmm, backporting sounds kinda scary, ngl. I am the type of person who prefers the stability and I'd like to just update the major version using Mint's GUI update tool (I am worried big changes might mess with that). I really don't wanna reinstall my whole system to update to LMDE8 later on..

Do you happen to know what would be rougly the time next Debian stable releases? That would mean a new LMDE a few months after that and therefore newer kernel.

But maybe I can try the Mesa backports, would that be difficult? I will try to search up something on YouTube.

Also, if I searched correctly, I am running Wine-11.0. But for the games, I have set it up to run Proton GE 11-7. If that info helps. Also, I have never used GOverlay.

Thanks for the reply!

[u/Two-Of-Nine → u/ffdghjk]

Debian Backports are pretty safe because the packages are directly built against Stable instead of Testing. It's honestly safer than if you were slapping a PPA repo on mainline Linux Mint to get similar packages. You don't necessarily need kernel backports, but not taking advantage of newer Mesa drivers is essentially leaving free performance gains out the window unless you have a very ancient card.

[u/Alert_Warthog_6764]

Only thing I can really suggest is try changing Proton versions in the Lutris Runner options. Also may be worth trying to disable DXVK in runner options and see if that helps.

You may want to post on reddit.com/r/linux_gaming maybe someone there has had similar issue.

*Edit* just saw you already posted on linux_gaming sub reddit. Hopefully you will find a fix for this.