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Running NMSE on Linux with Bottles

A step-by-step guide to running NMSE (No Man's Save Editor) on Linux using Bottles, a modern graphical Wine manager.

Note: This is an interim solution. A native cross-platform version using Eto.Forms is planned - see the Cross-Platform Work Plan for details.

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. System Requirements
  3. Installing Bottles
  4. Setting Up NMSE
  5. Finding Your NMS Save Files
  6. Troubleshooting
  7. Bottles Configuration Reference
  8. Comparison: Bottles vs Direct Wine vs AppImage

Overview

Bottles is a modern, user-friendly Wine manager for Linux with a GTK4 interface. It provides:

  • Graphical bottle management - create, configure, and manage isolated Wine environments
  • Multiple Wine runners - choose from Wine, Soda, Caffe, and other runners
  • Dependency management - install fonts, runtime libraries, and other components
  • Flatpak distribution - easy, sandboxed installation
  • Per-application configuration - each app gets its own environment

Bottles is ideal for Linux users who prefer a GUI over command-line Wine management.

System Requirements

Requirement Detail
Architecture x86_64 (AMD64)
Distro Any modern Linux distribution
Desktop GTK4-compatible (GNOME, XFCE, Cinnamon, MATE, etc.)
Disk space ~700 MB (Bottles + Wine runner + NMSE)

Installing Bottles

Flatpak (Recommended)

# Install Flatpak if not already installed
# Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

# Install Bottles
flatpak install flathub com.usebottles.bottles

Other Methods

  • AUR (Arch/CachyOS): paru -S bottles
  • AppImage: Available from the Bottles GitHub releases
  • Snap: sudo snap install bottles

Setting Up NMSE

Step 1: Download NMSE

  1. Go to https://github.com/vectorcmdr/NMSE/releases
  2. Download the latest NMSE-<version>-Release.zip file (listed under the "Latest Build" release)
  3. Extract it to a convenient location (e.g. ~/Downloads/NMSE/)

Step 2: Create a Bottle

  1. Open Bottles
  2. Click Create New Bottle (+)
  3. Configure:
    • Name: NMSE
    • Environment: "Application" (not Gaming)
    • Architecture: Win64
  4. Click Create
  5. Wait for the bottle to initialise (Bottles will download a Wine runner if needed)

Step 3: Add NMSE

  1. Select the NMSE bottle from the list
  2. Click Add Shortcuts (or the Programs section -> Add)
  3. Navigate to your extracted NMSE folder and select NMSE.exe
  4. Click Open / Add

Step 4: Launch NMSE

  1. In the NMSE bottle, click on NMSE.exe in the programs list
  2. Click the Play button (▶)
  3. NMSE will launch - first launch may take 15–30 seconds

Finding Your NMS Save Files

In the Bottles File Browser

When NMSE opens its file dialog, navigate to your save files via Wine's path mapping:

Steam (Standard Proton):

Z:\home\<username>\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\compatdata\275850\pfx\drive_c\users\steamuser\AppData\Roaming\HelloGames\NMS

Steam (Flatpak):

Z:\home\<username>\.var\app\com.valvesoftware.Steam\data\Steam\steamapps\compatdata\275850\pfx\drive_c\users\steamuser\AppData\Roaming\HelloGames\NMS

Creating a Shortcut

To make saves easier to find, create a symlink inside the bottle:

  1. In Bottles, select the NMSE bottle
  2. Click Browse Files (opens the bottle's drive_c in your file manager)
  3. Navigate to users/<username>/Desktop/
  4. Open a terminal here and create a symlink: 
    ln -s ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/275850/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/HelloGames/NMS NMS-Saves
  5. In NMSE, you can now browse to Desktop/NMS-Saves from the Wine C: drive

Flatpak Filesystem Access

If using Bottles via Flatpak, you may need to grant filesystem access:

# Grant access to Steam saves
flatpak override --user --filesystem=~/.local/share/Steam com.usebottles.bottles

# Grant access to Flatpak Steam saves
flatpak override --user --filesystem=~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam com.usebottles.bottles

Troubleshooting

NMSE Doesn't Launch

  1. Ensure the bottle is using a 64-bit Wine runner (Win64)
  2. Try switching runners: Bottle settings -> Runner -> select a different one (e.g. Soda or Caffe)
  3. Check the Bottles log: click the Log tab in the bottle view

Font Issues

  1. In the NMSE bottle, go to Dependencies
  2. Install corefonts (Windows core fonts)
  3. Restart NMSE

DPI / Scaling Issues

  1. In the NMSE bottle, go to Settings
  2. Under Display, check Virtual Desktop and set a resolution
  3. Or: Go to Wine Configuration -> Graphics -> adjust DPI

Flatpak Can't Access Save Files

# Grant Bottles access to your home directory
flatpak override --user --filesystem=home com.usebottles.bottles

# Or grant access to specific directories
flatpak override --user --filesystem=~/.local/share/Steam com.usebottles.bottles

Graphical Glitches

  1. In bottle settings, try switching Renderer from "OpenGL" to "Vulkan" or vice versa
  2. Enable DXVK in bottle settings (shouldn't be needed for WinForms, but can help)
  3. Try a different Wine runner version

Bottles Configuration Reference

A reference bottles.yml is provided at scripts/linux/bottles.yml with the recommended settings:

Setting Value Notes
Windows Version Windows 10 Best .NET compatibility
Architecture win64 NMSE is a 64-bit application
Runner wine-9.0+ / soda-9.0+ Latest stable runner
WINEDLLOVERRIDES mscoree=d;mshtml=d Disable Wine Mono/Gecko installers
Dependencies None required NMSE is self-contained

Comparison: Bottles vs Direct Wine vs AppImage

Feature Bottles Direct Wine AppImage
Setup difficulty Easy (GUI) Moderate (CLI) Easiest (just run)
Self-contained No (needs Bottles + Wine) No (needs Wine) Yes
GUI management ✅ Yes ❌ No ❌ No
Per-app configuration ✅ Yes Manual N/A
Dependency management ✅ Yes (GUI) Manual (winetricks) Bundled
Update management ✅ Runner updates via GUI Manual Download new AppImage
Disk usage ~700 MB ~400 MB ~300–500 MB
Best for Users who prefer GUIs Experienced Linux users Most users

For most Linux users, the AppImage is the simplest option. Bottles is recommended if you prefer a GUI for managing Wine environments or run other Windows applications.

Future: Native Linux Support

See the Cross-Platform Work Plan for the full migration roadmap to a native Eto.Forms Linux application.