Unknown
game-performance %command% +connect raidados.top
Performance & Stability The Rust client runs exceptionally well under Proton, often achieving framerates that are directly comparable to Windows, if not better, on equivalent hardware. Gameplay is smooth and stable with no stuttering or graphical artifacts. For most users, the game experience is flawless.
The Main Issue: Server Anti-Cheat Compatibility
This is not a bug with the game's Linux performance, but a server configuration choice that unfortunately locks out Linux players from most of the ecosystem.
Workaround & Compatible Servers To play, you must specifically seek out servers that have manually enabled Linux/Proton support. Thankfully, a few major communities have done so. The most prominent examples are:
Americas Region: The Raidados server ( connect raidados.top ) More Vanilla experience weekly wipes, 2x resources and a good stable pop.
EU Region: The Deadlock server ( connect play.deadlock.com ) More Modded experience, raid block, monthly wipes.
By filtering for these servers, you can have a complete and enjoyable Rust experience for all gameplay styles on Linux.
This game plays native besides lacking easy anti-cheat support. There are linux servers you can play though.
Must have at least 32 GB of ram to play.
There are a few dedicated linux servers you can play. the most prominent is Deadlock and Freedom rust. Search "linux" in the searchbar, and you will find all the linux servers you can play on. To be honest, I forgot I was playing on linux after a bit. Make sure you have a GPU with at least 8 gb of VRAM and at least 32 gb of ram. The game uses at least 6 gb of VRAM and 20 gb of ram just to run.
LD_PRELOAD="" gamemoderun /bin/bash -c 'exec "${@/Rust.exe/RustClient.exe}"' -- %command%
Cant play with EAC
Menu works fine. Game runs fine- runs natively infact, but the anticheat is horrible and doesnt allow connections to most servers.
Works fine. Anticheat prevents connections.
The game runs as well, if not better, than on Windows. Works fine with window managers like i3, no crashing.
I have had to switch between Proton 9.0-4 and experimental after updates to the game. Currently running fine on 9.0-4.
Linux servers (non-EAC) are not officially supported so your choice of servers is very limited.
The game is technically perfectly playable out of the box (without EAC), it just lacks Linux players / servers to have the real Rust experience. I've started running a Linux - compatible monthly vanilla EU server called FreedomRust to try and be a part of the solution.
Playable with slight tinkering and minor performance degradation, however you cannot connect to any EAC secured servers.
LD_PRELOAD="" PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=1 mangohud gamemoderun /bin/bash -c 'exec "${@/Rust.exe/RustClient.exe}"' -- %command%
Performance degradation is worse on Linux compared to Windows, heavy stuttering when opening inventory or containers.
Server side anticheat will occassionally false flag due to micro stutters, especially prominent when connecting to servers with high latency.
Hardware Requirements
Rust is a very memory, VRAM and CPU intensive game, for memory, you typically want more than 16 gigs of memory or additional swap (Causes serious performance issues, but prevents system degradation or OOM killing.)
If your a Steam Deck user, you can use https://github.com/CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities to increase swap (As the deck only comes with 16GB which is also shared with VRAM), for any other system, refer to your distribution documentation.
Playing this game requires a lot of VRAM, I would suggest at minimum 12GB-16GB, if you have a GPU that doesn't meet those requirements, set your texture mipmaps to Eighth Resolution or Quarter Resolution to hopefully minimize massive stuttering, and play on X11 if you have an NVIDIA Card as they don't implement shared GPU memory properly, resulting in your system grinding to a halt, wayland windows being unable to render, and Rust having severe graphical issues.
Tinkers
I recommend using Proton 9 (Which Steam uses by default) when playing Rust, while Experimental and derivitives work, they may give less performance, introduce issues, or from what I've heard, even crashing Rust.
As for launch arguments, LD_PRELOAD="" may help prevent stuttering when opening your inventory at the cost of being able to use Steam Overlay, however this should be fixed by default in the next stable release of Proton.
/bin/bash -c 'exec "${@/Rust.exe/RustClient.exe}"' will launch Rust without EAC, this is most likely not required and will provide negligible benefits.
If you want performance arguments, refer to generic Rust guides.
Server Selection
You can only connect to non EAC servers which there are very little, you can usually just search for Linux in the Rust Server List, otherwise here are my recommendations.
- Protobit
- This is my personal server, which you can connect by pressing F1 and typing
connect play.protobit.space
- This is my personal server, which you can connect by pressing F1 and typing
- Deadlock
- This is currently the most populated server, however the rules are kind of vague, which you can connect by pressing F1 and typing
connect play.deadlock.com
- This is currently the most populated server, however the rules are kind of vague, which you can connect by pressing F1 and typing
Hosting your own Server
If you want to host your own Rust Server that lets Linux users play, you can set the convar server.secure 0 on startup, do not set server.encryption 0 unlike what most guides say as this will disable protocol encryption, the vanilla Rust server will default to non EAC encryption if unavailable.
You need to switch to Proton 9.0, otherwise it crashes upon connecting to a server. Also you can't play on EAC-enabled servers.
As always, do your own investigating before believing a post on the internet.
I've noticed that some performance issues can be mitigated with correct graphics settings configuration. My system is more than powerful enough to run this game, but I have done very little tweaking to my Manjaro instance. I had to reduce AA to FXAA, and that solved 90% of the graphics issues I was having.
There's a lot of kerfuffle over which servers to play on, and I'd like to state for the record that Deadlock is NOT a bad server to play on. The community is welcoming and fun, and allegations of the owner excusing or otherwise participating in racism are extemely overexaggerated. The man simply does not give a fuck what you do, it's Rust - this is a terrible game for terrible people. Dude just wants to listen to his first wave and chill, that's kind of the whole point of the server. Normally the people on this server (myself included) bully racist losers so hard they leave the server. Non-EAC servers are a requirement for those of us playing on any distro, and discounting one of the more populated ones because of some weirdos in a Rust chat simply isn't fair.
tl;dr, works well with minimal system-level tweaking, play on whatever server you'd like.
BUT you need to play on EAC-disabled servers. LANified! is working towards providing a high quality server soon ( www.lanified.com ).
WINE_DO_NOT_CREATE_DXGI_DEVICE_MANAGER=1 gamemoderun %command% -force-feature-level-11-0 -force-d3d11-no-singlethreaded -cpuCount=8 -exThreads=16 -malloc=system -maxMem=24576 -gc.buffer 2048
Required downgrading Mesa from v25.1-dev (Kisak) to v25.0.3 (from Ubuntu 25.04 main repos). Mesa v25.1-dev the game would crash near the end of loading when connecting to a server.
My launch flags are for performance improvements, not required to actually work.
as everyone says here, find a non eac server. usually searching for "linux" in the server search helps
16 gigabytes of ram isnt enough for rust in 2025 even if you limit the ram usage on the initialization parameters. the solution? make a swap partition to "download more ram"
install Bazzite , Garuda or Nobara and play! worst i had to do was change the proton version ..
It works GREAT! i can play on the few listed servers , (and mine if i can figure it out through GTX , as its been just a winBlows only server for like 8 years , BUT it will appear on the list soon! as for now , i can connect and play just fine on either Linux or winBLOWS through client.connect ) , i have had to change versions of Proton here and there to get the best performance , but its really nice to be back on LInux playing RUST! The EAC thing is a TOTAL pain in the A$$ tho , or atleast to get your server listed and secure . so if ANYONE OUT THERE wants to help get another server on the list please let me know ...
I have been using Linux in various flavors since like 2004 , and Todays Linux is really "spot on!" , i was able to download , install and play Rust on several "distros" without much effort. to get more FPS , enable some of the Nvidia stuff will take some tinkering , but we do that as gamers with winBLOWS as well so its no biggie. BUT.... WE NEED MORE SERVERS , more server admins need to see the Steam Deck and all the other hand helds are coming , and ppl will want a place to play until the EAC vs Linux issues are fixed ! I AM TRYING to get my server Compatible and secure for those that are already playing on linux and for those that WILL BE!
Crashes, downgrade to Proton 9.0.4 for the game to work.
Since Jungle update (1st May) the Experimental and Hotfix branches crashes. You have to downgrade to Proton 9.0.4 for the game to work. You can play on https://rustux.eu if you are looking for a Monthly Vanilla server
No official servers, only non-EAC servers can be played on.
With the new premium servers maybe it'd be worth to let linux rust players play on those. Please upvote this suggestion if you agree. https://rust.nolt.io/newest
Rust runs flawlessly on Linux!
Performance is great, no issues at all. However, the lack of official Linux servers is disappointing since EAC doesn’t support Linux players.
If you're looking for a place to play, check out "[EU] Rustux - Linux Friendly" (client.connect play.rustux.eu:28015). More details on BattleMetrics: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/32622109
EAC only servers
there's no active eac disabled servers
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Of course, as everyone has said, only able to use EAC 'disabled' servers. This works fine for me as a casual solo and I find that there are plenty of active players.
If you're commited to playing on larger EAC servers... dual boot 💁♂️
(ya'll have 20-40 series & 13th gens but bottleneck ur RAM?? wild)
PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 %command%
Game's pretty good, It runs almost the same as on windows as long as you are using proton experimental (as of march 2025). You don't really have many options for servers but here are a couple I revisit myself.
[EU] Rusticated.com - Creative : Great to practice building tho it is a bit buggy and linux is not supported officially so it may stop working anytime soon (works as of march 2025).
IP: client.connect 64.40.9.30:28035
Deadlock n Chill : It is the highest pop server for linux as of now, wipes monthly and it does die down a bit as the month starts to end, you can only raid on the last week of wipe, there are PVE players and there are changes to the UI so it can feel too modded. The admin is also pretty set on the rules and how the server should be ran. IP: client.connect play.deadlock.com
Raidados.top | 2x | Vanilla+ : It is a relatively new server but it can get pretty competitive on wipeday. It is the closest server to vanilla that we have on linux. Gathering is 2x but sulfur, components and diesel gathering is 1x, excav is vanilla too. There are no UI modifications so the server does feel pretty vanilla and not modded at all. The server is pretty community driven and the owner listens to feedback pretty closely. IP: client.connect raidados.top
Also rust is a very time consuming game and pretty much on every server you will read gamer words, please use the Mute Player function by clicking on the player that you want to mute with the chat open and mute them.
You can also completely disable global chat if you just want to chill.
I don't even know what a tinker is. It just works absolutely fine with Proton lauching from Steam
You will need to play on servers where EAC is disabled due to FacePunch/Gary refusing to enable EAC through Proton.
WINE_DO_NOT_CREATE_DXGI_DEVICE_MANAGER=1 gamemoderun %command% -force-feature-level-11-0 -force-d3d11-no-singlethreaded -cpuCount=8 -exThreads=16 -malloc=system -maxMem=24576 -gc.buffer 2048
There are a good number of Linux Servers out there, but DO NOT play on Deadlock. The single admin there perpetuates racism and other bigotry except when called out on that the admin (Deadlock) said, and I quote, "[6:42 PM]JimDeadlock: I'll decide what's racist". If you aren't okay with racism then go play on Deadlock. Deadlock also allows blatant cheaters to go unpunished on the server. I was banned without any warning and without breaking the rules, just because I wasn't okay with the racism.
There are seriously plenty of other Linux servers (EAC off) that you can play on now, so DO NOT play on Deadlock, support other servers with actually good admins.
You can find them under the modded section of servers in-game search "Linux"
And you can also find more using Steam's Server List. In the main Steam Window (outside the game) top left menu, View -> Game Servers. Switch to "Internet" in the new window, and select "Rust" in the top right, click on the magnifying glass icon in the top right. Set "Anti-cheat" to "Not secure" and boom you now can see all the servers you can connect to!
I get 140-160 FPS on my own local Rust server (for testing) on medium-ish settings. So this game runs very well on Linux!
DXVK_ASYNC=1 game-performance %command%
Looking to play Rust on Linux? Here's what you need to know!
While the game itself runs smoothly on Linux, joining EAC-protected servers, which are unfortunately the majority, is currently not possible. However, there are still ways to enjoy Rust on Linux!
There are a limited number of servers that support Linux clients. You can find them on the modded tab in-game or by connecting directly using the console.
FREE RUST server: This is a great option for Brazilian players, as it's the only server in the South American region that accepts Linux users and is truly free as in freedom. client.connect 185.173.110.119:28015.
Deadlock server: This server is a good choice for players in North America and Europe. You can find more information on their website: https://rust.deadlock.com/
Don't let the lack of EAC support discourage you from playing Rust on Linux. There are still communities out there to welcome you!
See you in the wilderness!
Runs great but the developers have not enabled EAC for linux so you have to play on non eac servers.
I would not recommend that a linux user buys this game due to the fact that EAC is not enabled for linux, it's a great game overall and I've obviously played before switching to linux but due to the fact that there isn't many servers available for non eac I wouldn't recommend it.
You can find non eac servers in the steam server list on the top of steam (View > Game Servers > Game = Rust > Anti-cheat = Not secure) A server which I would recommend which is unlisted is deadlock, you can connect by pressing F1 in the game to open the console and type "connect play.deadlock.com" without the quotation marks.
Hopefully in the future, facepunch will consider enabling it again. They did consider it in the past.
Since the anti-cheat doesn't allow Linux, you will need to play on servers that have disabled it, which is a very small amount of servers.
I noticed a large hit to my FPS when using any form of DLSS, around 20 to 30fps lower than normal.
The DLSS issue may have something to do with my graphics driver, but I am a bit of a noob when it comes to that kind of stuff. (Using an RTX 3070 with Nvidia's drivers)
gamemoderun mangohud %command%
Time after time, extremely large FPS drops when opening the inventory. There are occasional freezes or FPS drops during the game.
Extreme impact on the stability of the system - sometimes plasmashell crashes during the game, after a while during the game there are complete browser freezes, the inability to open new windows (for example, it is impossible to view an image in Telegram Desktop), the inability to drag and interact with windows in the Steam overlay.
And so, I deployed my local server without EAC and played with friends for a few days. You can play, but the game behaves extremely unstable, consumes a lot of RAM and affects the stability of the system itself. Of the advantages, I can note the graphics - they are very beautiful, it seems to me, much better than native. However, the disadvantages outweigh, and the developers just need to fix all the problems!
Unable to connect to the servers
gamemoderun mangohud %command%
It is not possible to connect to any server. The developers have not enabled Wine/Proton support in EasyAntiCheat, although this is not a problem for them. There are also serious performance problems - unstable FPS in the menu, FPS drops. I haven't tested servers without EAC yet, so the performance in the game itself is unclear.
Easy Anticheat
The EAC doesn't work means that you can't play on most servers and this is really important for this game. If you want to host your own server without eac then it will work.
The only linux compatible server is run by a transphobe who specifically allows hate speech. Consider buying the game if you're able/willing to host a private server for your group.
All in all solid
16GB seems to be a bit too few for rust, when using a second monitor and filling the ram my system sometimes froze, but only when playing rust, so i would recommend 24GB+ ram, athough could just be a proton issue.
Only problem is that the devs seem to be thinking linux will compromise their anti cheat software, so playing on eac-servers is a no go, but Jim does a solid Job with the deadlock server, defenitely worth checking out.
Flawless OOTB but non-EAC servers only
There are a lot of reports recommending Proton experimental - do NOT try experimental unless you have issues with the standard Proton version, which should work fine.
The most reliable/populated non-EAC server is Deadlock - https://rust.deadlock.com or F1 connect play.deadlock.com
gamemoderun mangohud %command%
EAC problem
can play in F1 menu -> client.connect 51.77.68.57:1333
PVP and PVE
DXVK_ASYNC=1 %command% -maxMem=12288 -cpuCount=4 -exThreads=8 -force-d3d11-no-singlethreaded gamemoderun %command%
With only 16GB of ram, I had to increase zram's size to 6GB and add a memory usage limit via launch options in order to prevent my system from crashing due to lack of memory.
