Game manager Lutris v0.5.20 released with Proton upgrades, store updates and much more

A month ago I had to switch to Heroic Game Launcher because there was no news from Lutris until the end of 24th year.

Proton-GE launched via umu is now the default. Umu takes care of keeping Proton-GE up to date.

About time.

Quoting: mr-victory

Proton-GE launched via umu is now the default. Umu takes care of keeping Proton-GE up to date.

About time.

Could anyone enlighten me how this is better than how Proton-GE previously functioned? I am clueless about this topic. All I know is that Proton-GE has always worked fine for me on Lutris.

Quoting: Nostalgia_RealmCould anyone enlighten me how this is better than how Proton-GE previously functioned? I am clueless about this topic. All I know is that Proton-GE has always worked fine for me on Lutris.

First things first I wrote that comment not because of umu but because of Proton-GE. The default runner was Wine-GE until this update which caused installation of Battle.net to mysteriously fail, some Windows apps to detect no available storage etc. I had had enough telling people to use Proton GE in Bazzite discord😆

Now about umu, it does 2 things:

* Running Proton with Steam Linux Runtime: This replicates how Steam runs proton, aiming to reduce unusual bugs.

* Game fixes: Umu contains a database of game fixes for both Steam & non Steam games, launchers capable of parsing the data automatically benefit from the unified effort of assembling game fixes. Things like passing SteamOS=1 to Wuthering Waves, enabling DLLs etc.

I've just installed it but it couldn't find my steam games. When I gave it the exact directory it complained that it cannot load them and I should make my profile public (whatever that means). So I tried GOG and it found my games at least but for the installation it prompted which file I want to install ..

Whatever the functionality may be, it feels like you need to read the code to just configure the program. No tool tips, no manual, no hints. Deinstalled, IMHO not really usable.

Quoting: Nostalgia_RealmCould anyone enlighten me how this is better than how Proton-GE previously functioned? I am clueless about this topic. All I know is that Proton-GE has always worked fine for me on Lutris.

Let's see: on version 0.5.18, I had to basically employ a workaround to install a game using UMU.

1) Under Add Games to Lutris, I would select Add locally installed game;

2) manually enter the game's name and select the WINE runner in the Game Info tab;

3) enter/select the location of the WINE prefix in the Game Options tab;

4) then make sure to select a WINE version that was either Proton or Proton-GE in the Runner Options tab;

5) I would save the configuration then run the installer using the menu option to Run EXE inside Wine prefix;

6) This would start up UMU, which would configure the prefix and install the game;

7) I may have had to enter the game's launch executable after the install was completed. I don't recall.

As far as I recall, UMU would not initiate if you assigned a Proton runner as the default runner in version 0.5.18.

In Heroic Games Launcher, you enter the game's name, confirm the prefix location and provide the installer. UMU is run automatically and everything is configured for you. As a result, I stopped using Lutris to install Windows games.

With Proton-GE being launched via UMU as the default, this should simplify the process and, at least, put Lutris back on par with Heroic again.

Whether I go back to Lutris remains to be seen. There are some nice QoL features in Lutris that are not yet available in Heroic (like launching the game from its Windows shortcut, for example).

It doesn't have the Save Sync function yet, but it's great to see a lot of updates. There has been a LOT of changes to the way we're doing non-Steam games in the past 1-2 years since they had a release. The changes were probably tough to get done, but hopefully everything is cleaner from here on out.

I for one have been very happy with the way they preserved my play time and list of non-Steam games.

Heroic will still be my default of GOG & EGS, but Lutris is now back as default for anything that isn't on those platforms (with Faugus for running games from the file explorer).

Am I trippin'? I am pretty sure it has been running Proton through UMU for quite a while now?

I am probably one of the few rare exotic people who actually like to be able to have some manual settings.
(Though I admit it is sometimes consuming more time trying out different Proton, DXVK, VKD3D than actually playing 😅)

That's also why I still am on Lutris v0.5.14

So I am asking a noob question:
Is there a way to have two versions of Lutris installed at the same time?

So I can try out just using automatic v0.5.20 but also have v0.5.14 installed if I am not happy and rather have some manual settings?

*EDIT:
I'm on POP_OS
Is there a possibility to just duplicate and rename Lutris v0.5.14 to for example LutrOs?
and then update the not renamed to v0.5.20?

So I then have Lutris (v0.5.20) and Lutros (v0.5.14) in my program overview?
(got the idea from here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1036337/is-there-way-to-install-two-instances-of-the-same-application but am not knowing enough in Linux..)

Any tips and help would be greatly appreciated <3 !

Last edited by memvirus on 19 Feb 2026 at 9:19 pm UTC

Quoting: memvirusSo I am asking a noob question:
Is there a way to have two versions of Lutris installed at the same time?

So I can try out just using automatic v0.5.20 but also have v0.5.14 installed if I am not happy and rather have some manual settings?

Yes. Just install through different package managements. Maybe your main is apt, and use Flatpak or Nix in addition to it - both supports downgrading and version pinning.

Distrobox is another option and the one that I recommend - just setup an Arch distrobox with a separate home, maybe add cachyos + chaotic-aur for convenience, and then install whatever you need.

Also, I think Conty comes with Lutris as well. Again, just set up a separate home (well, XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_DATA_HOME) so it doesn't collide with your existing Lutris. Login to Lutris if you want to sync them, maybe.

Quoting: fenglengshun

Quoting: memvirusSo I am asking a noob question:
Is there a way to have two versions of Lutris installed at the same time?

So I can try out just using automatic v0.5.20 but also have v0.5.14 installed if I am not happy and rather have some manual settings?

Yes. Just install through different package managements. Maybe your main is apt, and use Flatpak or Nix in addition to it - both supports downgrading and version pinning.

Distrobox is another option and the one that I recommend - just setup an Arch distrobox with a separate home, maybe add cachyos + chaotic-aur for convenience, and then install whatever you need.

Also, I think Conty comes with Lutris as well. Again, just set up a separate home (well, XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_DATA_HOME) so it doesn't collide with your existing Lutris. Login to Lutris if you want to sync them, maybe.

Thank you. I will take a look but am unsure if it makes it just too complicated.
I have Lutris currently installed via apt/ a downloaded .deb
Will installing it via flatpak make a new directory for it?

Or I just backup my current lutris directory (which ones are the important ones?) and then upgrade - later if I want to have my old downgraded state again, just uninstall, reinstall and restore my backed up directory?

(You see, I'm not so experienced and therefore more manual :D)

Best regards and thanks for the help :)

*Edit:
I really want to try it out, also had CachyOS as idea for my next OS - but am also just happy with my PopOS at the moment, because everything is working and I prefer it to be as stable as possible and just working

But I guess I need another host system

Wisely something immutable?
Like Silverblue or NixOS (have no experience with hem)
and then put my old system (PopOS) in there as container and also set up CachyOS as container?

how would be a fast and smart way to set it up without reproducing everything manually from zero?

I guess I also need to learn some docker? (has also been on my list) because distrobox is based on it? so then docker -> distrobox would run on Silverblue/ NixOS?

And first I need to do some cleanup to get more space on my laptop :D

also sadly PopOS seems to be neither in compatible host nor container OS
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/compatibility.md#host-distros

Last edited by memvirus on 22 Feb 2026 at 8:46 am UTC

Quoting: memvirusI have Lutris currently installed via apt/ a downloaded .deb
Will installing it via flatpak make a new directory for it?

Yes. Flatpak, being containerized by default, would install its version of Lutris separately from the one installed via apt. Flatpak keeps its file system separate. It shouldn't overlap with apt.

The challenge would be telling the shortcuts (launcher) apart. They'll likely share the same name. Fortunately, you can just rename the shortcut as desired.

Quoting: memvirusOr I just backup my current lutris directory (which ones are the important ones?) and then upgrade - later if I want to have my old downgraded state again, just uninstall, reinstall and restore my backed up directory?

In this case, I would suggest using Flatpak for the latest version and then choosing an earlier version to install via a .deb installer. There should be no need to back up your config files (although it never hurts - they're in hidden folders under your Home folder in multiple locations). I never have and the files & settings have remained while I've bounced back and forth between versions. Not sure how it would work with Flatpak, however. I don't know where that version stores its config files.

Quoting: memvirusalso sadly PopOS seems to be neither in compatible host nor container OS

Not sure exactly what you mean by this, but Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu. It is listed under Ubuntu in the link you provided. Generally, anything you can do on Ubuntu, you should be able to do on Pop!_OS. It supports .deb installers and LaunchPad PPAs, for example.

Being as you are new to tinkering with Linux, make sure you make a complete backup of your system and data before you start. That way, if something foobars, you'll have something solid to fall back on. Timeshift is effective but my favorite backup tool is Clonezilla (its back-ups are compressed and take less space).

Good luck and have fun.

Quoting: memvirus(got the idea from here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1036337/is-there-way-to-install-two-instances-of-the-same-application but am not knowing enough in Linux..)

What they are talking about at this link would work best with tarball binaries. For example, with OpenMW it is possible to have multiple versions installed using tarball binaries. They all share the same configuration files, however.

Otherwise, @fenglengshun's advice would work best. I recommend keeping it as simple as possible.