osu!

What works

• Singleplayer and multiplayer, all gamemodes  
• Videos played in background
• Functionality related to internet browser (opening profiles, downloading beatmaps etc)
• Chat
• Everything else not listed below

What does not

• Icons in game settings aren't visible, barely a problem
• "Alt-Tabbing" from the game makes it freeze and obstructs the major part of the screen - pressing Win+D causes the game to run again

Workarounds

What was not tested

There might be some minor input or sound lag which might impact the gameplay for some people but I'm unable to test it further.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Tested on: Intel Core i5-3350P, Radeon R9 280X with Radeon Crimson 15.12 proprietary drivers, Ubuntu 15.10 x64 with GNOME instead of Unity - The latest version of osu! runs only on OpenGL (DirectX support has been dropped) which works perfectly fine. - osu! requires .NET Framework 4.0 (4.5 isn't needed) - I haven't seen any visual glitches related to AMD cards - fonts and the scoreboard are working perfectly fine.

Last update: 2021-08-06.

1) Get winetricks! (the easy way):

$ sudo wget 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks' -O /usr/local/bin/winetricks
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/winetricks

2) Create a new 32-bit Wine prefix:

$ env WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu wineboot --init

If Wine prompts for installing Mono, click Cancel.

3) Install .NET Framework 4.0:

$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu winetricks --force dotnet40

4) Download and install osu!:

$ mkdir 'osu!'
$ wget 'http://m1.ppy.sh/r/osu!install.exe' --output-document='osu!/osu!.exe'
$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu wine 'osu!/osu!.exe'

Run in terminal:

$ env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=40 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu wine 'osu!/osu!.exe'

Run in terminal (and detach from it so you can close the console window):

$ env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=40 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu wine 'osu!/osu!.exe' &

Creating a shortcut: 

Create a new plain text file and copy the following:

Save this file as osu!.desktop in the folder ~/.local/share/applications and mark it as executable:

$ chmod +x '~/.local/share/applications/osu!.desktop'

Take the path to an osu! logo image and put it in the Icon field if you want to set an icon for the shortcut.

Last update: 2020-12-31.

Arch Linux specific:

• osu! doesn't render anything on screen and exits with some X server error message: install lib32-libxcomposite package:

  $ sudo pacman -S lib32-libxcomposite

• osu! can't connect to internet: install lib32-gnutls package:

  $ sudo pacman -S lib32-gnutls

Japanese characters no displaying correctly: install MS Meiryo font:

$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu winetricks meiryo

Set language to Japanese to correctly display all kanjis.

This font doesn't include Korean glyphs.

Options menu symbols and audio controls are missing: install GDI+:

$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu winetricks gdiplus

GDI+ installer is a ~538MB file. If your internet connection is slow or limited, consider instead taking a copy of gdiplus.dll from a Windows 7 installation and copying it to your Wine prefix, and then add manually a Native override for gdiplus.

Open winecfg:

$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu winecfg

Go to Libraries tab, add gdiplus and set it to Native Then Builtin. Close all dialogs by clicking OK.

Some unusual image formats are not shown when using native GDI+: install windowscodecs through winetricks:

$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu winetricks windowscodecs

Note: this workaround may break screenshots and interfere with other windows applications installed on the osu! wineprefix when trying to save files. If you need to disable it:

$ env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu winecfg

Go to Libraries tab, find windowscodecs and set it to Builtin (Wine). Close all dialogs by clicking OK.

Audio latency, sound distortion or no audio at all: first try setting PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC environment variable to "40" before running osu!:

$ env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=40 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu wine 'osu!/osu!.exe'

Other values could be tested in order to get lower latency or fix sound distortion/crackling.

Enabling "Audio compatibility mode" in the osu!'s options menu will switch to legacy DirectSound-based audio engine (osu! is now using WASAPI). It can solve some problems but has higher latency and some audio stuttering.

Also check out The Poon's guide and Franc[e]sco's guide.

Frame limiter is permanently locked at 60 fps:

Disable vertical sync by setting vblank_mode environment variable to "0 " before running osu!:

$ env vblank_mode=0 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wineosu wine 'osu!/osu!.exe'

This way osu! will not be able to enable VSync at runtime.

Video latency: 

Desktop environments usually draw on screen through a compositor than enable fancy window effects. This may cause lag that you can feel when moving the cursor.

Note: you will prefer to run osu! under X.org since Wayland is not fully supported by most window managers.

• GNOME 3 (Mutter): it should disable it automatically when running at borderless/fullscreen. If you're running on windowed mode or have many monitors, compositing may remain enabled unless osu! window fills all the screen output area.

• KDE Plasma 5 (KWin): press Ctrl+Alt+F12 to disable/enable compositing.You can also add a window rule to block compositing when osu! starts and re-enable when it close.

• Xfce 4 (Xfwm):

  Disable compositing:
  

  $ xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/use_compositing -s false

  Re-enable compositing:
  

  $ xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/use_compositing -s true

Other known problems:

• My system is frozen!: if osu! freezes and you lose the control of your system, press Ctrl+Alt+F2 (to enter to a tty) login and enter the following to force closing osu!:

  $ pkill osu

  Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or Ctrl+Alt+F7 on some systems) to return to your desktop environment.

• I ran osu but my cpu usage is at 100% and nothing happens: same as frozen system. Open a terminal and run:

  $ pkill osu

  Wait 10 seconds and try again.

• Alt+tab doesn't work when Fullscreen is enabled: if you can't use Alt+Tab hotkey, disable Fullscreen mode inside osu!.

• I can't switch to Windowed mode from Fullscreen/Borderless/Letterbox: close the game. Open osu!.�your_user_name�.cfg in the osu! folder, and edit the next fields:
  Fullscreen = 0
  Letterboxing = 0
  Width = 800
  Height = 600
  

Please leave us a comment in Comments section below if you still have problems installing or running osu!.