Assetto Corsa + CSP + Pure on Linux (Proton / Wine)

A working, confirmed recipe for running Assetto Corsa with Custom Shaders Patch (CSP) 0.2.x, Pure weather, ReShade, force-feedback wheels, and online multiplayer with WeatherFX on Linux via Steam Proton.

TL;DR — the one thing nobody tells you: use GE-Proton9-20 (Wine 9.0), not GE-Proton10 / Wine 10+. Wine 10 added a memory protection (W^X) that silently breaks CSP's patcher. Everything else here falls into place once the patcher actually runs.

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Why "Failed to initialize" happens (and the real fix)

CSP works by patching functions inside acs.exe at runtime. To do that it has to write into executable memory.

Wine 10.0+ added W^X memory protection (set_page_vprot_exec_write_protect) that blocks writing to pages marked executable. CSP's patcher hits this wall and silently fails — you get "Failed to initialize" every single launch, on every CSP version, no matter what else you change.

Wine 9.0 doesn't enforce it. On GE-Proton9-20, CSP patches all 2373 functions cleanly and reports "CSP Available." This is the root cause behind the vast majority of "CSP won't load on Linux" reports — it's the Proton version, not your config.

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Test system (confirmed working)

OS	Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (Noble)
Kernel	6.11.0-29-generic
CPU	Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.0 GHz (2015)
RAM	32 GB
GPU	NVIDIA GTX 1080 8 GB — driver 580.159.03 (2016)
Proton	GE-Proton9-20 (Wine 9.0 Staging)
AC / CSP / Pure	1.16.4 / 0.2.12-preview1 (build 3467) / 2.57

Not a bleeding-edge machine — a 2015 CPU and 2016 GPU. If it runs here, it'll run on most modern Linux gaming setups.

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1. Install GE-Proton9-20

Install it with ProtonUp-Qt (or drop it in ~/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/).

In Steam → Assetto Corsa → Properties → Compatibility → Force GE-Proton9-20 — or set it via the launch script below.

⚠️ Do not use GE-Proton10 / any Wine 10 build. That's the W^X wall.

2. Launch script

This bypasses Content Manager for launching, kills any stale wineserver, sets HideWineExports=Y (which makes Wine hide wine_get_version — so CSP's GetProcAddress returns NULL and CSP thinks it's on native Windows, keeping its Wine-specific code paths off), and launches AC. Edit the flagged lines for your hardware.

#!/bin/bash
export STEAM_COMPAT_CLIENT_INSTALL_PATH="$HOME/.steam/debian-installation"
export STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH="$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/244210"
export WINEPREFIX="$STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH/pfx"

# NVIDIA Prime — laptop / hybrid (multi-GPU) only. DELETE on a single-GPU desktop.
export __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
export __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

# dwrite=n,b is what LOADS CSP (native CSP dwrite.dll before Wine's builtin).
# msvcp120/msvcr120=n,b avoids crashes from Wine's MSVC runtime missing symbols.
export WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dwrite=n,b;msvcp120=n,b;msvcr120=n,b"

# Your wheel's VID/PID. Moza R5 shown — swap for yours, or remove if no wheel.
# Without this the wheel shows up as a generic gamepad and FFB won't initialize.
export SDL_JOYSTICK_WHEEL_DEVICES=0x346e/0x0004

GE="$HOME/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/GE-Proton9-20"
AC="$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/assettocorsa"

# kill stale wineserver; HideWineExports=Y hides wine_get_version so CSP can't
# detect Wine and treats this as native Windows
"$GE/files/bin/wineserver" -k 2>/dev/null ; sleep 1
WINEFSYNC=1 "$GE/files/bin/wine64" reg add "HKCU\\Software\\Wine" \
    /v HideWineExports /t REG_SZ /d "Y" /f 2>/dev/null

exec "$GE/proton" run "$AC/AssettoCorsa_original.exe"

Save as launch-ac.sh, chmod +x launch-ac.sh, run it. (Also in this repo as launch-ac.sh.)

3. Install CSP + Pure

Install Content Manager first, then CSP 0.2.12-preview1 (from CM → Settings → Custom Shaders Patch), then Pure 2.57 last. Run CM in its own isolated prefix — see Content Manager (separate prefix). Sources are in Tools & sources below.

Run Content Manager in its own throwaway Wine prefix (e.g. ~/.wine-cm) for mod management only — don't use it to launch online sessions, and keep it out of the Proton prefix.

4. Post-install fixes — run after EVERY CSP update

CSP's zip extraction resets these settings on every install/update, so re-run this script each time or you'll chase the same issues forever.

#!/bin/bash
# post-csp-install.sh
AC="$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/assettocorsa"
EXT="$AC/extension/config"

# WeatherFX ON — required for Pure, and many online servers require it
sed -i 's/^ENABLED=0/ENABLED=1/' "$EXT/weather_fx.ini"

# DXGI flip model OFF — DXVK's vtable differs from native DXGI; CSP's hook crashes with it on
sed -i '/^\[BASIC\]/,/^\[/ s/^ENABLED=1/ENABLED=0/' "$EXT/dxgi_tweaks.ini"

# Remove [NAMES_WINE] — stale Wine symbol overrides break CSP init
python3 - "$EXT/data_alt_mapping.ini" <<'PY'
import re, sys
p = sys.argv[1]
open(p, "w").write(re.sub(r"\n\[NAMES_WINE\].*", "", open(p).read(), flags=re.DOTALL))
PY

# Delete stale memory-layout cache — forces a clean rebuild
rm -f "$AC/cache/memory_layout.bin"

echo "post-CSP fixes applied."

(Also in this repo as post-csp-install.sh.)

Still getting "Failed to patch" / INIReader::cache … index=-1 on Wine 9? That's a second, config-caused failure (separate from the Wine-10 W^X one). Fix it in CM → Settings → Custom Shaders Patch → General Patch Settings → Optimizations → uncheck "Cache AC memory layout" and "Cache AC data to speed up loading." CM silently re-enables both on every CSP update — re-check them each time. (rm memory_layout.bin above clears the stale cache; unchecking the boxes stops it coming back.)

5. Physics threads — THREADS=0 and lock it

In system/cfg/assetto_corsa.ini set THREADS=0, then make it read-only so Content Manager can't reset it:

chmod 444 ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/assettocorsa/system/cfg/assetto_corsa.ini

THREADS=1 crashes the physics thread under Wine after ~67 seconds, every time. THREADS=0 (physics on the main thread) fixes it.

Also set UPDATE_HZ=50 in cfg/network.ini for smoother online.

6. Wheel + force feedback

Wheel (example)	Moza R5 — VID 0x346e / PID 0x0004
SDL fix	SDL_JOYSTICK_WHEEL_DEVICES=0x346e/0x0004 in the launch script — without it the wheel registers as a generic gamepad and FFB won't initialize
Steering lock	LOCK=900 in controls.ini (R5 max is 1080°; 900° gives full authority in most cars)
FFB filter	FILTER_FF=0.15 (the default 0.99 kills all road/kerb detail) · FFB gain 1.0

Find your wheel's VID/PID with lsusb.

7. Connecting to a server

Once CSP loads, launch AC with the script and go Drive → Online → Direct Connect → your server's IP and game port (default 9600).

Don't use Content Manager's server browser on Linux — it crashes under Wine 9 (an IOCP socket bug). Direct Connect (or add-server-by-IP) avoids it.

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Content Manager — run it in its own prefix

Content Manager is only needed for mod management (installing CSP, Pure, cars, tracks). Run it in a separate Wine prefix (~/.wine-cm) so its .NET / Mono / Steam-bridge files never end up in the Proton prefix the game runs in — a polluted game prefix is a common, hard-to-debug cause of CSP/Proton issues.

First-time setup (once):

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine-cm" winecfg                          # create the prefix
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine-cm" winetricks -q dotnet48 corefonts # CM needs .NET 4.8

Then launch CM with launch-content-manager.sh — it sets WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine-cm" and runs Content Manager Safe.exe (hardware acceleration off, which dodges Wine's renderer crashes).

The two prefixes share nothing except the read-only game folder (…/common/assettocorsa/) — and that's correct: it's the actual game content (cars/tracks/CSP), not a Wine prefix. Don't launch online sessions from CM — use launch-ac.sh.

ReShade

ReShade works — leave d3d11.dll in place. Old guides that say "remove ReShade before using CSP" are wrong. Those crashes came from CSP being in a failed / partial patcher state (Wine 10 W^X), not from ReShade itself. With CSP patched cleanly on Wine 9, the D3D11 hook chain is complete end-to-end and ReShade attaches on top of it with no conflict.

Known Linux quirks (you didn't break anything)

• CSP app shelf icons invisible when you press Home — the debug console shows instead. Cosmetic Wine IMGUI issue, doesn't affect gameplay or weather.
• Content Manager server browser crashes under Wine 9 (IOCP socket bug) — use Direct Connect.
• "Safe mode?" prompt on first load after a crash — cosmetic, CSP still loads fully.
• Tracks with animated video billboards crash on load (e.g. Shutoko Revival Project's ad screens). CSP plays those .mp4 clips through Windows Media Foundation, which crashes winegstreamer under Wine. Fix: rename or delete the ad-screen .mp4 files in that track's folder (search the track dir for *.mp4). Same root cause as any in-game audio/video that uses CSP's media player — if a CSP app or track tries to play a video/audio file and the game hard-crashes on Linux, this is why.
• Install AC on ext4/btrfs — NOT NTFS. Assetto Corsa on an NTFS partition (common if you keep games on a shared Windows drive) crashes on load. Move the install to a native Linux filesystem.
• Turn off CSP's "Car Instruments" and "Music" modules (CM → CSP → those modules → disable). Both use Windows Media Foundation → unstable under winegstreamer; disabling them removes a whole class of random crashes/freezes (same family as the video-billboard crash).
• Custom CSP sounds: use OGG Vorbis, not WAV/MP3. Any soundboard/mod audio played through CSP's media player freezes winegstreamer if it's WAV or MP3; OGG decodes natively. (Authoring a CSP app that plays sound? Gate it behind ui.MediaPlayer.supportedAsync() so it no-ops on Linux instead of crashing.)
• Remove --disable-gpu from your Steam launch options if it's there — a stray Chromium flag that breaks AC's rendering.
• "Steam init failed" in Content Manager — launch CM elevated/as administrator in its prefix; it's a Steam-bridge admin-rights mismatch, not a missing dependency.

For server admins (AssettoServer)

If you run an AssettoServer and want CSP clients to get WeatherFX/Pure online, set these in extra_cfg.yml:

EnableClientMessages: true
EnableWeatherFx: true

Without EnableWeatherFx, a CSP+Pure client crashes on join with "server requires active WeatherFX." Note that enabling EnableClientMessages makes the server CSP-only (non-CSP clients get kicked).

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Tools & sources

Everything here is from its original home — nothing is rehosted:

Tool	Where to get it
Assetto Corsa	Steam (app 244210)
Content Manager	acstuff.club (x4fab)
Custom Shaders Patch (CSP)	acstuff.club/patch (x4fab) — or from inside CM
Pure (weather/PP)	Overtake.gg — search "Pure" (Peter Boese); free + Patreon versions
ReShade	reshade.me
GE-Proton	github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom
ProtonUp-Qt (installs GE-Proton)	github.com/DavidoTek/ProtonUp-Qt
AssettoServer (for admins)	github.com/compujuckel/AssettoServer

Found a fix for your distro / GPU / wheel? PRs welcome — that's the point of putting this on GitHub.

Credits

Thanks to x4fab (CSP, Content Manager), Peter Boese (Pure), GloriousEggroll (GE-Proton), and the AssettoServer + AC-on-Linux communities for the tools and the collective debugging that made this recipe possible.

License

MIT — copy, fork, adapt freely.