Getting ES:Oblivion Remastered Working on Intel Arc B580 (Ubuntu) – Here's How

[Posihdun]

Hey folks,
This isn't so much a question anymore, but a compilation of the steps I took to get Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remastered running on my Intel Arc B580 GPU in Ubuntu.

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Initial Setup Attempts

Before landing on a working setup, I tried running the game through:

• Steam (Flatpak)

• Steam (.deb)

• Steam (Snap)

Each one threw the same “DirectX 12 is required” error. Out of all of them, Flatpak Steam gave me the most success, so I focused my efforts there. While I did eventually get it to launch through the .deb version, performance was terrible, with constant crashes—possibly due to GPU topology queries failing.

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My Working Environment

• OS Runtime: Freedesktop SDK 24.08 (Flatpak)

• Kernel: Linux 6.15.0-rc3

• GPU Driver: Intel Mesa (BMG G21)

• Mesa Version: 25.2.0-devel (git-bc44d029df)

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Why Mesa-Git?

Mesa 25.1+ fixes a bug with Intel Arc GPUs (ANV backend) that caused DirectX 12 support to break in games like this. But Flatpak doesn't use your system's Mesa drivers, it uses its own runtime. So if you want the latest graphics stack, you’ll need to install mesa-git within Flatpak itself.

The 3 Key Steps

1. Install mesa-git

First, add the Flathub Beta repo and install the matching mesa-git runtime:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user flathub-beta https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepo

flatpak install --user flathub-beta org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.mesa-git//24.08

flatpak install --user flathub-beta org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.mesa-git//24.08

2. Check if Flatpak Apps Can Use It

Use Flatseal (available on Flathub) to inspect your installed Flatpak apps. Look at the runtime version. If it’s org.freedesktop.Platform//24.08, then it can use the mesa-git driver  installed.

The important part is making sure the Mesa-Git version matches the Flatpak runtime (e.g., 24.08).

3. Enable mesa-git for Steam

Here’s what worked for me after lots of trial and error:

# Set environment variable for your user session
systemctl --user set-environment FLATPAK_GL_DRIVERS=mesa-git

# Restart the Flatpak portal to apply it
systemctl --user restart flatpak-portal.service

# Launch Steam using the Mesa Git drivers
FLATPAK_GL_DRIVERS=mesa-git flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam

Steam should now open correctly and the game should run without the DirectX 12 error.

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Game Launch Options

You don’t need special launch options, but here’s what I used for extra monitoring and Vulkan tweaks:

MANGOHUD_CONFIG="cpu_temp,gpu_temp" VKD3D_CONFIG=dxr VKD3D_FEATURE_LEVEL=12_2 VKD3D_SHADER_MODEL=6_6 MANGOHUD=1 %command%

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Final Thoughts

After all this, I was finally able to play Oblivion Remastered smoothly using Proton 9 on Flatpak Steam. Hopefully this helps someone else avoid the rabbit hole I went down!

Let me know if you need help setting it up!

[Posihdun · Accepted solution]

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