Steam Deck and Linux Issues

The Steam Deck version of BeamNG uses native Linux binary by default for better performance and reduced power consumption. The Steam Deck and native Linux version might suffer from some specific issues. This page provides instructions how to deal with some of them.

Lost data after switching from Proton to native Linux

In January 2026 we switched the default launch option on Steam Deck and other Linux systems from Proton (an emulation layer running the Windows binary) to our native Linux binaries. As the user folders of these two versions are not in the same location, you might have lost your settings or installed mods. You can follow one of the following options to get them back:

Option A (recommended) - temporarily switch to Proton and transfer files using Steam Cloud

In Steam, go to BeamNG.drive properties, check the option “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool”, and choose a version of Proton from the list shown.

You have to use either Proton 10.0-4 or Proton Experimental, as based on our tests these are the only versions that work with the Steamworks SDK version we use.

After you set the compatibility tool, run BeamNG once while the Steam Deck is connected to the internet and make sure Steam Cloud is enabled. It is enough to go to the main menu and press “Quit”. Settings and other user data are going to be copied to the Steam Cloud.
Go back to the “Compatibility” tab in BeamNG.drive properties and uncheck the checkbox. This will make BeamNG run the native version again and it will synchronize the data from the Steam Cloud on the next run.

Option B - copy the data to the native Linux location

You will need to use the Linux terminal, which you can access in the “Desktop Mode” on Steam Deck. Press the “Steam” button and choose “Switch to Desktop”.

In Desktop Mode, open a terminal and run the following commands to copy the Proton user folder to the native Linux user folder location.

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/BeamNG
cd ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/284160/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/BeamNG/
cp -r BeamNG.drive ~/.local/share/BeamNG

Option C - keep running the Proton version

Follow the steps from Option A, but stop after setting the compatibility tool to Proton 10.0-4 (step 1). This will make BeamNG keep using the Windows version with the Proton compatibility layer and the previous user folder.

The Proton version might suffer from performance loss over the native Linux version.