This will be a tutorial for installing Mod Organizer 2 for Skyrim: Special Edition on Linux (in my case, Arch Linux, btw).
Run Skyrim once through Steam
Install and run Skyrim once, via Steam. In the launch menu, set the game to run in Windowed mode (without borderless). For me, running in fullscreen mode makes the screen go black after alt-tabbing. Make sure you’re able to boot into the intro scene with the cart.
Now, close the game and open a terminal.
Back up your game
First, it is advisable to make a backup copy of the game in case something goes wrong, so you don’t have to download it again. I’ll copy the game folder to my home directory.
cp ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim\ Special\ Edition ~/
Dependencies
Next, install protontricks from the AUR, and mingw-w64-gcc from the extra repo.
yay -S protontricks mingw-w64-gcc
Download modorganizer2-linux-installer
Use git clone:
git clone https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer
Now, run make in the steam-redirector directory within the cloned repository.
cd modorganizer2-linux-installer/steam-redirector
make
Now, go back to the root directory and run install.sh:
cd ..
./install.sh
It should give you a dialog to select which game you want to install MO2 for. That’s right, this guide technically works for any Bethesda game, but others may require tweaks I don’t mention here.
Post-Installation
After the installation is complete, run Skyrim normally through Steam again. It should open Mod Organizer 2, rather than the game itself.
You need to set up mod downloads using a Nexus API key, which you can acquire here if you’re already logged in (scroll down to Mod Organizer 2). Then go to “Tools” in MO2, then click “Nexus”. There you will find an option to manually enter your API key.
For me, I have to use Firefox rather than Chromium to download mods, because Chromium doesn’t recognize the link association created by MO2.
Anyways, happy modding!