Osu on Linux

Hey!

I play rhythm games for my own amusement. And mostly bobbing to OSU!, which let's you click circles to legally acquired song. And it supports Linux, kinda, most of the time, let me explain.

Osu Stable

Is a classic Osu client that most people play on. It doesn't support Linux, but works quite well under WINE, and some community maintained scripts setup low latency and seamless desktop integration for adding maps and skins from .osu files.

I used this install script (check GitHub for more up to date instructions). Tested on KDE X11, XFCE X11 and BSPWM. Works fantastically and at the time of writing this post { 2025-04-13 } still maintained.

But can have audio lag because Wine compatibility takes some time, but make sure to enable DXVK and if on Nvidia, 32-bit Vulkan compatibility package. On something like Arch Linux it should be your go to OSU! setup.

Osu Lazer

But:

Wine and arbitrary scripts have problems running on FSH'less OSes, hello NixOS,

Maybe you can't bear the audio lag from Wine(less than 1/4 of a second),

Annoyed about rare stuttering issues,

You want latest and greatest features,

Then you might want to switch to Lazer. A leap in Osu clients that got native Linux support! As it is open source, you can build it yourself, but i do not recommend doing so, because networking is disabled for unofficial builds of the game. Which doesn't let you upload scores and chat.

Instead, download the official appimage, and just play the game. You might need to update mesa package to play, also recommend AppImageLauncher for smooth sailing if it's your first time using appimages.

Well, you would need to turn on Vulkan (experimental) rendering for better performance. Also don't use the Raw Input setting, it's broken on Linux.

NixOS

But if you don't want to run raw appimages, Osu Lazer is available on nixpkgs that auto updates for you, in particular, the osu-lazer-bin. But recently I had problems running it on Nvidia GPU (check issue)

Luckily, Fufexan's gaming flake got working Osu that also fresher than the nixpkgs one. I use it.

Here's a simple flake structure for ya:

{
  # you can scroll it
  description = "Osu Gaming";

  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    nix-gaming.url = "github:fufexan/nix-gaming";
  };
  outputs =
    {
    self,
    nixpkgs,
    ...
    }@inputs:
    {
      nixosConfigurations = {
        NixGamer = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
          specialArgs = { inherit inputs; };
          modules = [
            ./configuraton.nix
            {
              environment.systemPackages = [ inputs.nix-gaming.packages.${pkgs.system}.osu-lazer-bin ];
            }
          ];
        };
      };
    };
}

McOsu

It's an unofficial Osu client, that you can download straight from Steam. It's minimal, so doesn't ever lag, has a lot of mods for practice and fully local, so no multiplayer features either. Still open source tho.

You can import your Osu user from the site and go from there. Has some problems with Osu skins, but most should work fine.

Software

Well, at least now you can play the game, but to exceed in it you might want to configure hardware that you use. Like pipewire for less audio lag, tablet area and mouse dpi.

Open Tablet Drivers (OTG)

Just download it, enable the daemon, reboot. If after connecting the tablet, it says that daemon connection is terminated, reopen the app.

Most tablets should work with it, but if not, check the git version, I used the one from AUR. If you use source based distribution, good luck building DotNet dependency.

The git and stable versions can have different configuration formats, so your Osu preset from git can be borked on stable. Just remake it using the GUI.

Solaar

It's a little application to change your mouse settings, sensitivity and DPI included. Works perfectly with LogiTech.

Can work with keyboards too, but I never owned the compatible one.

Pipewire

The default (i hope) audio system on your Linux distro. Check the guides on how to reduce audio latency, for example. But here is a little snippet for NixOS users. Just be aware, your headphones can pop or crack, so experiment with this a little.

environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.sbc ];
# Enable sound with pipewire.
services.pulseaudio.enable = false;
security.rtkit.enable = true;
services.pipewire = {
  enable = true;
  alsa.enable = true;
  alsa.support32Bit = true;
  pulse.enable = true;
  extraConfig.pipewire."92-low-latency" = {
    "context.properties" = {
      "default.clock.rate" = 48000;
      "default.clock.quantum" = 32;
      "default.clock.min-quantum" = 32;
      "default.clock.max-quantum" = 32;
    };
  };

Rhythm is just a click away!

Thanks for reading, hopefully my experience was worth your time. I played OSU! for a couple of years now, and basically base my desktop preferences on it.

Like how my Windows 10 wouldn't run it well, so I switched to Arch Linux. Or how portals broke my X11 install of Osu Lazer, so I switched to Wayland on Niri. Well outside of that, buying my own drawing tablet on birthday and storing 50GB of osu maps, and silver switches on my osu keymaps.

Rhytm games are great, so I can't say I wasted any of that time and money on useless stuff, because tapping to the songs just gives another type of joy that can't be achieved otherwise.

Here is my Osu profile, if you are interested. Trow in friend requests, can be mutuals lol.