Installation Instructions

Install Original Game

To use OpenMW you need a base ESM file. Currently Morrowind.esm is the only one available; see http://openmw.org/faq/, section "Do I need Morrowind?"

Note: you do not have to use Wine to install Morrowind data files on Linux. See this article for details.

Install OpenMW

The (easier) Binary Way

• Simply get the right archive for your OS here : https://openmw.org/downloads/
• Extract it
• Launch "omwlauncher.exe" if your are under Windows, or "omwlauncher" if you are under Linux/Mac
• Play!

The (bleeding edge) Source Way

See Development Environment Setup for detailed instructions.

After building the engine:

• Launch "omwlauncher"
• Play!

The Debian Way

OpenMW is in the experimental repository of Debian contrib. It depends on several packages that are not in stable. Therefore, it is necessary to add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian experimental contrib
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main

Optionally replace ftp.us.debian.org with whichever mirror is closest to you.

Then, add a policy to your /etc/apt/preferences (create it if it does not already exist):

# Do not install packages from testing unless told to
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 90

# Update openmw automatically
Package: openmw
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 800

Package: openmw-data
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 800

Package: openmw-cs
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 800

Package: openmw-launcher
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 800

Details about apt-pinning:
https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html

OpenMW can now be installed:

# apt-get update
# apt-get -t testing install openmw

The Ubuntu Way

A Launchpad PPA is available. Add it and install OpenMW:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openmw/openmw
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install openmw

The Arch Linux Way

The binary package is available in the official [community] Repositories.

To install simply run the following as root (or in sudo):

# pacman -S openmw

Running OpenMW

After the installation is complete, run "omwlauncher". You will get an error message stating "Error detecting Morrowind installation". Do not be alarmed, this is perfectly normal. Press the "Browse..." button and navigate to the directory containing the file "Morrowind.esm" and select it. For example, if you have Morrowind installed in Wine via Steam, this file will be located in "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common/Morrowind/Data Files/".

You will be asked if you wish to import settings from Morrowind.ini. Select "Import", otherwise OpenMW will not work. You do not need to check the box "Include selected masters and plugins". The OpenMW launcher window should now open. Switch to the "Data Files" tab and check the box to the left of "Morrowind.esm". You are now ready to play!