Jackify is a tool to install Wabbajack modlists on Linux and Steam Deck. Wabbajack is a Windows tool for installing modlists, but using it on Linux was painful. Jackify is an automated solution to downloading and installing Wabbajack modlists and configuring Proton prefixes for them. To download modlists, you need a Nexus Mods Premium subscription, which costs about 10 euros a month.
It’s still in early phase, so some features are missing, but it seems to be actively developed. It supports the following games:
- Skyrim Special Edition
- Fallout 4
- Fallout New Vegas
- Oblivion
- Starfield
- Enderal
- Other Games (Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, and more - Download and Install only for now)
To use it, you need the game installed on Steam. Then just launch Jackify, choose your game and a modlist for it, configure a couple fields, and finally hit the Installation button. After that, just wait while Jackify does everything for you. At the end, it creates a new Steam shortcut, and the game/modlist is ready to play.
I don’t have Nexus Mods subscription, but I tested Jackify with the Nordic Souls files I had on my disk. Nordic Souls is a modlist for Skyrim, which consists of about 1500 mods. Jackify successfully did what it said on the tin. I had to change ENB to Community Shaders, as ENB didn’t seem to work on my machine (it’s a Windows app), but I prefer Community Shaders anyway. With that tweak, the game seems to be fully playable. I don’t know how many hours I spent on my previous play through getting ModOrganizer2 and Wabbajack to work and install Nordic souls, and then fixing other problems like audio issues.
In another recent post, I wrote a guide for modding Skyrim on Linux, but it got lost in the comments. Part of it is Linux/Jackify specific, and part is general Skyrim specific information, that also applies to some other Bethesda games, like Fallout. Here’s a copy-paste of it:
Guide to modding Skyrim on Linux by using a modlist
- You need Nexus Mods subscription to download modlists.
- You most likely want to have Anniversary Edition of Skyrim, otherwise modding will be challenging because many mods requires it.
- Launch Skyrim normally, and if you have Anniversary Edition, let it download all Creation Club Content (CC Content). Do not Alt-Tab out of Skyrim, or it will interrupt the download. The game will claim it downloaded everything, but you’ll miss some of the CC Content. If you get any errors about files that have the letters “CC” in them, this is your problem.
- Once the CC Content is downloaded, close Skyrim.
- Head over to Jackify Releases. Download the latest Jackify.AppImage.
- You might need to give it executable permission. You can typically do this by pressing the second mouse button over the icon, go to Properties -> Permissions and look for the option that says executable. Or use
chmod +x /path/to/Jackify.AppImage. - Place Jackify.AppImage where ever you want to and launch it.
- Go to Modlist Tasks -> Install a Modlist.
- Select Skyrim as the game, and pick one of the Modlists. If you are out of ideas, and you have a decent computer, try Nordic Souls. Note, that you cannot combine modlists, but you can install more mods if you want to.
- Change install and download directories, so that they have the name of the modlist in them (create new folders, for example).
- Under the Nexus API field, there is a link. Click it, scroll to the bottom to Personal API Key section, hit the Request API Key button and copy-paste it to the API Key field. You might want to read the warning on the Nexus site, and decide yourself if you want to trust Jackify. Jackify team is planning to implement a better way to do this, but it is what it is for now.
- Click Start Installation button, go brew some coffee, make a dinner, wash your clothes and come back to see if the installation is finished.
Once the installation is complete, Jackify adds the modlist to your Steam Library and configures the proton prefix. Make sure you are using Jackify 1.6.2 or newer, or the prefix configuration will likely fail. When you start the modlist, it will launch ModOrganizer2. Hit the big Play button to launch the game.
Nordic Souls defaults to ENB for its graphic improvements. On my old Nordic Souls, it doesn’t seem to start, or it takes a very long time. Nordic Souls also comes with Community Shaders, which does the same thing. In the latest Nordic Souls version, there is a separate profile for ENB and CS. Change it from top left corner of MO2.
If you get “too many open files” error during modlist installation, you need to edit /etc/security/limits.conf and add this line to it: your_username hard nofile 524288 and then relogin, or restart.
Once you start a new save file, avoid changing the mod and plugin load orders (left and right side lists) in MO2. Doing so might break your save file, and fixing it will be difficult, because you probably won’t remember the old order. Also, never uninstall or upgrade a mod, unless you are sure doing so is safe. This too can break your save file. Re-installing a mod once something has broken might not fix it.
You can install more mods using MO2. Always read the instructions given by the mod author, and follow them to a T. Pay attention to things like dependencies, incompatible mods, load orders. If the mod author doesn’t mention which of the two load orders they mean, it’s most likely the mod load order (left side).
If a mod comes with different versions for AE and SE (Anniversary Edition, Special Edition), you most likely need AE version of it, if you are using AE. Otherwise, SE and AE are the same, and both should work for AE.
Some modlists, such as Nordic Souls, will downgrade the Skyrim version to something like v.1.5.97. If a mod has versions for different versions of Skyrim, pay attention to this. Check the Skyrim version from the main menu of Skyrim.
Support the team with 20£ then?
I am not the OP of the other post. But they did find another solution that worked for them (SteamTinkerLaunch + Vortex), and edited their post with the information.
Hell yeah, moding Skyrim was a absolute pain in the ass. Will definitely give your tool a try. Thanks!
Oh shit, that’s awesome. I have got mod organizer installed in my skyrim prefix, but that took quite a bit of fiddling and isn’t great for installing modpakcs. Never quite got wabbajack working
It took me quite a lot of fiddling to get Wabbajack working on Linux, even though I used an installation script for it. Almost gave up, but eventually managed to install Nordic Souls with it. Jackify, which is an evolution of that very same installation script, is waaaay easier.
