Elite: Dangerous HUD Mod UI on Linux

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 17:17:07 +0000

2025 update: With the release of version 3, none of the below is necessary.

EDHM+UI is a tool that lets you change the colors and lighting of the HUD in Elite: Dangerous. Does it work on Linux? Yes!

tl;dr: Install EDHM+UI in its own WINE prefix, then point it at your E:D install.

Long version:

Download the EDHM+UI installer (EDHM_UI_Setup.msi) from GitHub.
Choose a name for a new WINE prefix: export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine_edhmui"
Initialize the prefix with: wine wineboot
Install .NET to the prefix: winetricks dotnet48. This will take you through a couple installers. Just continue through any warnings the installers show.
Make sure the Windows version is set to one supported by EDHM+UI: winetricks win10
Install EDHM+UI to the prefix (replace with the path to the .msi if it is not in the current folder): wine msiexec /i ./EDHM_UI_Setup.msi
(Optional) Download an icon for a shortcut: wget https://bluemystical.github.io/edhm-api/assets/img/logo.png -O "${WINEPREFIX}/logo.png"

Set up a .desktop file to put EDHM in your menu. Create ~/.local/share/applications/edhm-ui.desktop with a text editor and put the following in. Replace NAME with your username.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=EDHM UI
Comment=E:D HUD Mod UI
Exec=env WINEDEBUG="-all" WINEPREFIX="/home/NAME/.wine_edhmui" "/home/NAME/.wine_edhmui/drive_c/users/NAME/AppData/Local/EDHM_UI/EDHM_UI_mk2.exe"
Icon=/home/NAME/.wine_edhmui/logo.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Game

Start EDHM+UI. Point it at your Elite Dangerous install(s). In the following picture it references my Steam install. You can likely find your install with: find ~ -name elite-dangerous-odyssey-64, but be sure to use the Windows-style path like I do, usually under Z:\. To make the box editable/browsable, CTRL+LEFT-CLICK the pi (π) symbol first.
You can then use EDHM+UI like on Windows. Select a premade theme, tweak it, add third-party plugins, and apply it. And just like Windows, you can use a hotkey (F11 by default) to reload a changed theme while the game is running.