Rocksmith 2014 on CachyOS/Arch Linux
Introduction
Yes! 2025 is the year of the Linux desktop! I’ve always liked Linux as a desktop OS, but one thing was lacking: gaming.
Lots of things happened in the gaming on Linux space. I’m not an expert, but I think the Steam Deck played a big role. SteamOS, the software that runs on the Steam Deck, is based on Arch Linux and KDE/Plasma. Many games are either compatible with Linux, or they make use of the Proton compatibility layer developed by Valve. Proton is what allows you to run Windows games on Linux - mostly.
Many games that are Windows only are perfectly supported on Linux through Proton. Latest in that list is probaly Arc Raiders (go play that if you haven’t already). The main blocker for games to run on Linux often are DRM measure. Recent Battlefield games for instancer are notorious for their use of (Windows) kernel leve anti-cheat. Whatever your opinion is on that, those don’t port over to Linux. (I read they do port over, but that it’s a developer’s choice to enable this option or not).
Anyway, I play Rocksmith 2014 Remastered a lot. On Windows. Until today. Rocksmith is an older game that is not well supported on Linux or through Proton, mainly because it uses some wonky hardware integration with the Real Tone Cable, a USB analog-to-digital converter that plugs into your bass or guitar.
Below you find the settings I used and tinkering I did to play Rocksmith 2014 Remastered on my CachyOS Linux PC with fully working audio and video - just the way you like it - including CDLC!
Configuration & Tinkering
1. Install Steam and Rocksmith 2014 and other essentials.
If you haven’t already, install Steam and Rocksmith 2014 on your Linux box. Also install the gamemode package.
2. Set Launch Options
Go to RS2014 -> Properties -> General and set Launch Options to PIPEWIRE_LATENCY=256/48000 gamemoderun %command%
3. Real Tone Cable / Audio Configuration
Plug it into your computer. Then, protontricks 221680 sound=alsa and protontricks 221680 winecfg. In WineCfg you need to make two changes:
Under Applications, set the Windows version to Win7.
Under Audio, for Input Device, select your Real Tone Cable. The rest should be left at default.
4. Edit Rocksmith.ini
Edit your Rocksmith.ini file (Manage -> Browse local files from Steam) and make sure the following two settings are correct:
ExclusiveMode=0Win32UltraLowLatencyMode=0
5. Set input volume - optional
If you find your bass/guitar input to be very loud in RS2014, use alsamixer in a terminal. Hit F6 to select the Real Tone Cable and then F4 to see/adjust the capture volume.
6. Enabling CDLC
This is a tough one. Normally, you can download a nice .exe from CustomsForge that will install the latest .dll to enable CDLC. There seems to be an issue with recent releases of the CDLC enabler on Linux. In my case it would crash the game on start-up.
I found an older D3DX9_42.dll. This one still relies on the Cherub Rock DLC to be installed, but at least is does not crash the game.
So, download this file above and put in the RS2014 game dir (next to Rocksmith.ini).
7. Start shreddin'
That’s all. You can now launch RS2014 from Steam and everything should work as expected.
Closing notes
This is by no means my own work, but I gathered these tweaks, settings and .dlls from different sources to make it into a working setup. Hope this helps you to ditch Windows and move to Linux full-time ;-)