Hacker Launcher

v1.0 — A game launcher for running Windows games on Linux with Proton, Wine, Steam, Flatpak, and Native runners.

Built with Rust + Tauri 2 on the backend and SolidJS + TypeScript on the frontend.

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Features

Games

• Add games with Native / Wine / Proton / Flatpak / Steam runners
• Per-game DXVK, Esync, Fsync, DXVK-Async overrides (with global defaults in Settings)
• Custom per-game environment variables
• Custom icon/cover art per game, shown in both List and Grid library views
• Tags and favorites, with filtering in the library
• List view or cover-art Grid view (switchable in Settings, takes effect after restart)
• Drag & drop a .exe anywhere onto the window to add it as a game
• Live "Running" status with a Stop button, and automatic playtime tracking
• Rotating per-run logs (last 10 runs kept per game) with a log viewer
• Keyboard shortcuts: Enter launches/stops the selected game, Delete removes it
• Quote-aware launch options parsing (so --config="C:\Path With Spaces\x.ini" works correctly)
• Optional shared Wine prefix across multiple games, in addition to the default per-game prefix
• Steam library auto-import: scans default, Flatpak, and additional Steam Library Folder locations — including external/removable drives and unregistered SteamLibrary folders — and lets you review and correct the guessed executable before importing
• ProtonDB compatibility lookup by Steam App ID (cached for 15 minutes per App ID)
• Backup/restore: export games + settings to a JSON file, and import it back later either as a full restore or merged in as new games only

Proton / Wine tooling

• Install Proton-GE, official Valve Proton (stable/experimental), or a custom tar.gz/folder
• Paginated GitHub release listing (not just the first ~30), with an in-memory cache to avoid hitting GitHub's unauthenticated rate limit
• Changelog preview (the GitHub release body) before installing a version
• Download integrity check against the release's published checksum, when one exists
• Cancellable installs, with live download/extraction progress
• System notification when a background install finishes (or fails)
• Winetricks integration: a curated shortlist of common components (VC++, .NET, DirectX, DXVK…) for one-click installs, or browse/search the full ~700-entry catalog (read live from your installed winetricks list-all)
• Dependency scanner: looks for bundled redistributable installers (vcredist, dotnetfx, dxsetup, …) next to a game's executable and offers to run them directly or via the matching Winetricks verb
• Live streaming output for both Winetricks and dependency-installer runs — long operations like dotnet48 show real progress instead of an unresponsive-looking wait
• Prefix locking: launching a game, running Winetricks, and running a dependency installer all claim an exclusive lock on the Wine prefix they touch. A second attempt against the same prefix (e.g. starting a game that shares a prefix with one already running, or running Winetricks while that happens) is refused with a clear error instead of risking registry corruption
• Gamescope integration (adaptive-sync, resolution, FPS cap, Big Picture) via the --gamescope launch option

Controllers

• Lists gamepads currently visible to the kernel (/proc/bus/input/devices)
• SDL_GAMECONTROLLERCONFIG mapping wizard: pick a connected controller, press each button/stick in turn, and the wizard builds the mapping string for you — reading raw Linux joystick events directly, so you don't need to know button/axis numbers by heart. The controller's SDL-style GUID is auto-derived from its USB/Bluetooth identity in sysfs. Usable standalone (copies to clipboard) or launched straight from a game's Configure dialog (fills the field directly)
• Per-game "Disable Steam Input" toggle and raw SDL_GAMECONTROLLERCONFIG override

UI

• Dark theme (default) and a full Light theme, switchable live in Settings
• Toast notifications, themed confirmation dialogs (no native window.confirm popups)

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Requirements

Runtime dependencies

• wine — for the Wine runner, dependency-installer runs, and as a fallback for GUID/controller info
• winetricks — optional, for the Winetricks integration (both the curated shortlist and the full catalog browser shell out to your installed copy)
• gamescope — optional, for Gamescope integration
• steam or flatpak — for the Steam runner and Steam library import
• Proton versions are downloaded and managed by the launcher itself

Build dependencies

# Rust (stable)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Node.js >= 18
# (use your distro's package manager or nvm)

# Tauri system dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev build-essential curl wget \
  libssl-dev libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

# Tauri system dependencies (Fedora/RHEL)
sudo dnf install webkit2gtk3-devel openssl-devel curl wget \
  libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel

# Tauri system dependencies (Arch)
sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk base-devel curl wget openssl libappindicator-gtk3 librsvg

Build & Run

# Install JS dependencies
npm install

# Development (hot reload)
npm run tauri dev

# Production build
npm run tauri build
# Binary will be in: src-tauri/target/release/hacker-launcher

Note: bundle.active is currently false in tauri.conf.json, so tauri build produces a plain binary rather than a packaged AppImage/.deb/.rpm. Flip it on and configure the bundle section if you want installable packages.

Architecture

source-code/
├── src/                        SolidJS + TypeScript frontend
│   ├── App.tsx                 Tab bar, applies saved theme/library view at startup
│   ├── types.ts                Shared TS types + small helpers (emptyGame, formatPlaytime, …)
│   └── components/
│       ├── GamesTab.tsx        Library (list/grid), search/tags/favorites, drag&drop, shortcuts
│       ├── AddGameModal.tsx / ConfigureGameModal.tsx
│       ├── ProtonsTab.tsx      Install/update/remove Proton versions, changelog preview
│       ├── ControllersTab.tsx  Detected gamepads + entry point to the mapping wizard
│       ├── ControllerMappingWizard.tsx
│       ├── SettingsTab.tsx     Theme, defaults, shared prefix, backup/restore
│       └── ConfirmModal.tsx / ToastContainer.tsx
└── src-tauri/src/               Rust backend
    ├── lib.rs                   Tauri commands + app wiring
    ├── config_manager.rs        Settings persistence
    ├── game_manager.rs          Game CRUD, process launch/tracking/playtime, log rotation
    ├── proton_manager.rs        GitHub release listing/cache, install/extract, checksums
    ├── tools.rs                 Steam import, Winetricks, dependency scan, ProtonDB, controllers,
    │                            backup/restore
    └── prefix_lock.rs           Cross-cutting Wine-prefix exclusivity lock

Data locations

All data is stored in ~/.hackeros/Hacker-Launcher/:

Path	Purpose
Config/games.json	Saved game list
Config/settings.json	Launcher settings
Protons/	Installed Proton versions
Prefixes/	Wine/Proton prefixes (including the optional shared one, under Prefixes/shared)
Logs/	Rotating per-game launch logs

Known limitations

Being upfront about what these features actually are, rather than overselling them:

• Steam library import and the dependency scanner are filename/heuristic-based (largest non-utility .exe in a folder; known installer filename patterns). They're right most of the time, wrong occasionally — the import dialog lets you fix the guessed executable before committing, and the dependency scanner can't tell whether something is already installed in the prefix, only that an installer for it exists on disk.
• ProtonDB lookup and Steam library import both need network/Steam-client data respectively; neither works offline or for games with no corresponding Steam App ID.
• The controller mapping wizard reads raw Linux joystick events directly rather than depending on SDL2 itself — it's a best-effort helper, and D-Pads reported as a "hat" (rather than four separate buttons) may need a manual touch-up to the generated string.
• Prefix locking prevents concurrent launcher-initiated operations on the same prefix; it can't stop something outside the launcher from touching the same prefix at the same time.
• No automated tests or CI yet, and the launcher itself has no auto-update mechanism (only Proton versions are update-checked).