How to fix Worms W.M.D. launch on ArchLinux, Manjaro, Garuda, Artix Linux & Linux Mint

WormsWMD-Archlinux.md

Game information Worms W.M.D.

Distribution name and version where applicable Manjaro 20.1.1 (Mikah)

Problem description Worms doesn't launch out of the box without two small tweaks. When launching Worms W.M.D. in Manjaro and Archlinux, you need to do two things:

1. Install this apps: sudo pacman -S libcurl-gnutls libidn11 qt5-base qt5-xcb-private-headers(If you are on any other distro then Arch, you can skip this step. At least this is reported to be OK to skip for Linux Mint)
2. Edit file "Run.sh" in Worms W.M.D. directory, usually it's located here: ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/WormsWMD/Run.sh, and replace it's content with this:

#!/bin/bash
export LC_ALL=C
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib"
export LD_PRELOAD="$(
	printf "%s " ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/WormsWMD/lib/libQt5*.so* \
		~/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdbus-1.so.3 \
		~/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdbus-1.so.3.5.8
)"
chmod a+x ./Worms\ W.M.Dx64
./Worms\ W.M.Dx64

Finally, you can launch Worms WMD either through Steam (by pressing play and choosing "Run with Run.sh", or via CLI by just ./Run.sh.

Does this issue reproduce with native Steam Yes, the issue seems like an upstream Steam Linux WMD distribution bug.

For Ubuntu 24 with Steam installed as snap to launch from the shell

#!/bin/bash
# Worms WMD launcher script for Linux

# Use C locale for compatibility
export LC_ALL=C

# Disable D-Bus to avoid assertion errors with bundled Qt5DBus library
# This library has ABI incompatibility with newer system D-Bus versions
export QT_NO_DBUS=1
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="disabled:"

# Use system Qt5 platform plugins (xcb backend)
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/platforms"

# Get the directory where this script is located
SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"

# Prioritize bundled libraries over system libraries
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$SCRIPT_DIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

# Make the binary executable and run it
chmod a+x "$SCRIPT_DIR/Worms W.M.Dx64"
"$SCRIPT_DIR/Worms W.M.Dx64"

My OS: Manjaro 26.0.3 Anh-Linh

The game was complaining about libtheoraenc and libtheoradec so I created a softlink to my system libraries:

cd /usr/lib
sudo ln -s libtheoraenc.so.2.2.1 libtheoraenc.so.1
sudo ln -s libtheoradec.so.2.1.1 libtheoradec.so.1

Then it was complaining about some old libraries, so I just removed them, they were in the WormsWMD/lib folder:

libstdc++.so.6
libhogweed.so.4
libnettle.so.6

I found this script online and modified a bit, it should be named as myrun.sh and be given permission to be run as an executable:

#!/bin/bash
export LC_ALL=C 
export MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=2.0COMPAT 
export MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=410

_libraries=(
	lib/libQt5*.so.5
	/usr/lib/libwavpack.so.1
	"$STEAM_RUNTIME"/amd64/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdbus-1.so.3
    "$STEAM_RUNTIME"/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcurl-gnutls.so.4
    "$STEAM_RUNTIME"/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libidn.so.11
    "$STEAM_RUNTIME"/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcrypt.so.11
    "$STEAM_RUNTIME"/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librtmp.so.0
)

export LD_PRELOAD="${_libraries[@]}"

exec "$@" > ~/worms-stdout.log 2> ~/worms-stderr.log

The exports on top, fix a black screen problem.

Then you need to just set the launch options as:

./myrun.sh %command%

Hope this helps someone.