Hookshot on Linux and Steam Deck

AppImage

Download Hookshot-v2.1.0-x86_64.AppImage from the stable release (242,149,880 bytes on 11 Nov 2026). Mark it executable with chmod +x, or tick Allow executing file as program in the file manager, then open it. Builder asks for a .nup or for romfs plus exefs, then for an output directory. The default is ~/Games/Hookshot. Pick a language and build. When it finishes, an application menu entry named Hookshot appears. Leave the AppImage where you first put it: the launcher uses that file to update.

The AppImage requires glibc 2.35 or newer, which covers Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora, Arch, and SteamOS. It also requires AVX2. Graphics need Vulkan 1.3, mesh shaders, and a current Mesa or NVIDIA driver. Command-line switches on the readme include --cli with --nup and --out, plus --play and --update. HOOKSHOT_JOBS and HOOKSHOT_MEM_LIMIT_GB tune the compile. The readme's tested list includes CachyOS, Fedora, Bazzite, and SteamOS.

Steam Deck freeze

Issue 817 describes Kokiri Forest and the Deku Tree freezing, with journalctl -k showing gfx_0.0.0 timeout. The bypass written there is RX_VK_MESH_NOCULL=2c56dc1006942f74, which turns off a culling pass and keeps the models. RX_VK_SKIP_CODE=2c56dc1006942f74 also gets past the freeze and can drop models. I report both strings because the issue lists both, and I do not pick a winner.

There is no Deck-only download and no Deck tutorial on the project's own pages. YouTube results I looked at on 11 Nov 2026 were emulator setups, so this page does not embed one of those as if it were a Hookshot Deck guide.

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