Idus SC Toolbox

One-click fixes for running Star Citizen on Linux.

A small GTK4 companion to the LUG Helper that handles the chores you otherwise redo by hand after every patch — killing a hung client, backing up and restoring your keybinds, diagnosing HOTAS trouble, pinning the launcher and game to the right screen, clearing the shader cache, and updating StarStrings.

Why

Star Citizen on Linux runs great via Wine/LUG — but each patch brings the same little rituals: a client that won't die, keybinds that scramble when a joystick re-enumerates, the launcher opening on the wrong monitor, stale shaders causing stutter. Idus SC Toolbox puts all of those one click away, and keeps a backup so you can roll back when something breaks mid-session.

Requirements

• KDE Plasma 6 (Wayland or X11)
• Python + GTK4 bindings: sudo pacman -S --needed python-gobject gtk4
• A LUG-Helper install of Star Citizen (the Wine prefix is auto-detected from its config)

Install

Download the three files (or grab them from Releases), put them in one folder, then run:

bash install-idus-sc-toolbox.sh

• The Wine prefix is auto-detected from ~/.config/starcitizen-lug/. Wrong guess? Run: SC_PREFIX=/your/path bash install-idus-sc-toolbox.sh
• Backups default to ~/SC-backups. Change with SC_BACKUP_DIR="/path" bash install-idus-sc-toolbox.sh
• Launch from the menu ("Idus SC Toolbox") or the terminal (idus-sc-toolbox).
• New icon not showing? Log out/in — the KDE icon cache is stubborn.

What the buttons do

Group	Button	Action
Close / clean	Kill SC + launcher + wineserver	pkill the game/launcher, then wineserver -k
	Restart launcher	Kill everything, then run LUG's sc-launch.sh
Config in Kate	USER.cfg / attributes.xml / actionmaps.xml / sc-launch.sh	Opens the file in Kate
	Game.log (follow live)	tail -F in Konsole
	Game folder in Dolphin	Opens the env folder
Backup	Back up now	Tars user/ (keybinds, attributes), USER.cfg, sc-launch.sh → ~/SC-backups
	Restore latest backup	Safety-copies current state, then unpacks the latest backup
	Auto-backup on launch	Takes one backup per day when the app starts
Joystick & windows	Joystick diagnostics	Lists devices, flags duplicate instances, shows what SC expects
	Fix windows now	One-shot: centre launcher + SC to main screen (KWin)
	Install KWin rule	Permanent rule pinning launcher + SC to the main screen
	Open Window Rules	Opens the KDE Window Rules settings
Shaders & audio	Clear shader cache	Deletes SC shader cache (optionally the GPU driver cache too)
	PipeWire quantum 2048 / Reset	Audio-stutter workaround
VRAM	VRAM check	Visual meter of GPU memory with a per-process bar chart; flags heavy apps (e.g. OrcaSlicer) to close before launching SC. NVIDIA only
StarStrings	Update StarStrings (LIVE)	Downloads the latest StarStrings LIVE release, backs up the old english global.ini → global.ini.BAK-[date], installs the new one

CLI

Every action has a flag, for KDE global shortcuts or a Stream Deck:

idus-sc-toolbox --kill | --fix-windows | --backup | --restore | --diag \
                --starstrings | --vram | --kwin-rule | --shaders [--driver-cache] \
                --quantum on|off | --env PTU | --screen N

Notes & caveats

• Window rules are machine-specific — screen index, which monitor is primary and the resolution differ per setup. The generated rules are a starting point; adjust the Screen number in Window Rules if a window lands on the wrong monitor.
• StarStrings also needs USER.cfg (g_language) in the game root to take effect. The tool backs up and replaces the english global.ini only; it does not touch USER.cfg.
• The KWin rule descriptions start with "SC Toolbox" for backwards compatibility.
• Hardware-specific features: the VRAM check is NVIDIA only (reads nvidia-smi, any NVIDIA card), and the joystick diagnostics are tuned for VIRPIL HOTAS. Everything else is vendor-agnostic.
• Not affiliated with Cloud Imperium Games or the LUG. Use at your own risk — it ships a backup button for a reason. 🙂

Uninstall

rm -f  ~/.local/bin/idus-sc-toolbox ~/.local/share/applications/idus-sc-toolbox.desktop
rm -rf ~/.local/share/idus-sc-toolbox ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/idus-sc-toolbox.png

Support

Made by Idus. If this saved you time and you want to sponsor a new citizen, use my Star Citizen referral code when you enlist — you get 5,000 free aUEC to start:

STAR-2GDF-FDKH → https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-2GDF-FDKH

Or buy me a coffee:

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

o7