How to install specific VintageStory versions on Linux/Steam Deck

[Diff]

So recently I was trying to join a server that was locked at an older version of VintageStory for Reasons. On the Steam Deck, installing stuff from the Discover store is relatively easy, but installing something like from the Client Area can quickly become A Pain, especially on a mostly-immutable system like SteamOS.

If Only There Were A Better Way!

Thankfully we live in the future, but it requires popping open the terminal. We need to find the ID of the old version, then we need to "update" to that specific version.

1. Find the ID of the old version.

Run this command in the Konsole or your terminal of choice. It's filed under System in the main menu in Desktop Mode. We have tab completion, so for much of these you can press Tab to autofill things in after typing a few letters.

flatpak remote-info --log flathub at.vintagestory.VintageStory

This command reaches out to the store and requests a log of versions. It's a bit messy, but this has all the info we need. It'll look something like this:

Vintage Story - Wilderness survival sandbox game

       ID: at.vintagestory.VintageStory
      Ref: app/at.vintagestory.VintageStory/x86_64/stable
     Arch: x86_64
   Branch: stable
  Version: 1.20.12
  License: LicenseRef-proprietary
Collection: org.flathub.Stable
 Download: 68.2 MB
Installed: 121.9 MB
  Runtime: org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/23.08
      Sdk: org.freedesktop.Sdk/x86_64/23.08

   Commit: 8773e8f47f7a40082f592d2a43e6529c74f5ba4d195f556bc1ef1cf063b234f8
   Parent: 41e459b2897b423e671fa69aca87746440f6a4d82a2964703f655eca96718d41
  Subject: Merge pull request #100 from flathub/update-master-2902b25 (b82373a574c8)
     Date: 2025-06-08 18:19:42 +0000
  History:  

   Commit: 41e459b2897b423e671fa69aca87746440f6a4d82a2964703f655eca96718d41
  Subject: Merge pull request #99 from flathub/update-master-1105e90 (3fc1695f107d)
     Date: 2025-05-28 11:00:07 +0000

   Commit: 787cd31e0c48c0c1d74d818f04cc2f029fed330183e06845271ec0cd3bc2075d
  Subject: Merge pull request #98 from flathub/build_only_x64 (a551f57ad9f7)
     Date: 2025-05-05 16:35:23 +0000

   Commit: bb5e55b971c5efc4d6283559575b7934fc718ad2d7539a0e9aa85be663fcfead
  Subject: Merge pull request #97 from flathub/update-6a4bf05 (cf894ec7dabe)
     Date: 2025-05-05 14:32:38 +0000

   Commit: 37cb7ce575de3536f8c1e4b8cf1e50e37ace32a0d06bc280745cd30b698f66b6
  Subject: Merge pull request #95 from flathub/update-12e60a9 (fe8cf1b55f9a)
     Date: 2025-04-22 14:45:34 +0000

   Commit: ae78911920852de61d6f5b33312e3246d54ab684506ac9b395e0f0dece5666ef
  Subject: update description (0aceb070)
     Date: 2025-04-01 13:22:29 +0000

   Commit: 1129910a81ecffb94387bc40bd6e432355ba99009f30cf9b2a351ec4d32695a1
  Subject: need to use raw links (ae6a7700)
     Date: 2025-03-24 13:15:46 +0000

   Commit: a6aaf77dc6e3273c8b4e489d2a65819ba34be4ad588715b82e8558755c562c4f
  Subject: Add 1.20.5 release description (7b7300f5)
     Date: 2025-03-18 17:19:46 +0000

It starts off with some info about the app, then launches into the change log. Each entry has a Commit ID, a Subject, and a Release Date. Now this unfortunately isn't super consistent, but if you're lucky, the VintageStory version you want will be explicitly mentioned in the Subject. If not, you might want to compare the dates here to the release date of the version you're looking for.

But once you find the right entry in the log, copy its Commit ID. In this example, if I wanted 1.20.5, I'd copy "a6aaf77dc6e3273c8b4e489d2a65819ba34be4ad588715b82e8558755c562c4f" for the next step.

2. Install the ID of the old version.

Installing is fairly straightforward:

sudo flatpak update --commit=INSERT_COMMIT_ID_HERE at.vintagestory.VintageStory

Two things to pay attention to, replace INSERT_COMMIT_ID_HERE with the commit ID you copied earlier, and notice the sudo at the start. Flatpak doesn't allow installing specific versions as a normal user, so we need sudo, which will ask you for your sudo password. If you haven't set one up yet, you'll need to. You can do this by running the "passwd" command in Konsole. Don't forget it, because there is no "Forgot My Password" system here.

After you enter your password, it'll ask you to confirm the backwards update, and after a few moments it should be installed. Pop it open, verify you've got the right version, and you're all set.

[MeowMix90]

So I've been trying Vintage Story on Manjaro for the first time and I'm trying to reinstall 1.20.12.

Thoughts on what I might be doing wrong or missing in the copy/pasting, here?

[Andrey Demakov]

@MeowMix90

Try to install the game on the discover app first, I had the same issue and it helped.

[Diff]

Oop, don't know how I missed this, but Andrey is correct. You need to have it installed in order to update it.