TibixDev/sai2-guide

Paint Tool Sai 2 for Linux Guide (With working pressure sensitivity)

This is a full guide on getting Paint Tool Sai 2 to work under Linux via Bottles & Wine with full tablet pressure sensitivity. Just follow the instructions and you'll be good to go in a few minutes. Credits for this solution goes to Kuuube from the OpenTabletDriver Discord Server.

1. Installing Bottles

You can install Bottles by following the instructions for your distribution on their website. Usually Flatpak is the simplest the way to go though.

2. Installing the runner

Go through the initial setup, then:

• Navigate to Preferences

• Navigate to Runners -> Caffe and install caffe-9.2

3. Creating the bottle

After downloading caffe-9.2, navigate back to the main screen, then create a new bottle by clicking the "+" in the top left corner.

• The bottle environment should be 'Application', leave everything else as default.

• If successful, you should see a screen like this

4. Configuring the bottle

Once the bottle has been created, we need to change the runner.

• Open your newly created bottle

• Click Settings

• Change the Runner to caffe-9.2

5. Running Sai

• Download and extract Paint Tool Sai 2 64bit (currently SAI2 64bit - 2024-08-14 Technical Preview) from SYSTEMAX

• In Bottles, click the top right ... menu, Browse Files..., create a new folder, and move the extracted Sai 2 files into the new folder

• Click + Add Shortcuts...

• Locate sai2.exe from the extracted archive

• You should now see sai2 in your Programs

• Optionally rename sai2 to Paint Tool Sai 2 by going to the three dots on the right, and selecting Rename
• Optionally add a desktop entry to sai2 by going to the three dots on the right, and selecting Add Desktop Entry
• Optionally add sai2 to Bottles Library by going to the three dots on the right, and selecting Add to Library

6. Configuring Sai

To fix tablet pressure sensitivity, and random errors popping up, we need to configure a few options

• Start Sai by hitting the Play button on the added Program entry (Or by using the Desktop Entry/Library Entry if you've added it)

• Navigate to Other -> Options...

• In the Pen Tablet section, pick Use WinTab API, then press OK

• Navigate to Other -> Options... again

• In the History and... section, uncheck the To suppress memory usage <...> box, then press OK

• IMPORTANT: Restart Sai

7. Enjoy!

• After you've restarted Sai, everything should be working as expected
• If pressure sensitivity is still not working, make sure your tablet drivers are running, and if possible, use OpenTabletDriver

Additional Notes

• Putting Sai into fullscreen mode can cause an offset on the mouse. To avoid this:
  • Increase the size of the window to fit the screen instead of making it fullscreen
  • Fullscreen Sai using F11 to remove the titlebar
  • In the sai2.ini file, set AvoidWacomBug to yes (sai2.ini will be in the same folder as sai2.exe)
• When creating a new canvas, if Sai is not on the primary monitor it may not render the canvas. In this case, switch the window to fullscreen and then back to windowed to re-render the canvas.
• If you want to skip a few of these steps and you're familiar with Bottles, you may import sai.yml and start from there

Known Issues on Linux Mint with Bottles (Flatpak)

If you're using Linux Mint and encounter problems running applications in Bottles installed via Flatpak (e.g., errors when launching Paint Tool SAI), refer to the following guide for a workaround:

https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/1911/bottles-doesnt-work-on-linux-mint-because-its-a-flatpak