Files and Folders

Everything TuxBlox installs lives in one folder. By default that is ~/.tuxblox. The only exceptions are the desktop entry and icon files, which have to go in standard XDG locations for your desktop to find them.

The folder does not have to be there. Each part of TuxBlox looks for the others next to itself, so you can move the whole folder somewhere else, or install it somewhere else to begin with, and it keeps working. See installing TuxBlox for how to choose the place.

Nothing is installed system wide, and nothing needs root. TuxBlox will in fact refuse to start as root unless you tell it to, because a virtual drive built by root is one your normal account cannot write to afterwards.

The TuxBlox folder

~/.tuxblox/
├── TuxBloxLauncher        the launcher you use
├── TuxBloxInstaller       kept around for updates and uninstalling
├── studio-mcp             the Studio MCP helper
├── settings.json          your settings and FastFlags
├── versions.json          which Roblox builds are installed
├── launcher.lock          stops two launchers running at once
├── COPYRIGHT.txt          notices for everything bundled
├── LICENSE                the GPLv3 text
├── compat/                the compatibility layer
├── libtuxblox/            libraries the launcher and the update window need
├── logs/                  session logs
├── runtime/               the virtual drive
├── RobloxPlayer/          Roblox's own downloaded installer
└── RobloxStudio/          the same, for Studio

settings.json

Everything from the Settings tab, plus your FastFlags.

{
  "channel": "stable",
  "auto_update": false,
  "env_vars": "",
  "gpu": "",
  "haptics": true,
  "webview_gpu": true,
  "send_crash_reports": true,
  "fast_flags": {
    "player": [],
    "studio": []
  }
}

You can edit it by hand. TuxBlox rewrites the file whenever you change something in the launcher, so do not have both going at once.

If the file is missing or damaged, TuxBlox falls back to defaults rather than refusing to start. A broken settings file costs you your settings, never your install.

versions.json

Bookkeeping for the Versions tab: which Roblox builds are installed, which one is active, and when each arrived.

TuxBlox does not trust this file on its own. It checks the virtual drive and corrects the file against what is actually there, so deleting it is harmless.

compat/

The compatibility layer.

This folder is replaced wholesale by updates. Anything you put in it goes away.

libtuxblox/

Interface libraries the launcher and the window TuxBlox shows while it updates Roblox need, so they look and behave the same regardless of what your distribution ships.

It has to stay next to TuxBloxLauncher. If it goes missing, the launcher uses your system's own libraries when it has them and cannot start without them. Reinstalling TuxBlox puts the folder back.

logs/

One file per Roblox session, named after the app, the start time in UTC, and the process id:

Studio-20260912T143107Z-8814.log

Roblox's own logs from the same session are appended to the end of the file, so one log has both halves of the story. Once they are in, TuxBlox removes the copy Roblox left in the virtual drive, so a session leaves one log in one place and there is never a second file to wonder about. Roblox's crash reports in the virtual drive are left alone. See Logs and Diagnostics.

Installing a TuxBlox update empties this folder, since by then every log in it describes a version you are no longer running. Nothing else removes them, so clear them out yourself if the folder gets large between updates.

The virtual drive

~/.tuxblox/runtime/ is the virtual drive, the Windows shaped world Roblox lives in.

runtime/
├── pfx/
│   ├── drive_c/        the C: drive
│   ├── dosdevices/     drive letter mappings
│   ├── system.reg      the registry
│   ├── user.reg
│   └── userdef.reg
├── version             which TuxBlox built this drive
├── config_info         what it was built with
└── tracked_files       which files TuxBlox owns, as opposed to Roblox

Roblox itself installs into pfx/drive_c/users/<your account>/, with one directory per installed build.

The account folder inside the drive is named after your own account, so it is cherry for a user called cherry, the same way Windows names it. Drives built by TuxBlox 2.7.4 and earlier used a folder called user instead; those are renamed the first time you launch 2.8.0, and everything inside them, including your installed Roblox and your login, comes along.

tracked_files is how an update can replace TuxBlox's own files without touching anything Roblox or you put in the drive.

Warning

Do not share your virtual drive, and do not put it in a bug report. It can contain your Roblox session cookies, which is the same as handing over your account. Send the log file instead.

Your everyday folders are shared

Six folders inside the drive point straight at the matching ones in your home folder, so Roblox opens and saves in them directly:

If your desktop uses translated folder names, those are followed — TuxBlox reads the names your desktop recorded rather than assuming the English ones. A folder you do not have is simply not shared, and TuxBlox never creates one.

The first time you launch after this arrived, anything already sitting in those folders inside the drive is moved out to the matching folder in your home, so a place file you saved in the drive's Documents turns up in your real Documents. Nothing is ever written over: if a name is already taken in your home folder, that folder keeps its own copy inside the drive instead and TuxBlox says so in the log.

Note

This means Roblox can read and write anything in those six folders, the same as any other program you run. The rest of your home folder stays outside the drive.

There is no Z: drive

On most Wine setups, Z: maps your entire Linux filesystem into the Windows world. TuxBlox removes it, because a Z: drive is one of the most reliable ways to detect that a program is running under Wine, and Roblox lives entirely under C: anyway.

The practical effect: a Windows program run inside the drive sees your six everyday folders and nothing else of your home folder. Anything outside them is brought in one piece at a time rather than everything being exposed: double clicking a .rbxl file, dragging a file onto Studio's window, and picking one through a file browser each bring in just the file you chose.

Files brought in that way show up in the drive under C:\users\<your account>\files. They point at the real file rather than being copies of it, so what Studio opens is the file itself, wherever it actually lives. Choosing somewhere to save brings in the folder you picked rather than a single file, because a program writes a save by creating a second file beside the first and renaming it into place.

Colours

TuxBlox matches the drive to your desktop's light or dark setting the first time it sets the drive up, and then leaves the colours alone. Anything you change yourself under Control Panel\Colors in the drive's registry stays changed, and is never written over on a later launch.

The other side of that is that switching your desktop between light and dark afterwards does not follow through to the drive. Wiping the drive and letting it rebuild picks up your current setting again.

Classic message boxes

The small dialogs Windows programs put up inside the virtual drive are drawn to match a modern desktop: roomy margins, a right aligned row of rounded buttons, and the button you would press with Enter outlined in your desktop's accent colour. The colours come from your own theme, so they follow it in light and dark.

If you would rather have the plain, older looking dialog, set a value in the drive's registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TuxBlox\MessageBox
    Classic = "1"

Anything else, or no value at all, gives the modern one. The change applies to the next dialog that opens, with nothing to restart.

The one TuxBlox draws itself is the message Roblox puts up when it stops unexpectedly. That one keeps the modern look whatever this setting says, and it follows your colours and font the same way.

The text in those dialogs uses your desktop's own font, at your desktop's size. TuxBlox reads it at every launch, so changing your font settings is enough -- there is nothing to set here. If it cannot work out what you use, it leaves the drive's own font alone.

Text smoothing

How sharp text looks inside the virtual drive -- Studio's menus and panels most of all -- depends on what the drive tells programs about your screen. TuxBlox reads your desktop's own text smoothing setting at every launch and passes it through, so text is drawn the way Windows would draw it on the same screen. A desktop that says your screen has no colour stripe order, or one Windows has no way to describe, gets plain smoothing instead, which is the right choice there. There is nothing to set here -- change it on your desktop and start Roblox again.

Resetting it

Wipe prefix in Settings deletes the whole thing. The next launch rebuilds it and reinstalls Roblox, which takes about as long as your first launch did.

Your settings and FastFlags live outside the drive and survive.

Outside the TuxBlox folder

That is the complete list. Uninstalling removes all of it, apart from the scratch folder, which your computer clears out on its own.

The cache folder

~/.cache/tuxblox holds the installer's interface. The installer carries it inside its own file and unpacks it here the first time its window opens, so later runs start without unpacking it again.

It is safe to delete. The installer unpacks it again the next time its window opens, and nothing you have made lives there. Uninstalling TuxBlox removes it.

Scratch files

Windows programs write their working files into AppData\Local\Temp inside the drive, and nothing in Windows ever clears that out. TuxBlox points it at a folder of its own under your computer's temporary directory instead, one per drive, so your computer empties it on the same schedule as everything else there.

The folder is named after your user, and TuxBlox refuses to use one it does not own, so two accounts on the same computer cannot write through each other's. If your computer has no temporary directory at all, the drive keeps its own folder and nothing changes.

Backing things up

Everything else can be downloaded again. There is no point backing up compat/ or an installed Roblox build.