Installing Minecraft on Raspberry

Installing Minecraft on a Raspberry

This guide details how to configure a Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM) to run Minecraft versions like 1.16.5, which require Java 8 and X11/OpenGL support. The setup involves:

• Compiling PrismLauncher from source
• Installing Java 8 via Temurin (Adoptium)
• Switching from Wayland to X11 for better OpenGL compatibility

Requirements:

• Raspberry Pi 5
• Raspberry Pi OS Desktop 64-bit (Debian Bookworm)
• 8GB RAM (recommended)
• A working OpenGL/X11 setup

1. System Preparation

Update system and install build tools & Qt dependencies to compile PrismLauncher:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install git cmake extra-cmake-modules build-essential \
  qtbase5-dev qtchooser qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev-tools qttools5-dev \
  qttools5-dev-tools libssl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libpulse-dev \
  libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-util0-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxrender-dev \
  libxi-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev zlib1g-dev libzip-dev
sudo apt install qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-l10n-tools
sudo apt install libqt6svg6-dev libqt6core5compat6-dev
sudo apt install qt6-networkauth-dev

2. Build and Install PrismLauncher

Clone and build PrismLauncher from source:

git clone https://github.com/PrismLauncher/PrismLauncher.git
cd PrismLauncher
git submodule update --init --recursive
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

This builds the launcher with full support for your system.

3. Install Java 8 (Temurin)

Older Minecraft versions like 1.16.5 require Java 8. Since it’s not in APT, download from Adoptium:

# After downloading the tar.gz from Adoptium:
tar -xvzf OpenJDK8U-jdk_*.tar.gz
sudo mkdir -p /opt/java
sudo mv jdk8u* /opt/java/jdk8

To use it in PrismLauncher:

• Go to Settings > Java in PrismLauncher
• Set the Java path to /opt/java/jdk8/bin/java

4. Switch to X11 (Fix OpenGL Errors)

Wayland doesn’t always play nice with older OpenGL or GLFW-based apps (like Minecraft).

Install supporting X11 libraries:

sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa libglfw3
sudo apt install mesa-utils
sudo apt install libglfw3 libglfw3-dev libgles2-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev \
  libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxss-dev

5. Install and enable LXDE (X11 desktop environment):

sudo apt install lxde lxsession lxde-common

6. Edit LightDM config to use X11 (LXDE-pi-x session):

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Make sure this section looks like:

[Seat:*]
user-session=LXDE-pi-x
autologin-session=LXDE-pi-x
autologin-user=YOUR_USERNAME

7. reboot:

sudo reboot

8. Verify you’re using X11:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
# Should return: x11

Done!

Now you can:

• Open PrismLauncher
• Add a Minecraft 1.16.5 instance
• Select Java 8 from /opt/java/jdk8/bin/java
• Launch and play!