Archive2

Archive2 is a compression tool made by Bethesda and comes bundled with the Fallout 4 Creation Kit. It is used to pack *.ba2 archives that are loaded by the game.

For simplicity, it is included with this app.

If you're a Linux user, scroll down to see instructions on how to setup Wine and Mono.

Table of Contents

• Integration in the mod manager
  • Automatically bundle into multiple archives
• For Linux users

Integration in the mod manager

The mod manager includes an Archive2 section in the tool row:

For example, it gives you the option to create an archive:

However, it doesn't expose all the settings available in Archive2:

Automatically bundle into multiple archives

If you wish to "bundle" archives automatically (sort of like v1 did it for "Bundled archives"), you can do so with the "Create *.ba2 archives from folder" option:

This will sort files automatically into categories (like "General", "Textures", "Sounds", ...) and create several *.ba2 archives with different format and compression. You could use this option if a mod comes with files not yet packed into archives. Afterwards, you can import the folder as a new mod. Note that this might or might not work correctly and you may have to package files yourself with the correct settings.

For Linux users

Since Archive2 is a Windows-only tool running on .NET, users need to install wine and wine-mono.

Installing Wine is different for each distro, but it's usually done via the package manager:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install wine
# Fedora
sudo dnf install wine
# Arch
sudo pacman -S wine
# openSUSE
sudo zypper in wine

Then, you need to install wine-mono:

1. Download wine-mono-vx.x.x-x86.msi from the official WineHQ site. Select the folder that matches your wine version (wine --version).
2. Type wine uninstaller in your terminal.
3. Press install from the uninstaller GUI and select the downloaded .msi package:
   
4. Done!

The app converts Unix paths into Windows paths by prefixing the drive letter Z: to the path. You need to make sure that your Wine prefix is configured with Z: pointing to root /. This is usually the default for new Wine prefixes.

1. Type winecfg in your terminal.
2. Navigate to the "Drives" tab.
3. If Z: is not present, click "Add..." to create Z:.
4. Select Z: from the list and change the path to /.
5. It should look like this: