this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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Linux Gaming

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Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.

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This is just to share my experience with everyone, especially the people still undecided.

I was planning the switch for months, and finally had a couple hours undisturbed from the wife and the kids :)

It was a slightly rocky start, as my USB wifi receiver did not have native drivers, but with wired internet and the official Mint tutorial the rest of the transition was super smooth.

The OS install went flawlessly and within an hour I had all the basic programs, browser and utilities up and running. I love that I just download the app from the dedicated place, no pointless web surfing for the latest versions.

I backed up my steam folder (with the rest of my files of course), so after installing the steam client and some quick synchronization I had my installed games library back in minutes. I did some testing and everything works great. As I own a steam deck I already had some experience with games not running natively on Linux, but a saw many great tutorials for beginners. I cant wait to test out some more games!

Edit: thank you for all the positivity and great feedback! I know Lemmy users love Linux and I have to admit I feel a little bit more included :D

Who knows, maybe I will start warching Star Trek next...

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I love that I just download the app from the dedicated place, no pointless web surfing for the latest versions.

IMO this is a huge thing, Linux actually does a lot better than Windows. I know the Windows Store exists, but it is lacking in lots of ways.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This is the exact path I'm taking in the near future, glad it went well. What gpu do you have? That's my biggest concern at the moment with my 3070

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I have a 5600X3D and 3070 and had issues with PopOS and Fedora but EndeavourOS which wraps arch works like a dream. Others have reported no issues with nvidia and PopOS and other distros but you may need to try more than 1

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Sorry, I have a Radeon rx580, no experience with Nvidia yet.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I'm psyched for you! I just researched hardware benchmarks and ordered a new AMD laptop and planned to run Linux. But I didn't research well, because the Wifi card doesn't have official drivers yet and I couldn't be bothered to learn to edit, make from source, and load alternate drivers, so I retreated to Win10 for a little. I'll try again later.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Congrats! As a Linux user of nearly 6 years, I hope you feel welcome here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Thank you for this inspiration. I've also been things about a switch to Mint but the only thing holding me back is my Steam library. I'm going to dig into it a little more and look at the compatibility of my games. It's encouraging to hear others making the leap.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Link your Steam profile to ProtonDB and make sure it is public and you can see the ratings of your library in their dashboard. Of course it isn't a 100% accurate thing since they're user based reviews but it might give you a surprising insight on how much is actually playable with little to no effort.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Unless you want to play recent multiplayer AAA titles your steam library will work with little to no tinkering.

There is a website Check My Deck, which is originally designed for steam deck users, but linking your steam library you can check how many of your games will run out of the box, and how many require some additional steps on Linux/Proton.

For the ones not on the list you can check ProtonDB for guides and opinions from other Linux users.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm looking like 73% compatibility with the deck, so I'd assume slightly higher for the computer. I mostly play single player anyways so I'm probably overall looking good.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

One thing that stopped me from switching was the lack of the Nvidia Control Panel. The alternative "X Server" app is missing several must-have features, most importantly being the 3D Settings page (where all the extra graphics settings that aren't available in-game are) and the Video settings page where you can toggle AI upscaling and SDR to HDR conversion on and off.

Did you by any chance figure out how to get the Nvidia Control Panel working in Linux? I tried for weeks before giving up and going back to windows.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Even games without their own native compatibility for Linux Steam provides support for. I was able to run Doom Eternal from Steam without any issues, just had to find and turn on "enable Steam Linux support".

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Brother, I did the same thing a year ago for my personal computer after always pissing and moaning about Windows even with having Linux at work, or for server stuff. LMDE6 only now, and I haven't looked back.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Kick ass, Good job

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Reverse defenestration (throwing Windows out of your computer)! Congrats!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yay! Glad you're enjoying it so far :)

I can also say the past month or two rocking Mint have been a breath of fresh air, everything feels fast and I've only had one GOG game not run (think I could with some effort) :)

Even the Unity game engine works, and debugs, it's lightyears ahead of my previous goes at Mint over the years (and they only "ended" because of needing music software for college and uni!)

Hope it continues to treat you well! Also you may wish to indulge in the greatest Linux feature I know, which is Wobbly Windows - it makes your windows wobbly when dragged, which is very enjoyable for reasons I am not sure of! :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just commenting to acknowledge the mint/breath of fresh air line. Solid work.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I had absolutely unplanned that pun, but I'm thrilled it's there!😅 Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mostly play older games on my Ryzen 5 2400g with 16gb of RAM and an RX 580 I bought off a crypto miner, though I did manage to get Starfield running at 1080P in Win10 with a framerate and detail level that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out. Still, I think I should be pretty undemanding for the current state of Linux gaming, and I'm just about ready to bail on Windows but haven't yet. Currently dual booting with Kubuntu.

Beyond a few stubborn games, I have Windows CAD software I think I could run in a VM with maybe 8GB of RAM and access to my GPU. What's the easiest way for a motivated amateur to get that set up? Having come up with MS-DOS, I am comfortable with a CLI conceptually, and I can copy and paste commands like a mofo, but I generally don't know the exact use and flags well enough to do much on my own beyond apt and mkdir. :-)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

What’s the easiest way for a motivated amateur to get that set up?

There really isn't an easy way. You'd have to run the Windows VM within Linux then assign the PCI device (your GPU) to the VM. Look up gpu passthrough if you really want to dive into it. I find it much easier to just throw a second drive in the machine for a Windows install and dual boot. If you want to dual boot with Windows, make sure Linux is installed first and on a different physical drive, unless you want to be sad later, and by sad I mean learn how to unfuck your Linux install after Windows overwrites the bootloader due to some random update.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Happy ascension brother!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Just to be clear, watching Star Trek, or Sci-Fi in general, isn't a requirement of being a lemming. It just helps parse the memes

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

No, it is a requirement 😡

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Love sci-fi, cannot stand anything Star Trek with the exception of newest Star Trek movies.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Well now you have something to post to unpopular opinions too!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What don't you like about it?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's too cheesy for me. I really enjoy darker, more gritty shows like BSG and The Expanse.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Give Deep Space Nine a go if you haven't it's the slightly darker side of trek.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I started with The Next Generation and loved it. On Deep Space Nine now, I think it's ok but I think I love TNG more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Classic Trek is pretty preachy about things that are mostly popular opinions now.

Yes, Kirk, I agree about everything, didn't you have a third act asspull to grab?

On the other hand the new movies didn't have a point at all, just pew pew pew which is timeless AND brainless.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

They weren't popular back then.
And I can think of a few people who worship the Constitution without understanding anything in it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

It's a good time to migrate to Linux!

If you need to run the EA launcher, I found it works best in Bottles.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's great to hear! I am still dual booting mint and windows but I am slowly moving towards being fully on mint. I recommend checking out Lutris if you have games on other stores, it also works well with running windows games.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. I have a relatively big GoG library, so Fedora is already installed :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Also check bottles, it is available on flathub the largest repository of flatpaks. Flatpaks are inter-distribution packages. Just note that not all of them have to be provided by the developers and there may be proprietary programs. It makes flathub richer in software than the official repository of some distributions. There are only GUI apps. They are sandboxed (usually, see permissions). If you are curious about how secure flathub is compared to the official repository then watch this.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Thank you. I will look into it!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not found a better OS for me than Mint :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

So far loving it!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Congrats! Mint is a good place to start.

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