Gaming on Linux

[SpyderTracks]

I'm getting very concerned about this new "features" being proposed for windows, the deep AI integration as well as this "Recall" thing which I find extremely troubling.

Over the last few years I've steadily been moving away from windows. My daily laptop is now a MacBook which I'm really enjoying.

The only reason I haven't moved my main desktop onto linux is purely down to gaming support.

But, now of course with the SteamDeck gaining so much traction, there is SteamOS from Valve which is exactly the same build that's on the SteamDeck, based on Debian 8. It has a "Desktop Mode" that puts it into a proper Linux desktop although the desktop feature is a lot more buggy than some proper linux distro's. I like the idea of SteamOS purely for gaming and then dual booting another OS for normal use as well. It may take some tinkering to get working with specific hardware and in a lot of cases that won't be possible just yet, but they are making headway on this and I expect that to change.

It's now up to SteamOS 3.6 and DOES support UEFI Boot: https://store.steampowered.com/steamos

There is also ChimeraOS which is specifically optimised for gaming on Linux: https://chimeraos.org/
This has really good reviews so will try that one out too.

But with the release of the SteamDeck, Linux gaming with Steam is a very real thing now and really starting to make headway, plus now NVIDIA have open sourced their driver code and released proper linux packages too for people to bake into kernels.

There's also good ol' Linux Mint which is a very Windowsy linux OS, and then you can just install Steam on there and do it that way: https://www.liberiangeek.net/2023/12/install-steam-on-linux-mint-21/

 

[HomerJ]

pop os also seems to have good reviews

https://pop.system76.com/

as does manjaro

Manjaro Linux Official

This page provides an overview of Manjaro Linux, an open source operating system designed for ease of use. Learn about its features, installation, and support options. Get the most out of Manjaro Linux with the latest news, downloads, and tips from our helpful community.

manjaro.org

Manjaro 24.0 Wynsdey packs a punch for Microsoft Windows 11 users switching to Linux

The Manjaro team has announced the release of Manjaro 24.0, codenamed

betanews.com

 

[TonyCarter]

MS-DOS, PC-DOS or DR-DOS is where all the cool text-adventure kids are at, daddio!

 

[TonyCarter]

On a more serious note, I wish Microsoft would produce a 'lite' version of Windows for your dedicated gaming PC (no, that is not the definition of a console) that kept all the basics, but let you choose whether to install all the other rubbish, and ensured none of the rubbish is so deeply integrated that 'removing' it just means 'hiding' it.

• Don't use XBOX Game Pass, then no need for all the Xbox gaming rubbish on the system
• Don't use the computer for Microsoft Office, then no need to force Onedrive on everyone
• Don't want Clippy, Cortana, CoPilot, then don't even bundle it with the OS
• Don't want the (useless) enhanced troubleshooting and telemetry options, then let us turn it off / remove it
• Don't want your data being shared to millions of 'trusted partners' for 'necessary processing', then have this removed competely
• I'd even consider an option with no network stack, but it would limit downloading/bluetooth too
• Don't ever print from it, then remove all the printing/PDF/XPS guff
• etc.

Yes, I know you can do a lot of this with one of the de-bloater tools, but I'm always wary that this will break something, or the next Windows update will break something.

 

[smrluv]

don't use the old steamOS, it's very out of date and deprecated. i'd say to use arch linux or something along these lines to recreate the Steam Deck environment

 

[SpyderTracks]

Well, I'm taking a plunge.

I'm going to try Garuda Linux which has a few KDE flavours, based on Arch, but has the benefit of a dedicated gaming setup with Chaotic AUR with NVIDIA drivers, native Steam and the Heroic Games Launcher which I'd not heard of but can link into Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime launchers which is pretty cool (also works on Windows and MacOS). The only other launchers I use are EA and UPlay and both of those can quite frankly do one, there's nothing on there I'm desperate to have at the moment and I'm fed up with their practices.

Heroic Games Launcher

An Open Source Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime Games Launcher

heroicgameslauncher.com

One drawback is that it doesn't handle dual booting terribly well so I'm going to have to run a dedicated drive for it and then specifically boot manager the drive each boot. Currently only got SATA SSD's spare, but no spare SATA ports, I might just temporarily unplug one of the Movie HDD's for now and can at least test Garuda tomorrow to get a flavour for it.

But I want Windows left on until I'm happy with the Distro I'm going to stick with for a while.

My main focus is migrating my Plex database across seamlessly, I'm not sure how easy that's going to be from Windows to Linux, but in theory it should be possible I think.

And then the only other priority is gaming, the rest is just browsing and general use.

But Garuda Dragon KDE is described as:

The dr460nized editions of Garuda Linux offer a dark, blurry and fully immersive Plasma experience. The workflow is mac-alike with the appmenu baked right into the top bar.​

Sounds right up my street, and it's Arch at the heart of it so you can do whatever you want to flavour it.

Garuda Linux Official website

Garuda Linux is an appealing Arch Linux based Distro with BTRFS (modern filesystem), Linux-zen kernel, auto snapshots, gaming edition and a lot more bleeding-edge features.

garudalinux.org

 

[SpyderTracks]

Well, I'm taking a plunge.

I'm going to try Garuda Linux which has a few KDE flavours, based on Arch, but has the benefit of a dedicated gaming setup with Chaotic AUR with NVIDIA drivers, native Steam and the Heroic Games Launcher which I'd not heard of but can link into Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime launchers which is pretty cool (also works on Windows and MacOS). The only other launchers I use are EA and UPlay and both of those can quite frankly do one, there's nothing on there I'm desperate to have at the moment and I'm fed up with their practices.

Heroic Games Launcher

An Open Source Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime Games Launcher

heroicgameslauncher.com

One drawback is that it doesn't handle dual booting terribly well so I'm going to have to run a dedicated drive for it and then specifically boot manager the drive each boot. Currently only got SATA SSD's spare, but no spare SATA ports, I might just temporarily unplug one of the Movie HDD's for now and can at least test Garuda tomorrow to get a flavour for it.

But I want Windows left on until I'm happy with the Distro I'm going to stick with for a while.

My main focus is migrating my Plex database across seamlessly, I'm not sure how easy that's going to be from Windows to Linux, but in theory it should be possible I think.

And then the only other priority is gaming, the rest is just browsing and general use.

But Garuda Dragon KDE is described as:

The dr460nized editions of Garuda Linux offer a dark, blurry and fully immersive Plasma experience. The workflow is mac-alike with the appmenu baked right into the top bar.​

Sounds right up my street, and it's Arch at the heart of it so you can do whatever you want to flavour it.

Garuda Linux Official website

Garuda Linux is an appealing Arch Linux based Distro with BTRFS (modern filesystem), Linux-zen kernel, auto snapshots, gaming edition and a lot more bleeding-edge features.

garudalinux.org

So after a bit more searching, I found that the dr460nized edition could be unstable, and was incredibly bloated as well, so ended up with the Gnome version.

Had the OS installed without issue, but trying to get Plex Media Server configured was an absolute nightmare, even just getting the drives to mount on boot took me a few hours.

As I was researching I saw someone on reddit saying "Arch linux is the cause for male pattern baldness" and thought, yeah, that's exactly what I'm going through!

So I gave up in the end.

I'm now trying Nobara Linux which is a Fedora based distribution and far easier to manage, got the drives properly mounted, and it's dual booting without issue, so now just got to install and configure Plex Media Server.

 

[SpyderTracks]

So, I've got this week off, and finally had some time and energy to get stuck into this.

Fedora as a base is FAAARR easier to manage than Arch, I would recommend to anyone to avoid Arch for your first foray into Linux, it's ultra low level.

Nobara KDE Plasma is gaming focussed with inbuilt support for NVidia drivers, and optimises the front end for that use. The in built tools are all very good EXCEPT for Dolphin File Explorer when it comes to file transfers, for some reason, using the GUI I get limited to about 2MiB transfer speeds (this is a known issue with Dolphin). So I'm doing any file transfers over command line, but it's fun learning the commands anyway.

I've got the Plex library transferred, now just moving some directories around. Steam is all configured with WINE and Proton for maximum compatibility.

Have fully blatted the old Windows partitions, so I'm all in at this stage, we'll see how gaming is, I'm not so worried about performance as Steam works really well on Linux nowadays, but there are some games where you have to tweak things to get them to run properly. If that becomes too much of a headache I'll do a dual boot again.

So far though, this ticks all the boxes for me, it's really stable (couple of crashes initially when setting Plex as a system process, note to others, avoid Snaps and go for a proper repository install for apps). I'm using almost all the same apps, I've used GIMP for years for image editing which is cross platform anyway. Currently I'm accessing any OneDrive for photos taken on my phone through the webapp which for office are really good these days, and I don't need anything more. I've got LibreOffice installed locally if I need anything more powerful, but don't think I will. Using Firefox Browser, there's really very little else I need on this system currently.

In case anyone else chooses a Fedora base with Plex, after a bit of hunting, this was a really straightforward guide on setting permissions, firewall and installation

How to Install Plex Media Server on Fedora 40 or 39 - LinuxCapable

Learn how to install Plex Media Server on Fedora 40 or 39 with complete steps and examples with Nginx reverse proxy setup.

linuxcapable.com

 

[polycrac]

Do keep on with the updates, I've been tempted to make this move for a while and I'm keen for someone more knowledgeable and patient to run into all the problems before I do!

 

[SpyderTracks]

So I've just come across a little hiccup simply updating Plex Media Server on Fedora, I tried manually downloading the new updated rpm file from plex from a notification within the Plex portal, but manually installing that through command line was showing an incompatibility with the previous version which I couldn't work my way around.

Turns out, if I'd read Plex's help page properly, I would have saved myself days of researching issues.

It's so simple, if you install the PlexMediaServer RPM repository file direct from Plex using the Yum Extender that's built in, all you have to do is follow this:

To enable the repo, edit /etc/yum.repos.d/plex.repo and change line 4 from enabled=0 to enabled=1

Enable repository updating for supported Linux server distributions

For users running our Plex Media Server on DEB-based (Ubuntu, etc.) or RPM-based (Fedora, CentOS, etc.) Linux distributions, it’s possible...

support.plex.tv

That way, whenever you do a Yum update

yum update

that will automatically search for any packages that need updating, and now it will include Plex Media Server.

In this specific Fedora branch, Nobara, it has a Package Manager GUI, if you were to search the packages list previously, there was nothing related to Plex, but now it's showing PlexMediaServer. So anytime I run the Update System, it will automatically include PlexMediaServer in that.

Got to say, a lot of the issues I'm facing are more down to how bad I am at properly reading and digesting the guidance, rather than anything particularly complex.

 

[TonyCarter]

If you have to read the instructions, then it’s obviously too difficult for the average user to use 😁

(says the man who once resorted to gorilla glue to assemble an ikea bookshelf)

 

[SpyderTracks]

If you have to read the instructions, then it’s obviously too difficult for the average user to use 😁

(says the man who once resorted to gorilla glue to assemble an ikea bookshelf)

It’s so low level initially just getting things configured, but once it’s all configured Linux is far more of a breeze than windows in a lot of ways.

Certainly on fedora it’s unquestionably far more stable.

Once you’ve got your packages and flat packs installed (often has to be done via command line which can be a bit fiddly at first), all your apps, system packages, literally everything on your system is updated through that one update tool and it shows a toast notification if any updates are pending. That’s an incredibly powerful tool.

My outstanding niggle is that I need to rebuild the Grub Boot Manager cos it’s all messed up

And I’ve got to sort out folder permissions on my media libraries, nothing is done automatically, you have to manually assign system processes access to resources, all command line based, and the permissions rules are far more granular than in windows, that side can be quite challenging to get your head around

 

[SpyderTracks]

After speaking to a couple of colleagues who are far more Linux familiar, they’ve recommended to check out containerising Plex in Docker, which does make so much more sense in the long term so that will be an upcoming project

 

[HomerJ]

If you have to read the instructions, then it’s obviously too difficult for the average user to use 😁

(says the man who once resorted to gorilla glue to assemble an ikea bookshelf)

No good looking at homer who thinks Linux comes from hogwarts

 

[SpyderTracks]

I would say, the reason I went with Nobara was purely for the gaming aspect of Linux, it has better integrated support for Nvidia drivers and general Wine / Proton configuration out of the box.

BUT Fedora is not as well supported as something like Ubuntu. From what I now know, Ubuntu would be a better distro for a Linux newbie to start on, it has far better support for app installation, so rather than in Fedora having to install RPM files via command line, in Ubuntu, they are just like an exe or msi file, you just double click them to start the installer. Also the Ubuntu file explorer is far more developed than the file explorer in Nobara.

Also, another pointer if you are making the move to Linux, I have left all my media libraries on NTFS file systems which can be read and managed by Linux fine on most distros these days. BUT, if you're at the stage where you're truly ditching windows, I would strongly suggest to take the plunge, backup all your data and format those drives as EXT4 in Linux to start from a proper clean sheet, that will avoid plenty of niggles potentially showing themselves in the future.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Lols!!! Rookie, Spyder, Rookie!!!

I've only just figured out that you have to manually set Proton in Steam once it's installed, I assumed Proton was like a framework that ran in Linux and Steam would automatically see Proton as the base, but not so, you have to manually set it

Once you've done that, ALL your games library are available for install, before then, only native Linux games are available to be installed.

I was getting quite disheartened!

So I've just installed the following for some testing, no brand new AAA's as yet as they can take some custom configuration with startup commands (and my current GPU can't run them)

Red Dead Redemption PC remaster
Crysis Remaster
Black Mesa
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Halo: The Masterchief collection
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

 

[TonyCarter]

 

[SpyderTracks]

View attachment 42818

It's so frustrating, things that I would consider to be so routine in windows, I'm literally having to learn the basics all over again from scratch. I'm not the best with resorting to directions, that tends to be a last resort for me and I'll bash my head routinely trying to find the solution myself before I submit.

 

[TonyCarter]

At least with Windows (at the basic level) you can do the same things you could in Windows 2.

On the Mac, there have been so many changes under hood to work with new CPU platforms (Motorola with ResEdit, MPW and C/Pascal, PowerPC, Intel, Apple Silicon) and RISC, CISC, x86, big-endian, little-endian, etc. that you have to re-learn some of the lower-level stuff.

I'm glad I flipped the coin and ended up going down the graphic design route and not programming (was going to be years as a lowly paid COBOL trainee programmer).

 

[Nat9320]

On a more serious note, I wish Microsoft would produce a 'lite' version of Windows for your dedicated gaming PC (no, that is not the definition of a console) that kept all the basics, but let you choose whether to install all the other rubbish, and ensured none of the rubbish is so deeply integrated that 'removing' it just means 'hiding' it.

• Don't use XBOX Game Pass, then no need for all the Xbox gaming rubbish on the system
• Don't use the computer for Microsoft Office, then no need to force Onedrive on everyone
• Don't want Clippy, Cortana, CoPilot, then don't even bundle it with the OS
• Don't want the (useless) enhanced troubleshooting and telemetry options, then let us turn it off / remove it
• Don't want your data being shared to millions of 'trusted partners' for 'necessary processing', then have this removed competely
• I'd even consider an option with no network stack, but it would limit downloading/bluetooth too
• Don't ever print from it, then remove all the printing/PDF/XPS guff
• etc.

Yes, I know you can do a lot of this with one of the de-bloater tools, but I'm always wary that this will break something, or the next Windows update will break something.

I realise that I’m replying to an old post but I’ve successfully used Revo Uninstaller Pro to remove all the bloat from W11 with no apparent problems.