Linux gaming

[pianopraze]

Since windows borked itself I’m thinking of diving back into Linux gaming. 

Seems a lot has changed for the better in the last few years. Helped greatly by the steam deck.

Found this video today which I wish I had had when I was doing this several years ago.

Hope this helps others thinking about Linux:



Sounds like Nvidia is still the major problem. If you’re amd pretty much any distro will work. Any experts on here wanna suggest best Nvidia distros?

I think I’m going to try Nobara

I hear it’s very gamer oriented. 

They are saying elementary os is out of date right now for gaming. It was my favorite.

solus was my other favorite and they are really trash talking it now. 

Love to hear from our resident experts before I dig back in…

[pianopraze]

Where are all our Linux peeps?

After watching a lot of current vids they are recommending Garuda and Nobara for gaming.

opinions?



Since one has responded I’m going to try Garuda, downloading the KDE Dragonized Gaming Edition.

I’m choosing it for two reasons. 

1. I knew of this destroyed from years ago and had not heard of Golden Eggroll’s Nobara, even though he seems to be a big name with Proton.

2. One review said it Nobara is optimized which is good and bad as standard packs might not apply.

I almost didn’t go Garuda since it’s an arch fork, but the desktop is extremely Mac like so I’m going to give it a shot. Also so many YouTubers are ranting about how good it is. Elementary was my favorite and they are all saying don’t go elementary os now for reasons…

Ok, installing it via Rufus to a 64gig thumb drive. Here goes…

hmm.. error right away. "The image you have selected is an iOS hybrid, but it’s creators have not made it compatible with iso/file copy mode. As a result, DD image writing mode will be enforced." I have no idea what that means but OK is only option so I’m going to click it.

Click start…. Done a couple minutes later.  Restart to bios to choose usb… selecting boot with Nvidia drivers…. And I’m booted. I assume I must now install.

clicking install Garuda Linux.  Very pretty interface btw.

And… it’s not seeing my sata drive.  Back to bios, most likely error, the asrock bios is quite temperamental… or I might have to get puppy or mint and format my hard drive… back after troubleshooting.

[sprocketuk]

Not used Linux for years but I remember struggling with WINE....It was so bad I used to dual boot so I had win for games and Linux for the serious stuff.

[pianopraze]

Everyone is saying don’t dual boot either of these distros. 

Continuing saga:

I cannot figure out where restart button, so I open console type restart… nothing. The. I type reboot… bingo!

so I went to bios - not sata drive showing. Turned off pc, unplugged then replugged sata and rebooted to bios.  There is my sata. Set priority to boot 1st usb, second sata. Restart.

Garuda boot loader comes up choose boot without Nvidia drivers… boots much faster. Now to click install Garuda Linux.

choose American English. East-coast time zone. English us, default. Erase disk. I like that Linux is going to partition it as all one big drive. Windows had created several small partitions and a big one. Annoying. 

username and pw entered. Are you sure you don’t eat crayons and these settings correct option? Yes I eat crayons, no I have no idea, but install anyways. Are you sure you eat crayons and want to install? Yes, install now. And… I wait for it to install.

installation complete. Very fast, like ten minutes or less. Boot up there is username, enter pw…

boots to desktop… wine says updating. welcome to Garuda Linux.  Wow. Much better tha. 90 percent of my past Linux installs. Click ok, my computer starts lecturing me about respecting privacy, think before I type, and with great power comes great crayons to eat… suds password for username: I enter my password.

first time I’ve had a pc question my crayon eating ability on boot.

looks like it’s updating… something about mirrors. Did I forget to shave?

stops on “repository core" I can choose 1 dubs-broker-units or 2 dbus daemon units.  I rather deal with drovers than daemons so I choose one and munch on a red crayon.

now it asks for another choice fmpeg, or gstreamer. Is this about porn? I press 1 and move onto the blue crayon.  None of this was in any of those "Linux is better than windows see how easy to install, here is me pretending to walk through installing videos…

pysyde or python… hmmm I don;t like snakes so 1

procede with installation… man, it must eat more crayons than me.. yes of course continue! Y

pacman comes on the screen, many pac men… hey installation and a video game. Neat.they are getting to 100 percent a lot faster than I would. But man do they just keep going…

utoh.. lots offerrors, warning failed to retrieve some files. Press enter to exit… o…k….??? I need a lot more crayons for this.

update failed. Visit this link if further issues occur. Finish this update via setup assistant is highly recommended… yes or no… I guess yes? Where is the green?

wants Dudu password with no explanation… kinda creeping me out with that.. 

we’re back to mirrors. I really don’t need to see what color all these crayons have made my tongue.I choose 1 1 1 again as that worked so well last time.  Is this the definition of insanity? I’m 100 percent US VA certified insane so that doesn’t worry me much anymore.  I enjoy mine… well, sometimes.

annother error, file size exceeded, but Pac-Man are still munching…

a few more errors and warnings fly by in a flurry of Pac-Man. This is starting to feel like some of my nightmares…

system updated! :penguin:

press enter to exit… ok enter.

Nvidia drivers, yes or no?   —- yes.suds password… again… none of this was on ANY instillation video… 

its bashing the Konsole. Must be German… That’s what I was about to do to my pc with windows. Start bashing that is…

oops, bumped my number pad setting my drink down… typed a "." doesn’t seem to have done anything bad. Whew. Ok successfully installed press enter to exit….

options… more wallpapers sounds nice. Libre office stable, brave, Firefox, opera, audacity, musescore -sure let’s try that, obs, vlc, oooh.. dragon - never heard of that but fits the theme, gimp. No handbrake? More sudu and Pac-Man. Low at on my tablet, will paste this and find where my 3 year old hid my charger…

[pianopraze]

Wow all that installed before I found my charger. 

ok, close window… oh, no… you performed a partial upgrade, this is not supported… my wife would agree with that… soooo… update system. I though it had already fixed that… click. Nothing… well let’s click again… click… sudu password.  They should have named this "sudo password" distro. Sigh.

refreshing mirrors… that’s nice,  mine always need cleaned. More Pac-Man and more warnings. But it goes by too fast to read. System updated :penguin: press enter to exit…. Enter.


And I’m at my desktop with Godzilla laughing at me for how many crayons I had to eat to get through that instal.  It was only one box you city muncher. Sure you ate a lot more than that when you ate those Japanese girls in railway cars…

rightclick, configure desktop wallpaper, I take care of him.. or is it her… or it?

nothing happens but the screen goes blurry. Won’t allow me to right click so I just click both of my mice buttons frantically for a few seconds until I get desktop again. Rightclick configure desktop and wallpaper… nothing. Not even blurry screen. 

i take back all my complements. This is becoming typical Linux instal.

ok system settings is on Mac like menu bar at bottom, click that… here we go.

setting it up, but there must be some setting to move the windows.  I can’t move the windows it upends up… at all. And no open close opinion in the open windows. 

I call shenanigans. Either they lied or it didn’t install itself correctly. The only way to close the window is right click the Mac like application bar at bottom of desktop.

off to the forums/wiki/youtubes to figure this out.

was excited now I’m just overwhelmed, comfused, and frustrated.  I thought I wouldn’t get to this point until I started installing my Skyrim mods…

[pianopraze]

Wallpaper wouldn’t change, windows couldn’t be moved, at some point the desktop changed itself from Mac like to windows like…

so I rebooted.

it said I had changed something plasma… lol… was that one of the color crayons I ate?

did an update and fixed itself… for now.

the windows will now move normally by grabbing top. They now have the normal resize close and full screen buttons Mac like. Applications launch normally. Alt tab seems to work now.

much better. Cudos to the os for fixing itself.

the wallpaper changes with a click of a button so bye bye Godzilla laughing at my crayon-munching-ignorance.

launching steam and it of course has to update. That is typical steam though not Linux. 

skyrim won’t install. One video later (the one in the op) I found out how to enable it.

downloading Skyrim now.

---

Launch Skyrim… long Vulcan shader check, then Boxtron Error. game not recognized as DOSBOX compatible. Whatever that means. Check comparability setting under steam. Have a v8 head smack. Switch to proton.

Open second box. Eat more crayons.

Pick up wife. Come back. Black screen. Wake up. Error. Unlock no longer possible ctrl alt f2 login and type weird command. I ctrl alt f2 and get cursor on black screen.  Hard reboot. Adjust power settings to not do that again.

launch Skyrim. Skip Vulcan. Recognizes anniversary edition download. Download.  Plug in Xbox wired controller, it recognizes it and starts working.

Hey, you! You’re finally awake…

[pianopraze]

So I’ve played a while now.

It’s not good.

very sluggish. Unresponsive.

the voice and the words the characters speak is about 2 seconds delayed. It’s like watching a Japanese Godzilla movie with poor dubbing.

there is weird echo echo echos to voices in place there should not be.

I don’t have a frame rate but it’s not good.

I’ve been running a highly molded Skyrim (nolvus) on ultra quality with mostly buttery smooth response. 

this feels like I’ve gone back to 2007 with a stuttery graphics card playing vanilla unmodded Skyrim.  It was better on my laptop back then than this much more powerful computer now.

so time to go see if there are any ways to upgrade performance.

[theshadowknows]

So I’ve played a while now.

It’s not good.

very sluggish. Unresponsive.

the voice and the words the characters speak is about 2 seconds delayed. It’s like watching a Japanese Godzilla movie with poor dubbing.

there is weird echo echo echos to voices in place there should not be.

I don’t have a frame rate but it’s not good.

I’ve been running a highly molded Skyrim (nolvus) on ultra quality with mostly buttery smooth response. 

this feels like I’ve gone back to 2007 with a stuttery graphics card playing vanilla unmodded Skyrim.  It was better on my laptop back then than this much more powerful computer now.

so time to go see if there are any ways to upgrade performance.

That's my concern too. I can get it to work but how well?

I loathe windows and I love Linux, but Windows has rendered Linux impractical for a lot of gaming and software by cornering the market these last decades.

[DontTreadOnMe]

Everyone is saying don’t dual boot either of these distros. 

Continuing saga:

I cannot figure out where restart button, so I open console type restart… nothing. The. I type reboot… bingo!

so I went to bios - not sata drive showing. Turned off pc, unplugged then replugged sata and rebooted to bios.  There is my sata. Set priority to boot 1st usb, second sata. Restart.

You have more patience or something than I would have.
Pretty sure my computer or something would have sailed through the window about halfway through that "easy install"
LOL

[pianopraze]

That's my concern too. I can get it to work but how well?

I loathe windows and I love Linux, but Windows has rendered Linux impractical for a lot of gaming and software by cornering the market these last decades.

Installed all the propriety drivers (Garuda made it easy).

calibrated joystick (can’t even do that in windows that I know of).

adjusted audio drivers/devices. (Easier than windows 10/11) the dang real tech software audio software (not the drivers) in windows is hidden away in an inaccessible place that would never show up and necessary to access.

Updated/restarted everything I could.

switched versions of proton (watch op video for explanation) the software translating the game to windows.

banged everything with a wrench until it seems better.

ate some more crayons.

it’s now running much better. I don’t know fps, but it is now smooth with audio synched. I think I can install mods. It’s might not  be 100 percent as fast as window install but vanilla Skyrim is running same in Linux as it was in windows.

Will move on to modding - after i finish this quick playthrough.

---

You have more patience or something than I would have.
Pretty sure my computer or something would have sailed through the window about halfway through that "easy install"
LOL

Necessity is my mother. Windows flat out borked itself a second (third) time. Could not play my game. 

I tried to (humorously?) present an absolute real step by step experience as opposed to Linux evangelist installs. They really do skip a lot. 

Elementary OS is the only Linux distro/OS that installed perfect and worked first time. An A+. All others had this much or a lot more problems. I would give Garuda an A-.

Windows a c-

I’m really just floundering in the dark and googling my way past difficulties. That’s 99% of computer repair even in windows. I know a lot more about windows and it was more difficult. They went and hid all the real systems tools you need. It seems nice and smooth until you need to fix xomething then you realize your dealing with an operating system with multiple personality disorder (I can relate). One brain is hidden away. One is up front and easy access . And a third hidden brain (the real tools) is all but inaccessible. Eg the real tech software for the audio. There is absolutely no way to bring it up other than find about it on google search, dig deep into windows operating systems folder, find the software and run it. 

to make clearer?: 
First brain you just click setting and it’s there.
second brain you know it’s there and type in search in setting/windows bar thingie to find… device manager, dxdiag, etc…
third you have to manually go find knowing it’s there, it will not come up in any search in settings… real tech software.

And this system fully works. I installed Garuda Linux and my wired keyboard, wireless mouse, Bluetooth keyboard, and Wired Xbox game pad we’re recognized. Nothing bluetooth works in windows, I had to manually disable the driver to keep it from constant,y refreshing in device manager and causing a beep. Apparently a flaw that’s persisted for many since windows 10 for some.

Garuda Linux seems to be actively fixing itself and getting better with each reboot. Windows ate itself and broke itself three times. 

forgive my horrible typing dyslexia and autocorrect are taking their toll trying to type on an iPad. 

this os is objectively night and day better, even though I know almost nothing.

my system now fully works where I literally could not get it to work on windows.


I will update as I have problems and then I think at some point I will try Nobara Linux by the proton writer.

Linux has many types but could be summarize by two: quick updates and long updates. This is a quick update and might break itself like windows. I will watch and see.

would love to hear from the Linux people on here, please do chime in, feel free to rant about Linux, make fun of me, etc… I have crayons to share…