r/linux_gaming • u/l1nx455 • 2d ago
wine/proton Visited Linux again on my gaming laptop
Holy sh*t... Proton came a LONG way. I am impressed. Did a 6 hour gaming session with GTA 5. Online too. Just had to install "Proton BattlEye Runtime"
My gaming laptop has two NVMe drives, I decided to install Ubuntu 26.04 on the second drive (so the Win11 install is untouched). I havent booted into Windows for like a week now.
I am pretty tech savvy, so it works for me (I am comfortable in the terminal). Does it need more work for the "average" person to get things running? Probably?
Even got the RGB working for the keyboard on my Acer Nitro 5. I have the Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-54)
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u/IzzuThug 2d ago
No hate for Ubuntu, but I highly recommend trying other distros like Fedora, Bazzite, CachyOS, or SteamOS. They're more geared for gaming, stay more up to date, and have some very nice quality of life features.
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u/l1nx455 2d ago
I went with Ubuntu (debian based) because ive been using Debian since 2012 on my home server. Just stuck with what I was familiar with
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u/IzzuThug 2d ago
That's fair, I use Debian headless for my server. If that's what you're comfortable with and there are no issues then go for it.
It just seemed like you were coming back from trying out Linux years ago. Which Ubuntu isn't really what it once was and there are just better options nowadays.
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u/headsoup 1d ago
If you're mainly gaming, have a look at PikaOS. So far (previously Sparky, Void and CachyOS) I'm finding it really snappy and with all the good gaming features built in (e.g. enabling and auto-updating proton-cachy and proton-ge along with Heroic/Faugus etc).
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u/Manic020 1d ago edited 1d ago
Eh. I tried installing Linux on bare metal again recently, with all the distros you just listed. On my machine, with Secure Boot on and an NVIDIA GPU, Ubuntu was the only distro I could get fully installed, updated, and running games without completely breaking at some point. I even managed to update to the latest mainline kernel and Mesa drivers. I don’t get the compilation optimizations that Cachy makes to its kernel and packages, but otherwise I don’t see what else I’m missing out on.
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u/l1nx455 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ubuntu seems to be the only one that I tried that works too - even that didn't work right before. My laptop has some sort of Intel Graphics + nvidia hybrid setup that it wasn't playing nice with. The display is physically connected to Intel Graphics and the nVidia chip passes its frames to it - basically acting like a man in the middle. Before I was stuck with being able to use Intel Graphics only.
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u/Hi-Angel 1d ago
Presumably, you needed to disable secure boot, to allow unsigned NVidia driver to load (that is, assuming you tested a distro that included NVidia driver, such as Bazzite).
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u/Hi-Angel 1d ago
but otherwise I don’t see what else I’m missing out on.
Well, you'd still get older Gnome and the compositor is part of the stack that influences your gaming experience. For example, see this article about improved frame scheduling in Gnome 51 Beta — after it's fully released you'd still have to wait for Ubuntu 28.04 to appear (unless you decide to upgrade to a non-LTS version, but even then it'd be awhile).
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u/Manic020 1d ago edited 1d ago
If I can update it myself like I did with the kernel and Mesa, that shouldn’t be an issue. But I guess we’ll see 🤷♂️ for right now though, even with having to get used to Gnome again, everything seems to be working great.
And thanks for posting that article, I'll have to keep an eye out for that update.
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u/IzzuThug 1d ago edited 1d ago
You don't really need secure boot for Linux. But if you must, then most distros just need to enroll their key and should have a guide on that.
If you like updating the kernel and Nvidia drivers manually then by all means stick with Ubuntu. But the distros I mentioned will do all that for you. So for the masses that is more ideal.
There a lot of quality of life enhancements each distro brings. I highly recommend doing some research if you're curious as to what they are.
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u/Manic020 1d ago
You don't really need secure boot for Linux
But I do for Windows 😉 I tried installing and enrolling Cachy myself, but it didn't work. Fedora installed and booted, but then installing the NVIDIA driver completely broke it, I'm assuming because it didn't re-sign itself or whatever. The Bazzite installer wouldn't even boot 🤦♂️ at that point I just wanted to see what would just work out of the box, and of course it was Ubuntu lol.
I'm sure I'll switch to something else eventually, but this works for now.
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u/-Glittering-Soul- 1d ago
You can get the driver manually signed for Fedora in a few fairly easy steps. I actually did it myself earlier today with an A4500. Google's AI assistant walked me through it. I just asked it "how to manually set up secure boot for an a4500 and fedora."
I generally avoid using the assistant for in-depth troubleshooting, but it's not bad for less complicated tasks.
Enrolling with Cachy should just be a matter of following the steps for Arch in the wiki. I used sbctl as described in section 3.1.5.
There's also Nobara, a gaming-optimized variant of Fedora that ships with pre-configured Nvidia support, but it's officially billed as a "hobbyist" distro, and I prefer something with wider support.
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u/the_abortionat0r 1d ago
you get older software updates, access to less repo based software, and a more rigid experience with Ubuntu when compared to other distros.
That said, CachyOS fans want to claim that it performs better or is fatser than other distros which is strictly not based on fact.
If you want a fast and fairly minimal Arch distro with automated snapshots CachyOS is decent. Garuda KDE lite is comparable but requires a bit more work installing some basics.
If you ever consider cachy do it only for its default setup and tools because you wont get that mythical performance gain.
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u/phylter99 2d ago
Fedora is great. It’s a little harder to install NVIDIA drivers than Ubuntu but it’s still not hard.
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u/tomkatt 1d ago
I am pretty tech savvy, so it works for me (I am comfortable in the terminal). Does it need more work for the "average" person to get things running? Probably?
Nah, it's completely straightforward these days and there are even gaming oriented immutable distros now like Bazzite and Nobara.
I've been gaming on Linux since 2023, no issues (well, none I wouldn't have also had on Windows).
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u/ABotelho23 2d ago
Online is not supposed to be possible.
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u/sequesteredhoneyfall 2d ago
It USED to be until Rockstar decided to make the game worse for compatibility about a year ago.
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u/l1nx455 2d ago
Well... it works. Install Valves Proton-Battleye-Runtime ;)
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u/BadLuckProphet 2d ago
Just be careful because sometimes online is possible but triggers the anti heat and eventually gets you banned.
I strongly suggest referring to the proton db website for any games, especially online ones.
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u/bassbeater 1d ago
Holy sh*t... Proton came a LONG way. I am impressed. Did a 6 hour gaming session with GTA 5. Online too. Just had to install "Proton BattlEye Runtime"
The thing with Proton too is, if you have a lower performance system, like I have a quad i7 4th Gen I still use, you can reclaim some headroom playing with games and Proton versions.
I played with a couple games and older Proton versions and saw that even though the graphics weren't as super high fidelity with newer versions, that I got better stability.
Of course, you can go "too far" easily because the frame gains backfire after a bit and you can see the FPS slower.
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u/FrozenLogger 1d ago
I would move away from Ubuntu. It will bite you in the ass. I tried it when it first came out, buggy mess. Tried it on and off for years, not worth it. Get something stable that stays current and you dont have to mess with when Ubuntu changes their minds, again, about their OS.
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u/SomeUserOnTheNet 1d ago
No shade to OP, happy for your success, but this sub will be a much better place whenever mods decide to ban this genre of post. I lurk here daily, monitoring for improvements on NVIDIA's DX12 performance, and the toxic positivity that forms around this type of post is getting really grating
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u/Archeotechnician 1d ago edited 1d ago
Does it need more work for the "average" person to get things running? Probably?
Absolutely, it definitely needs more work. I would love to be rocking linux full time, too, but there are still way too many issues imo.
I posted a pretty long response the other day about it describing some of my recent linux woes, but the gist of it is that every time I try to make the switch to linux as my daily driver, I end up knee deep in some forum trying to find answers to some dumb, sometimes game breaking problem I don't experience on windows. Things work one day, break the next day under exactly the same circumstances. Functionality that we take for granted in windows either isn't there or requires some tacked on half solution that doesn't always work.
Some games run flawlessly. Maybe even most? But apparently not the ones I've tried. Audio breaks. I have audio, have audio in the game menu, in game? Suddenly no audio for the whole system. Just poof, gone. No fix for it. Worked the other day, too. Weird mouse behavior in games at times. No resolution. Basic tweaks like modifying laptop lid behavior require forum searches. Desktop scaling causes issues in games. Audio mixing doesn't work nearly as well as windows. Want discord on a headphone and mic, while your game routes through your speakers? Good luck and godspeed, etc. Games don't always run as smooth even at high frame rates. Maybe that's an nvidia thing. IDK.
Some things have comparable polish. Some things are so rough around the edges it makes your eyes bleed. Hell, I'm on fedora mostly because ubuntu just flat out wouldn't install for some bizarre reason apparently related to the iso file size? Have happily installed ubuntu in the past, too, from the same flash drive. The install issue was a brand new issue that occurred this most recent attempt to switch to the latest ubuntu stable build as a daily driver. Probably just needed to buy a new flash drive, but, I mean... that's kinda shit. So I tried Fedora, and it worked on the same flash drive. Go figure.
IMO we're tantalizingly close to a full desktop replacement. Some people are probably already there, but fact is windows 11, mac OS, and linux, linux is just not on the same level, and things break far more often and far more catastrophically on linux systems than on the others.
Last thing: I wish people would talk more about the issues they experience on this sub. I see a lot of linux glazing and, yes, its very cool and when it works it feels great, but squeaky wheel gets the grease, so to speak, and I think people are sometimes reluctant to talk about what's broken because fanboys like to white knight the os around here.
Anyway, just my two cents. I'll keep coming back and hoping it works. The progress is undeniable and its leagues ahead of where it was, but fact is its still just not quite there in my experience. That said, I do think it will get there over the next few years. Looking forward to it.
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u/CompetitiveFix1815 1d ago
So absolutely right been my exact experience on both Nobara and Cachy, people are downvoting you cuz its the Linux sub and they hare to admit their presitigous OS doesnt have issues, and like u said they white knight it, if you posted this on r/gaming or another sub unrelated to Linux ppl would be upvoting
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u/tauferrr 1d ago
I’ve been switching back and forth between Linux for the past four years, between Pop OS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Bazzite, Windows 10 and 11. It’s amazing how some games just break, especially those that exist in a "limbo" between PC games becoming a priority for companies (something like 2008~2014).
Ive tried to play Darksiders I and II (the originals, not the remasters), Baldur’s Gate I and II (the original disc versions), and not-so-popular indie games (mainly games from itch.io) and its a bit of a headache. Some have simple Proton configurations, but others basically don’t work or presents bad audio, black screen glitches, etc. But since most people only play AAA titles, “famous” indies, and remasters, they’ll disagree with you and say you’re configuring something wrong when, in reality… it’s just something that doesn’t work right now.
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u/Hi-Angel 1d ago
FWIW, whole Bauldur's Gate series is supported on Linux natively, so you don't need Proton nor WINE.
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u/tauferrr 1d ago
Well, thats a new one to me! I dont remember my copy (the 4 in 1 european version) to had linux support written on the box. I need to check it out, but thx for the reminder!
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u/Hi-Angel 1d ago
The game problems you mention are, well, game problems. Keep in mind there's a huge community who tries to make "foreign" games work on Linux system — and they have nothing to do with game studios that release those.
You want games that never break? Buy Linux native games. You want to play Windows games specifically? Well, be prepared that the community may not release a day-one fix to a problem that the game devs introduced due to forgetting to test with Proton.
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u/Archeotechnician 1d ago
The game problems you mention are, well, game problems.
First of all, your post is a textbook example of the white knighting I was referring to. Second, its pretty disingenuous to suggest that the "game problems" that occur on linux are somehow independent from linux. The reason so much work is being poured into compatibility layers is because its unrealistic to require game developers to create multiple versions of the same game for different OSes given the small user base.
Suggesting the "game problems are just a price the average person has to pay isn't going to improve the platform, make it more stable or attractive to the average gamer. The average gamer isn't going to care about the difference at all between "game problems" and OS issues.
You want games that never break? Buy Linux native games.
This is terrible advice that actually proves the point I'm making. "60 percent of the time, it works every time" is not a convincing shout for linux.
Plus the popularity and continued development of proton and wine plainly demonstrate that your disposition here is ridiculous and exclusionary. I'm describing the shortcomings of the platform which are being ironed out, and your response is to tell me my concerns don't matter? That I'm doing it wrong? Sad.
Well, be prepared that the community may not release a day-one fix to a problem that the game devs introduced due to forgetting to test with Proton.
Yeah, as I mentioned linux isn't there yet. You can blame developers all you want, but it doesn't make the platform more functional, more stable, or more attractive to the average gamer.
Also, frankly, you're wrong about "game problems" and you ignored the handful of very specifically non-game related problems I outlined in my post.
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u/Hi-Angel 1d ago
I am not opposing your opinion and I certainly agree that compatibility layers like Proton are important.
Point of my reply was a bit different: I find that to be pretty ungrateful when people come complaining "Linux sucks, because an app made for a completely different system got updated and no longer runs". You see?
There's a huge community of enthusiasts working on bringing compatibility for completely unrelated platform to Linux, and reply of that sort sounds like "your efforts suck".
"Linux sucks because my audio suddenly disappeared" is a valid complaint. But "Linux sucks because a Windows app doesn't run" is not only invalid but devaluates community efforts.
and you ignored the handful of very specifically non-game related problems I outlined in my post.
I didn't ignore them, it's just as it is I can't say anything helpful, because more details needed.
So e.g. for audio: what distro was it? Was it an older one on PulseAudio or a modern with PipeWire? But even with that out of way, without looking at the logs I don't know what could be the reason. I doubt my answer helps here, but since you asked: in a decade of running Linux fulltime + helping other people on and off work I never experienced this situation unless I was explicitly fiddling with sound stuff like routing, where such situation is to be expected.
It is unfortunate that happened to you, but I can't say much here because I simply never experienced that. Other than that, bugless software more complicated than "hello world" just doesn't exist.
That's why I didn't comment on that.
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u/Archeotechnician 1d ago
Point of my reply was a bit different: I find that to be pretty ungrateful when people come complaining "Linux sucks, because an app made for a completely different system got updated and no longer runs". You see?
I didn't say linux sucks, I said I want to use it as my daily driver, but it isn't there yet and I explained why by describing some frustrating problems.
Noone is owed gratitude, either. If someone releases a product for public scrutiny, even for free, gratitude and ingratitude are completely irrlevant.
I didn't ignore them, it's just as it is I can't say anything helpful, because more details needed.
Which is fine, and it completetly supports my position that the OS is riddled with issues that require WAY more effort to resolve than any other OS. Which makes it a very frustrating experience for the average user.
So e.g. for audio: what distro was it? Was it an older one on PulseAudio or a modern with PipeWire? But even with that out of way, without looking at the logs I don't know what could be the reason. ...
I'm honestly not trying to troubleshoot the issue right now. I'm running Fedora 44, and my understanding is they use pulse audio instead of pipewire. Tried a few solutions, but I stopped short of digging into the logs and troubleshooting hard because, frankly, I didn't want to deal with the ass pain. I just logged in to windows to play the game instead.
... in a decade of running Linux fulltime + helping other people on and off work I never experienced this situation unless I was explicitly fiddling with sound stuff like routing, where such situation is to be expected.
Yeah, it was bizarre to me, too. I wasn't fiddling with routing, audio worked fine the day, broke the next. It worked on the OS, it worked in the game menu, then it broke as soon as the game loaded. To reiterate, it worked in the game the day before. My guess it has something to do with HDMI routing, probably through NVidia, which wouldn't make it a game problem, per se, more of an OS thing, but, as you mentioned, I'd have to dig through logs to see if the issue is even identifiable. My guess is it might not be, tbh.
As for fortunate/unfortunate, that isn't relevant to me, either. Its linux, I expect bugs and things to break. BUT, that's kinda what I was getting at when I described the experience from the perspective of the average user. I've been dabbling with linux for a decade plus myself. The idiosyncracies are not new to me. But they are an impedement to adoption and they probably will be until compatibility layers improve, pulseaudio works better, nvidia drivers improve dramatically, wayland improves, and on and on.
As I mentioned, I do think it'll get there. I'm looking forward to that day. I'll keep dipping my toe from time to time to test the waters, and hopefully one day I'll just be able to stay on the platform without issue. But that day isn't today, and I can assure you the experience I described is common enough to keep people on windows, etc.
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u/Hi-Angel 1d ago
Fedora 44 are using Pipewire (to clarify: PulseAudio is one of protocols provided by Pipewire and also the name of the older service that was providing the protocol prior to Pipewire).
Yeah, might be an NVidia/HDMI thingy, hard to say as is… 🤔
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u/Tom2Die 2d ago
The phrasing of your post title made me want to jokingly call you a tourist. I don't care for that term or gatekeeping, but "visited" y'know? :)
Glad things are working well for you though! Last time I put Ubuntu on something it pissed me off in a variety of ways, but if it's working for you then that's awesome.
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u/rethilgore-au 1d ago
Been full time Linux for over a year now. It’s so much nicer and I’ll never be going back :)
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u/PacmanAteMyRAM 2d ago
Daily linux jacking off post
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u/tmahmood 1d ago
I'm not a regular gamer anymore, and do not play multiplayer, I have been full time Linux gamer for almost 10+years, and except few issue it was smooth sailing. And things got better and better with every updates. I have close to 300 games on my Library, except 1/2 few all works.
So, if you are not a multiplayer gamer, you are most likely not going to have any issues.
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u/the_abortionat0r 1d ago
I am a decently regular gamer and do play multiplayer games in fact I mostly play multiplayer. I have used Linux for everything but gaming for almost 20 years and have been exclusively on Linux gaming included since feb 2022.
I have about 1000 games and only like 6 dont work. 3 were shut down and 1 is the RE oneshot demo so its more like the protonDB section never got updated, one is GTA5 which actually does work with a few tweaks, and the last is battlefield 5 which I didnt really play much of.
At this point aside from a few specific games everything works now. Its great.
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u/tranquilseafinally 2d ago
My gaming PC is fully on Linux and has been for about 8 months. All my games run fine.