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"Linux gaming setup" on https://aligot-death.space, available at https://aligot-death.space/wiki/linux-gaming-setup-en
Linux gaming setup
How to game on linux, the (relatively) easy way.
Installation of the gaming machine#
For some reasons, typical "user-friendly" distributions are a shit circus. People usually system wide bugs with drivers that I don't with my own setup, so as I reinstalled my computer I took notes of what I did. It seems that beside the lack of necessary proprietary drivers for some features, Debian is simpler to use, even for gaming.
Debian might seem like an odd choice for two reasons: for starter, it lags behind software updates (except security updates) to only use well tested software. This can be "solved" by using the Sid unstable version, which is actually still quite stable and can be used for daily driving. Also, debian doesn't integrate proprietary software by default, so the corresponding repositories must be activated for Steam and Nvidia, even if it goes against debian philosophy.
I believe that any "base" linux distribution might also offer the same benefits without these limitations, but I'll let someone else test that hypothese.
Long story short, so called "end user friendly" distributions seem to actually be worse, and plenty of "base" distributions offer similar user friendly ecosystems [1].
| [1] | Even though they also suffer from the usual "xxxx Is the Year of Linux on the Desktop!!!" syndrome. |
1: . Install Debian with Gnome or MATE. If you're not used to installing Linux, get in touch with free Open-Source software organisation near you or go to an Install party dedicated for non-power users. 2: Enable non-free AND contrib repositories. Don't forget the last one or you'll debug missing packages for nothing (learn that the hard way). 3: Install Steam. It requires some commands, but nothing to scary. Just enter those lines in the terminal.
1 sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 2 sudo apt update
And install steam using the software provided by Gnome or MATE, or use this command:
1 sudo apt install steam
More info here.
4: Install nvidia drivers and various utilities
1 nvidia-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers libglx-mesa0:i386 mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386
Or once again, use the command line:
1 sudo apt install nvidia-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers libglx-mesa0:i386 mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386
Open Steam, log in, and then go to Settings > Steam Play > Enable Steam Play for all other titles
Now, simply use Steam as usual.
Games should then actually work according to ProtonDB rating.