Linux may very well not be for you, but using Arch first is like jumping into the deep end to learn how to swim. It’s no surprise you’re drowning. I’d recommend you try a gaming-focused distro like Nobara before you go back to Windows for good.
Nobara is great if you’re into Fedora. PopOS! or Linux Mint if you’re into Debian. Those will take you further way faster and with less pain than any Arch based distro.
Linux is really a superfamily of loosely-related OS’s (called distributions). Arch and Debian are 2 of the more common ones. Arch in particular has a reputation of being really beginner un-friendly, particularly in that, to my understanding, you have to build the OS yourself.
There’s also the caveat that many Linux distributions end up sharing/copying code from each other, so you end up with a kind of “OS lineage.” The most common distribution, Ubuntu, is copied from Debian. And then the most beginner-friendly distribution, Linux Mint, is copied from Ubuntu. Arch, to my knowledge, doesn’t copy code from elsewhere, so much of the advice given from users of other distributions won’t apply to Arch (hence the meme, “I use Arch btw”)
Anyways, the real advice for a Linux beginner is to stick with a beginner-friendly distribution: either Ubuntu or Linux Mint or Pop!_OS. Most or all distributions have various “flavors,” which are basically like how the OS looks. I think the real difficulty is picking a flavor that you like. I personally like the look of KDE Plasma (IMO resembles Windows 10 the most), so my personal recommendation is Kubuntu, which is the KDE Plasma flavor of Ubuntu
Thanks. For a second it sounded like there are different “types” of linux that are fundamentally different, but it’s just endless chain on what specific OS is based on which specific different OS and some of them are used as a reference point for how stuff feels - I think? :D
What are the differences between Fedora and Debian, since those were used as major reference points?
All distro’s differences come down to how the chain of utilities is stringed up together. You have:
Bootloader
Kernel
Init and service daemons
Package manager
Display server
Window manager
Widget toolkit
Desktop environment
User applications
And a whole lot of in-between. Essentially Fedora and Debian each have defined and originated a set of core software that work as standards for the first 4 parts of this chain. Arch is another, even on pure Arch a wizard installer has to deal with those in order to set up a properly working system. For some, those are the most technical and difficult parts of setting up and designing an OS. Then every distro is a variation on the rest of the chain or customizations on the first few parts, but almost always based on one of the —current— three standards.
There are also philosophical differences that drive technical decisions in the background. Favoring one way of doing things over the other. Debian is usually focused on stability, reliability, security, function over form. Arch is usually about the bleeding edge, speed, max efficiency, innovation, customization, user freedom. Fedora is pragmatic and down to earth, compromising between the two and focused on smooth user experience. Usually different distros will provide some variation or adaptation on those themes. Like making Debian more corporate, or updated, or making Arch easier to install, or making Fedora but optimized for gaming, etc.
I vouch for Bazzite OS. I have Arch on my main and Nobara on a sibling’s computer for gaming and Nobara works flawlessly with minimal setup. It pretty much works the same as my arch desktop with all the KDE stuff. Highly recommend, even if you’re new or experienced.
Hi there, whoever suggested linux for your switch played a mean joke on you. Granted, arch works well if you know what you‘re doing, apparently. But no way it is a good starting distro.
I‘m not sure how eldenring works on linux but most games run without problems.
One little caveat is this: you need to understand that windows is a billion dollar product while linux is mostly community driven. It costs nothing, except many people donating their time. So I‘d suggest adopting a „its insane that hobbyists are able to build something like this“ view. Otherwise you‘ll get frustrated and will end up im privacy invasive windows territory again.
If you want a more gaming ready distro, try pop os or bazzite. Good luck
Who the hell recommended Arch to you? Arch is for when you’ve been using Linux for a few years and have gotten bored waiting for the latest updates to hit your repos.
I use Linux at work, so I am a least familiar with how to tinker with it, but it just can’t seem to find the right settings to get things running smoothly. I can’t imagine a different distro would be any different.
Bazzite is a good tinkering distro to get your feet wet into atomic distros, but in my experience, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks. I’ve tried it in 3 different devices, including my steam deck, and they all broke by the 3rd or 4th update.
Apparently this one of those YMMV deals. Installation is painless and quick, for sure. And it does work fine (albeit a bit slower than Fedora Workstation when loading and firing up software). But after a few updates, Wayland stops working for some reason and I have to log into x11 instead.
I’ve no idea what the issue is, but I was only trying it, so I just went back to my trusty Fedora.
Atomic distros are still fairly new, so I expected issues and was not surprised. There’s been a lot of progress done, sure, but I don’t think we’re “there” yet.
The problem with Arch is that it’s philosophy includes having to set up everything correctly yourself rather than each package you install already being set up and preconfigured the way you’d expect it to be in other distros. You shouldn’t need to be fiddling with system stuff at all with something user focused like Pop!OS since I believe it even handles nvidia drivers for you. I wouldn’t be using arch myself if I didn’t have significant amounts of free time to invest into chasing down every little problem I encountered using it in college.
Linux is in a weird spot right now where the two ends of the user spectrum seem to be handled well while the middle still has issues since they’re not already experts or just need an internet browser to be completely happy.
I can’t imagine a different distro would be any different.
BZZZZZZZZZZZT I’m sorry but that answer was not correct. Next player!
Seriously try some of the other distros and you’ll have a much more pleasant experience. I already recommended Tumbleweed in another reply but man, anything but Arch is gonna be an improvement for somebody trying to make the switch from Windows gaming for the first time.
Indeed. I haven’t run into a modern game that it can’t handle. The only thing it has struggled with that I play is old Command & Conquer titles, but that’s a Proton issue.
Idk, I think Gentoo and Void would be worse for a new user. But yeah, most other distros will be more new user friendly. Bazzite has a great new user experience, for instance
Linux at work and Linux for gaming are two very different beasts. For example, you didn’t mention which drivers and DE (or WM) you’re using which are the most crucial part to how games run, and both of which need to be manually configured on Arch but come pre-configured or are a couple clicks away in other distros.
A different distro like Pop is completely different. My Pop gaming computer runs better than Windows on the same computer and didn’t require any fiddling at all. It even comes with the latest stable Nvidia driver right out of the box, and you can upgrade it with the click of a button.
I’m sorry but I’m going to have to stick with Windows for gaming.
That’s ok, I forgive you.
Seriously, Windows works better for a lot of people, and that’s fine. I went back to Windows several times before I made the switch permanently to Linux. You just gotta do what works for you.
If you decide to try Linux again, I would recommend a distro like chimera OS, nobara, or just vanilla fedora. I’ve personally had a lot of luck with those distros.
I went back to Windows several times before I made the switch permanently to Linux. You just gotta do what works for you.
This is the way.
I went back and forth for years. Tuning and tweaking to find what works for me. Spoiler - the fully open source options are what worked best for me, eventually.
For awhile gaming was the only place I put up with non-Linux anymore. And now with my SteamDeck, I have an easy way to avoid buying games that aren’t Linux ready.
If you’re not having a good time, stop. Life is too short.
If you’re still interested in using linux, LinuxMint or PopOs! are what most people would recommend to a new user, not Arch.
Arch can be perfect for users with the time, knowledge, and effort to perfectly tailor things to suit their needs. They can make it perfectly efficient, without any excess.
I just want to use my computer whenever I want it to work. I am fine with it having a few extra packages/applications that I might never use. I’ve being using linux as main (or only) operating system on/off for about 20 years, and I currently use Mint.
I heard there are some intermittent problems with them on linux because of proprietary blobs and similar driver issues, but I’ve never had one, so I’ve no direct experience.
sounds like your problem is likely a combo of trying bare arch and also an nvidia card. i’d recommend Pop!OS as i hear it’s the best out of the box experience for nvidia owners, and if you want to stay arch based i’d try EndeavourOS as it’s arguably the most mature and stable arch based distro today, it’s what i use but i also have amd not nvidia so i can’t speak for the nvidia experience for endeavour. maybe you want to wait a while before you try again just so you’re not burning out on the frustration, too. good luck!
I’m guessing you’re running either the nvidia open source drivers (way worse performance) or you don’t have graphics switching configured and it’s using your GPU’s iGPU (way way worse performance).
Bigger distros like Mint will probably configure that for you.
nvidia only very recently opened up their drivers to open source dev, so the open source drivers available right now are still based on reverse engineering and they don’t work super great. there are proprietary drivers from nvidia but they are not easy to install and configure and popos handles that for you on install.
To use (and enjoy) Linux properly, you’ve got to “unlearn” several things including the bad habit of expect everything to “just werk”. If you are expecting to “double click your cares away” on Linux, then it’s (very) likely you’ll be disappointed.
With that aside, your best bet is to go for Linux Mint and not Arch Linux.
Can’t blame you. I put a Windows PC together again just so I could play Helldivers 2 a bit more consistently. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy your leisure time.
As someone who recommends Arch to new users that have some familiarity with CLI AND also likes to tinker, I will always advise to check their wiki and forum. Check for the very specific problem you’re having. Even the model sometimes helps. From other comments, I see you’re mentioning logitech, maybe this wiki entry will help, but maybe it won’t. In which case, search for more information. Check their wiki entry for other logitech mice, for wireless mice, for general mice.
Now, onto the next issue, what do you mean by not launch right? From there, maybe I can help with the issue.
This is also why I recommend this to someone that would like to tinker with their system. Arch requires a lot of reading. But once you understand it, it becomes “yours” and you obtain a lot of knowledge about the system that you’re using.
Now, for everyone who doesn’t like to tinker, use bazzite. I heard that it just works™.
My main issue is stuttering with baldur’s gate 3 and elden ring, both performing worse than their windows equivalent installations. Also I got HDR working in the desktop with KDE plasma, but the option just isn’t available in games.
Finally, the brightness on my monitor seems to be all over the place.
For now I plan on keeping Linux on one of my drives (maybe try another distro, or just stick to less demanding games) and using Windows for AAA games.
Alright, the stuttering is not my forte for troubleshooting. It could be from the driver but it could also be just the compatibility layer or myriad of other factors. I don’t play those games myself too. However, you can try searching for protondb to see the state of the game support on linux. Here is for Elden Ring for example. And be sure to actually check the review as it really reflects the state of games. You can also try looking for those with the same hardware and see if they comment on any issue. That can at least help weed out some potential problems.
Lastly, the brightness issue. Can you describe it in more detail? Like, does it happen when you are turning HDR on or is it happening regardless of HDR? And what does it mean the brightness is all over the place? Is it happening when you are consuming video content? I have an OLED for example, and the black is always the same regardless of the brightness. So are you sure it isn’t from the content itself?
The stuttering is probably the compatibility layer, it doesn’t do it in helldivers, for instance. So I think it’s game specific
Thanks for the Hdr link. I have enabled it for desktop but didn’t realize steam was different.
For the brightness, HDR is enabled, but it seems like it “forgets” what brightness is supposed to be until I wiggle the slider. And every time I boot the pc the brightness needs to be at a different number to match my non HDR monitor. Probably just growing pains with a beta feature, I would guess.
Yep, the problem with the compatibility layer is that a game can be very particular about the version too.
You’re very welcome. This is after all, the essence of Arch. Now you know what is happening and why HDR is not yet widespread on other linux. On the other hand, you get to experience HDR gaming when other distros may not yet support it.
I can confirm that I do have the same issue regarding brightness. However, I never tried to investigate further as my mechanical keyboard has a fn keys to adjust brightness (fn + f1/f2) so I don’t need to open settings to wiggle the slider. I can understand that it can be an issue for others. I suggest reading more regarding display and monitor. If all else fails, try asking the forum. I think it is DE specific (because wayland).
That’s exactly the reason you shouldn’t recommend Arch for new users. New users, even those who like to tinker, don’t want to read pages upon pages of wikis to get basic shit working. They want something that works that they can tinker with.
90% sure OP installed the wrong drivers, probably because he missed some note on which to install or a configuration to switch them. Also very likely the mouse issue is related to some random udev rule or package he installed trying to solve something, Logitech mouses just work out of the box.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Arch, have been using it as my main distro for over 15 years, but it’s definitely NOT for new users, even those who like to tinker with their system, Ubuntu is just as tinkerable, but Arch you need to build up. Imagine someone saying they are interested in decorating their home and you recommend them to build their house from scratch while having nowhere to live. This is why it’s important that new users have a comfortable place they can go back if things don’t work, and if you don’t give it to them they’ll obviously return to Windows.
Yeah, I may need to rethink my recommendation for the future. Especially their willingness to read and patience. I am happy to guide anyone if they asked and hence why I usually recommend it.
Regarding the random udev rule, I doubt it was that. Cooler Master mouse has known issue in Linux in which they don’t wake up from sleep when using the dongle. So it could just be the mouse regardless of the distro.
As for the wrong driver, the OP stated that he experiences stutter for certain games but not for others. As I said, I am not an expert for troubleshooting stutter as it could be from a lot of factors. But I doubt OP installed the wrong driver. Wrong drivers usually lead to more uniform glitches across the board.
The mouse is Logitech, which afaik doesn’t have any issues (at least all of my Logitech mice have always just worked).
The drivers can impact performance worse on some games and cause glitches in others. I remember a while back getting some texture issues on Nvidia but not on nouveau (even though the performance was worse).
Well, “just works” depends on how you define it too. But yeah, most of the “basic” stuff just works. But I will not rule out the possibility of unsupported HW just because I have my fair share of it too. For example, I’d say a keyboard is working if they are able to be used as an input device. Even without the customization or sleep, or wake from sleep. Granted, the issue being unrecognized or not working at all is very much borked tho. Hence why I request the details of the mouse itself.
Now you mention degraded performance and glitches. Yes, I do know that. But as I said, my statement regarding the wrong driver usually entails a lot more dramatic bug than a stutter on only known 2 games. Further investigations are needed to correctly decide if it is the driver or not since we know that a compatibility layer is also playing a part here. It is also why I suggest searching the protondb to check the current support for the game. Linux gaming, as good as it is now, is not perfect yet.
True. It’s also good for people who want to get stuff done. I used it for 5-ish years, and it was an incredibly productive, low-maintenance distro. I only switched because I wanted to run brtfs on root, so I figured I’d give openSUSE a shot since they do that by default.
Eh, it has a lot of powerful tools for computing stuff. Like today I wondered if I can download the songs from a playlist on YouTube, checked the wiki, and within 5 minutes I was doing it. It worked perfectly. The AUR also saves a lot of time building packages that aren’t available through pacman, which means they’re probably not available through other distros either. So you can definitely do more than just fiddle with the OS. But getting it working stable with Nvidia cards right now is like a full time job.
I’ve been daily driving arch for like five years now, and this is just flat out not true at all. I agree it’s not a beginner distro, but if you know what you’re doing and know what you want it’s the best.
FWIW, I’ve got an i7-8700k with an RTX 3080. I initially had two major issues when I replaced Windows with Bazzite:
Steam doesn’t do great with libraries on NTFS partitions. Supposedly there are workarounds, but I couldn’t get them to work for me. I had to reformat a couple drives as ext4 (and do a bunch of file management in the process) before things would play nice.
I had my CPU overclocked to 4.8 GHz in Windows. BG3 kept crashing on me on Bazzite. Finally occurred to me to drop the overclock and I’ve played 40+ hours since, solid as a rock. Performance is comparable to Windows with OC. GPU temps are consistently better than Windows. Only thing I’m missing is HDR.
Bonus: GreenWithEnvy (for GPU fan curve) won’t run in a Wayland session yet, apparently, so I’ve been running under X11 instead.
Hope this helps. YMMV. Happy gaming, whatever OS you use!
When I replaced Windows, I had two other disks with NTFS volumes, one of which was full of Steam games, the other with assorted crap. I built this box in 2017. The SSD where Windows was installed is only 256 GB.
Nobara is a very good starting point for Linux. I personally know Linux stuff from an IT perspective, but personal use/driver troubleshooting is not something I care to fiddle with regularly. I started with Kubuntu since it’s familiar, but eventually swapped to Nobara when I had some issues with the few games I play.
Nobara has been seamless and easy. Having all wine and proton dependencies preinstalled is much nicer and a lot of games Just Work ™️ out of the box.
Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I plan on keeping Linux on my second drive to continue playing around with it, but my gaming will probably go back to Windows. Might give bazzite or popos a try next.
My bad, that’s what I mean. Whatever drive bazzite is not installed on is difficult to deal with when it comes to flatpak steam. There’s a bunch of mount params you are supposed to use but for me they didn’t work whatsoever on bazzite.
I used what was there. From precious experience with auroraos I assumed it must have been flatpak steam, that’s my bad. Either way, even after following bazzite’s own instructions on auto-mounting drives to a T, external drives still had all sorts of issues. Link to the docs: universal-blue.discourse.group/t/…/970
I recommend trying another linux distro for a while. Arch has a pretty steep learning curve. So big respect for getting it to work as a first distro, but there is a lot of stuff you have to setup manually that just works on other distros. If you got more stuff working and get a little more familiar you can always go back to arch.
I use arch nowadays, but the first time i tried to install it i basically gave up a few times. If you just want to try it out in order to learn then it’s perfectly cool to take some time. But if your goal is to play games then arch is just a means to an end. Then it becomes really annoying, because you cannot reach your goal.
linux_gaming
Oldest
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.