I’ve ordered myself some parts to build a PC for Linux gaming. In the meantime, i’m deciding on which linux distro to use.
For the desktop environment I typically use KDE.
I have used Ubuntu in the past but i’m ruling it out because of snaps and other such annoyances. This also applies to Ubuntu based distros that use the same repos (KDE Neon etc).
I see the wikis recommend Nobara, but I’m reluctant to use a Fedora based distro because I’m so used to Debian/apt (both as a desktop and server distros). I’m not ruling it out completely though.
Any reason why I shouldn’t just go with Debian + KDE and install Steam? Will I be missing out on lots of performance improvements or is this easily addressed by using an additional repo for a tweaked kernel and proton version or whatever?
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Nothing wrong with Debian but if this is a gaming PC, why not use a gaming OS?
I use Chimera
It’s a gaming PC but I will use it for other things as well. I don’t want to complicate other tasks because I’ve chosen a really specific OS for gaming, if that makes sense.
It shouldn’t. A gaming focused OS will just come with all the necessary software and configurations for gaming, and not much else.
Chimera also adds a lot of the cool functionality from SteamOS like the in-game configuration options, Gamescope, and launching directly into the Steam Big Picture mode on boot so you don’t need a keyboard or mouse.
This makes it sound like Big Picture is preferred.
Surely I’m not alone in my dislike for it, right?
Right???
It depends on what you want to do. In my case, my PC lives in the living room and runs on the TV like a console.
Unfortunately, unlike a console, I have to walk over and hit the power button and then switch the input (because for some reason GPUs still don’t support HDMI-CEC) but after that, at no time do I need a keyboard or mouse for anything. Just power it up, sit down, and start gaming.
Right.
Pick what you’re comfortable with. In the end, you can get anything running in any distro. Linux is Linux. Worst case you may need to enable unstable repos or cherry pick packages from there.
Some of the “gaming” distros do include patches so if you want an out of the box experience it might make sense to pick one of those. But if you know your way around Linux, it stops mattering because your skills on your preferred distro outweighs the convenience of having it all readily available out of the box.
If you use Flatpaks, some include updated mesa/GPU drivers so the Debian base won’t even matter all that much as long as the kernel is new enough. Installing a bleeding edge kernel on Debian is usually fine if you have to as the kernel tries its best to never break userspace.
If you’re interested in using Debian directly, @c10l@lemmy.world put out a great post on this! It worked absolutely flawlessly for me, it goes over getting things like a newer version of Mesa, newer (or alternative) kernels if that is your thing, along with some extra firmware for AMD cards that aren’t present in Debian’s packaging yet.
Even just regular Debian is fine, and you can easily install the Flatpak version of Steam if all you want is a newer version of Mesa.
I’m using the flatpak version of Steam, if you go down the road - I’ve read that what few VR games that work on Linux will not work with the flatpak version. I’m sure that could be fixed/worked through. Just something to keep in mind.
Interesting, that is good to know! I don’t have any VR equipment (maybe one day!), however it sounds like the Flatpak has had some odd issues here and there that cause it to be a bit problematic.
I haven’t confirmed it, but I think it has some issues with the controller I use (I’m one of those weird people who prefers the Google Stadia controller…), I was confused at when one day the rumble on it had stopped working, even though it previously worked perfectly (even after installing the
steam-devicespackage). Later on I realized that I had switched to the Flatpak version of Steam to give it a try. I only say that I haven’t confirmed it due to the fact that I had made plenty of changes to my system in the time between doing so and realizing what had happened, that perhaps something else I did affected it, but I have my doubts about that.I personally prefer the native version when I can have it, one of the funniest reasons being that I like being able to see my currently playing music through MangoHud, which doesn’t work in the Flatpak version of Steam (+ the Flatpak layer of MangoHud) due to the sandboxing (and I’m unsure of how to pinhole it through). It sounds silly, but its those small things that come up (but then also add up) as potential drawbacks between going with everything being sandboxed.
Thank you so much for the link, it’s just the kind of information I was after. Very clearly written!
Thanks! I’m the author. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to let me know. :)
No comments except thank you, and please continue to write similar articles!
Apt pinning is such a nice way to pull in some new packages without affecting the whole system. It’s interesting in this specific case and also more generally! I have used it before once or twice but this is the best example I’ve seen for multiple packages.
Depending on the games you wanna play it’s probably safer to be somewhat closer to the bleeding edge than Debian would allow you to be. Nobara gets recommended so often because you get a good tradeoff between the newest updates and stability. Also KDE is their standard DE. PopOS is good if you wanna stay with apt, but comes with Gnome out of the box.
For Gaming Debian SID if you want Debian.
No, don’t use Sid. No one should run it on a system they expect to work.
Debian has 3 phases stable, testing & unstable.
Debian Unstable is the initial gate for pulling in new code, applications need to not break everything in that environment before they can be moved to testing. A freeze is periodically applied to testing and RC/Major bugs are identified/fixed and Stable is released
Sid is the naughty child in Toy Story who destroys things. Debian uses Toy Story characters to name things and so Unstable got the nickname Sid.
If you have newly released hardware you might need an updated kernel. This can be found via backports.
Similarly Mesa covers the graphics drivers, you can pull the latest from backports, again you only need to do this if your graphics card is too new.
As someone who runs Debian Stable with KDE, it works great for gaming
You’re talking about Debian experimental, Debian experimental > Sid > Testing > Stable, Sid is about the Same as Arch, or Fedora around new release’s a lot of people only use Sid and testing they’re only a few days apart, it is a common used OS for Desktops/Gaming, OP was asking about Debian and a Fedora based OS.
Also DD’s don’t backport Mesa anymore the Dev who did stopped years ago.
I used to run Debian Testing and it’s fine, most of the time. I recommend using the named next release so you don’t get a ton of new packages when the testing freeze lifts (and thus a lot of potential breakage), and to only go to testing if you actually need something from it.
I’m on a rolling release now (Tumbleweed), but I’m familiar enough with Debian to whole-heartedly recommend it.
Any reason why I shouldn’t just go with Debian + KDE and install Steam?
No reason to avoid Debian unless you have hardware so very new that it requires the very latest kernel to operate.
If you go with Debian Stable, you can enable Backports for a fairly recent kernel, currently 6.5.10. You could go with Testing or even Unstable if you’re addicted to upgrading as often as possible, but chances are you won’t need to.
I’m gaming on Debian Stable with Steam in a flatpak. It works great, and is blissfully low maintenance.
At some point, you’ll probably run into people claiming that Debian is bad for gaming performance because of “outdated” packages. In most cases, those people don’t know what they’re talking about. I suggest ignoring them unless they identify a specific performance issue that actually affects you.
Technically it is possible that outdated packages can decrease your performance. Some games may not work because of outdated libraries, but in most cases you should be fine.
debians probably fine, but +1 for Nobara. been using it for a few months, not a single complaint. they’re even switching to KDE by default in nobara 39, which just released a few days ago
Oh shit im still running GNOME 2 on Nobara 38, do I need to do a fresh reinstall?
Nobara is at the top of Linux gaming. I used it for half a year or so. But I want to use the aur and hyprland so I will stay on arch
What AUR packages do you use?
So heres a list of all aur packages I currently have installed. But there are also may packages in the arch repos that arent at all awaylible in fedora ex. spotifyd. Tbh I was supprised how many packages are avalible for fedora nowdays
- appimagelauncher | disturebuted rpm from github
- cava | O
- eww-wayland | O
- freetube-bin | disturebuted rpm from github
- hyprshot | O
- librewolf-bin | third party repo
- mangohud-git | Ø
- networkmanager-dmenu-git | O
- nwg-look-bin | O
- opentabletdriver | disturebuted rpm from github
- powerstat | third party repo
- prismlauncher-git | third party repo
- rofi-bluetooth-git | O
- rofi-lbonn-wayland-git | Ø
- spotify-tui | third party repo
- spotifywm-git | O
- sway-audio-idle-inhibit-git | O
- swaylock-effects-git | O
- swaync | O
- swayosd-git | Ø
- swww | O
- ungoogled-chromium-bin | O
- vkbasalt | Ø
- vscodium-bin | third party repo
- wlsunset Ø
- wttr | O
- xpadneo-dkms | O
- xwaylandvideobridge-bin | Ø
debian is good as is, without flat/snap/fart things. If you are used to it then stick with it and you’ll be happy and productive in everything you do, backed by a solid maintained os release process.
I’ve been happiest with arch, then later manjaro since I didn’t have to build it but it’s still arch.
There’s a lot more software for it with access to AUR. Personally I find it works well for me and I’ve been using arch and arch-based since 2015.
In case it wasn’t clear, I use arch btw.
Manjaro is trash just use Arch
Hard to take the comment seriously when there’s no reasoning behind it lol. Working fine for me for a few years now.
Eh nothing too alarming. At the time I installed it arch was still requiring a full build from scratch without a Gui installer. I’d definitely go back when I reinstall next time.
I haven’t tried it, but I suppose you’ll do just fine with debian sid. i.e edit /etc/apt/sources.list, swap $distro_nickname for sid, sudo apt update, sudo apt full-upgrade.
Nobara personally is just right for me it’s kernel and drivers are alway up to date configured asnd patched for gaming. Even if there is bugs with some package for example they ship with patches applied it is just so convenient. I think learning dnf is well worth it and even if there is some debian only app that you want to install there is alwayd distrobox
DNF as a package manager isn’t that hard either, and it’s never given me any troubles.
yep with fedora 39/Nobara 39’s dnf 5 it is pretty fast too
If you’re going to be gaming a lot, I can vouch that Nobara is indeed really good. Debian is a solid option but it like the other commenter says, it gets packages a bit later than other distros. This can be annoying since you’ll have to go out of your way to install the newest drivers or app that you need.
The bigger reason to use Nobara though is that it comes pre-installed with many patches (some kernel patches too) that would be a total pain to do yourself on Debian. You can see a list of patches on the official site and scroll down.
It’ll probably be fine, although I’d personally pick some rolling-release distro for better performance.
In any case, besides the release model I’m pretty sure a distribution you use doesn’t matter that much. Usually every somewhat popular distro has the same few packages you need for games to work (32-bit libs, wine, steam, whatever).
I doubt you’ll miss out on anything from using Debian Linux is Linux but I will shill fedora. Love that distro
I think WINE recommend an up to date distro due to rapidly changing stuff needing up to date software and kernel. I think Debian wouldn’t be great for that. I’d personally recommend OpenSuse. Rolling, up to date and great with KDE. Good luck.
How does zypper compare to apt?
I have no idea. It’s quite subjective.
You can install packages and remove them and it resolves dependencies, just using different commands…
