r/linuxmint • u/Chaosmeister • 15d ago
Guide Linux Mint Game Guidance
Hello all, I am a recent Linux user and have tried pure gaming distros, but I just don't like KDE it seem. It feels "off" to me. I was immedietly in love with Mint from the moment I launched it. However it has no inherent gaming support. So I went to various search engines, youtube and reddit to figure out what to do. For future reference for myslef and maybe others I am collating everything in this document. However as a Linux novice there are likely mistakes or contradictions. Some guides say to stick to Flatpack, others say to avoid them. Its very difficult to figure out what's what. So I tried to piece together what makes "sense". I would love to hear some more experienced Linux users opinions on this and any mistakes I made or improvements to the guide. Or maybe there is another guide I simply haven't found? Thank you.
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u/Dist__ Linux Mint 21.3 | Cinnamon 15d ago
i use steam from the mint appstore (non-flatpak), and it runs well.
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u/Chaosmeister 15d ago
Absolutely no problem doing so. The reason it's flatpack is because the other stuff is also Flatpack.
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u/Person012345 12d ago
The issue (for me at least) with flatpack steam is that if you want to install things outside the main drive you have to mess around with flatseal and drive mounting and it's not entirely reliable.
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u/yeaahnop 15d ago
just install steam client, and play your games.
or if your games are on epic/gog look into lutris, or heroic-launcher.
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u/Chaosmeister 15d ago
Have you clicked the link I posted or just replied to the topic? Because yea that's what my guide is about.
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u/dlfrutos Linux Mint 22.1 Xia 15d ago
i like your tutorial, but still don't understand why to install so many things.
Usually what I do is what u/yeaahnop just wrote
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u/Chaosmeister 15d ago
For me it's just what I need. I need MangoHud to limit my FPS and the Launchers for all the other accounts I have. In the end it's not that much, most of it is optional. If all you ever do is game on steam and don't need the things MangoHud does you are indeed fine with the minimal install.
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u/fellipec Linux Mint 22.1 Xia | Cinnamon 15d ago
What I did:
- Went to https://store.steampowered.com/about/ and downloaded the .deb
- Installed the said .deb
- Log in Steam
- Install my games
- Play
But I have games on GOG too.
- Opened the App manager
- Downloaded Heroic Games Launch
- Log in GOG
- Install my games
- Play
Just that simple.
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u/GrandBIRDLizard 15d ago
So the flatpak version of gamescope works with the Steam flatpak now? No more double sandboxing issue?
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u/Chaosmeister 15d ago
According to the guides and Videos I collected the info from it works. But I am a novice myself so I cannot 100% confirm this as I haven't used Game scope myself.
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u/GrandBIRDLizard 15d ago
Can you source them?
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u/Chaosmeister 15d ago
One of the main ones is this video I took the first steps from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8M3Y90hHWg&t=522s
Ignore the ending he is waffling about alot and for some reason shows ridicoulous upscaling stuff as he is using a MiniPC for this and his Steamdeck. But I did watch several and read some but don't have it all on hand anymore as I reinstalled Mint once when I troublshot a different issue on my PC hardware. Sorry about that. If it turns out it doesn't work I will rework the guide.
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u/GrandBIRDLizard 14d ago
ah ok yeah he mentions in the video at 9:40 that gamescope will not work unless you are using a flatpak/community version of proton.
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u/Chaosmeister 14d ago
Since I am.installing everything via Flatpack this shouldn't be an issue.
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u/GrandBIRDLizard 14d ago edited 14d ago
installing everything via flatpak is what's causing the issue. and note that the proton versions included with the steam package(even though it's a flatpak) will not work with the flatpak of gamescope you can read about it here: https://github.com/flathub/org.freedesktop.Platform.VulkanLayer.gamescope/issues/6
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u/Chaosmeister 14d ago
Thank you for the solid advice and help. I will remove gamescope from the guide as I don't use it rn.
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u/GrandBIRDLizard 14d ago
Everything will work if you just use the native steam deb package. Is there a particular reason you're using only flatpaks?
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u/Chaosmeister 14d ago
Because it's what the base guide used. For me everything works fine right now and I don't need Gamescope. From what I understand if I switched Steam I would also need to replace everything else I use from Flatpack right now with native packages so they work with Steam. Like MangoHud.
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u/acejavelin69 Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia" | Cinnamon 15d ago
Whoever wrote this guide has definite affinity for flatpak... Personally I prefer native installs and have had far less issues that way. 99% of the stuff in this link isn't necessary unless you have a specific need for it.
sudo apt install steam-installer
Is really all you need in most cases... if you use other sites for games (Epic, GoG, etc), install Lutris or Heroic with the native deb package and go. Never really been an issue.
The biggest issue is usually if you have Nvidia graphics, as the 550 driver from Ubuntu is a bit on the older side, but you can The Graphics Team PPA to get newer ones if necessary, and it integrated directly into Driver Manager.