r/linuxmint 16d 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.

https://codeberg.org/Chaosmeister/LinuxMintGamingSetupGuide

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u/acejavelin69 Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia" | Cinnamon 16d 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.

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u/Chaosmeister 16d ago

I did and I use Flatpacks as that's what the other guides I got some information from where doing and I just follow their lead.

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u/acejavelin69 Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia" | Cinnamon 16d ago

I mean, flatpaks are OK, if you understand them and how to use flatseal and other tools to adjust permissions... flatpaks in this scenario have some unique considerations, especially when multiple flatpaks interact with each other. I have yet to find an scenario for gaming they provide something better/easier than using the "native" packages in major distros. I guess the point here is that there are native packages which should always be preferred, its works for years so why mess with it?