No questions today, just some experiences I’ve had in the past days with a fresh Linux install.
So, as some might already know, there are some things that keep me from going 100% in on Linux. Mainly, at the moment, those are windows only Games and Audio Production. I’m now maintaining a “ToDo” List of stuff i can’t do on Linux and actively try to solve those one by one.
I’ve been a Debian fan since… well, forever. I started my Linux “carrier” on Ubuntu, but quickly went to plain debian. Ever since, I’ve been at home in the apt eco-system. I just never ran it at home for a gaming machine, as i thought, debian is plain to “conservative” for such a cutting edge usecase, where improvements come almost daily.
Well, turns out i was wrong. I just set up Debian on a 120G SSD to have a Linux system for some productive work. After having it set up, i thought i might just as well give it a go. After reading here, that Valve is developing mainly on Debian and only officially supports that, how bad could it be?
So, i’m now running unstable. Wine has a repository for debian and most other stuff is just available. Nvidia drivers are 2 or 3 versions behind, but that doesn’t seem to cause any issues. All the vulcan stuff needed for dxvk is available. Apart from the deb package for Lutris, all was available out of the box, or in one of two repos i needed.
And everything is running really smoothly. I play a lot of TFT at the moment. The league installer failed for me on Arch. On Debian, it just installed, and i’ve been playing a lot of games since. No issues. Just as good as on Windows. I have no clue if LoL would play or not, but for TFT it’s 100% no Problem.
Overwatch Was a similar story. Installation never has been a Problem for me. Performance was a different storry. The first day on Debian ran like native. A bit better even than Windows.
The day after, i’m back to compiling shaders and really poor performance though. I’m looking in Training and Arcades if this gets better over time. But running it has been a non issue so far. Every know and then, a movement key “sticks” and i have to alt-tab out and back in. Also, with three screens, The mouse sometimes isn’t “locked” to the game, moving out left or right. I just disable the two screens while running the game as a workaround for now.
My Rocksmith 2014 situation was fixed some time ago. ProtonDB Comments have solutions on how to get it to run under Proton without Lutris and such. I have to turn of my other Screens to get 144 FPS. It’s locked to 60 if i don’t. But that’s an X Problem, i think. Since i run nvidia, wayland isn’t an option yet, but i’m sure we’ll get there some day.
Audio Production is still a mixed bag. I dipped my toes into Ardour and could very well work with it. But the Plugin Situation is a sht-show. All i basically need is a Drums Plugin. In windows i use EZ-Drummer. I know there are ways to make Windows VST’s work, but it’s complicated, takes a whole lot of effort and wasn’t too stable last time i tried it.
There aren’t any Linux native Plugins out there that i’ve found, that do a decent job. I really don’t have a solution for this. For plain recording, everything is smooth. Though jack still is not ideal. The whole Audio System of Linux is hard to work with really.
When my new Hardware is with me today, i’ll give the Windows Plugins in Ardour another shot. I’ll have a new 1TB SSD available, which lets me devote a 512G SSD to Linux. 120 is not a lot of space to work with for Games and Audio Production.
So, Overall, my Gaming Problems are solved (for now). Everything i’d need works now. I default to booting Linux over Windows now, which is great. I’ll keep Windows around for Audio Production and for the times Game Updates Break running them on Linux, but other than that, I’m closer to leaving Windows behind then ever.
And as a general thing i learned: Don’t dismiss something you haven’t tried. Just because debian is “conservative and stable” doesn’t mean it isn’t great for cutting edge gaming too. That and Budgie has replaced Gnome for good now, on all of my machines. It’s similar enough, but better 