Planning to Build a Linux VM for Cloud Gaming (RDP) with an NVIDIA A2000. Best Gaming Distro for NVIDIA?

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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Hello, everyone. :slight_smile:

I’ve got a Proxmox server with an NVIDIA A2000 in it. I’d like to set up a VM for cloud gaming with Parsec or Sunshine/Apollo.

If possible, I’d like to avoid using Windows 11, and I have to admit I’d sure be nice to just install something and get to gaming without having to spend a week tweaking everything.

I’m really interested in trying Bazzite, but I have a couple of questions:

  1. I have an NVIDIA A2000. I know NVIDIA’s not the best for Linux gaming, but my target is older games (Star Trek Online, City of Heroes, etc.)/modern 2.5D stuff (like Shredder’s Revenge) at 60 FPS. Even though I’ve got a 4K monitor, I might actually go for 1080p or 1440p–I’ve got tunnel vision and can’t see the entire screen, so I might end up just centering a lower resolution/higher quality image on the display so I can see everything.
  2. Cloud Gaming/Remote Desktop Setup on Bazzite? I’ve never used an immutable OS before. How hard it is to configure something like Apollo or Sunshine for someone who’s not familiar with immutable Linux?
  3. Constraints. Are there any notable constraints with Bazzite that I should be aware of, compared to something like CachyOS (Wendell’s other recommendation in his video with GN). If this was a general purpose VM, I’d definitely go with Cachy or EndeavourOS, but I’d really just like to be able to play games at this point. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks!

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You seem to be thinking of reasonable questions.

This link suggests, you just have to enable sunshine:
https://youtu.be/zVKmQTkLvLY?t=38

That said, I’ve not used Bazzite & don’t have (or miss having) anything recent and nvidia. I’m aware there’s releases of Bazzite for nvidia specifically, just choose that through it’s download selector tree.

As it reads like you already have the host, the opportunity cost is very low - create a VM and see if you like it. You might benefit from connecting up a monitor to it and setting it up with the card already passed through, without the proxmox virtual display adapter and it leave connected until you have streaming running with sunshine from it (maybe also enable a backup remote access, e.g. VNC/RDP. For a VM, I might also set a user to auto login, this gets past some user context difficulties - moonlight has its own access token). (might also need a hdmi/displayport fake display dongle).

If you need something more general purpose, add another VM with Cachy, or whatever else you like. it’s not like you have to licence each one. But equally you don’t need Bazzite to run Steam.

Things really have come along far in the ‘AD’ (after deck) era.