I’m a fairly experienced Linux user and a gamer, and I want off Windows for good. I’m stuck choosing a distro and would like direct, technical advice.
My setup
RTX 4060, 1080p 144Hz
FFXIV (XIVLauncher/Dalamud), SWTOR, Minecraft Java and Bedrock, and a Steam library
I want to be ready for Fortnite on Linux once Epic ships it
My requirements
Current software and a current NVIDIA driver
Not a rolling release
No snaps (if I can help it)
Not KDE and not Arch-based
Easy NVIDIA setup
Ideally one of Epic’s supported distros for the new Linux launcher (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 43+, Debian 12+), or close to it
What’s already out
Fedora: akmod-nvidia from RPM Fusion installed, I waited for the build and rebooted, then had no sound and the resolution locked at 1024x768. Secure Boot was off.
Debian: driver stack too old
Ubuntu: snaps
Linux Mint: base too old
Questions
Which distro would you pick for these requirements?
Has anyone had the same Fedora result (no sound, 1024x768) on a 40-series card, and what fixed it?
Any advice for making the switch stick and not ending up back on Windows?
Bazzite is your best bet. They have an Nvidia build that you can easily install and I have minimal issues with it. It’s pretty stable and you don’t have to fiddle around with it.
And bazzite is a distro I will not touch with a ten foot barge pole. Sadly I have had issues with it before and support is non-existent and my game launcher doesn’t have flatpak
I’m very surprised to hear this. You are not going to have windows levels of support available, but I’ve had very good luck with the bazite discord server for getting help with problems. I’ve even had the bazzite devs respond to my issues on there.
Which one? If you are talking about FFXIV, you need to install it via lutris. I currently have it on my wife’s PC (Bazzite, 2080ti) and 0 issues. But Based on your above reqs. It is the best distro for your needs that I’m aware of.
Beyond that you can try Pop OS!, but it has it’s own set of trade offs and odd problems due to Cosmic DE.
Nobara is also a decent option to look at. But it’s going to have worse support than bazzite from my experience with it.
Yeah I was going to try bazzite but I only had a ventoy drive which fails so I asked for help and was banned from the server because I couldn’t afford a usb stick so yeah no thanks
And the game is FFXIV using a custom launcher called XIVLauncher-RB
That does not sound right. But I’m not a moderator on there nor am I on there 24/7. So
All you should need to do is reformat the USB stick. Install Bazzite and then you should be g2g. You can easily just recreate the ventoy drive once you are done.
The XIVLauncher Steam compatibility tool is handled by a project called XLM. Automatic install scripts are provided for all major system configurations that will do most of the setup work for you (However if your system configuration is not covered here you can always manually download the XLM binary from the GitHub Releases Page and install that way). Regardless of how you install XLM from it will always be kept up to date automatically.
Run one of the following commands to install XLM as a Steam compatibility tool. What command you need to run depends on how you have Steam installed. These scripts CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be run with sudo or root permissions.
Steamdeck Install Script (also for Bazzite and other deck-interface distros):
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Blooym/xlm/main/setup/install-steamdeck.sh)"
Now I’m not 100% the above will work and I don’t see a need to use as the native client works just fine via lutris on my end.
You’re best off accepting arch-based or doing all the work yourself to set up Nvidia on not-arch-based, if you don’t want Bazzite. SteamOS itself is arch-based.
IMO, it’s odd to not want a rolling release distro for gaming, given new kernels and mesa drivers generally contain further optimizations and performance tweaks for games. It’s precisely why I run the latest versions of those on my gaming PC.
CachyOS checks all the boxes except it’s Arch based and a rolling release. I guess if you explain more why the no-arch based and no-rolling release we can come up with better suggestions?
Because I can’t explain why I just want to install and forgot that’s why I don’t want rolling and I want to be ready for epic and Fortnite which sounds like they don’t want to support arch based
Some distros don’t work with Ventoy (not just universalblue). Some iso-tools (like mem-test) also don’t always work. This may also depend on the MB to be honest. The Bazzite instruction also state that Ventoy doesn’t work. They recommend Fedora Media writer. It looks like the instructions say Ventoy requires extra steps Anyway, I still wouldn’t use Ventoy since it seems to be a tool that often works, but not always
I’ve ran into this issue when trying Aurora (the regular KDE cousin to Bazzite)… but using a regular flashing worked perfectly. I’ve used it on 3 PCs and I’m over happy. EVERY other dsitro is a DIY tinker project. Aurora - just perfect with zero issues or maintenance required. I attached my guide.
I don’t know why you got banned. On the aurora discord people get help on their specific questions and developers seem to be active. It is important to provide clear information and investigate beforehand.
When having a problem, I make sure I first find out if the problem is a general issue (i.e. a KDE question) and ask that here. If it is an actual issue specific to the distro (i.e. you needing to use a tool that gets blocked by Bazzite being atomic), then i go to that specific forum.
This will require some specific investigation or a different tool. Bazzite being Atomic may or may not require something specific.
Unless you pay Canonical, or REdHat… there is no support for any OS. Windows also doesn’t provide support to normal users. “Support” for any OS basically from other users, or documentation.
when googling or using LLM, i find it helpful to specifically point out, my distro is Atomic so i don’t get the wrong advice of the LLM telling me to use apt or so.
What is rolling to you? Fedora is rolling during the life of a version (gets Kernel, package and DE updates). Aurora/Bazzite will automatically upgrade you to the next Fedora version. So from a user-point, those are kind of rolling as in you get updated eternally and never stay on the same version. Same for Ubuntu interim versions, they “ roll” into they next version as well. i know technically it isn’t rolling like Arch, but from a user point of view, you get upgraded sooner or later. Are you basically limiting yourself to Ubuntu LTS and Debian?
Well, you don’t want rolling, but also not the non-rolling distros. which ones are left? Suse Leap? I suspect that also will have old packages.
if you don’t consider Fedora rolling (13 month cycle, but it updates DE and Kernels…). But:
Now that you excluded every distro, may we recommend Windows?
Steam being atomic still bothers the user to update?
On Aurora (and Bazzite) flatpaks automatically update twice daily, and the OS updates to a new image every time you boot. A user will never know there was an update (unless you track Kernel versions, like a nerd). You can set that to weekly, or daily (or disable - then it will prompt you at some point). But a user has to do nothing, ever. Even the new Fedora base will update (i.e. from F43 to F44 and so on) without user intervention.
I think you should give CachyOS a shot. Its install is easy, you can pick a DE that isn’t KDE (it has lots available) during the install, and it “just works” in my experience testing it on a 7950X system with two 5060 Tis.
Being a rolling release isn’t the hassle it sounds like for a gaming machine. It just means the little “updates available” will chirp at you every couple days or once a week (I believe you can configure this, but I didn’t check), same as how Steam itself will update a few times a week. Epic’s own launcher will probably update more often than that because they’ve absolutely slop-coded it so far and thus will probably push constant updates to fix it.
It looks like they’ve pushed it as an AppImage so it should be installable on CachyOS fine (though I hate AppImages so I’d just dodge it). There’s already the Heroic Launcher that works great and runs Epic Games Store games, with the loosening of the anti-cheat for Fortnite on Linux it likely works there now. I don’t play Fortnite so I unfortunately can’t test. I do use GOG for Cyberpunk 2077 and that works great in Heroic.
You’ve eliminated the three distro’s. I would’ve recommended which would’ve been linux mint, Fedora , cachyos so I don’t have any recommendations, but I do know how to fix the gpu issue.
The distro’s are in order of you don’t know how to use Linux well enough to you can troubleshoot anything I need to
Diagnosis & Fix for the Fedora Issue (1024x768 + No Sound)
What Happened
A 1024x768 resolution combined with missing audio on an RTX 4060 indicates that the NVIDIA kernel module failed to load, causing Fedora to fall back to the generic EFI framebuffer (simplefb / efifb). When the proprietary display driver fails to bind, the RTX 4060’s onboard HDMI/DisplayPort audio controller remains uninitialized, resulting in lost audio endpoints.
This usually happens if the reboot occurred before akmod finished building in the background, or if dracut failed to include the new driver in the initial ramdisk (initramfs) image.
How to Fix It on Fedora
If you want to rescue the Fedora installation, run these commands in a terminal or TTY (Ctrl + Alt + F3):
Install matching kernel development headers:
sudo dnf install kernel-devel-matched kernel-headers
Force akmods to rebuild the NVIDIA driver module:
sudo akmods --force
Regenerate the boot initramfs image to include the NVIDIA driver:
sudo dracut --force --verbose
Verify the driver is loaded and reboot:
nvidia-smi
sudo reboot
If nvidia-smi outputs your RTX 4060 details and driver version, the module is successfully active.
without my game anyway there is no point switching given each time I switch it goes wrong anyway I shouldn’t have ask the question I did so I am sorry to bother people
I wouldn’t switch to Linux BEFORE that actually came to Linux and you know 100% sure it works fine. Companies also change their mind.
If this is a hard requirement, I would re-resurrect the Linux issue once It actually happened and you know there are no other new games you may want that are not on Linux.
It works but i use other stuff for vision issues (reshade) and the custom launcher which noone can really explain how i can get it working safely without going to AUR and arch based….
its not a hard requirement but a nice to have. i play with my kid when he wants to play which isnt often atm but its more to plan ahead.
The apps you enjoy (or need) should determine what OS you use.
If a Windows app “has difficulties” on Linux, it will be similar on most distros. And an AUR app may or may not work next week. (Outside the general AUR issues).
Dual-boot is my only suggestion here, especially if W11 use would occasional only. Then pick the Linux distro that meets your Linux needs the best.
Outside the Ventoy issue (which isn’t a real issue once you know, IMHO) I still think the Universal Blue distros are best. They work out of the box, always work, and stay out of my way. I would use W11 if I had to use traditional distros.
I’ve tested 30+ distros. And still test one every month or so. But honestly, all the traditional distros need more setup, some fixing, or suffer from an upgrade every once a while. I couldn’t recommend them to a normal non- computer person.
I hate windows 11. i dont want to use it hence why i constantly look for Linux. switching without help and going back to windows ever few months. its tiring to hate something so much but it be the only thing you can use…
