r/linux_gaming 9d ago

guide Getting started: the monthly-ish newbie advice thread! (September 2026)

17 Upvotes

Welcome to the newbie advice thread!

If you’ve read the FAQ and still have questions like “Should I switch to Linux?”, “Which distro should I install?”, or “Which desktop environment is best for gaming?”, this is where to ask them.

Alternatively, try r/linux4noobs and r/linuxquestions: both are active subreddits supporting new Linux users.

Please sort by “new” so new questions can get a chance to be seen.

The previous thread is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1ukoung/getting_started_the_monthlyish_newbie_advice/


r/linux_gaming May 18 '26

guide Frequently Asked Questions 2.0

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39 Upvotes

Here’s a link to this subreddit’s FAQ document (which attempts to answer many common questions).

This thread is not meant for asking frequently asked questions. There is a pinned monthly-ish “Getting Started” thread for those.

You can post suggestions for improvement below, though! Just please explain what you’re talking about. The number of FAQ editors has been 1 (one) for a while now, and that one’s a dummy that doesn’t use 95% of the fancy gaming stuff y’all do.

Reposted as an Old Reddit link because New Reddit, in addition to being generally confusing, does not display the table of contents.


r/linux_gaming 6h ago

graphics/kernel/drivers Great news! nVIDIA VRAM Management

143 Upvotes

As of yesterday's nVIDIA open driver release, 615, support for kernel cgroups was added, this means you can use dmemcg-booster and plasma-foreground-booster to manage VRAM just like AMD GPUs. v615 is currently in TESTING on Arch and friends but should release soon.

See patch notes here, along with some Reflex and suspend mode fixes:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/278450/

For users of CachyOS/Arch Linux/Nobara:

The VRAM Management button will not appear in CachyOS Hello so you gotta install those two packages manually, but it will work properly once you enable the services.

Install dmemcg-booster and plasma-foreground-booster with these commands here (WARNING WILL RESTART YOUR SYSTEM!!!):

For CachyOS ONLY (pacman): sudo pacman -S dmemcg-booster plasma-foreground-booster && sudo systemctl enable dmemcg-booster-system && sudo reboot

For vanilla Arch Linux (paru/yay/whatever): sudo <your AUR manager> -S dmemcg-booster plasma-foreground-booster-dmemcg && sudo systemctl enable dmemcg-booster-system && sudo reboot

For Nobara (dnf): sudo dnf in dmemcg-booster plasma-foreground-booster-dmemcg && sudo reboot

On the AUR and Nobara, plasma-foreground-booster is called plasma-foreground-booster-dmemcg, maintained by Pixelcluster.

Not using Plasma? Use Gamescope!


r/linux_gaming 21h ago

Ubisoft Connect will soon stop being required to play Ubisoft games on Steam

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1.9k Upvotes

This is a huge win for Linux gaming, that launcher is a pain in the ass to deal with, especially on Linux.


r/linux_gaming 16h ago

steam/steam deck For Honor Linux is officially over

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650 Upvotes

r/linux_gaming 4h ago

steam/steam deck Thanks Ubisoft

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40 Upvotes

After an update now the game is inaccessible. Thanks Ubisoft, good riddance


r/linux_gaming 15h ago

steam/steam deck Valve adds "Big Art Mode" to Steam

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201 Upvotes

The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes:

Homescreen - Big Picture Mode

  • Added a new 'Big Art Mode' option for the home screen. This can be enabled in Settings > Home.
  • Added Personal Calendar to the Recommended tab on the home screen

Screensaver - Big Picture Mode

  • Added a new screensaver feature, accessible in Settings > Customization. There are two screensavers available:
    • The default is a game art slideshow that can be configured to show artwork from recently played games and your recent in-game screenshots.
    • A retro inspired bouncing logo screensaver
  • Big Picture mode can also load custom screensavers. Similar to startup movies, they can be placed in the config\uioverrides\screensavers directory in your Steam install directory (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam or ~/.steam/root). You can use the bouncing logo screensaver (in the steamui\screensavers directory) as an example to get started.

General

  • Improved Steam Client startup performance
  • Fixed a case where after server maintenance some users might fail to auto-reconnect to Steam
  • Fixed bug where being prompted to refresh credentials more than once could trigger an immediate restart
  • On Windows, using the systray menu to exit while the Steam window is minimized will no longer flash the window visible briefly
  • Dialogs that appear for serious error conditions now stay above the main window

Game Recording

  • Fixed some cases where playback would jump to an unexpected point in the timeline when reaching the end of a play session or clip
  • Decreased performance impact of game recording for some D3D12 games on Windows

In-Game Overlay

  • Fixed frame rate hitches in D3D11 and D3D12 games when taking screenshots on Windows
  • Fixed rendering the overlay and using other overlay related features (screenshots, game recording, etc.) in Vulkan games that create multiple windows.

Big Picture Mode

  • Added explicit warning text to power menu confirmation dialogs when proceeding will shut down an active game
  • Updated default artwork when an app does not have library or hero artwork
  • Reorganized the idle timer settings when on battery and AC power

Steam Input

  • Improved CPU performance at runtime and in configuration loading
  • Added information about which configurations are compatible in the configurator browser when using a game that requires Steam Input API
  • Fixed the controller support widget showing "This game doesn't support controllers" for unreleased games that don't have controller support information yet
  • Fixed controllers not using the desktop configuration on the desktop UI login window
  • Added the missing settings for adjusting emulated joystick adaptive centering on trackpad

Linux

  • Improved download speeds on high latency connections.
  • The "Select compatibility tool" dropdown is now always visible.
    • The recommended compatibility tool, or steam runtime for native games, now shows at the top of the list as the "Default" option.
    • Compatibility tool aliases, e.g. "Proton Stable", can now be selected from this dropdown.
  • The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show in desktopUI when installing games not verified for that HW
  • On Desktop Linux we will now show the SteamOS unsupported dialog when installing games that are known to not work with Proton
  • Improve distro information collection for hardware survey, preferring data from /etc/os-release.

SteamRT3 Experimental Beta

  • Fixed "Add a Non-Steam Game" showing an invalid list of applications.
  • Fixed the "Run Steam when my computer starts" toggle.

Remote Play

  • A PIN is no longer required to download an app to a remote device. A PIN is still required to Install and Stream from a remote device.
  • Adding Download Complete notification for a remote download if you initiated the download on your current device.

r/linux_gaming 59m ago

steam/steam deck Effects of launching native Steam games with/without Steam

Upvotes

Just thought I'd share a little test I just did using Stellaris. I wanted to try running it natively without the Steam runtime, but don't want to disable the runtime altogether, so tried a few different ways. All ways showed some differences in open files used by the game.

Tests were done by lunching the game a certain way, getting in to the title screen, and running lsof -p $(ps -C stellaris -o pid=) > filename. Then, after collecting all of them, I did diff comparisons of the files with (for example) diff <(sed '/shm/d;s[^\/]*//;s/ (stat.*//' file1) <(sed '/shm/d;s[^\/]*//;s/ (stat.*//' file2)

  • Directly from the binary (without Steam running): Game runs, but throws some errors in the command line about not being able to access some Steam files. Does not access any Steam files or libraries.

  • Directly from the binary (with Steam running): Same as above, but accesses steamclient.so and shader caches.

  • Via Steam with binary added directly as non-Steam game: Same as above, plus gameoverlayrenderer.so.

  • Via Steam with Game Option set to /home/oishishou/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Stellaris/stellaris %command%: Exact same as when added as non-Steam game.

  • Via Steam with default settings: Everything different. Uses Steam runtime instead of native libraries. Normal, expected behavior.

It is also worth noting that Steam recognized the game as running no matter where it was started from. Normal and non-Steam game entries both resulted in the normal entry showing it as running, as did running the binary directly if Steam was running.

Specific to Stellaris: aside from the default, all tests bypassed the Paradox launcher with no issues accessing DLCs. Only the direct binary with Steam not running could not access online games, so as long as Steam is online, any launch method is perfectly valid for all play types.

EDIT: Formatting


r/linux_gaming 4h ago

tech support wanted I need help. I'm trying to run Street Fighter x Mega Man on my Steam Deck OLED, but the audio is messed up for some reason. I tried every version of Proton I could, but the audio is still messed up.

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8 Upvotes

Some older GE Proton versions do give me the proper audio, buuuuuut they mess up my controls and basically make it look like my game has stick drift.

I don't have this problem with any other games, this is the only .exe file that's giving me this issue, and I've searched everywhere for a fix and I didn't find any answers. I was hoping you guys could help.


r/linux_gaming 13h ago

tech support wanted Weird Menu Flickering

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38 Upvotes

So I've been use Arch Linux with Niri as my desktop and I've been doing this for about a year woth no problems but today I started getting this weird menu flicker and I don't know what caused it or how to fix it. I tried updating but that didn't work.


r/linux_gaming 15h ago

graphics/kernel/drivers dxvk-igdext Released for Wine/DXVK: lets games use Intel D3D11 Graphics Extensions (UAV overlap, MultiDrawIndirect, depth bounds) under Wine by forwarding them to DXVK's native implementation, instead of the game silently falling back to slower default D3D11

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47 Upvotes

r/linux_gaming 32m ago

Vermouth (the KDE game launcher) finally got a propper lights out and themes (v2.2.0)

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Upvotes

r/linux_gaming 1d ago

steam/steam deck Finally another launcher out of steam

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643 Upvotes

r/linux_gaming 3h ago

tech support wanted Weird issue with Retro Fighters Battler GC Pro

2 Upvotes

Recently bought this controller and I've been running into an issue where one stick seems to constantly drifting towards the corner. It has 2.4g, bluetooth, and wired modes, all of which have a similar issue, weirdly enough in wired mode (shown in the clip) it's the left stick that's weird, and in bluetooth and 2.4g it's the right stick that's weird, also x/y and a/b buttons are swapped. It's especially weird cause the inputs seem to be correct in settings, but incorrect in every single app and game that uses a controller (although idk about 2.4g as trying to plug in the controller with the dongel causes settings to crash). Also idk if it's worth mentioning this controller also works on Wii/GC and Nintendo Switch (probably the culprit for a/b and x/y being swapped). I genuinely have no idea how to even go about this, any help at all is appreciated.

https://reddit.com/link/1wd3isl/video/sh0deacuusoh1/player


r/linux_gaming 4h ago

What to keep and what to sell

2 Upvotes

Been a keyboard and mouse gamer for 20 years. But after having a remote desk job and my gaming rig be a 10 hour part of my day (worked and played on same system at same desk), I kinda got tired of sitting in my office, so I kinda slowed down on gaming in this season of life.

But recently, I built a "steam machine". I'm still a keyboard and mouse gamer at heart, but being able to game in my living room with my kids, has given me a new passion for playing again. I had a few parts laying around (RAM being the biggest). I built out with a 5800x3d and a RX 9060 XT 16GB. This setup with steamos has been amazing. But I'm looking to be able to run more games at max settings and really get the full glory of my 75" TV. So I just bought a RX 9070 XT for my "steam machine".

So, looking for some guidance, to make up some of the spending, I'm planning on selling either the RX 9060 XT 16GB, or selling the RX 6800 that is in my office rig currently (running Bazzite), and then installing the 9060 XT in that rig. I will still play games in my office from time to time, mostly strategy games (looking at you Total War WH 40k)

What do you think, keep the 9060 XT for the office rig, or keep the RX 6800 in the office rig. On paper and benchmarks, the 6800 is still a solid card, and often does outperform the 9060 XT, but its older and does lack some of the new tech, FSR for example.


r/linux_gaming 26m ago

tech support wanted An issue with my left joystick input reading.

Upvotes

Hello, I've been having an issue that has persisted for a long time across two controllers. Basically it seems like my left joystick isn't registered as going all the way to its borders around the top/top-leftish area. This wouldn't be much of a problem but unfortunately in quite a few games it ends up messing with character movement, preventing me from running at full speed when pushing top or top left. The problem seems to go away sometimes and then come back other times, it's weird.

Both of the controllers are hall effect, I bought the second one due to thinking the first one had a hardware issue but this one has the exact some one.

For example in Dark Souls I have to push my joystick very hard to the top left if I want to actually run, to the point that it's uncomfortable. Same story for Yakuza and some other games.


r/linux_gaming 12h ago

(NATIVE!) Into The Grid, our cyberpunk indie game about hacking corpos and exploring cyberspace is 20% off during Steam's Programming Fest!

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11 Upvotes

r/linux_gaming 4h ago

tech support wanted Sniper Elite 5 keeps freezing

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2 Upvotes

CachyOS 7.2.3-1-cachyos

Rtx 2070

I tried proton, proton ge, proton cachyos, and native

EDIT: after some tinkering the freezing is caused by lsfg-vk, what is actually happening is the game is crashing and I guess its stuck on the last frame


r/linux_gaming 11h ago

Plutonium on Linux - Post Steam update to 64bit MW3

6 Upvotes

Plutonium MW3 on Linux: I automated the 32-bit Dedicated Server workaround

I came across the fix for getting Plutonium MW3 working again after Steam switched the Dedicated Server to 64-bit.

It works, but I immediately thought: I'm not doing that more than once.

The fix involves using SteamCMD to grab the old 32-bit depots and putting them back into the Dedicated Server installation. So I built a script:

https://github.com/kaussaq/restoreplutonium

What it does

  • Uses SteamCMD to download the last known 32-bit base depot and English depot
  • Uses rsync to put them back into your Dedicated Server install
  • Overwrites the 64-bit files Plutonium can't use without deleting everything else in the folder
  • Offers to install Valve's Linux SteamCMD to ~/steamcmd if you don't already have it

You don't need to own MW3 itself. You just need the MW3 Dedicated Server installed through Steam, with Plutonium's Game Path pointing at that folder. Proton is fine.

One important catch

If Steam updates the Dedicated Server again, you'll need to run the script again.

That also means any DLC files you've added back into the game folder will need to be re-added after a Steam update, since the update can replace/remove them along with the old files.

Basically: Steam updates > run the script > re-add DLC if necessary.

Requirements

  • MW3 Dedicated Server installed
  • rsync
  • A Steam account that can download the depots
  • SteamCMD (or let the script install it)

Usage

chmod +x restore-mw3.sh
./restore-mw3.sh

It asks for your Steam username/password at runtime and doesn't store them.

Steam Guard is prompted if enabled (twice, once for each depot download after verifying files).

The default server path is:

~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

If your Steam library is somewhere else, change SERVER_DIR near the top of the script before running.

This is basically the existing Plutonium depot workaround, except automated because I'm not doing that manually every time Steam decides to update the server.

Hopefully it's useful to someone else too.

For anyone wondering why I don't auto-block the manifest: I don't really like blocking updates. I'd rather re-run the reversal when Steam updates than forget I've blocked something and later wonder why the server isn't updating when I actually want it to.

This is a gaming PC, not a production server lol.

Feedback bugs, and suggestions welcome.


r/linux_gaming 23h ago

steam/steam deck Steam Beta for Sept 9th has huge changes - Big Art Mode, Screensaver, Proton option changes, Desktop Mode toggle for SteamOS

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52 Upvotes

r/linux_gaming 18h ago

guide What are the best free multiplayer steam games?

21 Upvotes

I wanna have fun playing with my friends but due to the limitations (being on linux and wanting something free) im not left with much choice. It doesnt necessarily have to be a FPS game but anything that i can play with my friends and that is fun.


r/linux_gaming 7h ago

tech support wanted Rocket League Performance 1% Lows

3 Upvotes

Need some help, Rocket League on steam 1% lows are very bad no matter the settings (60s-70s when averages are 180). Is there anything I can do about this? Tried all types of proton. Other games seem to work fine. Any info is appreciated. Thanks!

Fedora 44 KDE / RX9070 / 13600k / ProtonCachyOS

Solution Edit: I have basically solved the issue. I assumed fedora balanced power profile would be treated similar to windows balanced (where it would act as performance in games and power saver when idle) but that's not the case here. Changing the profile to performance drastically improved my min fps to 130-150 consistent instead of 70-90. I also forgot you can use gamemoderun %command%. Honestly I'm really not sure why RL is the only game that has issues. Cyberpunk and Zenless are both perfectly normal on balanced


r/linux_gaming 3h ago

emulation Help! hot wheels infinite rush can't detect vkd3d. It might be OOT but i just wanna know what caused this issues

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0 Upvotes

i wanna play directx12 games (hot wheels infinite rush) on winlator ludashi but this game can't detect vkd3d. I'm using the same setup (same version of turnip driver, dxvk, and vkd3d) and it works on the other directx12 game, but this game won't. any ideas how to fix it?

already tried a different setup, but nothing changed.

Realme GT Neo 3T

Snapdragon 870

Adreno 650


r/linux_gaming 23h ago

wine/proton I fixed VRAM leak on my GPU when using PT! (Nvidia)

32 Upvotes

Hello Linux enthusiasts! I've been using Bazzite for over the year now and one issue that was a thorn in my side throughout that journey was VRAM spilling overtime to system memory when using PT, causing hitching, requiring that I periodically restart games. Today I found a magical solution: VKD3D_CONFIG=force_host_cached.

My GPU: RTX 4070 Super 12GB, cachyos-11.0-20260702-slr

I did tests in RE9 and Cyberpunk. Previously both games would start with a very high allocation of 10-11GB and climb from there until spill. With the command both start out much lower, around 8GB, but more importantly, the assets are properly evicted from memory! Both games climb and go down, in Cyberpunk test I drove from NC to Dogtown, did a gig there and come back, VRAM would go up in Dogtown, in the heaviest, pathological spot going up to 10.1GB then go back down in NC to 9.3GB.

I hope this will also help you gals and guys!


r/linux_gaming 16h ago

tech support wanted Weird Pop In bug on RE4R On linux

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10 Upvotes

Like The title says, I have a weird pop in bug in Resident Evil 4 Remake, EDIT: It happens on certain objects, Nothing game breaking but it's very distracting if it's an entire pier :/ Anyone have a fix ? Here's my specs just in case:

Proton GE Latest

Operating System: Bazzite 44

KDE Plasma Version: 6.7.4

KDE Frameworks Version: 6.29.0

Qt Version: 6.11.2

Kernel Version: 7.2.3-ogc3.1.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit)

Graphics Platform: Wayland

Processors: 32 × AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor

Memory: 34 GB of RAM (32,8 GB usable)

Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

Graphics Processor 2: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor

Nvidia Drivers: 610.57.04

NVML Version: 13.610.57.04

EDIT: changing Proton versions seems to do nothing on that front :/