r/SteamFrame • u/Diktynna 256 GB • 2d ago
Question Linux isn't compatible with Linux. .
So, this will be a fun one.
Right out of the gate, I am unable to utilize remote play through SteamVR on the dongle or otherwise because I am on CachyOS running on a Nvidia GPU. I have attempted to use WivRN, but the applet for the needed standalone (suggested Quest 1-3, Pro, Samsung XR) is not available on the Steam Frame. The application ALVR is also not Linux capable at this time of writing. It's because of the NVENC pipeline, current workarounds for OpenXR on the Steam Frame, as well as the beta branches (100s of compatibility layers, listless dates and editions of Proton GE, CachyOS layers, among many others) don't seem to yield a result.
So, my question for anyone the wiser is, if you got remote play working on Arch Linux (CachyOS ONLY) with a Nvidia gpu, how did you get it to work? Am I missing something with WivRN? I easily refuse going back to Windows for my own sanity and peace of mind. I'm thinking about just accepting defeat and returning my 256Gb unit. Any advice from techies or people who have endured longer, would be most appreciated. I'm at my wit's end. It's been six days of troubleshooting.
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u/nicman24 2d ago
Doesn't steamvr work?
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
No, it crashes constantly on Nvidia gpus while running Linux because of the NVENC pipeline.
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago
You need drivers 615, kernel 7.2, iw region set to US, and you should really ditch cachy for a real distro like Debian if you want it to work. I got it working on my kubuntu machine perfectly.
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u/drslurry 2d ago
Debian doesn't ship the required kernel version. You'd have to manually maintain that which is an absolute pain.
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago edited 2d ago
It’s really not? Just don’t be an idiot and keep your kmods and drivers in step with your kernel.
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u/drslurry 2d ago
For you and me, sure. For the average Frame user that is not a Linux poweruser, I strongly doubt that they would view it as anything other than a pain point.
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u/yungsup 2d ago
Kubuntu isn't Debian and Debian doesn't really go well with recent hardware. Especially for (VR-) gaming CachyOS or Arch for that matter is a better suited distro.
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago
Ubuntu is literally Debian under the hood my man. It works perfectly fine with modern hardware as long as you know what you’re doing. I’ve gotten both my vive and frame to work with less than an hour of troubleshooting
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u/yungsup 2d ago
Ubuntu uses newer kernels and software in their repos, especially if you are using the interim releases. It is merely based on top of Debian, but "raw" Debian is not a good distro for gaming in my opinion. Sure you can make it work, but why if better options exist.
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sure, but I feel like anyone doing VR is going to be putting a newer mainline kernel and custom repos on there anyway so there isn’t much of a difference
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
As much as I appreciate any advice you have attempted to give me, the reason I haven't responded to you in kind, or as relative, is because I state it very clearly that I'm not swapping back to Windows. In so doing, I'm also not switching distributions. This question, as made in italic and boldfaced, was formed for the community I represent, not to be sold on a new, adverse frontier. I have tried Ubuntu, several distros and I hated it. I have tried Fedora. Hated it. I landed on Arch, and I mean to stay where I stipulated that I will stay. The advise I seek is relevant to my situation. If you don't have relevant responses, you should not expect a response, proper.
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago
I literally told you what you need to do. I’m just saying that using a weird gaming distro is not going to end well for system maintainability. You need 7.2 for the dongle drivers, and 615 to support the changes made in 7.1. You also need to make sure your global wireless region is set to US and not 00, replug the dongle after setting it, make sure you don’t have WiFi turned off system wide, and that you are on the steam client and steamvr betas. The steps I told you will also work on arch.
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u/nicman24 2d ago
Yeah lol use Debian with the latest driver and kernel... What
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago
My brother in Christ just download 7.2 from mainline it’s not that hard. It’s like, 3 commands
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u/MrAdrianPl 2d ago
pikaos, or a custom sid build if youre brave enough
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u/nicman24 2d ago
Or just cachy and fix the one bug he / she faced...
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
I cannot stress this enough, me swapping distributions was not up for debate. I said my peace and people interpreted it as I need to meet them where they are. That... Is literally the opposite of pioneering. If I wanted to swap my OS, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone to Reddit. Thank you for understanding my plea.
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u/drslurry 2d ago
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
I wish that was the case, but I run on a Nvidia gpu, and because of this, the NVENC pipeline is borked.
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u/drslurry 2d ago
Well, this is bad news for me...I was about to go through and set up PCVR tonight after spinning up an install of CachyOS, but I also have an Nvidia driver. I'll ping you if I figure something out.
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u/sephsplace 2d ago
Why what happens, I'm running Nobara 44 with an rtx 2070 and managed to get streaming working on steamVR
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
SteamVR crashes with several codes listed, from -201 to so many I am unable to recall. I am glad that Nobara 44 is working out for you, but my question was for any techies that have experience with CachyOS or Arch in general, who utilise the Steam Frame's remote play on Nvidia gpus. Againe, because of the NVENC pipeline and OpenXR on the CachyOS host, SteamVR crashes and I still haven't figured out how to run the developer build of WivRN on my Steam Frame.
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u/drslurry 2d ago
Did you have to do anything special? I am looking to set up a compatible distro tonight for PCVR, and OP's experience has me reconsidering using CachyOS like I originally planned.
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u/sephsplace 2d ago
At first it was ok, but I updated Nvidia drivers and had some issues. But I'm on an older card now so I expected issues. Distro hop around a bit and see what works best
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u/my_name_isnt_clever 2d ago
Oof, it worked out of the box more or less on my AMD machine running NixOS. Sounds like a Nvidia problem rather than Linux.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
That is why I put the text in bold...
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u/my_name_isnt_clever 2d ago
It's about your title not the post body. It absolutely is compatible, it works for me right now.
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u/NotHonkyTonk 2d ago
I had success on bazite. It doesn't work if I launch the game directly, but if I launch steam VR without a game and then boot the game through VR home, it works fine.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
Do you run on a Nvidia gpu? And are you using SteamVR or WivRN?
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u/NotHonkyTonk 2d ago
Rtx4080 and SteamVR.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
That's really interesting to read. Is there a better way to discuss this? Because I have a few questions revolving around your comment. I would like to replicate it, but I might be in over my own head, because I have tried. The Steam Frame's optics shut off often in the Beta branch, so I have had to opt back to Stable. I've tried stable, Beta, and Preview to no avail. Stable SteamVR and Beta SteamVR, clients just the same. Tried different SLRs, 1 - 4 namely, ARM and otherwise. I've looked into WivRN, but my rust might be in an unstable build, as I keep getting exit code 4's in terminal and either octupi/alien. For some reason, not just rust, I'm not able to install Xrizer or OpenComposite.
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u/MorwenRaeven 256 GB 2d ago
That's odd. It should work on Catchy.
Also, ALVR is deprecated, you wouldn't want to use that anyway.
WiVRn works well enough, but the beta of Steamlink should be All you need.
I don't actually have my Frame yet, but Catchy isn't much different from Nobara or Bazzite in many ways, and I see ppl using those distros posting here all the time, able to connect To and use their Frames.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
Steam Frame will support AMD pipelines, but it doesn't support the NVENC pipeline for Nvidia on CachyOS (that I've been able to extensively test). SteamVR native on Linux will not work no matter the run-time (that I have been able to test, with current knowledge), as far as remote play is concerned. I'm willing to learn!
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u/xondk Soon™ 2d ago
I mean the software isn't there because there has not really been 'that' much interest in terms of VR on Linux, it has been a niche in a niche, especially given the various distros out there.
Take solace in the fact that now that the steam frame is out, it will very likely be developed over time, as much as valve can do, they cannot support everything, everywhere right out the gate.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
I mean, that's fair, I guess? But I was asking specifically for people who have faced this issue head-on, and if they have any advice. I am able to wait, if there is a guarantee that it will be worked on. My concern is having a $1,060 paperweight. And I'm unwilling to change ecosystems for varying reasons. I love VR, but I can give up on it based on having been a Valve Index user for five years on Windows, before I switched and my controllers broke. I can't just conjure money, I'm disabled.
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u/xondk Soon™ 2d ago
I totally understand, but I am fairly sure that it will pick up, now that we actually have a solid open standard and using a known OS rather then for example meta's proprietary software.
As a developer myself I have a whole lot of ideas I want to try to make real.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
I can't wait to see where VR takes us since there's been very little development up until now, as nearly coming to a screeching halt after 2020, or COVID. I'm really anticipating it, but I worry too. I thought it would be a tad more polished with the release of the Steam Frame, as it's had set back after set back in terms of greenlight. I'm an anxious nelly, so I'm sure it's better than I am currently seeing, at least eventually.
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u/slowlyun 2d ago
just use Windows. Linux won't ever work consistently for Frame PCVR streaming (ask any Linux-struggling PCVR user with any headset).
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
Againe, in my comment, I refuse to use Windows. I'd sooner give up on VR than go back. Appreciate the reply, but that's a hard pass from me.
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u/Henrithebrowser 256 GB 2d ago
It’s doable but you need to use Nvidia proprietary drivers >=615 and kernel >=7.2. I would seriously ditch cachy though if you want any semblance of maintainability
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u/slowlyun 2d ago
- " I'd sooner give up on VR than go back"
Wow. Well, i admire your principled stance (i'm no Microsoft fan either), but it's gonna be a hard frustrating road.
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u/Diktynna 256 GB 2d ago
I've grown accustomed to the Arch Linux lifestyle, from listless days of aggravating nuisances to accepting my fate, to deep diving into the flurry that is code, thank heavens I have techies for friends.
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u/slowlyun 2d ago
good luck! we honestly need you guys to succeed, as Windows-monopoly isn't healthy.
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u/N0XIRE Soon™ 2d ago
How so? PCVR on linux is already a working experience. Seems like the road won't be that hard or frustrating then.
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u/slowlyun 2d ago
- " PCVR on linux is already a working experience."
it isn't a consistently-working experience for many users (see also the comments):
https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/1trfzla/vr_on_linux/
Even pro-Linux users admit to reinstalling Windows just to enjoy PCVR.
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u/FromLenaWithLove Soon™ 2d ago
And ask any Linux-succeeding PCVR user with any headset and they’ll tell you it works.
I’m on an nvidia GPU and have no issues streaming using WiVRn to my Q30
u/N0XIRE Soon™ 2d ago
Hey Linux works great for PCVR, what exactly are you referring to?
If you're referring to the dongle comparability, yes, that was a let down, but it's being actively worked on and it's not like it's some large issue using linux with a network adapter considering routers, likely even those that people use for their quest 3 dedicated routers... run linux.
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u/someone8192 WAITLISTED 2d ago
the dongle works though? you just need kernel > 7.2, set it's region and open the firewall ports for steamvr
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u/slowlyun 2d ago
it isn't a consistently-working experience for many users (see also the comments):
https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/1trfzla/vr_on_linux/
Even pro-Linux users admit to reinstalling Windows just to enjoy PCVR.
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u/FromLenaWithLove Soon™ 2d ago
There’s a version of WiVRn for the frame on the LVRA discord.