Steam Linux Live USB - Games to Go.

[Adam Beckett]

Ten years ago, or so, before 'gaming' became mobile with smart phones and tablets, and notebooks still weighed 10+ pounds, this would have been amazing?!

A few days back, out of curiosity, I downloaded a pre-configured 'Linux Gaming' Live Distro called "sparkylinux' ...

https://sparkylinux.org/

... and installed it on a thumbdrive. It comes with Steam. I updated Steam. Installed some of my SteamOS/Linux library games ... and there it was: all I ever wanted on a small USB thumbdrive. Installed in less then 10 minutes. Carry it around. Plug it into every PC that comes my way and is not 'safe'.

No fiddling with video drivers or xorg.conf files, installing kernel modules, making WINE work (more or less), trying to find install-scripts for games on Linux... reading man-pages, compiling source code, extracting Windows game installers...

Everything 'just works'.

Sadly, a few years too late?

There is still a 'use case' for a Linux Live Distro though: if you use Windows primarily for gaming?

I find myself surfing the web or watching videos while/in-between gaming way too often. Web browsers on Windows - even without Adobe Flash - are way too vulnerable. Yes, you can install AdBlocker and NoScript, but then you still use 'extensions' which circumvent the very idea of safety?

It is nice to browse the web on a Linux Live Distro, knowing, it's primary idea is to "never touch the harddrives".

There are guaranteed no zombie files finding their way into the Windows directories. No exploits to be found, no matter what. Especially when games STILL seek to get "Admin" rights on Windows so they get 'write' privileges on harddrives, it is way to inconvenient to RunAs... Admin, while everything else is in restiricted 'Windows user' mode. Who isn't running as Admin all the time, on Windows Gaming PCs?

And another benefit - if your Steam game library has mutated into the thousands of games - you get to play stuff, you forgot you wanted to try out?

So, while "Linux Live Gaming Distro" might not be the answer for "Games to Go" anymore, with those Samsungs and iPhones in people's pockets. "Linux Live at Home" might still be a valid option?

[Marlock]

There may be something to it...

But what is it that you see in sparkylinux that can be better than dual-booting win+linux or using only linux, or even installing any other linux distro to usb as its main drive and using it for gaming?

[Adam Beckett]

Originally posted by Marlock:

There may be something to it...

But what is it that you see in sparkylinux that can be better than dual-booting win+linux or using only linux, or even installing any other linux distro to usb as its main drive and using it for gaming?

... perfectly valid points.

Short answer: nothing. And nothing.



Only a f t e r writing this, it came to me: "... or, just install (any) Linux on a 2nd harddrive."

It's more powerful and more convenient, since Live distros have their limitations by design.

I was starting with the premise, that people either do not want to install Linux on a harddrive or do not have a remaining harddrive left, to install Linux on it.

In the end, Windows users, who are not comfortable installing Linux on a harddrive, would not use Linux on a thumbdrive neither, to 'check it out'... unless ... somebody nudges them to try it out?



//and 'sparkylinux' was just a distro I stumbled upon, searching for pre-configured game-centric linux live distros. unlike many other small-ish sized distros, this one comes with all the gnu/linux FOSS games in addition to WINE, PlayOnLinux, Steam. Handy, if one does not want to compile their own, custom Live distro from scratch.

[Dusk of Oolacile]

Problem is that games these days tend to be 30, 50 or even 100 gigs. Such a flash drive, that is able to carry multiple games like that, is super expensive. You could just buy a house and build a desktop PC there, and still have money left for beer.

[Ruineka]

The only issues I see with this is that linux on a USB or gaming on a USB is that a USB is extremely slow (even the fast ones) because they aren't designed to handle data like an OS/game requires and linux is dependency heavy. So unless you put the usb into a very similar PC spec wise, or the exact same one, you are likely to run into many issues. If this sparkylinux has managed to work around all this I would be surprised and that is awesome. Admittedly it has been a few years since I've tapped into this stuff.

[Adam Beckett]

Originally posted by ruineka:

The only issues I see with this is that linux on a USB or gaming on a USB is that a USB is extremely slow (even the fast ones) because they aren't designed to handle data like an OS/game requires and linux is dependency heavy. So unless you put the usb into a very similar PC spec wise, or the exact same one, you are likely to run into many issues. If this sparkylinux has managed to work around all this I would be surprised and that is awesome. Admittedly it has been a few years since I've tapped into this stuff.

All Linux Live Distros have a neat feature, since the very first Knoppix one: Load to RAM.

Since squashfs is nothing but a RAMDrive. The OS (and all that comes with it) is hence "fast as hell".

But it takes obviously a SysRAM rich environment for 'bigger' games. Loading times from USB are not that bad. Even USB 2.0 can do at least 30-40Mbytes/s. Loading/Writing outside Open World games is rare outside levels or saving.

The concept of "Do Not Touch The Harddrives" of Linux Live Distros could be equally extended to "Do Not Touch The USB-Drive" you are supposedly running from (or SDCard, or DVD/CDs back in the early days).

If one has at least 16GB System RAM, 14+GB of free RAMDisk are open for business (=games). 32/64GB allows for 20+GB sized games, but playing 'big games' was never my intention for this experiment.

Having the Linux .steam folder on a second USB Drive or SDCard or "Opteron" helps, too. (You just need to create a symlink to the Live home folder and your Steam Client is good to go).

======

Since the past week, I am using this "Linux-Gaming-from-a-thumbdrive" at home regularly, instead installing a proper dual-boot Linux/Windows system.



1. USB Drive has the Linux OS on it, which is entirely loaded to RAM (4GB)
2. USB Drive has the Linux Steam folder with the Steam Library Games (64GB)
// connected via symlink to the /home folder



I liked the very concept of a "Read-Only" Operating System, for decades. Used it a lot in the past.

"Installing" a 2nd OS comes with the typical caveat: keeping it up-to-date, keeping it 'clean', new apps not running with old libraries ... dependencies. The Live Distro either runs something or it won't. I am not compelled to waste hours and hours on 'trying to make it work'.

It helps me to stay off Windows OS at home for reading websites, checking emails, writing THIS comment ... etc, and play 'smaller' Steam Library (Linux) Games.

A SteamOS dedicated machine would do the trick just the same, or a "Playstation 4" console, for that matter (if their web browser improved since PS3).

It is probably as much about shaping personal behavior using hardware and software in a certain manner, as it is about the technical feasibility of 'doing it this way'.