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If you can, you could blacklist Nouveau from the console, or even add the graphics PPA to install the Nvidia drivers.
I've never used that "Try Ubuntu without installing" feature before, so I'm not sure if this is something you can do when running off the flash drive only (change graphics drivers). I'm assuming it is something you can do, since it makes a 1GB "persistence" partition...
Either way, it fails to load the proprietary nVidia driver, bad sign for current Ubuntu compatibility with the Alienware's custom mobile GTX GPU.
Since I'm not an uber Linux alpha geek, I think I'm going to back off and give SteamOS a chance on the the Alienware. I think there's ways to get the desktop Steam client to run in SteamOS, which is more what I'm looking for - even in the living room.
But if anyone has any info on Ubuntu working properly on the Alienware Steam Machines, I can always setup a dual boot later.
I don't think that the driver will work in live mode, but I don't see a reason for Ubuntu do not work with this hardware. SteamOS uses the same Nvidia driver that every other distro uses, and is based on Debian, like Ubuntu.
By the way, what nVidia GPU does the i3 based Alienware SM ships with (lspci -v | grep VGA)?
I'll try again tomorrow, sleep and work now :-) Would be nice to make this a dual boot SteamOS+Ubuntu. They are supposed to be equal Linux, but I've run into quirks. The latest quirk was the Steam Controller firmware updates hanging/failing in Ubuntu Steam BPM, but working in SteamOS BPM.
May I asked what was the appeal to you? (I'm trying to understand what are potential/actual Steam Machine users.)
It might be easier to put the Debian repositories into /etc/apt/sources and make it a Debian...
Yes, I know, and thus SteamOS is more closely coupled ot Debian than to Ubuntu.
You can change PPA's can't you?
I don't usually use PPAs, but I'm able to change those, yes. Would you be so kind to tell me what this has got to do with the topic in question?
By far the most packages in SteamOS are the Debian versions - not the Ubuntu versions. That's why it should be easier to "switch" to Debian (which probably wouldn't really be a switch, but more of an extension) then to switch to Ubuntu.
It might at that! And make it a Debian... You know, I'm kind of bored with Ubuntu and in the mood for trying another Linux distro, anyway. Just straight Gnome DE and straight Debian.
I already have a more powerful PC (i5/GTX 770) that multi-boots to Win 10 or Ubuntu. But it's way OP'd for most of the games I like to play, I'm big on many more modest Indie/B titles in addition to AAA games.
I wanted a lower end PC I can stick in the living room to do In-Home Streaming with for my bigger Windows only titles, but still a gaming focused PC that can play most of my growing Linux ported Indie/B games locally without even having to boot up my main gaming PC. Just the Steam Link wasn't really what I wanted.
And I'm really liking the Alienware Steam Machine, now that I'm played around with it for a while. It can run quite a bit of my games just fine, and it is so small and quite doing it.
Definitely liking this console form factor of the Steam Machines, very small and attractive looking, and as far as the Alienware, very quiet even under a full load game. I still have it back in my PC room for testing before I move it out to the living room, and with just it on, there is literally no sound in my PC room.
When I turn on my main PC, it makes considerably more fan noise. The GTX 770 is still a high end video card, but it's an older GTX that sucks down a lot of juice and runs very hot under a full load, requires a large PSU - so, lot's of case fans in it.
I'm thinking about adding Steam to my HTPC Linux box I've already got in the living room. I'm excitde to see what it can run itself, and when it cannot, I'll take a look at streaming as well...
I've been using/testing the IHS for about three months now, it's come a long way. With one huge caveat, IHS *by far* works the best with Windows and an nVidia card on the game server end. The client doesn't really matter, since there is not much work to decode fast enough - hence the $50 Steam Link.
nVidia has it's best game streaming drivers on Windows, for sure. Why do I say this? Because same PC: i5 / GTX 770, running Ubuntu and streaming high end Linux ported games runs pretty crappy, even with the hardware acceleration turned on for encoding.
But for Win 10, same PC hardware, same game - on my wired network, it might as well be running local it's so good. I tiny bit of lag when I up the bandwidth for better visual quality, but still below the 50 ms lag mark total - which is still totally playable and enjoyable for me at my level of gamer skillz, heheh.
How are you streaming, ethernet, WiFi, something else?
I recommend you install VirtualBox and put on a vew distros (I surf from DistroWatch and use the Linux Distro Timeline graph to select them).
http://futurist.se/gldt/
http://futurist.se/gldt/wp-content/uploads/12.10/gldt1210.png
http://distrowatch.com/
Check out Linux Mint (Ubuntu with a better Desktop Environment).
I also have them on an External HDD I can then boot up with on real hardware to test it before I go native and install it (or just replace the HDD you have external into the machine and swap for a while :)