Steam Deck/SteamOS/Linux Distros/Proton

[Jacob Locke]

I don't own a deck but I am considering moving from Windows to Linux. My question is this...

If a game shows as "Steam Deck Verified" can I be confident that game would also work on SteamOS(on my PC)? Steam Deck does use Linux, correct?

Would it also work on popular Linux distros by way of Proton?

Thanks for any help.

[Precise Dash]

If is verified to run in Deck, is secure that will run in Linux, after all it uses Steam OS, a Linux distribution. It would be weird to find a distro that doesn't make Proton (and Wine) work, so don't worry about it.

[Jacob Locke]

Originally posted by Precise Dash:

If is verified to run in Deck, is secure that will run in Linux, after all it uses Steam OS, a Linux distribution. It would be weird to find a distro that doesn't make Proton (and Wine) work, so don't worry about it.

This was my assumption, but I hate to assume.

Thanks for weighing in.

Since you may have some knowledge I lack... what do you think of SteamOS as a full PC solution? Or would you suggest I go with one of the other distros? Any suggestions on a good gaming distro in 2024? I used to use Mint a few years back.

[Precise Dash]

Originally posted by Jacob Locke:

Originally posted by Precise Dash:

If is verified to run in Deck, is secure that will run in Linux, after all it uses Steam OS, a Linux distribution. It would be weird to find a distro that doesn't make Proton (and Wine) work, so don't worry about it.

This was my assumption, but I hate to assume.

Thanks for weighing in.

Since you may have some knowledge I lack... what do you think of SteamOS as a full PC solution? Or would you suggest I go with one of the other distros? Any suggestions on a good gaming distro in 2024? I used to use Mint a few years back.

I don't have use SteamOS, but it's phylosophy is making a PC a full console, so I wouldn't recommend it. For a full PC for people new to Linux everybody recommends Linux Mint and I agree. You also may find interesting options in this page: https://distrochooser.de/

[Jacob Locke]

Originally posted by Precise Dash:

Originally posted by Jacob Locke:

This was my assumption, but I hate to assume.

Thanks for weighing in.

Since you may have some knowledge I lack... what do you think of SteamOS as a full PC solution? Or would you suggest I go with one of the other distros? Any suggestions on a good gaming distro in 2024? I used to use Mint a few years back.

I don't have use SteamOS, but it's phylosophy is making a PC a full console, so I wouldn't recommend it. For a full PC for people new to Linux everybody recommends Linux Mint and I agree. You also may find interesting options in this page: https://distrochooser.de/

Thanks again.

I'm hoping for as little headache as possible so I checked AMD to see what drivers they offer. They offer updated drivers specifically for Ubuntu so I think I'm just going to go with that. I'm pretty sure Ubuntu and Mint are both Debian based so it likely wouldn't matter. And iirc Mint was originally a fork of Ubuntu, but I think they just gave up on that after a few years and just build straight from Debian now. I'm not really sure if memory serves, it's been a few years, but I think Ubuntu is a safe bet for hardware support.

[Rin]

SD verified is not 100%. It might not scale well past sheit20p or have some obscure bug which I encountered just recently. So I'd say in 90% of all cases.

Overall EAC enabled games will be your biggest hurdle (i.e BDO, MCC) if you decide to play online.

HDR and certain exclusive features are also lacking atm as well. They work but just barely.

[Jacob Locke]

Thanks. I've heard about the EAC issue on Linux. I don't do mp so luckily not an issue for me. I'm on Ubuntu now. I use a Samsung tv for a monitor and run scaling at 300% or I can't read. The biggest problem I'm facing right now is that Steam isn't scaling consistently. I'll have to figure out what the trigger is. One time it's good, the next time it's small. Steam settings make no difference. Come to think of it, there was a tv setting in display which was selected. I wonder if that's causing a problem.

[MonkehMaster]

steam OS 3, hasnt been released yet for pc's.

if you are looking at the link for it, that is a repair iso for the steamdeck version.

though to mention, there is a holo version of steam OS 3 on github, made for pc's (havent tried it).

im waiting for steam to release an official version, before i try and install it on my desktop pc.

but i will say, with the older version (now unsupported and abandoned) steam OS 2, worked quite well on pc's, so im expecting steam OS 3 to run good as well.

and as mentioned, you have multiplayer games with anticheats that the devs refuse to enable linux compatibility and its literally a check box to enable it... they claim linux users as cheaters, they even complain about people using windows with a linux VM while playing those games.

anywho, maybe one day mulitplayer games will finally allow linux users to play their games, without having to have a windows install to play them.

that being said, for linux distros themselves, i havent used one in quite a few years, so i have no clue how any of them work and even look now a days.

last one i tried was kali linux (formerly backtrack 5), which is a penetration testing linux distro, still have it installed on an older laptop.

[Rin]

Originally posted by Jacob Locke:

The biggest problem I'm facing right now is that Steam isn't scaling consistently.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5908
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3492

Decade old issue at this point. I know the pain all to well, You can try launching with the 2x arg but it looks bad on anything non 4K from my experience or unless you use a HiDPI laptop.
Try steam -forcedesktopscaling 1.5 2.0 or whatever seems to work best. I use Garuda which is based on Arch so it's kinda like Kubuntu.

[lightwo]

protondb.com is an invaluable resource, appdb.winehq.org is the equivalent for miscellaneous software and games not necessarily available on Steam.

Steam Deck Verified is generally not too useful of a metric as testers are much slower than community contributors, and they don't publish workarounds, instead slapping "incompatible" on the store page. However, it is a good way to encourage developers to work on Steam Deck/Linux support.

General-purpose distributions like Linux Mint are allegedly excellent for beginners, but if you want to play the latest games, you may look into sideloading the absolute newest graphics driver versions, or trying a rolling release distribution.

[Rin]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/protondb-for-steam/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/protondb-for-steam/ngonfifpkpeefnhelnfdkficaiihklid
https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/protondb-for-steam/efggpghjemjhldhoemgijjpnajcidcni

Is also handy. But with proton-ge/experimental you are set 90% of the time, and for more recent games you only need to wait 1-2 weeks tops. I mean who wants to play buggy AAA games before day/week 1 patch anyway?

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/ is also quite handy.

[Satoru]

Note the only real use case for SteamOS is to make a truly console/kiosk like experience for a HTPC that works out of the box. If that’s what you want then SteamOS does that. Though you can mostly get to the same level of UX using pretty much any other Linux distribution, it just takes more work to do that.

If you want a Linux gaming PC then any major distro basically is fine. Though the reason SteamOs 3 is based on Arch and not Ubuntu is due to Ubuntu’s prior history of trying to yank your 32 bit support. Ubuntu is one of the better out of the box desktop experiences though

If you want a linux gaming rig AMD is generally a 'better' GPU to go with. I think the disparity between AMD/Nvidia support on Linux is better these days though.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Jacob Locke:

Thanks again.

I'm hoping for as little headache as possible so I checked AMD to see what drivers they offer. They offer updated drivers specifically for Ubuntu so I think I'm just going to go with that. I'm pretty sure Ubuntu and Mint are both Debian based so it likely wouldn't matter. And iirc Mint was originally a fork of Ubuntu, but I think they just gave up on that after a few years and just build straight from Debian now. I'm not really sure if memory serves, it's been a few years, but I think Ubuntu is a safe bet for hardware support.

Mint is still under active development.

Ubuntu and Mint are good for those new to Linux. I prefer the look of Mint over Ubuntu as it feel a bit more like Windows does with it's UI.

They both use open source drivers. AMD drivers will work with either flavor as well, so you really shouldn't have an issue.