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Linux Mint Gaming Guide
Post by Megazell » Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:18 pm
This thread will be a gaming guide for Linux Mint users. I’ve ran and currently run a blog devoted to freeware gaming (not freemium or F2P) you can check my signature for now if you’re interested.
I will be changing this OP as time goes on.
Latest version of Linux Mint is LINUX MINT 17
Where to get games from.
1 — STEAM — http://store.steampowered.com/ — The current big daddy on the block. Digital Distribution personified. You can create a free account and take a look at the Linux games they support. They even have a lot of free titles to enjoy. To install it — take a look inside your Software Manager or crack open terminal and type
sudo apt-get install steam2 — GOG — http://www.gog.com/ — They recently started to support Linux and even offer a few free titles. Unlike STEAM you do not have to install any Digital Distribution service. All of the games offered on Linux come in one or two formats — .deb and tarballz. With the .deb file you can just install game directly and follow what it says to get it all up and running properly. With tarballz you have to unzip them. Place them where you want to be in your hard drive then create link to the game. Here is an example of how to do just that.
a) This is a copy of Pixel JunkShooter for Linux in my GoG Collection.
As you can see in that image I have two options for downloading and installing the game.
b) Here are both the files in my folder ready to be installed. I am going to then open up the zip.
c) Selecting extract the game will now be put into the folder of your choice or the defaults already assigned. It should look like the image below when done
Now clicking the start.sh file will open up the game.
If you want to make a start menu link to the game or a desktop icon — check your distro for your shortcut making options. For XFCE (what I am using) right clicking the menu button bring ups edit applications which allows XFCE users to make shortcuts into their menu. You can also right click the desktop to create a launcher.
3 — Desura — http://www.desura.com/ — Lots of Linux support here. It has a program like STEAM that you can install if you want or your can scroll through their library of games and find a direct download for the games you want get. To install this one — you need to crack open terminal and put the follow lines in there.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:makson96/desurium-stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install desurium4 — Humble Bundle — https://www.humblebundle.com/ — This is my personal favorite. They support Linux from time to time in their bundles and you can get different formats for the games you want from STEAM keys to .deb to tarballz to others. They do not OFTEN give you free games but they have done some free giveaways here and there. To me — they are a great place to support since they give you no drm versions of your games.
5 — Green Man Gaming — http://www.greenmangaming.com/ — As of this writing this service does not outright support Linux but many of their titles come with STEAM keys. These keys work for all versions of the game Linux, Mac or Windows. They also — very often — give out games for free. You can also trade in some of the games you own through them for store credit towards your next game purchase.
6 — Origin — https://www.origin.com/ — They don’t outright support Linux either at this time but they do give out a few free game here and there. Some of their older titles work well with Dosbox on Linux Mint.
7 — Software Manager — Linux Mint comes built in with a software center that helps you get all kinds of programs for free — check out their game section and see if you find something you enjoy.
8 — Lutris — https://lutris.net/ — Lutris is an open gaming platform for Linux. It helps you install and manage your games in a unified interface.
PS — I highly recommend everyone make a free account on all of these services as some of their giveaways are time sensitive and making an account on the day of the giveaway will prove to be problematic.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 5 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Linux Mint Gaming Guide
Post by Megazell » Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:45 pm
Re: Linux Mint Gaming Guide
Post by vulchor » Mon Dec 08, 2014 10:26 pm
First off, kudos to you for attempting this guide. I have not found any good linux gaming guides yet that are focused on all around gaming. Usually they take the focus of free linux games and ignore the hard-core gamer type.
I would very much love to see this guide expanded as much as possible.
Now, if I may ask some questions maybe I can help you continue this guide by answering them and giving advice. I’ll start off with a little about myself so you or others in the Mint community may be better able to address my concerns. I’m looking to make my Mint into the final Windows killer once-and-for-all since M$ obviously is targeting a different breed of consumer than I, and seem to think that gamers should be using XBox and not the PC.
I am a heavy computer user, and a power user, and gaming and multi-media are my main computing needs. I’ve been like that all through the 90s and grew up with DOS and Windows. I’m well versed in hardware and used to do a bit of coding throughout 90s and Aughts (dabbled from Elementary school through college). I’m comfortable with command line but prefer working with a comfortable, snappy, and customizable GUI. Mint is the distro that I would prefer to use. I’ve spent plenty of time distro-hopping through the past decade or so and never really feeling comfortable enough to completely replace my windows environment. Ubuntu came close a few years ago, then Unity happened. That’s when I heard of Mint and first tried it out. I loved it, but it wasn’t really ready for prime-time yet. Proprietary drivers were not easy to install then like they are today. True, Unity has gotten better, however I don’t want to use the main Ubuntu because of the file manager. I also much prefer Mint’s updater and software selection.
I haven’t yet been 100% pleased with any Linux DE yet, however I’ve only tried Gnome2/3/MATE, Cinnamon, Unity, and KDE. KDE gives me closest to what I want in terms of customization (I wish Cinnamon was better on that front, because it’s snappier, but not saving window size and location data drivers me crazy) to get the interface that I enjoy the most and work easiest in. However, full screen game play in KDE is lacking on my system. I have a modern power-house machine with 2 GeForce 660s (can’t wait until we can get some decent SLI support in Linux) and a nice 27″ IPS display to go with it at 2560×1440, but yet full screen 3d gaming gives me some awful screen tearing even with V-Sync enabled. I tried that Steam movie «Free to Play» and the full-screen performance was utter junk, constantly stuttering. Even in windowed mode, it was garbage unless set down to a quarter resolution.
At this point, I’m looking to start over on my distro, or wait it out (. again. ) until someone comes up with a great linux gaming distro that hopefully doesn’t require Steam. I prefer to buy my games DRM free so that I own them, and use GOG mostly. I really just started using Steam again this past month purely because I was testing out gaming in Linux.
So what’s the best way to go in terms of Desktop Environment or Window Manager, Kernel (I would actually like to use 3.16 because I had better wireless AC speeds with that kernel in Ubuntu 14.10, but I can’t get it to boot properly in Mint 17), are there any specific settings or configurations I should use? How can I make my Linux Mint into the ultimate gaming PC?
Also, I would love to see a guide for properly installing a game from a Tarball, like what to do with the default .desktop file included in the package. I just made shortcuts to the start.sh script in the GOG releases that don’t include a .deb installer.
Re: Linux Mint Gaming Guide
Post by Megazell » Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:36 pm
Thanks for the interest and support. These are the distros that I use — Linux Mint (Killer to Mid-Range Rigs), Lubuntu (My kids’ machines — They love Lubuntu and don’t want to budge — MidRange Rigs) and Crunchbang (Older Rigs and Laptops).
In my home I have 8 desktops LAN setup ranging from Killer Rigs to Entry Level stuff for my youngest kid.
I also have two HTPC setups for the living room and basement that designed to work with 4+ player games via gamepads and TV/Movie watching (though most of us at my house don’t do much of that — we are readers for the most part)
My thoughts on Linux Mint and the DEs that come with them
— Cinnamon is good but I’ve noticed that even on Killer Rigs Cinnamon tends to interfere with some heavy 3D games running properly — Games like Natural Selection and XCom Enemy Unknown come to mind. I would get jerks and skips but when I played the same games on the same rig with a different DE they ran like water.
— KDE is great also. The plasma shell does crash though from time to time when I left my machine idle for a bit with no screensaver and just my monitor turned off. My lady loves this DE and she refuses to leave it because she feels it was made for her.
— Mate is awesome. So far I have not seen any downside to using it but I just don’t like the feel of it.
— XFCE is super awesome. Currently, this is the DE I use for my main gaming rig. Out of the box it has everything I need to get up and running and no matter what game I run on it — I get no issues or slow downs.
So far Linux Mint 17 32/64 Bit XFCE/Mate seem to be the one that I see the most at LAN Linux groups that I attend, I’m in NYC (City College, NYU and Columbia gaming groups).
I’m not sure what type of games you are into but
1) Make accounts on all of those services — I would also do Origin too since some people are saying they are going to support Linux soon.
2) Install joystick + jstest-gtk to help you calibrate and setup your gamepads if you use any.
3) Try out a good mix of the freeware and retail stuff — Configure them to how you like.
As much as I hate DRM — I like what STEAM is doing with their service. In fact, over the last 3 years — I’ve helped convert a few friends to Linux through it as they come to see my games in action. They also give out a ton of free retail games away. Screencheat is my personal favorite game right now along with L4D2, Killing Floor and Serious Sam 3. The convenience of setting up matches with friends and family is just sweet.
As for the step by step guide — I will be finished with that this Sunday. I got a few friends making identical pics and steps on their DEs.