Linux Gaming @lemmy.ml storcholus @feddit.org 4d ago

Linux Mint and Steam

I am coming from windows and want to switch. Got a new M2, installed mint cinnamon, got it to dual boot, installed the drivers for my 3060 installed steam.

I linked the steam libraries on my other drives (the ones I also use in windows) downloaded proton in several versions and... Cyberpunk didn't start. When I restarted the system, updated all the software, restarted again.

When started steam again, the UI was gone. I see three icon in the tray on the right, and I can move the steam window, when I happen to find it. But I don't see the window, I see the desktop background. What can I do to fix that?

Thanks for your time and help

12 comments

Are your games installed on an NTFS formatted drive? Steam on Linux generally doesn’t play nice with NTFS.
- This fix worked for me in the past,most games worked on NTFS though but some of the high end ones didn't like mk11
- I'll check that, thanks
In Mint most people recommend installing Steam directly from the website as .deb. There are dozens of informative threads on the official forums, which also explain some differences of the installation method, for example: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=427582

Also Valve's guide on how to use Steam with an NTFS disk (which I assume you're using) can be found here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Using-a-NTFS-disk-with-Linux-and-Windows
- No issues installing via nix!
  
  And how is that relevant in a post about "Linux Mint and Steam"?
The best way for me to install steam was sudo apt install steam-installer will catch pretty much everything dependency wise. If I remember right, playing off an NTFS disk does cause issues. You could also try changing up proton, if you search the store for proton plus and install a recent GE version it might fix the issue if it's a say a proprietary encoding issue.
- There is a lot of conflicting information in this thread. Installation of Steam from package manager VS deb from Valve VS official Flatpak VS official Snap. I know that the official Snap is terrible so I'm ignoring it. The Flatpak has some permission issue but I heard it solves some compatibility issues for some games.
  
  Someone should make a comprehensive guide for each type.
I've had the best experience with Steam installed via Flathub. Neither the .deb or the apt package worked well with my system. For reference I'm running basic Debian 12.
Change the compatibility version try experimental, or even I think the latest stable is 9.0. See if its runable under wine rather than proton. Try importing the game into lutris or heroic launcher you could have better luck but steam should be fine as I don't think that's the issue. You likely have to redownload the games rather than linking the drives due to file format types being different. I've used mint and several family members and gaming has been a breeze without much issues. It seems AMD is much more compatible than any Nvidia GPU. Drivers are better and updated more often under mesa than RTX. Let me see if cyberpunk is runable. Nothing should be an issue but a basic web search will tell a lot.

Edit: after research quickly the game has ran just fine since 2020 on steam since proton 5.0. Its buggy with Nvidia drivers but that was years ago. GoG store works under wine which is inside heroic launcher from software center in mint you can import the game but isn't needed. You can try to use a custom steam command rather than using proton to launch inside steam. Proton is steams default compatibility layer but could need enable for all games. Go in settings check that box to enable for all games, retry. The game does work! Don't give up. Also don't aim the game to windows drive. Reinstall on your mint drive rather than just aiming the launcher. Windows does all it can to screw up anything that isn't windows , verify installed files after download on mint drive and run the game. Perhaps I'll add more later. Off to work. Hope this helps!!
Can’t really add anything regarding linking the Steam libraries as I just removed all my games from Windows and downloaded them in Linux instead. I used ProtonUp for managing my Proton versions and I started up Cyberpunk using ProtonGE 13, and it runs the same as it does in Windows. I’ve got the GOG version and I’m using Heroic Launcher but I don’t think that’ll make a difference.

Have you got anything to work using that linked library? Maybe try just installing it locally.

12 comments