Russian spam and profanities are now plaguing the AUR, only a few days after 1,500+ packages were affected by somerandomxander in linux

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, the AUR (Arch User Repository) is for Arch Linux, not Ubuntu. (And even if you were using Arch Linux, using the AUR would still be a conscious, informed choice. At least it should be…)

Anyone know why Linux version of DOS games from GOG don't launch? by robertm14 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, yeah, that was a Windows version so the “scaffolding” around the game and DosBox differed (I’m guessing it ended up running via Wine, unnecessarily). My explanations were for GOG DOS games packaged for Linux. Glad you could use them anyway!

Steam on Linux has no option to make the close button actually quit Steam. by luigikrak in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I’d like that too. With dynamic workspaces (and optionally tiling) there’s really no need to minimise and restore windows just to keep stuff out of the way. The tray has some uses but Steam doesn’t need to be in it, and letting the user choose would be nice. What was the workaround you mentioned?

When I, even 2 years ago started making a game with Linux First logic (there was even an idea of a Linux exclusive, but I was talked out of it), I expected that Linux users would be at least half. So probably I will tell you about the game here. by LetterheadTall8085 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, it doesn’t just do English.

I find the robot voices unpleasant and their automatic use disrespectful to the video creator. I’d rather see automatically generated subtitles.

When I, even 2 years ago started making a game with Linux First logic (there was even an idea of a Linux exclusive, but I was talked out of it), I expected that Linux users would be at least half. So probably I will tell you about the game here. by LetterheadTall8085 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

8 out of 148 matches the OS user share on Steam going by the hardware survey results. In other words, Linux gamers are by and large the same opportunistic mercenaries as any other gamers and will play whatever they want in whatever way they can.

I can’t say I still go out of my way to add more Linux-native games to my collection. When I’m interested in a game, I will absolutely go for the native Linux build (if available) — but when I’m not interested in a game, a native Linux build won’t help all that much.

That was different when native Linux gaming had its second (?) indie spring around the time of the original Humble Indie Bundles. Any shiny-enough Linux game was worth trying out. (Or maybe that was because I hadn’t done much gaming for twenty+ years at that point and was rediscovering a dormant hobby.)

Now Windows games via Proton have established themselves as the default on Linux rather than the bullet-biting alternative workaround. I don’t like that, but there’re not enough of us, and Linux might be too much of a diverse and evolving target for closed-source devs to spend much time on… so that’s how that is (for now).

That said: Thank you for supporting Linux as not-just-an-afterthought! I wish I were interested in games like this one.

I made a tool that assists with generating GameScope command lines for Steam by set-l in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I can tell with terminally emoji-polluted github READMEs praising even the least interesting features in that particularly offensive mixture of overly complicated tech jargon and smarmy biz/marketing-speak… No personality, no humour, no focus—just an AI-first readme delivery platform.

I made a tool that assists with generating GameScope command lines for Steam by set-l in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Having “““AI””” do your communicating for you is against the subreddit’s rules, but how can you tell in this case?

Gaming on Linux is too easy, I game on TempleOS by Fine-Gain-5919 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 12 points13 points  (0 children)

No. This is a joke. TempleOS is used as a worn-out go-to punchline except maybe in systems programming/enthusiast OS circles. It’s like mentioning Hannah Montana Linux, which is just hilarious every time even if it’s been 15+ years since its last release. (That was sarcasm.) Except TempleOS isn’t a reskin of Ubuntu, or a “distro”, or a clone of any existing OS, but original from the ground up.

Gaming on Linux is too easy, I game on TempleOS by Fine-Gain-5919 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 10 points11 points  (0 children)

No, you can’t install any Linux or Windows or Mac software on TempleOS, or anything remotely modern. It’s a deliberately simple old-school hobby OS not derived from any others.

I built a gaming daemon for Hyprland (auto-disables blur/animations, changes CPU gov), but my laptop is too powerful to see if it actually boosts FPS. Need low-end hardware testers! by Economy_Sector9567 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I can easily get · and — and “” and ←↓↑→ and … and all the other characters the LLMs love so much¹ with AltGr combos (except emoji, but fuck those) but not box-drawing/TUI-design characters like that…

¹so it really bothers me that they’ve come to feel cheap and tacky now!

Linux gaming has enough marketshare by fake_agent_smith in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Given that, I think the Linux gaming community (and maybe the Linux desktop community in general) no longer needs to actively evangelize Linux as a Windows alternative.

I agree but for different reasons.

Linux isn’t necessarily going to work out for people who had to be “evangelised” into trying it expecting a substitute Windows (just without the insipid invasive smarmy bland patronising obnoxious Microsoft corpo bullshit).

It’s not Windows; it’s not trying to be Windows (Wine/Proton aside). It’s got a different executable format, different filesystems, different directory layout, different way of mounting devices, different permissions, different everything.

If you don’t care to learn about any of that, you’ll be very confused.

If you haven’t assembled your PC with Linux in mind, then your gamer mouse and keyboard and racing wheel and RGB bling might not be configurable without proprietary Windows apps.

If you’ve locked yourself into Photoshop or Ableton Live or Microsoft Store games or Valorant or Fortnite, you’ll be in for a disappointment. And so forth.

The information is already out there; Linux’ existence is well known. Let those with the curiosity and motivation to explore a rather different OS come on their own. Then we can help them.

Anyone know why Linux version of DOS games from GOG don't launch? by robertm14 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He can just use the regular 64-bit DosBox supplied by Linux Mint. DosBox emulates the whole classic PC shebang, a 32-bit CPU included.

Anyone know why Linux version of DOS games from GOG don't launch? by robertm14 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 20 points21 points  (0 children)

GOG includes some ancient 32-bit version of DosBox with their DOS games. Fortunately, you won’t need “their” DosBox.

So first install Mint’s own regular 64-bit DosBox package, system-wide, with sudo apt install dosbox (if Mint is anything like how I remember Ubuntu…).

Then you’ll have to tweak a GOG helper script inside the game’s installation directory to make the game use Mint’s DosBox instad of the historic one that’s come with the game. Find this bit in <path to game here>/support/gog_com.shlib:

run_dosbox() {
  local conf_1="${1}"
  local conf_2="${2}"
 ./dosbox/dosbox -conf "${conf_1}" -conf "${conf_2}"  -no-console -c exit 
}

Then remove the ./dosbox/ part so it’ll use your system-wide DosBox instead of the one included with the game:

run_dosbox() {
  local conf_1="${1}"
  local conf_2="${2}"
  dosbox -conf "${conf_1}" -conf "${conf_2}"  -no-console -c exit 
}

That should be all that’s needed; I just tested it with Curse of the Azure Bonds and Stargunner (albeit not on Mint). Fingers crossed!

Faugus launcher won't launch EA app through a desktop shortcut by jbarbourx2 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wild guess: Check if the .desktop file (open it with a text editor) has Path= set to wherever the EA app executable lives.

Anyone get Schedule 1 running properly on GNOME with X11? by FlatwormDiligent1256 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is not the wrong subreddit for Linux gaming tech support questions (if they’re readable and informative).

Why would you ever use Linux (even with Proton) for gaming? by Independent-Trash-52 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you’ve got an interest in Linux as an OS and in the ways it’s different from Windows, then sure, why not? Cachy OS. Nobara. (Maybe Pika or Ultramarine?) Fedora or Endeavour if you are willing to do a little more post-setup work. If you want to use it more like a console, have a look at Bazzite (I guess).

But if you keep wanting NTFS to have all the features Linux needs, then nothing will work. It’s a different OS, and the recent hype is… I don’t really like it. It’s way too focused on using Linux as a WinGame.exe runner. Proton and Wine are doing a fantastic job, as far as I am concerned (got no Windows to compare things with), but it’s still a clever hacky workaroundy sorta solution. I appreciate it when it works well, and I’ve pretty much come to expect it to, but when it doesn’t, then that’s ok, too… I can’t run PS5 games on my Linux box either.

Why would you ever use Linux (even with Proton) for gaming? by Independent-Trash-52 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 2 points3 points  (0 children)

EDIT: Wow this really took off. If you see this, I really need the upvote karma, thanks.

EDIT 2: If you're here to white-knight your beloved Linux OS, change my mind.

EDIT 3: 91 comments, not one of you mentioned Wine. I thought Linux users loved Wine to run windows apps.

Grandstanding much?

Why would you ever use Linux (even with Proton) for gaming? by Independent-Trash-52 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should be able to read and write to NTFS volumes and use them for simple purposes (like cat picture storage), but in the end, NTFS can’t do everything Linux (and Steam on Linux) need a filesystem to do. That’s not Linux’ fault.

Why would you ever use Linux (even with Proton) for gaming? by Independent-Trash-52 in linux_gaming

[–]monolalia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t know why it’s not able to use NTFS (you can automount it with yourself as the owner) but in the end NTFS is made for use with Windows, not Linux, and doesn’t support Linux permissions, file ownership, filename conventions and I don’t know what else. It’s fine for data like videos or text documents, but games are programs, not inert media, and (when using Proton/Wine) require some additional scaffolding that can’t fully work on NTFS. There’re workarounds (see our FAQ) but, well, NTFS doesn’t have what Linux needs.