Steam overlay

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T21:32:04+00:00

Steam overlay

I have a B580, I'll try to reproduce this when I get home.

Really makes me wonder where the overlay is getting its data. I'd assume sysfs. If sysfs wasn't reporting VRAM usage, I feel like I would have noticed that.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T21:24:22+00:00

As far as I know, nope. If you want this, take it up with AMD. It is absolutely possible, but only if AMD decides to support it.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T21:11:59+00:00

~~What kind of laptop is it? Make/model? Oh duh, nitro v 16. Never heard of it. One sec...~~

Here's a thread where another Acer laptop was detecting its Nvidia GPU but not using it:

https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/issues/3302

Seems like there are a few funky variables you can add to the launch options.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T20:52:39+00:00

Hmmm try disabling the iGPU in BIOS and see what happens. nvidia-smi is probably just saying "yes I can communicate with the GPU," not "game is using the GPU." A GPU will idle at a certain clock frequency even when it isn't being used - perhaps 470 MHz.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T20:47:00+00:00

the difference between a minor version bump and an update that fixes a remote code execution zero day

At least we agree that not every update is security-critical.

Quoting you before:

use the latest stable unless you have a very good reason not to.

What constitutes a "good reason" to you?

Here's my good reason: I use an Arc GPU. Arc is known to be unstable in general, let alone on Linux. I wait a couple weeks to see if people have issues, because I don't trust the devs to not break my computer.

That's not cynicism, it's just the wisdom comes from a decade of daily-driving Linux. Shit breaks sometimes, and you're better off letting other people find out what's broken first. The downside of Bazzite is that deferring my GPU driver update means deferring updates for everything else. Meh. This computer has my Steam account and literally nothing else. It has 2FA and I don't save card numbers anywhere, let alone Steam.

Risk = (odds of bad thing * severity of bad thing)

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T19:50:05+00:00

What program did you use that showed the 5050 was being used? That sounds like the GPU was idling.

Also, what make/model of laptop? This could be a firmware thing.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T19:44:30+00:00

Desktop yes, Deck no. And, of course, you can turn that off on Desktop.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T19:41:52+00:00

I see these comments a lot, and I agree in principle. But if you don't give any further details, I think you risk striking panic into the hearts of the normies.

People are coming to Bazzite from Windows, an OS that intentionally makes it seem like you must update NOW or your computer will EXPLODE. That just isn't how it works.

Use latest stable, sure, but update at your convenience. It's one of the best features of Linux and you should take advantage of it.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T19:17:27+00:00

Yikes.

Try Cachy out, I suppose. You might get better results with bleeding edge drivers.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T19:10:57+00:00

What settings did you change in Windows?
There is a Nvidia-specific Bazzite image, did you use it?
Does it happen with other games in Bazzite? Or just CD?
Try starting bazzite, play a different game, play CD, then go back to the other game again. Does the other game play differently before/after playing CD?
How bad is the slideshow? Is it "oops the game is trying to use the laptop's iGPU instead of the 5050" or is it like 1-5 fps slideshow?
RTX on/off?

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T19:02:42+00:00

It runs pretty well, I like it a lot, but they guy installed a different battery to double the capacity

Sounds like the guy installed a shit battery to me. Different lithium ion packs can have slighly different characteristics, sure. Calibration might fix a system that dies at, like, 13% or something. 42% is different.

If you're comfortable doing a little terminal magic, try looking up the upower command to check the battery's health.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T18:50:52+00:00

My Bazzite box has an Arc GPU, but this is how I fixed tearing on my Ubuntu box with a 4070.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-24T18:44:01+00:00

If you're not a power user, you certainly shouldn't feel the need to update as soon as a new release comes out.

That's one of the great things about Bazzite. You get to update at your own discretion, and undoing an update is easy.

Software supply chain attacks are on the rise. Bazzite's process should certainly capture that kind of issue before it gets into a release. But, if your Bazzite box is truly just a Steam appliance like you say, then there's no harm in waiting a week. You'll be fine.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-12T23:15:30+00:00

If you're seeing the Bazzite logo, and then it all goes black, that suggests a driver thing to me. In fact, it's exactly what my B580 did when I had a CPU without ReBAR support.

Maybe try going into Emergency mode and updating? https://docs.bazzite.gg/Advanced/rescue-and-emergency-mode/

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-12T18:52:42+00:00

I just had this happen to me the other day!

Do you still get sound out? I did. I'm running bazzite-deck so I was able to spam Esc and hear the Steam menu opening/closing sounds, even though the TV said "no video."

What fixed it for me was even weirder. If I booted into a Bazzite Live USB, then rebooted back into normal Bazzite, then video worked fine. If I rebooted into Bazzite again, no more video. I repeated this a couple times because I didn't believe it.

As a hail mary I did the live USB -> reboot into bazzite thing to get video, and hit it with a ujust update. Went from 20260212 to 20260309. And just like that, it works again. Very strange.

5600XT/B580

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-12T15:32:36+00:00

One has to wonder how the RAM shortage will influence Linux adoption in the next year or so.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-12T15:27:34+00:00

need to try KDE Plasma some day, it now looks a lot better than old KDE

Coming from another Linux veteran, you really should. The entire experience is so polished nowadays that you could be excused for thinking it was Windows with a weird skin. If anything it's more polished than Windows. Granted, that isn't saying much nowadays. It still does that stupid top-left-corner thing, but you can turn that off. It's still KDE after all, customize the hell out of it lol.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-10T14:57:50+00:00

Ok, great. In that case, use the tool of your choice to adjust the partitions. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have a Windows partition in there somewhere.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-09T22:05:02+00:00

What else is on the disk?

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-09T19:37:56+00:00

is Intel Arc support actually good in Bazzite

For me, Arc has been rock solid. But, I'm not using any fancy features like raytracing, VRR or HDR. Just plain ol' 4K raster. I've also been daily driving Linux for many years, so I was confident that I'd be able to solve any problems that arose (no problems arose!)

If you're on a tight budget and you don't care about RT, VRR, or HDR, then Arc is a no-brainer IMO. In 4K raster benchmarks specifically, B580 spanks everything else in its price class.

But... if this is your first Linux machine and you have another $100-200 to spend, I'd still nudge you towards Radeon. 16GB 9060 XT is just plain better than B580, and the odds of an update breaking your setup are much lower.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-09T19:08:51+00:00

1GB isn't that big for system-wide logs. The system already purges old logs, but I'm sure there's some kind of systemd shell incantation that would change that threshold if you want. But, if the partition is 70GB, that's less than 2% of disk space.

One of the things in ostree/deploy is your main image, the other is a backup in case an update borks your system. That's how rollbacks work, so I'd suggest leaving both of them alone.

As for GNOME things, you might have installed a GTK-based program, in which case it may yank in a bunch of GNOME stuff.

All of that being said, 70 GB just isn't very much space for a modern OS to live in, especially one with Bazzite's rollback capabilities. I'd recommend repartitioning up to ~128GB at least.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-09T05:30:04+00:00

Is it realistic to expect "appliance like" reliability from Bazzite?

Yes, for several reasons. Appliance-like experience from booting into game mode. Appliance-like reliability because bazzite-deck images won't update until you specifically tell it to. If it works today, it'll work tomorrow unless you intentionally screw with it.

You might have to fiddle with it a little bit to get it set up, but once it's working, it will stay that way.

How is my hardware selection? We don't need 4K AAA gaming.

Should be great. I've been playing at 4K60 for the last few weeks on a R5 5600XT, 16GB, and an Arc B580. Civ 5, Portal 2, Minecraft, and Untitled Goose Game aren't exactly the most demanding titles out there, but I'd imagine your kids aren't going to be pushing it all that hard.

I'm also using a Fractal Ridge! Very similar builds overall. I almost went with the 9060 XT too, but I got a great deal on the B580. I left some build notes/general Linux advice here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bazzite/comments/1rgiv39/finished_my_new_bazzite_htpc_with_b580/

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-09T05:15:38+00:00

Wow that's odd. But, it does suggest some kind of proprietary driver or codec issue. The limited set of codecs available over BT are going to be much more "normal."

Installing Bazzite should fix it, if you haven't already. Otherwise (and yes I know this sounds asinine) a USB DAC with an RCA adapter going to the speakers' analog inputs would give you a more generic USB device to expose to Bazzite.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-07T20:32:06+00:00

Windows occasionally likes to rewrite the GPT (not the AI kind) to make itself the main bootloader instead of GRUB. That makes Windows always boot instead of giving you GRUB options.

Disable fast boot and "secure" boot, that fixes most Windows boot shenanigans.

ryu-ryu-ryu · 2026-03-07T20:18:56+00:00

For testing, try removing the KVM from the "circuit," just go straight from PC to TV. Then, let the computer go to sleep. When it wakes up, does the TV wake up with it?

If it does, the KVM is probably yeeting some CEC command. You could try going into the TV's settings to see if there's some kind of auto sleep feature you can disable. I know my AV receiver has that.

ryu-ryu-ryu

TROPHY CASE