Best distro for both Steam and PLAYONLINUX?

FatRakoon · 6 Sep 2017 at 10:18

I am going bloody nuts here.

My main Linux Distro on my Linux PC for the past few months has been MiNT Linux, and its been fairly good.

I had a few niggles with Dawn Of War 2 and 3 under steam, and so I tried to some other distros and now I cannot seem to get into a happy setup?

I tried SuSE and I got its own STEAM to play, and it started to look good, and I managed to half get its own QTWINE installed, but it kept failing to find the Wine 32Bit and 64Bit Folders, and I never managed to get anything actually running on it.

I have tried a few other distros and they either have PlayOnLinux, but then dont have Steam, and even worse, is that I know Steam is on both Mint 17.3 and 18.2 and yet when I try to install them from their distros, it no longer shows up? I dont know why that is, cos Iam sure it did before???

Im either mental or confused I know it, but can anyone help me?

Sp00n · 6 Sep 2017 at 11:22

Can't say I have found any issues with Steam on Ubuntu, maybe there are game specific issues but Cities Skylines runs fine and I also stream from my main gaming pc no issue.

FatRakoon · 6 Sep 2017 at 12:12

I like Kubuntu ( Rather I hate the way that Gnome seems to have gone with recent distros and so I have gone back to KDE )

But again, Kubuntu 17.04 seems to dislike me in the way it mostly fails to update properly on my setup?
Similarly 16.10 also had similar issues and the STEAM would not show up in the software installer? ( It did before, but why not now? )

I do have my setup like this :-

SSD
SD0 = SDA /root ( 110GB ) + SDB = swap ( 8GB )

HDD =
SD1 = /home ( 2TB )

I dont format /home but I do format /root

Now, similarly, I ususally setup my username as "damion" and so, what I often will do, to keep my data fairly intact, is quickly rename /home/damion to something like /home/damion-org and then when it reinstalls, its a fresh install and I can copy what I need back over.

This is fine for music, videos, pics, docs etc, but of course it can be a p.i.t.a for the Steam files etc.

But thats just it... openSUSE has been the only distro that has installed steam as it should be, and for some strange reason, my ubuntu/Kubuntu/Mint attempts, have all been futile???

Even if I try the downloeded steam-installer.deb from steampowered.com, it gave me the message about needing xterm the first time I run it, but then it says its opening some things, and then 4 lines later, its done and it does nothing after that... No extra steam stuff gets downloaded or anything?

Its annopying the hell out of me.

Plus of course, I want PlayOnLinux to be running too!

I am hoping to find a distro that has both that and STEAM, and MiNT is one that does, but again... It no longer seems to let me?

I think what I will do, is plop a pair of brand new disks into it later on, and do a full fresh install and format all the partitions as I go, until I get a happy setup and THEN, once I have managed to get Steam and P.O.L up and running, thn I will copy the files over... Cos my steam folder even with just my LinuxPrograms are just over 900GB so its not the quickest thing to re-do, even when movign on the same drive its a few minutes.

----

Streaming!

Ok, I did see that streaming for the first time the other day... Does it keep the files? Can I use that as a valid option to not have to download, and only get the files as I go?

For example, if I stream a game and it grabs 5GB say, will that 5GB stay on the LinuxPC, in the steam folders whee they belong, or does it not do that? Will it re-try it later on when I go to play it again?

Just wondering?

Sp00n · 6 Sep 2017 at 12:34

Streaming doesn't download any game files, it just opens the game on the computer you are streaming from and streams the video to the computer you are streaming to.

You need to enable multiverse to get steam from the Ubuntu repos.

stopper · 6 Sep 2017 at 22:33

Kubuntu isn't that great for gaming, I found Ubuntu Budgie to be the best so far.
But anyway, Steam and POL are already added to Ubuntu (Mint/Kubuntu/Budgie/elementary/backbox/etc) repositories, so just open a terminal and type sudo apt-get install steam, and, sudo apt-get install playonlinux
Make sure you have 32bit libraries installed too, sudo apt-get install lib32z1
The .DEB that Valve provides doesn't always work, so don't bother with it.

Rainmaker · 7 Sep 2017 at 12:49

Try Antergos (based on Arch). It has an option to install Steam and Playonlinux in the installer (along with proprietary graphics, various kernels, browsers, Flash etc).

Tute · 7 Sep 2017 at 14:04

I use plain Ubuntu with (currently) Unity and it’s fine. Just install, then bung on the latest AMD drivers, and Steam just installs with sudo apt-get steam and off I went.

wiiija · 8 Sep 2017 at 10:56

I'm a convert to DeepinOS, it not only looks spangly but its incredibly stable, comes pre-installed with Steam and comes with crossover installed too.

gpuerrilla · 26 Sep 2017 at 23:29

Nobody tried SteamOS?

Sturm · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:33

Manjaro also has steam and no issues for me other than Steam wanting to re download game files when I played due to having to switch to windows for Arma and sniper elite as they would not play on linux and then in windows it was doing the same so now I just boot windows for gaming

FatRakoon · 18 Oct 2017 at 02:33

I know its been a short time, but I see that its had a few extra replies.

Ok, well, I think that there must have been somethign wrong the Linux PC cos things are seemingly working now... I have done a number of thigns and so it could one or any number of reasons... Cleared the CMOS full, fresh copy of the latest rufus and downloadsed the ISOs again, and a few others things.

But right now, I am, using MiNT 18.3 and it mostly works.

With DawnOfWar 2 and 3 it moans abotu Vulcan graphics and this is a hell for me now and it has bugged me a little in all honesty and I cannot get past that! - Im not asking for help, its not THAT important right now.

DeepinOS? - not heard of it... Will certainly give that a look.

SteamOS? - Yes, absolutely I have... Its ubuntu though isnt it? - Admittedly, I did only try a beta copy before it was finally released and it came as 2 huge ISOs that were funky to install... Or am I thinking of something else? I will have another try... However... as I said before, I did have bot ha steam and a PlayinLinux setup that was flawless, and even still to this day, I have not managed to get it 100% as good as it was. I honestly feel that in some ways, with so many people trying to get so many distros better than the others, they have in man yways lost their way, and their distros are not as good as they used to be.... Sabayon being one for me... Up to 15.4 it was lfawless but now its the most unreliable distro on my Linux PC and so I have moved away from it... Shame.