randal's Linux gaming adventure.

[randal]

So with the impending (Valve time?) release of SteamOS, I'm rather excited at the prospect of losing Windows for my main gaming OS. It's been a mixed bag over the years, there's always been a Windows machine in my home in some form or another and has been since Windows 3.1.

However over the years, my career has taken me towards for *NIX based disciplines, and as a result I've seen more and more of said OSs creeping into the home. The media PC/download box runs Ubuntu, my main work machine runs OSX and Windows exists only on my gaming rig. It's not that I don't like it, but more that I'm ready for a change. I like the idea of a free, open source platform, and now a major game developer is getting behind it and GPU hardware vendors seem to be sitting up and taking notice now seems like a good time to get a little ahead of the curve to baseline the experience before a dedicated OS surfaces.

At the moment I'm running:

i5 3570k @ 4.2ghz with Corsair H100i
8GB Corsair Vengeance
Asus Z77 Sabertooth
Asus Direct CUII 670 GTX 2GB
Samsung 830 64GB Boot drive
WD Caviar Black 500GB + 64GB Crucial M4 Cache for storage/games
Corsair 650D
Iiyama E2773HS
Roccat Arvo + Logitech G400
Roccat Kaves

I plan to ditch the SSDs/WD setup, and replace with a couple of Seagate SSHDs, one for Windows and one for Linux so I can do some comparative testing (and still be able to play BF4).

When the drives arrive later this week, I'll get a fresh W7 installation on one and a fresh Ubuntu 13.10 installation on the other (released 17th October).

Both installs will have the latest of NVidia's drivers, Steam and benchmarking tools for each platform. Plus necessary apps like Firefox, Skype etc.

Updates to follow, in the meantime any input/experiences/caveats/tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm very comfortable with the command line and intricacies of Ubuntu having used it for a couple of years, so go nuts.

 

[randal]

Few problems, but I now have a dual booting Xubuntu and W7 machine. What a doddle it was too. Here's the procedure I followed for Dual Boot with Windows already installed and Linux going on to a fresh blank drive.

Caveat: If you've never done this before, I recommend taking backups or using two blank drives with a fresh Windows installation and preserve your working config until you're comfortable to do it. I take no responsibility from misinstalled bootloaders and the loss of your child's baby photos.

OS Installation/Dual Boot Config

This in mind we start with an existing W7 drive setup, so:

• Samsung 830 64GB (C
• WD Caviar Black 500GB (D

Then added a 1TB Seagate SSHD for the Xubuntu drive.


Installation media wise, used the latest Xubuntu 13.10 ISO from here and used Unetbootin to copy over to a USB drive (no optical drives in my machines at home now). Unetbootin alas needed a bit of help in setting the partition active. If you come across a "Missing Operating System" error when you try to boot off your USB installer then:

In Windows:

• Administrative command prompt (new shortcut, cmd, right click run as admin)
• diskpart
• list disk
• sel disk 2 (or whatever your USB drive is)
• list part
• sel part 1 (or whatever your installer part is)
• active
• exit

For Linux just fire up GPartED and set the partition active on the USB drive.

I had graphical problems using the installer option for Xubuntu on the 670GTX, display corruptions and all sorts. So, I booted into the "Try Xubuntu" options after the GPU fraccas and ran the graphical installer from XFCE instead.

Let it do it's thing and select install updates during installation and install 3rd party codecs, and after selecting those basic options it'll detect the Windows installation.

Here you'll be asked if you want to:

• Run it along side Windows (repartition primary disk, dual boot on one volume)
• Blow Windows away and run Xubuntu exclusively.
• Something else.

You want Something else, unless you're happy with the other two.

Now you'll be presented with a disk layout menu, I must stress at this point - DO NOTHING WITH YOUR WINDOWS DISK.

Select the Xubuntu drive (will probably be at the bottom of the list), if you need to erase it just click "Write new partition table". This will do what it says on the tin.

Then click on the "Free Space" option, and then the little + sign below on the left. It's time to start laying out the file system.

I went for a fairly straight forward, basic setup. So this is the bare minimum of partitions you need really. You can start giving /opt, /var etc. their own, and I expect I will during the final build but for now this is what I went with:

/boot           500mb (primary partition, at beginning of disk) 

/                 100gb (logical partition, at beginning of disk) 
/home         890gb (logical partition, at beginning of disk)

swap           8gb (remainder of disk basically)

Then, tell it where to stick the bootloader (GRUB) - which will be your Linux disk that you've just laid out your filesystems on. This will give you a nice menu, that allows you to select Xubuntu, or Windows. Just remember to change your boot device priority in BIOS to the Xubuntu disk.

That's about it really! Let it churn away, and once completed it'll give you the restart option. Remove the removable storage installation media, reboot, hop into BIOS to set the boot device accordingly and reboot.

If you followed the above, then you should be presented with a GRUB boot menu and a counter ticking down from 10 seconds to select a boot option. Test both of your boot options here and now. Once happy that your Linux and Windows installations are accessible from the GRUB bootloader, go make a coffee and have a congratulatory biscuit.

Steam Installation

Fire up Firefox, and navigate to Steampowered.com.
Top right, install Steam (like we've all done 1000 times before)
Open up with Ubuntu Software Centre, let it do it's thing.

Et voila, one dual booting PC with access to your *Steam library.

*Well the games that have been ported anyway.

Still to sort for me/this guide:

• Asus Xonar DGX PCI-E Drivers + Kaves setup
• Driver installation NV + AMD
• Benchmarking tools

 

[randal]

make sure you go with Xubuntu or Lubuntu to reduce lag/input lag typically experienced in Unity, Gnome or KDE.

does everybody ditch unity if they are running ubuntu?

Seems that way... Xubuntu seems to be the preferred platform from what I've read so I'll probably go with that once they release their 13.10 distro.

I'm going to order another SSD so I can install linux on my gaming PC again. I play a\ bit on the mac mini and its fun, but my GTX680 and 2500k should fly on linux, last time I tried there was a fair bit of input lag/micro stuttering, which is a shame.

So how bad is the input lag/stuttering on vanilla Ubuntu/Unity?

I've gamed a bit on the Mac Mini, but even Godus is starting to push the HD4000 to it's limits which is why I've decided to throw some proper hardware at the experience. I'm particularly interested to watch the driver improvements as NV/AMD get on board with Linux in a bigger way. At the moment it seems the 3.12 kernel favours AMD so I may end up swapping vendors...

That's why it's not viable as a whole yet, when we are able to natively run most of our games (or run them in wine with less performance loss than we have now), Linux game (imo) will skyrocket. Until then though, it just seems like you're losing out more than anything.

Yet, being the operative word there. Which is why I want to get involved sooner rather than later to see it all unfolding. Agree though, as it stands things are still in their infancy but the future looks brighter than it ever has for the humble monolithic kernel OS.

 

[randal]

If you are serious about moving to linux, try different distro's etc
I personally dropped ubuntu years ago

What are you running out of interest?

There are improvements to AMD drivers with the 3.12 kernel depending on the games build etc but nvidia have always had better performance and support than AMD when it comes to drivers on linux.

Oh definitely, I remember compiling Catalyst from scratch on my first media PC build and it was incredibly frustrating given the number of kernel recompiles needed every time there was an update. Not to mention half of the features didn't work properly anyway even when built.

Nvidia has always been a much better experience on Linux for me, add PPA and job done. Auto kernel mod each time you update, much nicer.

 

[randal]

Noted, I'll keep all this in mind if I get hold of a red team card further down the line.

I'm liking the lightness of Openbox, but I'd rather not stray too far from Ubuntu so maybe Lubuntu might be a better way to go over Xubuntu... hmm.

I expect the Linux portion of my machine is going to get rebuilt several times over the coming months anyway with various distributions and configs. Can't hurt to add another one to the list.

 

[randal]

So many distro recommendations...

Tried Mint Cinnamon? Derived from Ubuntu, keeps to a traditional desktop feel and looks great.

I do like the simplistic, clean look of Cinnamon but I'm not 100% sure I want to go to Mint for my distro. Saying that I've just read this article and the author does come up with a number of valid points for making the switch to a pure Debian code base.

https://micahflee.com/2013/01/why-im-leaving-ubuntu-for-debian/

I agree that forced advertising in a free OS is a bit of a kicker, but it's easily disabled. Also, and I guess Bluelion and I are in the minority but I kinda like Unity. However if it's known to compromise the gaming experience then I'm out. I'd imagine SteamOS doesn't use it, or has it's own optimised version of...

Do you game on Mint, if so what's your take on it as a gaming OS?

Xubuntu is what I'm rocking at the moment for gaming pc. All my other PCs use arch. The only reason for using an Ubuntu flavour was that valve actually have official support for it...that said the arch community support is also top notch, I'm looking to switch back to arch after SteamOS release just in case SteamOS has some funky shiz that I want that wont be available elsewhere. Definitely use Xubuntu or Lubuntu over anything with GNOME or Unity.

Which is why I'm also still leaning towards a *buntu based distro, as SteamOS is likely to use the same seeing as they officially support Ubuntu. I'd like this baseline to be fairly close to the SteamOS product, so I think I'll follow your lead as a starter with Xubuntu.

I'm just running plain old Ubuntu LTS 12.04.3, with Ubuntu (I've actually got used to it... ). Unfortunately my aging ATI 6970 is struggling to play LOTRO at 1600p - its playable for I have to get used to 30fps.

Have you tried the latest kernel yet on your 6970? If the improvements are to be believed then there might be life left in the old girl yet...

Native Linux games seem to run well though - the Kerbal Space Program and Dota 2 (both installed through Steam) work very well. I think I'm at the point of ditching the Windows box now, its not been switched on in a month. On the other hand, there's no sign (yet) of a Linux port for Star Citizen which means I may have to dust off the Windows box in 12 months time

KSP is on my list of games to grab. Ideally I want a graphically rich Steam based game, FPS preferred but I think I'm out of luck save for Episode 2 or L4D2 - and they're hardly taxing games for a 670.

 

[randal]

Doing some reading up about Shuttleworth's attitude towards the open source community, and whilst I love what he's done for Linux adoption rates and the OS as a whole I think his approach to Mir, and advertising/information gathering stinks.

Saying "you don't trust us? We've got root" is a pretty arrogant statement in my mind.

Alas, I digress and should probably get used to the idea as Mir will probably surface around the same sort of time as SteamOS...

 

[randal]

Drives have arrived, Xubuntu 13.10 released today... looks like it's game on.

 

[randal]

Well the build started last night, badly.

I knew SSHD's we're slower than SSD's but man, I didn't realise they were going to be such a bottleneck. Took all night to so the W7 portion of the dual boot, 90 minutes to do the SP1 install? Not cool.

Started doing Xbuntu this morning, the installer runs with a corrupted screen which is probably something to do with graphics drivers. Weirdly it runs live fine.

Think I'm going to send the SSHD's back, and rethink my storage strategy.

 

[randal]

Things going from bad to worse, GPU just croaked.

Hello, Asus Support?

 

[randal]

Randal did you install linux on a different hdd?

I only ask because sorting out partitions is very confusing and 9/10 led to me borking windows

I unplug my windows hdds and install linux in isolation then use the motherboard bios to select which os to boot. That way I can never lose both.

I'm tempted to order a 60gb ssd to play with linux again, I only have it on VM and my fileserver.

for steam testing i would go xfce.

I did yep, I've stuck my Sammy 830+WD 500GB Caviar Black back in for my Windows stuff and then started a fresh installation on the 1TB SSHD. The installer picked up my W7 install, and configured GRUB accordingly. I'll stick all the details in my write up in the second post shortly.

Running XFCE on Xubuntu btw.

Sorry to hear that the OP is having problems already!

Although they are still more expensive I reckon that SSD's are really the only way to go.
I am looking into this sort of thing myself at the moment, and am currently very impressed with the latest release of Kubuntu (13.10).

This should be OK for installing Steam etc, shouldn't it?

Just one of those things, I've got a conversation going with Asus at the moment so I just need to do one more test (try card in another machine) and I think it's RMA time.

Tried another card in my machine, and that works fine so happy board and PSU are OK. Running with the onboard HD4000 at the moment and that's working perfectly for both OSs, so happy that monitor/cable/board are doing what they should also.

I knew going back from SSD to mechanical would be serious downgrade, but I had no idea how slow the 5400rpm SSHD was going to be despite bedding in to move boot stuff to the NAND. So that's going in the Mrs' laptop for a bit of extra space.

Well I had Steam up and running in a matter of minutes on a fresh Xubuntu installation, I know have all the Source Engine games installed and ready to go too. Was rather easy!

 

[randal]

This is what I was trying to say. I wouldn't have done this as I always manage to ensure GRUB destroys my bootloader or my whole windows install.

I would have done this:

1. install win on hdd1
2. unplugged hdd1
3. plugged in hhd2
4. installed Xubuntu
5.plugged hdd1 back in
6. use bios to select which os to boot

That way they are completely separate and can be treated independently.

As a noob you will run into issues now when uninstalling xubuntu, as inevitably you will be begin the great distro hoping journey we have all been through.

That's why you install GRUB in the Linux disk, and let the installer do the creation of the GRUB config. The problems only turn up when people try to install GRUB on the primary disk i.e their Windows disk. It fouls itself, and sits in the corner weeping.

Don't see why I'd have a problem changing distros either, the Windows install is totally standalone and just pointed to from the GRUB loader on the Linux disk. In fact I've just proven that by pointing the BIOS at the Windows disk and it works fine.

 

[randal]

I'm by no means an expert, but I'd like to think I know my way around.

However, this GPU issue is baffling me something chronic. Took the card over to my brother's and he tested it as working fine...

Get home, stick the card in. Same, no BIOS display. Get distracted, turn around 10 seconds later and boom. I have an Xubuntu desktop from the GPU's HDMI output like I always have.

Something has happened with the POST since I disabled the RAID option in the disks and set it to AHCI. I think the shortened post means the GPU and monitor don't have the time to handshake or something.

Need to get to the bottom of it, but it appears I have a fully working system again.

 

[randal]

Everything you need is in post #2 matey.

 

[randal]

Just being nosey here, are you using GPT ?

Looking at the partition layout I'd guess not
Any reason for not having EFI boot

Totally forgot truth be told, probably should amend that. Good spot.

 

[randal]

Thanks, but for some unknown reason Firefox didn't want to install on my laptop, but I assume it should work OK using the default browser.

I had already installed the Ubuntu Software Center, but that didn't find Steam... presumably because it actually has to be installed first?

Odd, it's the de facto browser on *buntu distros.

apt-get install firefox from a root shell?

 

[randal]

So a bit of a gaming update from last night.

Fired up the Xubuntu side of the machine, and sat at a rather malformed poorly looking desktop. Seems the NVidia driver install that I completed before I shut down the other night fouled itself, looks like the kernel module didn't build/insert properly. Simple apt-get remove/install fixed that.

Once back into a nice shiny looking desktop, and after spending 10 minutes tweaking a few settings I fired up steam and thought about what to play.

I settled on HL2, being that it's been about 3 years since I gave it a play through. There's plenty there to play, the two episodes and Lost Coast too. Bonus.

Once setting everything to max, the first thing that struck me is how the world is built in OpenGL as opposed to DirectX. The roof on the building in front of you on the square in the menu screen is ridiculously sharp where it meets the wall edge. I dropped back into Windows to check, and noted a much more natural join of textures.

Now I don't know if this is a limitation of the GL implementation, or if it's to do with the porting process but it certainly feels very different on Linux.

Overall however I was impressed with the slickness, and speed at which everything happened and performed. Granted it's nearly a decade old game, but I was still engaged enough and still lost 2 hours last night to playing through again.

Will try and get some meaningful benchies up this weekend too.

 

[randal]

Hello mate,

Noted, I'll keep that in mind. I'm running my drivers from the xubuntu (Ubuntu) pre-configured repos, so they install with the kernel hooks. When the kernel updates, the module *should* automatically get rebuilt and recompiled along with the update...

Yep, my machine is dual boot so it's exactly the same in Windows/Linux hardware wise.

I'm going to even up the drivers on Windows/Linux over the weekend and do some Uniengine benching to see what the divide is like. If I can tear myself away from HL2...

 

[randal]

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/11/total-war-rome-ii-coming-linux-early-next-year

As well as the new Metro this week

Nice one, been looking forward to Metro being released. Will give it a go during the week.

-

So Linux gaming experience wise, it's all been straight forward enough... except for the NV 319 drivers. What a PITA they've been.

Booted my machine the other day to be presented with a command line login, and lots of warning messages about xorg, plymouthd and cups failing to start/crashing. Managed to trace it down to the 319 drivers causing the issues. Backed off to 304 and everything has been rock solid stable since. Odd.

Hopefully the x-swat mob will get the latest drivers on the repo once they're happy with them. Can't be bothered to get stuck in the proprietary drivers/kernel updates loop again.

Oh, and HL2 is still as enjoyable now as it was when I first played through it.

 

[randal]

So I found some time tonight to finally get around to some Linux Vs Windows benching. Only Heaven 4.0 for now, but I was quite surprised to see the results.

CPU @ 4.4ghz, GPUs at stock speeds (915/3000).

Worth mentioning these are very much finger in the air measurements because I was running 331.65 on Windows, and 325.15s on Linux due to the fact that's the only thing I could get with a degree of stability. More on drivers further down...

First up:

Straight out of the box settings for Heaven 4.0, almost identical performance. Result.

Then on to the max settings for Heaven, with a bit of DX11 on Windows thrown in for good measure:

Again, numbers very close and better than I was expecting. Alas it's not all good news...


Which brings me on to the next part of this post:

I've recently acquired a second 670GTX to test out some SLI, and act as a stop gap performance upgrade whilst I ponder a potential move to a 290 once the AIB coolers appear and AMD get their 3.12/driver situation sorted.

Good idea: Installing a second graphics card and enabling SLI under Windows.
Bad idea: Installing a second graphics card and enabling SLI under Linux.

Everything seemed to be going so smoothly, card goes in and I boot into Linux. Then I ran:

nvidia-xsettings --sli=on

Then rebooted, that's where things went awry. Performance was awful, worse than a single card setup. So out of desperation I upgraded to the 3.11-13 kernel, added xorg-edgers to my repo list and installed the 331.20 drivers. Since then I've been plagued with xorg crashes, Plymouthd refusing to start and the nvidia-persistent module taking a dump whenever it feels like it.

More work required, probably based around "apt-get purge".