Best approach for compatibility - Steam games in Linux (Mint, or otherwise) (2024)

I've noticed the increased number of people switching away from Windows due to Recall, who naturally want to get their Steam games running in Linux. This is great. With that comes many support topics of "How do I get XYZ running on Linux?" with a ton of well meaning people giving advice that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

I've got a particular method of doing things that works very well with the vast majority the games I play, regardless of distro and hardware.

Minimum requirements:
A GPU that supports DX12 and Vulkan, with appropriate drivers installed via the Driver Manager (in Mint). This is any modern Nvidia (GTX 10 series and higher), Intel Arc/Xe Graphics (or Intel HD 6000+ if you must), and pretty much any AMD GPU newer than 2016.

Who is this for?:
This is for anyone new to Linux, or a casual user who wants to play games. This method allows the games to perform well enough to be playable. As someone who uses AMD and Intel graphics, I can say I've actually seen Windows games perform better on Linux than Windows 11 in some cases.

Fair warning: if you're not familiar with Linux filesystems this might seem a bit confusing, but you're basically running a couple commands and extracting an archive file into a folder. You aren't really doing anything too major, just different from the norm. You won't break anything, I promise.

The following is an overview of the choices I've made and why. At the bottom is the steps needed to do it.

- Flatpak version of Steam. Why? Steam, and the games you play, use system libraries (on any OS, not just Linux). When you run system updates, there is a chance compatibility can break. Flatpak bundles Steam with a snapshot of the most compatible libraries of the time, and those don't change as often, if at all. TL;DR, the Steam flatpak will always work the same regardless of OS version.
EDIT:: AMD and Intel GPU drivers are usually bundled in with the kernel, and Mint uses an old kernel (5.15) for stability reasons. Intel Xe/Arc in particular are newer GPUs and therefore get the most benefit from newer kernels (6 and up). If you have a game that SHOULD work in Linux but refuses to, the old kernel may be an issue (assuming you have a GPU newer than 2020). Nvidia uses its own drivers so this wouldn't apply.

- Glorious Eggroll's Proton GE builds. Why not just regular Proton? Two reasons - First, GE bundles in-game fixes that Valve cannot ship (legally) due to licensing. Second, GE gets patched far more frequently, so it will have more up to date game fixes, and often those eventually roll into the official Valve proton releases anyway.

(If you don't know what Proton is, it's just a compatibility layer that allows Windows games to run on Linux by "translating the code" if I can oversimplify.)

This whole approach is designed to be sandboxed and separate from your base Linux Mint system. This way, getting your games running will have little to no impact on your OS (aside from step 2, but you're not really changing anything major there).

Here's the steps:
1. Install Steam via Flatpak: flatpak install steam and then select "app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/x86_64/stable". Get logged in, go to settings, Compatibility, "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" and toggle it on. Restart Steam when prompted.
2. [REMOVED] - steam-devices package no longer needed
3. Download a Glorious Eggroll proton build: https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/prot ... m/releases
(note: you're going for the latest release, the tar.gz file)
4. Open terminal, run the command mkdir ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d
5. run nemo ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d to open the folder in your 'files app'. Replace nemo with thunar if you're on XFCE. This will just open the folder in your files app so you can use the GUI.
6. Extract the tar.gz file into the compatibilitytools.d folder
7. Restart Steam (exit and relaunch Steam Flatpak)
8. Right-click the game you want to run, Properties > Compatibility > Check "Force use of..." > GE-proton.
9. Install and play.

This is by far the most compatible method with the vast majority of Steam games. The only game I've had any real issues with is Far Cry 4, and that's because of Ubisoft. I've played (and beat) Far Cry 5 and Watch_Dogs Legion on the same machine, as well as played Watch_Dogs 1 & 2 with no issue.

Best approach for compatibility - Steam games in Linux (Mint, or otherwise) (2024)

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