They absolutely didn’t work. I didn’t try removing the compatibility files afaik, but switching versions should basically have had the same result as that did trigger an first-time setup each time. The Ubisoft installer wasn’t part of that install for as far as I could see, or failed for each proton version without any visible signs.

Understood, my bad for assuming! It sounds like you had some really bad luck, as I couldn’t find users with the same issues on ProtonDB.

The problem here is mostly that the information offered on various locations differs and it is a question of trial and error to find out what works and what not, especially if you’re still figuring out the gaming ecosystem.

I definitely agree that this is a big issue. ProtonDB is generally the best source, and besides that a lot of the best resources are unfortunately in difficult to search Discords. I would love to see a more organized resource for this kinda stuff. This issue extends beyond gaming on Linux, too. Looking up any Linux issues results in a ton of super outdated or just bad info.

It was Linux Mint, on an Nvidia Prime-based laptop.

Linux Mint is a great distro, but one that I personally recommend against for gaming. People recommending distros that aren’t great for some use cases is also a problem with Linux gaming. Mint’s stability means using outdated Nvidia drivers, something that I would absolutely try to avoid.

I already saw somebody else mentioning Bazzite, so my next attempt will be to try that distribution.

I do love Bazzite, it is easily the distro I recommend most to users trying Linux for gaming. The only warning I have is that if you use hardware that needs kernel drivers that aren’t upstream, and they aren’t packaged by Bazzite, you will probably run into trouble. I wanted to use a steering wheel that needed a custom driver and just had to give up on getting it working. The only solutions seemed to require a ton of knowledge about ublue and all the containerization technology they use. It’s not my main distro, so I really didn’t feel like dedicating the time to learning all that.

However, that’s the only issue I’ve ever run into with Bazzite, and otherwise it is super user-friendly and Just Works™.

Thats all fair, I’m not trying to say their a better option for you or developers in general, just that they do offer features and benefits targeted at developers. I disagree with the idea that theyre only made for users with very simple needs.

Ive never run into any issues trying to build random projects or run random tools is distrobox, but I also haven’t used it as a main development tool. I prefer Nix for that.

Those tools are definitely great too, they just don’t offer the same purity because they dont handle external dependencies. Guaranteeing a reproducible build environment is something I find very valuable.

I think most users just don’t really know much about atomic distros. A lot of people in this thread don’t seem to really understand the benefits and mention downsides that don’t really exist in most of them. I think eventually (and by that I mean in a VERY long time) atomic distros will become the standard. AerynOS is an upcoming one that seems to have a really amazing blend of it’s atomic features without disrupting the user experience people expect from more typical distros. It won’t replace Nix for me, but I hope it’ll convince a lot of people to try it out.

I don’t think that’s a very accurate assessment at all. NixOS, VanillaOS, and Bluefin are three of the first atomic distro’s I think of and they’re all heavily aimed at developers. All of them offer features to help separate development environments, which improve reproducibility of packages and environments. I prefer the Nix approach to containers, but each one definitely offers benefits for software development.

I do software development and need a ton of tools installed that aren’t just “flatpaks”.

Every atomic distro supports distrobox and other containerization tools, and many support Nix and brew.

These distros are good for people who want to treat their desktop like a phone, but flatpak kinda lets you do that on any distro. Atomic distros are great for those who want to use tools to separate development environments for purity and tinker with the ability to easily rollback.

Atomic distros dont stop you from breaking them, they just make it easy to undo breakage

Steam is supposed to handle installing the Ubisoft launcher during the first-time setup, it sounds like for whatever reason it failed to do that. It’s very likely that verifying the game files would’ve fixed the issue easily, as it re-runs the first time setup. If that didn’t work, deleting the compatibility files would probably have been the next step. I’d be very surprised if one of these didn’t fix it.

The rest of the troubleshooting steps you took until the GPU stuff were unnecessary, as they were basically Windows troubleshooting steps, not Linux ones. It’s completely expected to have to relearn how to troubleshoot stuff on a different OS and I’d really recommend asking in a Linux gaming community when you run into issues like that, until you’ve gotten the troubleshooting steps down.

Install Ubi launcher using method ‘add installer as game, set compatibility layer, install and change executable for application executable’ … Install Lutris and install Ubi launcher through that

Wine/Proton games are run in their own individual “prefixes”, which are essentially individual Windows instances. Both of these steps just installed Ubisoft launcher in a different instance. This would be a fine fix on Windows, but this is a different OS. The correct fix isn’t necessarily harder either, just different.

Install Protontricks through Flatpack instead of system package, as the Flatpack version is slightly newer. Accept that this will result in a much larger installation due to not using system-provided libraries.

“much larger” is relative, software is pretty small in general, especially compared to any modern games. It’s really not much space, and the flatpak runtimes will be reused for other flatpaks you install.

As much as I want to like it, this experience makes me feel that Linux is not fully ready for the masses yet.

I don’t even entirely disagree, but also don’t think the issues you faced completely demonstrate that. The Ubisoft installation issue was most likely a Steam client bug. First-time installations failing is 100% something that has happened on Windows, that’s why verifying game files is often the first recommended step when troubleshooting a game. Most distros that get recommended now have features to easily install Nvidia drivers. My personal recommendation for gaming, Bazzite, has an Nvidia ISO, which would’ve had them set up from the beginning.

Do you mind sharing what distro you were using? It sounds like whatever it is has bad instructions for setting up Nvidia drivers, I’d like to avoid recommending it.

Edit: Just read this back and wanted to add that I wasn’t trying to be rude or condescending at any point, or blaming you for the issues. I don’t think gaming on Linux is difficult, but I think people do need to do a better job preparing new users when they recommend it. It isn’t, and never will or even should be, the exact same as Windows. You have to learn the differences to be able to troubleshoot effectively, which just takes some time. Nobody knows how to troubleshoot correctly the first time they use Windows either.

It looks like this works by following accessibility standards. I’m not sure if an accessibility standard for input fields on Linux, but if it does it should be possible.

Wayland supports global shortcuts using the global shortcuts portal, so it should be possible. There’s an app called espanso that automatically expands text on Wayland, I imagine similar methods could be used for this.

Neat, I haven’t tried the Jitsi integration so I wasn’t aware it had persistent rooms. That’s the main thing I need to exist, I’ll have to give it a try. Although, I do still greatly prefer the format of servers and channels, rather than spaces and rooms.

Channels that function similar to discords? You can start a voice call in a room or create voice calls, but those function pretty differently from Discord voice channels.

I love Matrix but it really isnt a good discord replacement. It’s much closer to Telegram or Lemmy. It doesnt even have voice channels, the main reason everyone I know uses Discord. I hope we do get a proper decentralized discord alternative at some point.

Fair enough, I haven’t worked in an industry with requirements like that. Can you share an example of software you would use for a setup like that? I’m interested in learning more about it. I wonder how many companies are currently using a solution like that with Linux.

Wayland itself isn’t doing anything to prevent those solutions from working, but nobody has chosen to create a solution like that supporting Wayland. If the companies working on and funding Wayland need a solution like that, then they can make or fund it.

Right now, Wayland is good enough to be used on employee workstations for most peoples day to day work, because most people dont work at a company using a solution like you described.

After 15 years, Wayland is lacking some things X11 has, but has also far surpassed it in many ways. Linux is now usable on HiDPI and has proper color management. Companies like Redhat aren’t picking features at random, they’re prioritizing what their biggest customers need, because thats what makes money. Again, just to reiterate, Wayland supports the usecases you’ve described, but companies haven’t made software for this usecases that works with Wayland.

Wayland may not be a better replacement for you, but is sure is for a ton of users and organizations.

Rustdesk is an alright remote desktop option, although it definitely far from perfect. Wayland offers the support remote desktop needs, this is just up to someone wanting a solution enough to make it.

I agree that the “every frame being perfect” thing was dumb, but tearing support exists so its not really a complaint anymore.

Nvidia does work fine on every major Wayland implementation.

Screensharing works fine.

I understand the disappointment in how long Wayland is taking to be a perfect replacement to X11, but a proper replacement should absolutely not be rushed. X11 released 40 years ago, 15 years to make a replacement with better security and more features is fine.

Wayland has put a huge emphasis on improved security, which is also one of the biggest reasons some features have taken so long. This is a good thing, rushing insecure implementations of features is a horrible idea for modern software that will hopefully last a long time.

In its current state, Wayland is already good for the large majority of use cases.

What issues do half of your X11 apps? Ive never had an issue with an X11 app running through Xwayland, although I also dont have many X11 apps left.

Plasma and Hyprland already have one

Things like desktop automation, screen sharing, screen recording, remote desktop etc. are incredibly broken, with no hope in sight because the core design of Wayland simply didn’t account for them(!?), apparently.

All of those things function on Wayland using the right protocols. If they dont work for you, either the DE/WM you use has not implemented the protocols, or the app you’re using has chosen not to implement Wayland support yet.

For automation there is ydotool and wlrctl. Ive also seen a tool called Hawck which seems neat, but I haven’t tried it.

I’ve never seen an issue with screen recording, OBS has worked fine with Wayland for a long time. I use GPU Screen Recorder on Wayland everyday.

Screensharing portals have existed for a while now, I haven’t run into any apps that still haven’t implemented them. Ive used it just fine on Discord and through multiple browsers.

Remote desktop also has a portal that any remote desktop app could implement. Rustdesk has experimental Wayland support which has worked for me. GNOME and Plasma also have built in RDP.

I use Voyager on mobile most of the time, but still do a little browsing on my desktop using Photon.

If the links are to another post, you’ll stay logged in so you can interact. Without this it opens on the other instance so you cant interact.

Ive seen a staggering amount of students who relied entirely on AI fail out of the masters program I’m in. Cheating only gets you so far.

Whether you like Lemmy.world or not, its probably not a good idea for this community to remain on an instance that is failing to remove CSAM.