Proton people: How do you do it? :: Hardware and Operating Systems

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Naii Starwing 23 Oct @ 1:20pm

Proton people: How do you do it?

I just installed Pop!_OS nine days ago following the impending catastrophe to rival the shutdown of Flash. It is taking me a tremendous amount of digital gymnastics to get my computer to run anything more complex than Doom. I got this computer earlier this year. AMD processor, NVidia RTX series GPU. I don't even know how to check my hardware with this thing. I can't play No Man's Sky, I can't play Palworld, more than half my library spends five minutes processing the Vulkan shader before flipping me off at the end and failing to run. I got ProtonGE as I was instructed to, and that has yet to work once. It's just another Proton version that doesn't work. Very disillusioned with this OS, and I'm sad to live in a world where you have to choose between oppression and nonfunctionality.

Last edited by Naii Starwing; 23 Oct @ 1:21pm

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Showing 1-15 of 19 comments

Electric Cupcake 23 Oct @ 1:42pm

To display hardware info, there are several options.
Sadly, good, old Neofetch is deprecated.
https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/man/hwinfo is the other major one.

https://opensource.com/article/19/9/linux-commands-hardware-information

As for palworld and NMS, both are Gold rated, so they should be playable with minimal tweaks.

https://www.protondb.com/app/1623730
https://www.protondb.com/app/275850

Do not lose heart. Treat every setback as a victorious learning experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1V2AZKuQkc

Last edited by Electric Cupcake; 23 Oct @ 1:47pm

Zef 23 Oct @ 2:52pm

By not running nvidia GPU's on linux.

I'm not saying it's entirely your GPU's fault but nvidia and linux together is a bad idea, you'll lose tons of performance compared to AMD.

Electric Cupcake 23 Oct @ 2:58pm

Originally posted by Zef:
By not running nvidia GPU's on linux.

I'm not saying it's entirely your GPU's fault but nvidia and linux together is a bad idea, you'll lose tons of performance compared to AMD.

I dislike Nvidia, but they have been putting more effort into linux compatibility than they used to.

OP can try adding DRI_PRIME=1 %command% or DXVK_FILTER_DEVICE_NAME="gpu model number" %command% to the launch parameters.

And make sure the kernel version is up to date for the GPU model, of course.

Last edited by Electric Cupcake; 23 Oct @ 3:02pm

Chaosolous 23 Oct @ 3:07pm

It's really really easy. This is how I do it.

Open Steam. Look at the top left.

Steam > Settings > Compatibility > "Default Compatibility Tool" > Proton 9.0-4

Tada.

Sometimes, some games require me to use another Proton layer, usually whatever the latest version of Glorious Eggroll (GE) is.

If that's the case, I do this:

Open Steam. Go to Library. Find game you need to change Proton layer of.

Right Click > Properties > Compatibility > ✅ "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" > GE-Proton(latest version)

You can find the latest version of GE-Proton here:

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases

It's currently at the time of this post, GE-Proton(10-21).

You can find guides on how to install GE-Proton all over YouTube.

Here's an older one, but it's pretty much the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_oortvBGx8
If you find that video doesn't help you, there's ample others you can look through.

On rare occasions, you might need to use a launch option. Usually for older games. If that's the case, http://www.ProtonDB.com is your friend. Read through, and find people using your similar specs, you can filter results via hardware and distro if you need to.

Also, you can always try Proton Experimental, but that's hit or miss.

Last edited by Chaosolous; 23 Oct @ 3:12pm

Bad 💀 Motha 23 Oct @ 3:11pm

Pop_OS also means you'll probably have to do some extra work where drivers are concerned. Maybe try Ubuntu or Mint perhaps instead

Chaosolous 23 Oct @ 3:13pm

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:
Pop_OS also means you'll probably have to do some extra work where drivers are concerned. Maybe try Ubuntu or Mint perhaps instead

Also this. Make sure your drivers are installed properly.

pwnograffik 23 Oct @ 3:23pm

Originally posted by Zef:
By not running nvidia GPU's on linux.

I'm not saying it's entirely your GPU's fault but nvidia and linux together is a bad idea, you'll lose tons of performance compared to AMD.

It's 2025 not 2009.

Zef 23 Oct @ 3:56pm

Originally posted by pwnograffik:
Originally posted by Zef:
By not running nvidia GPU's on linux.

I'm not saying it's entirely your GPU's fault but nvidia and linux together is a bad idea, you'll lose tons of performance compared to AMD.

It's 2025 not 2009.

And yet Nvidia still lags behind immensily on linux

Bad 💀 Motha 23 Oct @ 4:09pm

I got this from AI assistant, but hope it helps.

The easiest way to install NVIDIA RTX drivers on Pop!_OS is to download the NVIDIA ISO version of Pop!_OS for a pre-installed experience, or use the Pop!_Shop for a user-friendly installation. For a command-line installation, open the terminal and run sudo apt-get install system76-driver-nvidia, which will install the latest NVIDIA drivers packaged by System76 for Pop!_OS, and then reboot your system. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Method 1: Use the NVIDIA ISO

• This is the recommended method for a hassle-free setup, especially for new installations. [1, 2]
• Go to the Pop!_OS download page and select the NVIDIA version of the ISO to download. [1, 2, 6, 7]
• This version comes with the proprietary NVIDIA drivers pre-installed. [2]

Method 2: Use the Pop!_Shop

• If you already have a version of Pop!_OS installed, open the Pop!_Shop application.
• Search for "NVIDIA" or "system76-driver-nvidia".
• Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver package. [1, 8, 9, 10]

Method 3: Use the command line

1. Open the terminal.
2. Install the System76 driver: Run the following command to install the official System76 package, which includes the latest NVIDIA drivers for your version of Pop!_OS: [3, 11]

sudo apt-get install system76-driver-nvidia

1. Reboot: Restart your computer for the changes to take effect. [3, 10, 12]

sudo reboot

1. Check your installation: After rebooting, you can verify the installation in your system settings, under the "About" tab, to see if the "Graphics" bar now appears, or open the NVIDIA X Server Settings application. [13, 14, 15, 16]

Important considerations

• Driver conflicts: If you've tried installing drivers from other sources, it's a good idea to purge old drivers before installing the new ones. On the command line, you can use apt purge ~nnvidia* followed by apt clean and apt autoremove. [17]

• Secure Boot: If Secure Boot is enabled, you may need to create a password when prompted by the installer. [17, 18, 19]

• Driver types: For the latest, potentially less stable drivers, you might see an option to install nvidia-driver-open. However, system76-driver-nvidia is the recommended method for Pop!_OS as it handles the necessary setup for you. [3, 18]

Chaosolous 23 Oct @ 4:15pm

Originally posted by Zef:
By not running nvidia GPU's on linux.

I'm not saying it's entirely your GPU's fault but nvidia and linux together is a bad idea, you'll lose tons of performance compared to AMD.

My RTX card runs on Linux Mint just fine. My games play great.

#10

Haruspex 23 Oct @ 5:52pm

Linux gives you a tremendous amount of freedom, and for many, myself included, all that freedom will eventually get you into trouble.

In 2025, unless you genuinely know what you're doing, I high recommend an immutable distro. Bazzite[bazzite.gg] is an immutable, Fedora based, gaming focused distro that I have nothing but good things to say about. Just tell the site what kind of hardware you'll be using and which desktop environment you want, then download the image and install it. Things like the proprietary Nvidia drivers are ready to go for you out of the box.

The benefit of an immutable distro is that everything at the system level is blocked off to you. This would be extremely frustrating for a pro Linux user, but for the average Joe, it protects you from yourself.

The biggest thing to adjust is your mindset. Where do you get your applications? You're not using Pacman or RPM. You are typically getting Flatpaks from the GUI application manager, sometimes called a "store", probably because of it's similar presentation to the "App store" on Android or apple devices. Everything there is neatly packaged for you and ready to go. Bazzite's store is "Bazaar". Other distros usually use the "Discovery Store".

You can also just run anything wrapped up in an Appimage, and of course you can run Windows software through Wine or Proton, easily managed through Steam, or Bottles, or Lutris, plus Winboat for stubborn programs. For other Linux applications, you can run them on their own layer via Distrobox. If you screw something up, just remove the layer and there's no harm done. Your core system will remain unmodified.

My biggest struggle with Linux up until now was that I have this drive to tinker and fiddle around with stuff. Ultimately, I would break something and not know how to undo what I did, leaving me little recourse other than to reinstall everything. Immutable/Atomic distros like Bazzite, Fedora Silverblue, NixOS, or VanillaOS round out the sharp edges just enough to protect me from myself and ensure I have a good experience.

Last edited by Haruspex; 23 Oct @ 6:40pm

#11

Bad 💀 Motha 23 Oct @ 6:22pm

And what what something like Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 w/ Steam + Proton + Rockstar Launcher... how does one go about getting that working properly on Linux... such as Bazzite?

#12

Zef 23 Oct @ 6:31pm

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:
And what what something like Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 w/ Steam + Proton + Rockstar Launcher... how does one go about getting that working properly on Linux... such as Bazzite?

https://github.com/moraroy/NonSteamLaunchers-On-Steam-Deck

#13

Haruspex 23 Oct @ 6:36pm

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:
And what what something like Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 w/ Steam + Proton + Rockstar Launcher... how does one go about getting that working properly on Linux... such as Bazzite?

I've never had a problem. Just launch it through Steam. Sometimes they'll update or change that launcher in a way that breaks it, but Proton develops rapidly, and I've found that it works again very quickly.