My journey to successfully game under Linux (and overcome Microsoft's Stranglehold)

[igor_kavinski]

Searching for it, two things stand out:

Don't change to DX12 in the in-game settings. It will fail to launch and may require re-installation.

Other thing is to delete the game's compatdata folder (.steam > steam > steamapps > compatdata) or keep the folder but delete everything inside that folder.

 

[igor_kavinski]

If I had the bandwidth I'd do a backup of my BF2 installation and share it with you!

My suggestion is to make a copy of the folder, then search for all files. Delete all the files that look like assets etc. That should trim down the size dramatically. What you should be left with is just DLLs or config files. Give that to Indus. He overwrites his folder with that and maybe it works?

 

[igor_kavinski]

If I had the bandwidth I'd do a backup of my BF2 installation and share it with you!

This also reminds me. When Half Life 2 came out, I was a kid and couldn't afford to buy it so obviously bought a counterfeit CD/DVD. Upon launching the game, it was erroring out on a single file. Got on IRC, managed to find some really nice guy who sent me that measly few kilobytes file and my copy ran flawlessly! That day, I "felt" the true power of the internet.

 

[WelshBloke]

My suggestion is to make a copy of the folder, then search for all files. Delete all the files that look like assets etc. That should trim down the size dramatically. What you should be left with is just DLLs or config files. Give that to Indus. He overwrites his folder with that and maybe it works?

I'm not sure that would work with the way Steam backs up games. I didn't have any luck just copy/pasting the game folders, I had to do a Steam backup and restore from that for my games. I can't remember if BF2 worked that way or if it needed a full download and reinstall.

 

[igor_kavinski]

GitHub - CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities: A utility to improve performance and help manage storage on Steam Deck.

A utility to improve performance and help manage storage on Steam Deck. - CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities

github.com

Some people have had luck with that. Something to do with default swap space. Installing that, the default size is increased so that may resolve the issue.

@WelshBloke Let us know your swap size. Then Indus can compare to his swap size.

Some other good recommendations here: https://www.protondb.com/app/1237950?device=steamDeck

 

[WelshBloke]

GitHub - CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities: A utility to improve performance and help manage storage on Steam Deck.

A utility to improve performance and help manage storage on Steam Deck. - CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities

github.com

Some people have had luck with that. Something to do with default swap space. Installing that, the default size is increased so that may resolve the issue.

@WelshBloke Let us know your swap size. Then Indus can compare to his swap size.

Some other good recommendations here: https://www.protondb.com/app/1237950?device=steamDeck

I'll check when I get home in the morning, I'm running with 64gb of ram though so I'm probably not using a lot of it!

 

[igor_kavinski]

I'm running with 64gb of ram

THAT could be a clue because in Windows, the swap file automatically gets increased proportional to the amount of RAM so your default size would have to be greater than someone with 32GB RAM.

 

[Indus]

Just suffered my first complete lock up in linux..

Somehow fittingly trying to load BF2 and it was trying to load shaders and it just froze.. that game is really bugged.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Somehow fittingly trying to load BF2 and it was trying to load shaders and it just froze.. that game is really bugged.

Sure that your CPU didn't heat up? Shader compilation is VERY compute intensive and it was what broke Raptor Lake CPUs.

 

[Indus]

Sure that your CPU didn't heat up? Shader compilation is VERY compute intensive and it was what broke Raptor Lake CPUs.

Hmm..

That's not a bad shout.. I know I have a stable system and an air conditioned room, a dual tower cooler and today wasn't very hot but normally games compile shaders is under a minute, usually 20 seconds. BF2 takes like 45 minutes so I let it do it's stuff in the background.

I've run stress tests before for 10-15 minutes to see system stability but never ran it for 45 mins before. However it never happened before when I tried to do the same thing.

If it happens again, I'll definitely pay more attention to cpu overheating.

BTW have you had proton games randomly freeze on you for a second or 2? Is that an indicator of overheating CPU as well?

 

[igor_kavinski]

BTW have you had proton games randomly freeze on you for a second or 2? Is that an indicator of overheating CPU as well?

I have such a huge Steam library that I prefer not to do any experiments with it.

At some point, I think I will need to create a dummy Steam account with some of the duplicate Steam keys I have so I can test stuff out. I think the last time I seriously played a Steam game was maybe before 2020.

But depending on what you are describing, the freezing thing could be related to overheating (could even be NVMe SSD heating up). Make sure that your system isn't dusty and try a few gaming sessions with the case open. If that leads to no freezes, maybe you have an airflow issue.

 

[Indus]

I have such a huge Steam library that I prefer not to do any experiments with it.

At some point, I think I will need to create a dummy Steam account with some of the duplicate Steam keys I have so I can test stuff out. I think the last time I seriously played a Steam game was maybe before 2020.

But depending on what you are describing, the freezing thing could be related to overheating (could even be NVMe SSD heating up). Make sure that your system isn't dusty and try a few gaming sessions with the case open. If that leads to no freezes, maybe you have an airflow issue.

No I run an open case. Temps are pretty solid too but I just remembered I updated my bios.. maybe the Load Line Calibration setting was set to default instead of Mode 2.. and yes it was.

That's probably it!