Manjaro Experiment
After years on Debian, running i3, I decided to try out a more traditional Linux setup, and take a stab at gaming on Linux. I chose Manjaro for a few reasons:
- It's not Debian based (it's arch btw /s)
- It's still on Systemd so I won't lose that familiarity
- For gaming it comes with pretty up to date drivers and setup for running Steam games
- It has a KDE installation which is what I wanted to run
Why "not Debian"
Debian is home for me. I have used it for years on both work machines, servers, personal desktop. But it comes with its own quirks. Starters - I am running base Debian, not a Debian based system, which generally means some packages are out of date. To get around this I run Sid/Unstable. This hasn't been a particular issue, but sometimes there are version conflicts and other just nuisances and no real easy way to get every package in the proper version configuration. This was a particular pain-point with getting Steam (nonfree too which adds another layer of configurations) Wine and a few other packages all set up. Plus 32-bit!
i3
I have been using i3 as my window manager and without really any other desktop environment programs. My login is the typical tty debian login. But running i3 and then having windows appear, especially game windows which can be tempermental, getting tiled to have to break it out again is just a hassle. While I could've gone with another Debian base running a proper desktop environment + window manager I figured that'd be boring and I'd just be trying out the programs and not the Linux, which is half the fun.
That being said. i3 is Linux for me. Being able to just move between windows with a macro and every bit of it just being intutive (after you've learned!) is a productivity booster. Which is why I still use it on my work machine, and can't see myself ever switching off.
KDE
I've used Gnome and XFCE as desktop environments before, and they're fine, but I've always like the customability, flexibility, and polished look of KDE.
Setting up KDE for an i3 addict
By default KDE isn't really too hard to "get used to"
since it feels like any other OS, especially a windows setup. But the
main thing I needed to change is the meta+<key>
commands.
- Remapping the Virtual Desktop changes
- Remapping the KWin window focuses
- Remapping the KWin move to desktop
- Installing DMenu
- Shrinking the "start bar" panel
- Removing Pager
- Changing Task Manger to Window List
- Configuring Desktop Layout to "Desktop" (this removes the icons)
Some of the key remappings
Setting up the KWin window keymapping was really what made me feel at
home. For the first few hours with it, I felt as limited in my
productivity as with Windows. KDE and Windows share by default a lot of
the same keymappings around window manipulation and virtual desktop
changes. Switch to desktop N setting this as meta+<N>
where N is the dekstop 1-10 (0). Switch
to Window to the Left/Right/Up/Down This was one I was nervous
wouldn't exist as a keybind. But What was meta+alt+<dir>
was mapped to without the alt. This
allowed for the very annoying lack of ability to just jump between
browser and terminal, or especially two separate terminals. Quit
Window with meta+shift+Q
, Tile
Window command to use the Shift key rather, especially as
meta+<dir>
was overwritten by the focus
switching.
Manjaro
So I went with KDE Manjaro. Manjaro aims for the gaming desktop experience. Arch is new for me, so I feel that would be something to adjust to and learn.
Gaming
It has only been a day with it as I am writing. But I was able to get a fair amount of the fighting games I wanted to play work.
Proton + Steam
So far my main focus has been running the fighting games I noodle around on in Steam. To do this I launched Steam and installed the proton and setup to run all games, regardless of compatibility. None of the games I hoped to run had worked this way. I then opt'd into the beta for Proton running the experimental builds, which should generally have the more up-to-date tunings for games. With this setup I was able to get Soulcalibur VI to work. Battle for the Grid and Dragon Ball FighterZ both had launching issues. So I looked around and found Proton Ge Custom which is a custom fork of Proton that contains custom settings and tweeks for various games. One of which is Battle For the Grid which is how I found it. Using this I was able to play every game except Dragon Ball FighterZ! A callout for Dead or Alive 6 which is performing questionably. It can run and isn't actually too bad, but in windowed or borderless it stutters and drops frames.
Other issues
Even on Windows there are issues with some games and your standard configurations. Disabling Steam Overlay and adjusting the Steam Input Setting on some games helped get some games working.
Conclusion
Gaming on Linux is still not great. Its MILES ahead of where it was even a few years ago when I setup this PC. And I think it will take some adjustment getting a feel for an i3less workflow.
Update!
NTFS mounting
Update! I got DOA and a few other games to run a bit smoother by
remounting my NTFS drives properly. I ended up using the following for my
/etc/fstab configuraiton for my NTFS drives: UUID=<drive-id>
/mount/path ntfs
uid=1000,gid=1000,rw,user,exec,async,locale=en_US.utf8,umask=000 0
0
I had noticed that both steam and mount.ntfs was running at
20-40% CPU while not really doing anything. And then upwards of 80%
during gameplay.
i3 Compatibility
As I spend more time using the OS I made a few more adjustments:
- Removed everything except the Clock and System Tray.
- I added KRunner to
meta+space
to ease running KDE specific programs that I can't be bothered to memorize the name of - Back and forth on forcing "No border" on all windows. Part of the reason I moved away from i3 was so that I had better floating window management. And doing this would basically put me in an equally hard to manage system for floating game windows. So until I find a plugin that makes small taskbar/borders for the windows I'll be sticking with the default.
- On Manjaro at least: UNINSTALL mesa-demos!
sudo pacman -R lib32mesa-demos mesa-demos
This package had the annoying "fire" demo which made dmenu opening firefox a pain in the ass.
meta+d
vs just meta
to launch the Application Launcher. However, the
bulky UI of it, even using just Window List, took away from the look/feel
I was going for.