Ask HN: Those who run mainly Linux and game on Windows, what's your setup like?
Do you use any software that made running both easier? Do you dual boot or have separate PCs? If you have separate PCs do you share peripherals with USB/HDMI/DP switches? What about sharing audio input/output? Do you stream one desktop to the other?
21 comments
When I switched to daily driving Linux I created a VFIO Windows VM that gets passed through my GPU and USB controller (and thus audio, inputs) which gives me pretty near native performance. It takes maybe 10 seconds to boot into it, and I can easily access my files from the Linux host running underneath. I recently added a VirtioFS mount so I can store my games on the Linux filesystem instead of inside the VM disk image. I've started a few games and benchmarks on it to confirm it runs great.
VM running using libvirt and virt-manager, using QEMU underneath, with custom hook script that makes passing through the hardware a bit more seamless.
Although with how awesome Wine/Proton and ecosystem are these days I have so far played almost all my games on Linux. I created the VM setup because I thought I'd need it, but turns out I didn't really. Think I've played through 20-30 games or something like that now with minimal issues on Linux, including big budget AAA games within a few days of their release, smaller indie games, all kinds of different ones. Most tinkering required was for older games that'd need similar tweaks on modern Windows as well.
VM running using libvirt and virt-manager, using QEMU underneath, with custom hook script that makes passing through the hardware a bit more seamless.
Although with how awesome Wine/Proton and ecosystem are these days I have so far played almost all my games on Linux. I created the VM setup because I thought I'd need it, but turns out I didn't really. Think I've played through 20-30 games or something like that now with minimal issues on Linux, including big budget AAA games within a few days of their release, smaller indie games, all kinds of different ones. Most tinkering required was for older games that'd need similar tweaks on modern Windows as well.
I assume no based on your comment, but have you ever run into issues where your vfio setup didn’t work with AAA games with intense anti cheat? Like cs:go/cs2 or valorant? That’s what’s always held me back
Not all, but many, of these can be avoided with edits to the libvirt XML. Some things just rely on seeing hyper-v extensions. Others use more indicators.
Since you mention CS - I had ESEA working and they're notably difficult to bypass. Valorant was the only game I couldn't figure out that I had tried. Destiny was fine.
Past tense because I've chosen liberty instead - not playing anything with invasive AC, dropping Windows, and running Linux full time
Since you mention CS - I had ESEA working and they're notably difficult to bypass. Valorant was the only game I couldn't figure out that I had tried. Destiny was fine.
Past tense because I've chosen liberty instead - not playing anything with invasive AC, dropping Windows, and running Linux full time
I haven't so far. CS:GO and now CS2 run natively on Linux, so never played those online in the VM. I hear Valorant's anticheat is trouble, but I haven't played it (and probably won't for that reason; personally I have so many other games left to play I'd probably just do that instead of having to install Windows on a separate boot drive).
I have dual boot on my computer, but Steam on Linux has been getting so much better that I've been running stuff mostly on Linux. It's been a while I had to boot on Windows... But I also own a PS5 and prefer to game on it. Seriously, try gaming on Linux for a while!
I share my headphone and the monitor between the PC and the PS5, but the laptop has its own screen so I don't need to use the monitor all the time. The headphone is one of those wireless headsets that has a USB dongle, so I just need to unplug it form the console and plug it into the PC. No need to keep bluetooth pairing, and I don't suffer from latency issues as well.
As a bonus I can have my laptop open when I play the PS5 so I can see notes related to the game (e.g., combo lists).
I share my headphone and the monitor between the PC and the PS5, but the laptop has its own screen so I don't need to use the monitor all the time. The headphone is one of those wireless headsets that has a USB dongle, so I just need to unplug it form the console and plug it into the PC. No need to keep bluetooth pairing, and I don't suffer from latency issues as well.
As a bonus I can have my laptop open when I play the PS5 so I can see notes related to the game (e.g., combo lists).
I run separate devices. I want my linux systems up most of the time, while my gaming or work devices only run when i want something fast. I stopped using dual boot, as it's a hassle with data, backup etc. Also they heat up the room way faster then my linux devices. I only backup my notebooks, Desktops store the work data on the NAS directly.
Hardware, mostly on:
- 4 NAS (2 QNAP, 2 Synology) for multimedia, filestorage and backup
- Rasperry with Home-Assistant
- Linux Webserver on a Mac Mini
- OPNsense firewall on a passive cooled MiniPC
- Mostly wired 1gbit Ethernet
Hardware, on when used:
- Mac Notebook
- 3 Gaming Rigs / Work PC
- 4K-Beamer connected to 2 of the PC's
- Meta Quest 3, sometimes used as a screen for the second pc or for VR (VRDesktop)
Software:
- Home-Assistant to Boot devices that are locked away and sometimes shut-down.
- Rustdesk on all devices with a GUI, Steam for game streaming
- Syncthing to replicate my 3TB Data on 2 NAS and my Notebook
- xBrowserSync, Bitwarden for Browser Data Sync
Notes:
Streaming works well except for 4k Resolutions. VRDesktop is very good even with larger resolutions.
Hardware, mostly on:
- 4 NAS (2 QNAP, 2 Synology) for multimedia, filestorage and backup
- Rasperry with Home-Assistant
- Linux Webserver on a Mac Mini
- OPNsense firewall on a passive cooled MiniPC
- Mostly wired 1gbit Ethernet
Hardware, on when used:
- Mac Notebook
- 3 Gaming Rigs / Work PC
- 4K-Beamer connected to 2 of the PC's
- Meta Quest 3, sometimes used as a screen for the second pc or for VR (VRDesktop)
Software:
- Home-Assistant to Boot devices that are locked away and sometimes shut-down.
- Rustdesk on all devices with a GUI, Steam for game streaming
- Syncthing to replicate my 3TB Data on 2 NAS and my Notebook
- xBrowserSync, Bitwarden for Browser Data Sync
Notes:
Streaming works well except for 4k Resolutions. VRDesktop is very good even with larger resolutions.
I have a dual boot system but actually have not booted Windows in maybe half a year. Basically all games work via Steam these days.. some even native, most via Proton. I have it on my TODO list to finally delete the whole windows partition. Even my taxes I can now do on Linux(browser).
1 x PC
1 x GPU
2 x SSD
1 x Windows 10 host OS (SSD 1)
1 x Windows 10 guest OS (SSD 1)
1 x Arch Linux guest OS (SSD 2)
My limited gaming is on the Win host, I do my dev in the Arch guest, and I do general BS in the Win guest. The Arch guest is using SSD 2 as a physical disk whereas the Win guest has a small virtual disk on SSD 1. I was experimenting with being able to run the Arch install as a 'native' boot while still being able to use it as a VM but I never finished setting that up - would be nice, as Hyper V GPU acceleration doesn't/didn't seem to exist and it's noticeable on my 4K screen.
There's a couple of other misc VMs set up, like Debian and a development-oriented Win 10, but I use those much less.
I wanted to try the VFIO stuff but the anti-cheat problems were off putting and I ultimately lacked the gusto.
1 x GPU
2 x SSD
1 x Windows 10 host OS (SSD 1)
1 x Windows 10 guest OS (SSD 1)
1 x Arch Linux guest OS (SSD 2)
My limited gaming is on the Win host, I do my dev in the Arch guest, and I do general BS in the Win guest. The Arch guest is using SSD 2 as a physical disk whereas the Win guest has a small virtual disk on SSD 1. I was experimenting with being able to run the Arch install as a 'native' boot while still being able to use it as a VM but I never finished setting that up - would be nice, as Hyper V GPU acceleration doesn't/didn't seem to exist and it's noticeable on my 4K screen.
There's a couple of other misc VMs set up, like Debian and a development-oriented Win 10, but I use those much less.
I wanted to try the VFIO stuff but the anti-cheat problems were off putting and I ultimately lacked the gusto.
I used to do this.
First I used to dual boot.
Then I used to have VFIO with passthrough. It worked ok, but it was a pain to setup, I would not recommend it unless you really want to mess around with it. You have to have 2 sets of hardware, multiple graphics cards, e.t.c.
Then, I gave WSL2 a try. Its actually pretty good. It runs all things linux, and you can even run graphical applications under windows since it includes an X server.
My current setup is Win 11 Pro for everything, with WSL2 for all dev. The pro version is worth it so I can disable all the annoying shit with WSL2 (Cortana, One Drive, e.t.c). It works super well. VSCode remote extension natively integrates with it, so I basically just open VSCode and its a linux system.
First I used to dual boot.
Then I used to have VFIO with passthrough. It worked ok, but it was a pain to setup, I would not recommend it unless you really want to mess around with it. You have to have 2 sets of hardware, multiple graphics cards, e.t.c.
Then, I gave WSL2 a try. Its actually pretty good. It runs all things linux, and you can even run graphical applications under windows since it includes an X server.
My current setup is Win 11 Pro for everything, with WSL2 for all dev. The pro version is worth it so I can disable all the annoying shit with WSL2 (Cortana, One Drive, e.t.c). It works super well. VSCode remote extension natively integrates with it, so I basically just open VSCode and its a linux system.
Used to use VFIO, had everything working but spent endless hours trying to solve tracking issues with my valve index. Turns out it was CPU related, which I knew, but was unsolvable in my VFIO because I couldn’t just swap in a fast per core CPU. Moved my windows system to a standalone hardware so VR would no longer have any issues.
Barely ever turn it on, waiting for another quality Vr game like HL Alyx. Do almost all my gaming now on steam deck; except when I get a WoW craving, then I stream that from my windows desktop to my steam deck.
Barely ever turn it on, waiting for another quality Vr game like HL Alyx. Do almost all my gaming now on steam deck; except when I get a WoW craving, then I stream that from my windows desktop to my steam deck.
My main desktop has two separate nvme drives in it, one with just Windows, one with just Linux (Pop). I haven't booted my windows drive but twice in the past couple years though, and need to reinstall (insiders build kept too long between updates). Most things just work in Steam.
I've got a mini pc coming this weekend with the intent to run ChimeraOS for a livingroom/emulation computer. I have other computers around doing other things.
I've got a mini pc coming this weekend with the intent to run ChimeraOS for a livingroom/emulation computer. I have other computers around doing other things.
I have an extremely rudimentary dual boot. I installed windows first and then followed the live install for Ubuntu to set up the dual boot. Been running great for 4.5 years. I don't mind the extra 3ish minutes to switch between the OSs and get Discord and Steam open.
All that to say, a dual boot works fine, but maybe not the absolute best option.
All that to say, a dual boot works fine, but maybe not the absolute best option.
Not exactly your target for the question, but thanks to Proton I have fully switched to linux for both productivity and gaming. Other than a few games with invasive kernel-level anti-cheat, I have been able to get every game in my Steam library working well with minimal effort.
Same here.
And I just boycott the games that don't work or use those invasive components.
At one point, it makes sense to really vote with one's wallet.
And I just boycott the games that don't work or use those invasive components.
At one point, it makes sense to really vote with one's wallet.
I’m not a real hardcore gamer but there’s a few that I like. For the most part Steam with Proton works well enough. I have an all AMD system.
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I have a dedicated Windows 10 gaming PC hooked up to my TV which I either use directly or stream from using steam-link.
Steam on Linux is nice, and handles a lot more games than you think. I dual boot windows but rarely ever do so.
WSL2 solves everything!
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