Newbie Friendly Guide to Using Linux for Gaming

Games on Linux was pioneered by id Software and Loki Software in the 1990’s. Doom, SimCity 3000, Quake, and Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri were some of the popular PC games that support Linux at that time. However, there was still no digital distribution platforms such as Steam and GOG at that time and it made supporting Linux expensive. In the early 2000’s, id Software and Loki Software stopped developing Linux games and their absence was a big detriment to the progression of Linux as a gaming platform. Games from big publishers only returned to Linux when Valve Corporation released Steam on Linux in February 14, 2013. Thanks to effort of Valve Corporation, many game developers now release their games with native Linux support.

This guide will show you that using Linux for gaming is an easy process and mastery of command line interface (a.k.a Terminal) is not required.

But Why Use Linux?

Linux being free is not enough to convince gamers to use it because acquiring an illegal copy of Windows is very easy. Here are the top 3 reasons to consider using Linux for gaming.

Will My Hardware Work on Linux?

If you are using a PC based on Intel LGA Haswell (LGA 1150) or later, you shouldn’t have problems in getting your motherboard’s sound, LAN, and Wi-Fi working. Listed below are the hardware I’ve personally used and tested in various games, never had a motherboard driver problem on Ubuntu MATE 17.10.

Related reading:
The Newbie’s Ultimate Guide to Gaming PC Hardware

I cannot speak for AMD AM4 platform since I haven’t tested one yet but Phoronix has various tests on Ryzen, Ryzen Threadripper, and Ryzen APU and the AMD AM4 platform seems to work well on Linux.

For the GPU, both NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon are now good options for gaming on Linux. I have extensively Radeon GPU’s using Mesa and have found it to perform very well in the latest games. To make transitioning to Linux easier for Radeon GPU users, I made a list of games that I have verified to work properly on Mesa.

Installing a Linux Distribution

There are many newbie-friendly Linux distributions but I will stick to recommending Ubuntu MATE to avoid confusion. I have extensively tested Ubuntu MATE and have found it to be very stable for gaming even if it’s not officially supported by Steam. Its graphical user interface is similar to Windows which is great for first time users of Linux.

To install Ubuntu MATE, you’ll need to download an ISO image from https://ubuntu-mate.org. Once you have the ISO image, you need to extract its contents to a USB drive with at least 2GB capacity. You will most likely be using a PC with Windows installed so, we recommend using Rufus to create a bootable USB installer. In case you have access to a PC with Ubuntu MATE or Ubuntu, you can watch this tutorial on how to create a bootable USB installer using GNOME Disks. There are 2 types of release for Ubuntu MATE – normal and LTS (Long Term Support). An LTS release gets 3 years of system updates while a normal release only receives 9 months of system updates. The advantages of a normal release are newer Linux kernel (which means better hardware support), latest stable release of Mesa, and updated pre-installed software. If you also use your gaming PC for work, an LTS release is highly recommended. For pure gaming or if you are using a Radeon GPU, get the latest release regardless if its normal or LTS. The version number indicates the release date. The first 2 digits indicate the year and the last 2 digits indicate the month. There is an LTS release every 2 years.

OS Version	Release Date	System Updates
Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS	April 2018	up to April 2021
Ubuntu MATE 18.10	October 2018	up to July 2019
Ubuntu MATE 19.04	April 2019	up to January 2020
Ubuntu MATE 19.10	October 2019	up to July 2020
Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS	April 2020	up to April 2023

Once you have a bootable USB installer, just plug it in the USB port, restart your PC, then go the BIOS and make your USB drive as primary boot device. Follow the on-screen instructions. Choose “Erase disk and install Ubuntu MATE” for the installation type.

What to Do After Installation

After installation of Ubuntu MATE, the first you should do is to conduct a system update. To do this, click on System at the desktop menu bar then select Control Center and click on Software Updater. The motherboard‘s built-in sound, LAN, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi should work out-of-the-box. If you are using an NVIDIA GeForce GPU, you need to change the driver because NVIDIA GeForce GPU’s perform poorly in gaming when using the open source driver. To install proprietary drivers from NVIDIA, go to the Control Center, then click on Additional Drivers. Restart the PC once the driver installation is done.

Users of Radeon GPU need not to install AMD’s proprietary driver because Mesa (open source driver) comes pre-installed with Ubuntu MATE and it works great for gaming. However, the Vulkan drivers are not installed by default. Add the Stable Padoka PPA to your system by typing the commands below in the Terminal (press Ctrl + Alt + T to bring up the Terminal). Press Enter after each command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa
sudo apt-get update

To install the Mesa Vulkan drivers, type:

sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers
sudo apt install vulkan-utils

Ensure Maximum Gaming Performance

Set the CPU frequency governor to “Performance” to get the best possible performance especially in games that use Vulkan. Type in the Terminal the command below.

sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

It will install a desktop taskbar icon that will enable a GUI way of changing the CPU frequency governor. The desktop taskbar icon will appear after you restart the PC.

How to Install Games

We’re lucky to live in a time where digital distribution platforms exist. Gone are the days of having to insert multiple DVD’s into the optical drive when installing a game. Currently, PC games for Linux can be bought at Steam, Humble Store, GOG, and itch.io. However, this guide will focus on buying games at Steam because it is the digital distribution platform with the largest library of games and has the most user-friendly interface for buying and installation of games.

Steam is installed through the Software Boutique as shown above. The Software Boutique can also be accessed by clicking on System at the desktop menu bar, select Administration, then click on Software Boutique. Once the installation is done, run Steam to download the additional files of the program. After completion of the installation, run Steam again and you will be asked to log in to your Steam account. Creating a Steam account is free and you just need a valid e-mail address. The Steam account creation process is straightforward so just follow the instructions you’ll see on the screen. Once logged in to your Steam account, just browse the Steam store for games. To purchase games, you can use a credit card or a Steam Gift Card.

To prove that Linux really works for gaming and that we just don’t write articles about playing games on Linux, shown below are some of the Linux game play videos that you can watch on our YouTube channel.

Gaming Peripherals

Here are some of the popular game pads and steering wheels that work on Linux.

Using Ubuntu MATE outside gaming

The big advantage of a gaming PC over a gaming console is that you can use it for productive tasks. Basic stuff like copying (Ctrl + C) and moving (Ctrl + X) of files on Linux works the same way with Windows. The important thing you need to learn is how to install software on Ubuntu MATE and we’ve made a video tutorial which you can watch below.

Here are some of the applications available in the Software Boutique of Ubuntu MATE that you may find useful for day-to-day tasks. Those highlighted in blue come pre-installed with Ubuntu MATE.

Software Name	What It Is For	Alternative To
Audacity	Multi-track audio recording and editing	N/A
Blender	3D rendering, modeling, and animation	Autodesk 3ds Max
Brasero	Writing files to CD’s and DVD’s	Nero
Darktable	Virtual light-table and darkroom for photographers	Adobe Lightroom
GIMP	Image editing	Adobe Photoshop
HandBrake	Converting videos to MKV and MP4 format	N/A
Kdenlive	Video editing	Adobe Premiere Pro
Libre Office	Office productivity suite	Microsoft Office
OBS	Video streaming and recording	XSplit
Screenshot	Taking screenshots	Snipping Tool of Microsoft Windows
Thunderbird	e-mail	Microsoft Outlook
VLC media player	Media playback	N/A

For a more detailed info on using Ubuntu MATE outside gaming, check the newbie friendly guide by Tommy Thompson.