I’m ditching Ubuntu. Thinking of switching to Debian.
Has anyone used this, or something similar to set up their Debian gaming setup?
This got me thinking. Do I need to install anything special to Debian 13 to be able to play games? Or can I play them with a normal Debian out of the box?
If you’re okay with something other than vanilla Debian, give Linux Mint Debian Edition a look. I used it for years without significant hiccups playing a wide variety of games. I switched to Bazzite after testing it out and liking the immutable aspects of it (though as another commenter mentioned, there is some pain involved in the learning curve), but I still keep LMDE around on my old gaming rig and on a couple other computers of mine.
If you want a Debian based Linux distro that is gaming focused, I would suggest to you either:
PopOS!
Made by System76, who also actually make their own hardware as well, pre-built pcs, etc, and also successfully lobbied at least Colorado to not have a law that mandates age verification built into OS’s…
PopOS! Is essentially Ubuntu but less shitty, and is also making their own Desktop Environment COSMIC, that is basically an attempt at ‘GNOME, but better.’
There is also PikaOS.
https://wiki.pika-os.com/en/home
PikaOS is basically to Debian as Nobara is to Fedora: Its the base OS, but with a suite of cutting edge/bleeding edge optimizations geared toward improving gaming performance.
PopOS is in active development and I would strongly recommend NOT using it, especially if you’re not an experienced Linux user.
System76 makes great hardware but their OSs leave a lot to be desired right now.
Just switch to Debian, I haven’t used a script like this (or heard of it). Get Wine from WineHQ to run Windows apps, they have the instructions on how to install it, and look up how to install the drivers for your GPU, and it’ll work fantastic. That’s all you’ll need provided the rest of the system is working, I don’t even have shit like certain launchers.
✅ What It Does
- Installs XanMod kernel with BORE scheduler (smoother frames, less stutter)
- Sets up a weekly auto-update pipeline to stay cutting edge
Just use Fedora/Bazzite or Arch/Cachy at this point?
You can game just fine on Debian based systems but if you want the latest and greatest from your recently launched hardware, running these scripts that installs a custom kernel and does a lot of tinkering, is of not much use.
This script is like buying a family hatchback car and then making a ton of changes to make it run like a sports car.
- Sets up EAC + BattlEye anti-cheat (Battlefield, Fortnite, GTA 5, Apex)
Seems LLM Generated as well. Because I don’t think Fortnite works well (if at all) on Linux. This just seems an LLM reassuring the Dev that it works? IDK.
Or if they really want specifically Debian for gaming, use PikaOS instead because it is gaming optimized Debian. CachyOS or Bazzite is stilk a better choice IMO though.
True. The readme claims Battlefield 2142 is supported, but on Protondb it’s still botched, because of the EA’s javelin anti cheat.
Seems LLM Generated as well. Because I don’t think Fortnite works well (if at all) on Linux. This just seems an LLM reassuring the Dev that it works? IDK.
Yeah, it’s for sure AI slop.
Please don’t run scripts that a random person uploaded to Github if you don’t know what you’re doing. I didn’t see anything malicious here, but most of the stuff is useless and some of it is even detrimental (e.g. the LLM “thought” the outdated Ubuntu Nvidia ppa was a good idea).
If you want to game on Debian, you can do that just fine. Installing Steam and Nvidia drivers (if applicable) should be sufficient for most people. IMO, the main issue with gaming on Debian are the very old GPU drivers (Nvidia 550, Mesa 25.0). This can be fine on older hardware, but is the reason why I wouldn’t recommend Debian for gaming in general. The script you linked doesn’t help with this at all.
If you really want these “gaming optimizations”, for the limited benefits they provide, I would recommend that you just use one of the distros that ships them. CachyOS, Bazzite, Nobara, Pop OS, or PikaOS all seem like a better choice than these scripts. At the very least the maintainers of those distros will integrate everything and perform some level of QA for you.
Just to add, finding good wayland support can be more important for gaming depending on your hardware. You get HDR, variable refresh rate, fractional scaling for monitors and other goodies.
Wish I could stay on Wayland but it’s not quite there for game streaming yet. Window/scene capture in OBS is miles better on X11 still. For non-streamers though Wayland is amazing
Yeah, I actually switched distro to get Wayland multi-monitor VRR. But, unfortunately, it seems that it’s kinda broken with my Novideo GPU :(
This thing has like 2 commits by 1 person 2 months ago without any review
I wouldn’t really trust this repo at all.
It’s literally a couple of shell scripts. It’s some dude’s personal project.
And the code is right there for you to read.
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Most of the script isnt applicable to any 1 setup
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I ain’t reading all that
If I wanna install something Ill just install it, not run some giant monolithic script.
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I run Debian and have done nothing special to game on it. All native games I’ve installed run fine. Only non native game I play is WoW, and it runs fine. Though requires a GE proton update every now and then.
I have an AMD 6600 gpu.
I develop a similar tool and this thing is absolute slop: it’s full of obsolete settings like RADV_PERFTEST=gpl,rt (both have been unnecessary for years), broken features like FSR4 (it needs a DLL from the AMD drivers to work that this thing doesn’t provide), and anticheat support is a complete lie, none of that trash will ever work in wine.
Also, I don’t know why you would ever use a debian-based distro for gaming, the drivers are 6 months to 2 years out of date, you’re just asking for trouble.
broken features like FSR4 (it needs a DLL from the AMD drivers to work that this thing doesn’t provide)
I assume the LLM assume you are using either Proton-GE, Proton-EM or Proton-cachy, where this flag actually works 🤔
I use debian to game on a rather recent AMD desktop PC. It just works.
For using my gpu to the max, I installed the AMD rock stuff, I think that’s some kind of gpu driver stuff. Helps me get most out of the gpu but it works just fine for games without that too. Steam games just work with proton or native, native games just work.
I even timed it well, last October when I thought memory was super expensive and didn’t know how bad it would get, and with the new gpu architecture.
Debian just works. Debian is good.
Such a weird grab to avoid getting cachyos and installing the two gaming packages they have.
it just works man. You don’t need to build-your-own-os or reinvent the wheel on an OS just not made for what you’re trying to do.
I fully understand that you can game on any distro you want, and that linux lets you have a full time hobby just customizing it the way you want it to be. That’s all fine, if your hobby isn’t gaming but it’s instead OS customization then gaming on debian is an awesome pet project, maybe you want to try your hand at arch next?
I just want something that works, doesn’t break from updates often (6 months 0 breaks!) does good gaming customizations (kernel tweaks, new game FSR4.1 support, gamemode and other tools readily available in the OS welcome splash) and has enough users doing what i’m doing that when I do run into an issue with something, I can find info. This checks all the boxes. Many gaming specialized distros fit into this sort of thing.
I’m still struggling day to day with opensuse tumbleweed and basic tools. I launch moonlight and it barks about not having GPU acceleration, because they don’t include whatever it requires since it’s not really intended to be a gaming OS first despite being a rolling release and fairly bleeding edge. I can’t select color depth in the controls to get hdmi @ 4k120hz working whatsoever (until linux ~7.2 drops with official support some day…) I use debian for my servers because it’s rock solid stable but the bins are ancient.
If you’re gaming on a system that could be considered ewaste because the parts are >5 years old and you don’t play new releases or anything with bleeding edge tech, then i’m sure debian will support everything you’re doing with next to no issues whatsoever once you take the time to install all the customizations you want it to have. Just a lot of work though to get that square peg through the round hole.
edit: literally the first thread I popped open about an amd issue and someone is bashing debian for gaming . I know this entire comment will be very unpopular in a thread about debian because that brings those users in- but I want honesty, not ‘my team is better’ for this topic.
Can you tell me more about your gaming experience on Tumbleweed? This is another distro that I’m considering.
I use tumbleweed. Mostly just works. Sometimes, you have to go look for packages that are named differently than in other distros.
Works fine for me, mostly.
You go
zypper inrand it should install what is essential. The rest are in the repos, but you’ll have to make a bit of search due to weird naming conventions. Luckily,zypper searchexists.Overall, it’s be much less painful than Debian, but significantly more involved compared to gaming distros like Bazzite, CachyOS, and Nobara.
It’s not built for it. You’ll have to install all the special packages yourself, but they’re at least in the first party repos and frequently updated. For a build-a-bear gaming OS it is probably one of the better ones because of bleeding edge bins and lots of gaming tools in their repos. Unless you are sticking with official proton only, you’re gonna have to use protonqt or some other method of keeping your proton variant of choice up to date like you would on popos or most other distros.
A lot of convenience things are missing for me. I actually avoid using the system because it’s such a pain in the ass without hdmi 2.1 support built in. Earlier tonight I was updating it after not touching it for a few weeks and the updater app appeared to freeze and so did something somewhere in the video stack. I had about 7GB of updates that totaled nearly 3000, so it wasn’t a small amount of updates. I waited ~15 minutes and it did ultimately manage to reboot and re-checking updates showed everything was up to date despite the instability during the process. I was really hoping hdmi 2.1 support had released, but not yet.
I don’t know how cachyos does it, but if I throw my cachyos box into the exact same display setup cable and all, it recognizes hdr and 120hz @ 4k. They have to do some kernel tweaks for that. I am stuck with 1080p@120hz or 4k@30hz otherwise in opensuse. I picked up a displayport to hdmi adapter that claims to support 8k@60hz or 4k@240hz but it still only shows up as 4k@30hz capable in opensuse with a 6800xt, cachyos sees it as 4k@60hz or 4k@120hz depending on how much screwing around with it I do.
OpenSUSE has some pretty awesome enterprise management tools though, and they’re all built-in and included side by side with the user settings. If I was building out linux workstations at work at substantial scale i’d put it at the top one to try because of how powerful the built-in stuff appears to be for RMM.
I went to opensuse from pop and pop sucks by comparison (tried before and after COSMIC release.) Pop was always a bit out of date because they relied on ubuntu bins that were just not quickly updated. If pop was old, debian by comparison is a fossil. OpenSUSE is as modern as it comes though.
I built a system for a buddy four or five months ago and he was willing to go and try linux for gaming. Fairly high end, 9850x3d, 9070xt. He never used linux before. He’s still using cachyos and totally happy with it. I don’t think he’d still be using debian, fedora, endeavourOS or even opensuse.
If you’re using Nvidia graphics I suggest this piece of documentation for driver installation.
Essentially if you’re running Debian 13 (Trixie) then run these commands;
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ trixie-security contrib non-free main non-free-firmware deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-updates non-free-firmware non-free contrib main sudo apt update -y sudo apt full-upgrade -y sudo apt install linux-headers-generic nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-driver nvidia-cuda-dev nvidia-cuda-toolkit sudo apt autoclean sudo apt autoremove -y sudo rebootOptional for RTX graphics cards, this enables the ray-tracing engine.
sudo apt install libnvoptix1Just remember to disable secureboot if you haven’t already, otherwise the driver module will fail to start when you boot your computer likely throwing the kernel into a panic.
How easy is it to get HDR and VRR support working?
I’m going to preface and say that I don’t personally use HDR/VRR and have not attempted to use it on my system.
From what I know a couple of conditions need to be met to achieve this, tailor your setup towards Wayland opposed to X11, if you’re unfamiliar with the differences here’s a comprehensive run-down, you’ll need to follow those steps above I mentioned in regards to installing the Nvidia drivers as well as enable certain configuration options.
For a desktop environment i’m personally more familiar with KDE and know that they ship Plasma 6 with partial HDR support in Wayland desktops, granted Plasma 6 released in 2024 so support is likely to be more accessible now.
Not too sure if much else needs to be configured but to my knowledge that’s the gist of it.
I use PikaOS which is a Debian-derived gaming distro with newer drivers and gaming packages, run by some of the same folks involved in Nobara and sharing a lot of the common framework used for other major gaming distros. It is mostly indistinguishable from Debian, and I use it basically interchangeably. The main differences include the installer, the default background image, and some post-install helpers to install the latest drivers for various different graphics cards and many types of typical gaming software. Biggest downside is that support and community is through Discord, blech.
I’m quite concerned that it’s based on Debian sid of all things. Doesn’t it break once in a while?
Not that I’ve noticed, but isn’t that part of the territory? Like do latest Nvidia graphics drivers not sometimes break on Windows? My experience is that they certainly do. If you want perfect tried and tested stability, you have to sacrifice the ability to run the latest games using the latest features. This is a tradeoff you have to make. Which would be better? I’d run stable on servers, and latest on desktop, which is… what we’re doing here, right?
Oh my god why would anyone base an OS on debian sid 🤢 not even testing?
Honestly, even testing has its issues. For one, security updates are not applied to Debian Testing in a timely manner. They first appear in Stable, and then in Testing.
Maybe people need to accept that sid and testing are made for developers, not end users.
Yes, know. That’s another good reason not to use it as base for your own distro.
It was based on Debian Sid when I tried it, so if it still is just a word of warning for anyone looking for rock solid Debian stability, Sid can be a bit more volatile with updates.
Yeah I’ve seen it. Haven’t tried it though. The Gnome Desoto as default is a big turn off for me.
There is also a KDE default ISO, which is what I use, as well as Niri, Hyprland, and Cosmic. Pick whichever you prefer. Also Debian has a package manager that makes switching desktop environments literally a one-liner command of installing a single metapackage. I don’t know why people think this is such an obstacle.
Debian works just fine for gaming out of the box with a few commands from the Debian wiki. Maybe use a Debian testing or at least backports if you want newer packages by if you do its a little more work by Debian stable but less than something like arch.
This is a great how-to. Thanks for sharing!
You can play on Debian stable just fine. I installed Steam through flatpak and I am happy with my AMD gpu. (:
Disclaimer: I don’t play many games, but I wouldn’t say they are not demanding.
Games will work fine on Debian as-is, but if you want latest-greatest-optimizesest the get either Nobara (stable, based on Fedora) or CachyOS (rolling, based on Arch) Or if you enjoy pain - Bazzite (immutable)
All you need is proton qt (update and get geproton), faugus (I like it for installing nonsteam stuff) and steam. Maybe heroic for epic games, lutris for niche stuff. Just check out flathub for most stuff and before you install check if it has a deb first.
