Which Linux to use for couch gaming setup including VR?
Please don't say Bazzite as I wasn't able to get SteamVR working on it. I'm looking for alternatives. The current plan is to try plain old Ubuntu instead.
Na use Fedora based distros. I recommend Nobara.
I'd use Fedora over Ubuntu now. Ubuntu has lost the crown of cleanest and most usable with all the Snap BS.
They said not bazzite, which is fedora with minor tweaks
No. Fedora is Fedora. Bazzite is an immutable spin based on Fedora. World of difference.
Ubuntu has lost the crown of cleanest and most usable with all the Snap BS.
For anyone else reading along, Fedora isn't the only good alternative. There are also distros without the corporate ties that Fedora has. For example, Mint and Mint Debian Edition, both of which are will be more familiar if you're coming from Ubuntu.
There are also distros without the corporate ties that Fedora has. For example, Mint and Mint Debian Edition
Both are literally corporate products by Linux Mint Ltd., registered in tax haven Ireland. They make money by setting their own affiliate IDs for web search etc. (money that would have gone to the upstream projects by default). At least Fedora has people working on the distribution that are actual contributors to the Linux stack.
Also, regular Mint is based on Ubuntu LTS. For gaming more recent versions of gaming-related components, mostly Mesa, are preferable to long term support. That's also the reason stated by Valve why they switched to Arch as upstream for SteamOS after using Ubuntu and Debian before.
I downvote this every single time I see this. This is just not true.
In the same way Mint relies on Canonical to keep Ubuntu chugging along, Red Hat contributes to the Fedora community. It's a symbiotic relationship, so think of that what you will, but there is functionally no difference between RedHat<>Fedora and Canonical<>Mint.
Both Mint and Fedora are community projects licensed and attributed as such, and neither corporate entity could take ownership or close either one.
I concur, but for a Big Picture couch setup, I do think the Snap nonsense is irrelevant.
Interesting. I use Bazzite for my SteamVR setup. Though I do have to swap to desktop mode for VR, otherwise works great (I have a steamdeck build installed because HTPC, so it boots to big picture, but the desktop mode still works).
Which headset are you using? Valve Index?
Truly the best of luck, I hope your results are better than mine. The experience I had with SteamVR using Linux (Bazzite) with both a Valve Index and Quest 3 was inferior to Windows. It definitely worked, but out of the box Windows was much smoother. There may have been more tweaking I could have done but I had wasted so much time getting it to run as good as Windows that I gave up and dual boot now only for VR.
I've never had good experiences with VR and Linux. Godspeed soldier.
Nobara has been great for me. I've been using it nearly exclusively for probably two years. SteamVR works for me without any trouble.
Yeah, Fedora over Ubuntu/anything Canonical any day now. And Nobara is what Fedora should be for gaming.
Ive had really good luck so far with CachyOS. Have it on my desktop and laptop both for gaming
VR as well?
SteamVR on Linux as of now is a joke, features necessary to experience VR without getting nausea are missing, namely working asynchronous reprojection and correct vsync_to_photon timings.
I'm using HTC Vive Pro on Arch Linux (one of 4 SteamVR native headsets) for context.
There is an open-source alternative called Monado which does work better than SteamVR, but it's game compatibility is a hit or miss, and you don't get features like Chaperone/Guardian on it
When I tried VR a couple years ago I had to use x11. Maybe you still do and bazzite is on wayland by default right?
Too bad about bazzite. Maybe chimera? I think it's Debian based so it might be slightly better. I've always liked pop, but I use it desktop, and it's just a fork of ubuntu
Pop!_OS is great if you want Ubuntu without snap. I also like that you can choose an iso with Nvidia proprietary drivers included. It's been a very stable work+gaming distro. I've not tried big picture mode or VR though.
Mint works for me.