This probably was asked countless times already, but given the amount of possible combinations of all the hardware and software, this is probably not surprising.
So, I do have some experience with linux. I ssh into my ubuntu server a lot, I do many bash/terminal tricks, so can’t really call myself a newbie in Linux. However, for gaming I would use Windows for as long as I remember myself. With the release of KDE Plasma 6 and Vulkan support getting better, I was thinking about giving it a go, but I’m stuck.
When launching a game that natively supports linux (Dota 2) from Steam, pretty much nothing happens. I see in terminal that there are some errors, but archwiki states that this is normal:
Wrong ELF class
If you see this message in Steam’s console output
ERROR: ld.so: object '~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
you can safely ignore it. It is not really any error: Steam includes both 64- and 32-bit versions of some libraries and only one version will load successfully. This “error” is displayed even when Steam (and the in-game overlay) is working perfectly.
Other than that I see no errors or anything.
I’m running Arch linux with KDE Plasma 6.0.1, with default Wayland session. My laptop is an Acer Nitro 5 with NVIDIA GPU and I guess also Intel integrated video card. Here are the details:
spoiler
Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.0.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.0.0
Qt Version: 6.6.2
Kernel Version: 6.7.9-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-12500H
Memory: 15.3 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® Graphics
Manufacturer: Acer
Product Name: Nitro AN515-58
System Version: V1.13
I have no idea honestly about which driver I have installed, but I did install nvidia package. I’m not sure if it’s being used. I also don’t know anything about Mesa. Also, this is from my Info Center:
spoiler
KWin Support Information:
The following information should be used when requesting support on e.g. https://discuss.kde.org.
It provides information about the currently running instance, which options are used,
what OpenGL driver and which effects are running.
Please post the information provided underneath this introductory text to a paste bin service
like https://paste.kde.org instead of pasting into support threads.
==========================
Version
=======
KWin version: 6.0.1
Qt Version: 6.6.2
Qt compile version: 6.6.2
XCB compile version: 1.16.1
Operation Mode: Xwayland
Build Options
=============
KWIN_BUILD_DECORATIONS: yes
KWIN_BUILD_TABBOX: yes
KWIN_BUILD_ACTIVITIES: yes
HAVE_X11_XCB: yes
HAVE_GLX: yes
X11
===
Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
Vendor Release: 12302004
Protocol Version/Revision: 11/0
SHAPE: yes; Version: 0x11
RANDR: yes; Version: 0x14
DAMAGE: yes; Version: 0x11
Composite: yes; Version: 0x4
RENDER: yes; Version: 0xb
XFIXES: yes; Version: 0x50
SYNC: yes; Version: 0x31
GLX: yes; Version: 0x0
Decoration
==========
Plugin: org.kde.breeze
Theme:
Plugin recommends border size: None
onAllDesktopsAvailable: true
alphaChannelSupported: true
closeOnDoubleClickOnMenu: false
decorationButtonsLeft: 0, 9, 2, 6
decorationButtonsRight: 1, 3, 4, 5
borderSize: 0
gridUnit: 10
font: Noto Sans,10,-1,0,400,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1
smallSpacing: 2
largeSpacing: 10
Output backend
==============
Name: DRM
Atomic Mode Setting on GPU 0: true
I don’t even know what is Xwayland and why I have it installed, probably some dependency of KDE.
At this point I’m not even sure what I’m using (is it pure wayland, or x11, or some hybrid of using both), if I have correct GPU drivers (do I have correct drivers for just one of the two video cards, for both, or none at all), if my NVIDIA GPU is even working, if it’s being used to run a game or not, and if I have all necessary packages to run Vulkan.
At this point, how do I troubleshoot all of this mess?
I don’t even know what is Xwayland and why I have it installed, probably some dependency of KDE.
It’s what allows you to run programs that don’t have Wayland support.
Wayland + Nvidia proprietary drivers are not a good combo, you’ll probably have less issues with x11.
if I have correct GPU drivers (do I have correct drivers for just one of the two video cards, for both, or none at all)
Trying running
nvidia-settings
. It will open if you’ve got proprietary drivers, and you can check the GPU utilisation to see if it’s being used.You might need to use a command like
prime-run steam
to force steam to use the Nvidia GPU.Check the arch wiki, it’ll help you out the most.
Ok, thanks.
prime-run steam
doesn’t solve the issue, unfortunately.nvidia-settings exists, I can launch it, and it shows my GPU model. GPU utilization is at 0%, I guess this is normal, because I don’t need GPU to run my DE and browser. I’ll see if this number changes when I try to launch any of my games.
Do I need xwayland to run steam and my steam games, or does steam work with wayland natively? Is it possible that I’m having the issues with xwayland?
No clue, I don’t use Wayland. Try running steam in x11, that’ll tell you more.
Trying to use X11 made no difference, so I guess it’s not a Wayland issue.
I’m pretty sure it’s not me using 32 bit software, but anyway, I do have multilib enabled.
I’ll check out the link for Steam later, thanks.
Start with the basics, do you see your Nvidia GPU pop up when using
vulkaninfo --summary
?If it doesn’t pop up, verify that you have the correct vulkan ICD files in:
ls /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/
There you should have
nvidia_icd.json, nvidia_layers.json
. If that’s missing, you’re missing the nvidia-utils part of the driver.If they are there, but it still don’t show in your vulkaninfo sumary, you could try to load the nvidia driver manually;
modprobe nvidia
, also check the kernel logsjournalctl -k
ordmesg
and search fornvidia
to see whether the driver got loaded correctly?Yes, I do see it listed as GPU0 (PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU type, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU).
spoiler
Devices: ======== GPU0: apiVersion = 1.3.277 driverVersion = 550.54.14.0 vendorID = 0x10de deviceID = 0x25a0 deviceType = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU deviceName = NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU driverID = DRIVER_ID_NVIDIA_PROPRIETARY driverName = NVIDIA driverInfo = 550.54.14 conformanceVersion = 1.3.7.2 deviceUUID = 6264a345-da87-f0ca-ad1d-6f9b21211ff9 driverUUID = 456948bf-c303-5719-a9cb-4a29c09ec32b GPU1: apiVersion = 1.3.274 driverVersion = 24.0.2 vendorID = 0x8086 deviceID = 0x46a6 deviceType = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_INTEGRATED_GPU deviceName = Intel(R) Graphics (ADL GT2) driverID = DRIVER_ID_INTEL_OPEN_SOURCE_MESA driverName = Intel open-source Mesa driver driverInfo = Mesa 24.0.2-arch1.2 conformanceVersion = 1.3.6.0 deviceUUID = 8680a646-0c00-0000-0002-000000000000 driverUUID = edc104ee-9b99-4c39-8f0a-df779ff80dd0 GPU2: apiVersion = 1.3.274 driverVersion = 0.0.1 vendorID = 0x10005 deviceID = 0x0000 deviceType = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU deviceName = llvmpipe (LLVM 17.0.6, 256 bits) driverID = DRIVER_ID_MESA_LLVMPIPE driverName = llvmpipe driverInfo = Mesa 24.0.2-arch1.2 (LLVM 17.0.6) conformanceVersion = 1.3.1.1 deviceUUID = 6d657361-3234-2e30-2e32-2d6172636800 driverUUID = 6c6c766d-7069-7065-5555-494400000000
Nice, then you should be able to run
vkcube
to verify whether your GPU is activated properly.You can do several “iterations” here as well.
- Install Mangohud so you can visibly see if your GPU is activated correctly
- Run
mangohud vkcube-wayland
- Does it use your Nvidia GPU? - Run
mangohud vkcube
- Does it use your Nvidia GPU?
If Step 2 nor 3 shows your Nvidia GPU you can try and force it with:
mangohud vkcube-wayland --gpu_number 0
mangohud vkcube
shows my GPU:[2024-03-13 18:44:07.448] [MANGOHUD] [error] [overlay_params.cpp:1003] Failed to read presets file: '/home/vort3/.config/MangoHud/presets.conf' Selected GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, type: DiscreteGpu Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified [2024-03-13 18:44:07.553] [MANGOHUD] [error] [nvctrl.cpp:56] XNVCtrl didn't find the correct display
mangohud vkcube-wayland
throws this error:[2024-03-13 18:44:32.996] [MANGOHUD] [error] [overlay_params.cpp:1003] Failed to read presets file: '/home/vort3/.config/MangoHud/presets.conf' Selected GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, type: DiscreteGpu Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Anyway, games run on my laptop now after I changed my partition type to ext4.
Are you sure this is the only error that you get?
Make sure to check if there is a message
Attempt to free invalid pointer
. This is a known problem for source games: [Linux] Failure to start with tcmalloc “Attempt to free invalid pointer” and lavapipe built against llvm 16 and workarounds are available.I ran a search in my terminal and there is no «invalid pointer» error.
Try forcing it to use Proton (game properties in Steam).
I might try this as a last resort, but why would I use some emulation shenanigans for running something that is native to my platform? It would be easier to just reboot into windows and run dota 2 there instead.
I have read on more than one occasion that Wine is becoming the “Linux Gaming ABI.” It’s no longer just about Windows. With the huge variety presented by distros, Wine is simply a nice stable target that never moves.
This is an interesting thought, but I’ll try to have it working natively first.