Well everyone it is that time again, its time to talk about Linux and what it means to gamers.
Q: I’ve been gaming on Linux for 10 years. What do you think about the recent interest in Linux gaming from major companies (e.g. Valve) and how it will affect existing gaming ecosystem on Linux (having been a big share of indie games and free games)?
A: Wow, you even have more years on me as a member of the Linux community. Valve’s interest in Linux gaming will do nothing except promote more developers to start developing for Linux as well as a lot of gamers to switch to Linux as their primary operating system. This shift will also push for the release of more user friendly distributions. The interest of large companies in Linux as a gaming platform only furthers the growth and support of it. Now some people on here have mentioned the possibility of Linux only releases. I can’t imagine there ever being any exclusive games on Linux just because of the nature of the platform. The idea of Linux is that it is free and open source, not that I expect it to have a truckload of free games, but I can’t imagine it will have any exclusives.
This one I’m going to split into 2 questions because its kind of a long one.
Q: It seems like Linux requires a different type of disk partition (ext4 instead of NTFS or FAT for Windows). But how does that work for Steam games?
A: Steam games will obviously have a file structure on Linux that is different from Windows. eg. Windows it is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps” Whereis on Linux it is ~/home/.Steam/SteamApps” So you will install games the exact same with in Linux as you do in Windows as far as steam goes.
Q: Do I need to install them on the same disk with Linux or I can install them on a NTFS disk and Linux will read them from there?
A: The partition does not matter when it comes to installation (although you really should use ext4 as it is vastly superior to NTFS) as Linux will still read NTFS partitions. Now what does matter is your file system. As I have said in the previous question Windows uses a totally different file system than linux so the installation directories are not the same.
I have also seen a lot of questions floating around the web about people installing their Steam games on a separate hard drive and wondering if they can transfer them to Linux. In short no. There will be a lot of files that do carry over between OSes but the executable files among other things will be totally different. This goes double for games that use Direct X on Windows ie Civilization: BE. Fortunately save data does in fact carry over, especially if you are using cloud saves on Steam. I have encountered some bugs after carrying over save data manually, Dying Light being a prime example. The game is fine is the save data is created in Linux, but the game acts weird if it was created in Windows.
I think that about covers it for this time everyone. Make sure to keep those questions flowing I really like doing these Q&A sessions with everyone. I have updated the response form to contain more fields to fill out that way I can distinguish between questions, concerns, and comments.
Matt Followell is another contributing author here at DSOGaming. A long time fan of PC Gaming and a huge supporter of the open source and homebrew movement. You’ll see him interacting with the community from time to time going by the user-name of Radapples.
Contact: Email
List good linux games from small free games, to free games to worthwhile purchases. Would be awesome if you could recomend linux games that work on raspberry pi 2 as I am gifting that to my son next month as I am a windows PC gamer and have little experience in linux games.
Emulators work well on the Raspberry Pi 2.
There are above 1000 games available for linux at STEAM
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=#sort_by=_ASC&category1=998&os=linux&page=1
Most games work on x86 architecture. Pi 2 is armv7
Well I would say Quake 3, but I’m not sure how old your son is.
I wiould definitely have to second @RealGeee:disqus. Emulators run great on the Raspi 2. Even PS2 emulators run fairly well so your son will have the opportunity to play a lot of classic titles.
If you are in to DIY projects you could build an arcade cabinet and you and your son could paint it together. Then the both of you could work together installing MAME on the RasPi 2.
IF you are interested here is a guide on how to build one.
http://www.instructables.com/id/2-Player-Bartop-Arcade-Machine-Powered-by-Pi/
Great idea! Thanks.
Good article, Thanks.
EDIT: How do you run an executable file in NTFS?!
Windows exe through Wine.Tough no always will run fine
I was referring to Linux binary executable files.
Through terminal.
Doesn’t work on NTFS.
Well you can install linux at a ntfs but not recommend
Well Linux reads NTFS just like any other disk partition so as long as it is an executable file supported by Linux it doesn’t matter what your partition is.
But I can’t make it executable in NTFS and FAT family. I get permission errors and I can’t change the permissions.
Hmmm, I may have to do some science. Are you executing it in the terminal?
I don’t think your issue is NTFS or FAT, because your entire boot directory is most likely FAT32.
Yes, and I have tried gui way, can’t enable “allow file as executable” (or something like that)
Did you try going into the properties of the file and clicking the box that allows the file to be executable.
Yep, it automatically unchecks the box, same with root permissions
Edit:I am running mint 17 with cinnamon.
It could be because the partition was created in Windows 8 and it doesn’t allow executables from other OSes for security reasons. You could always shrink the partition and create a separate ext3/4 partition.
Well that makes sense. Thanks
It might be a umask (a kind of permission over whole partition or directory, not just file permission). It can take precedence over individual file settings because Linux is always “get most restrictive”.
I know my Linux put restrictive mask by default when mounting NTFS partitions, you need to change it after mounting or specify the mask you want in the “etc” file.
So look at your mount options and if needed add or edit the “umask” option. 😉 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umask#Mount_option
Boot directory is ext4. I have a 30MiB fat32 for my BIOS, rest is an ext 4 /home
And a root directory (which contains /boot) rest of the drive is btrfs.
EDIT: there is also an NTFS which I use for win8
It might be a umask (a kind of permission over whole partition or directory, not just file permission). It can take precedence over individual file settings because Linux is always “get most restrictive”.
I know my Linux put restrictive mask by default when mounting NTFS partitions, you need to change it after mounting or specify the mask you want in the “etc” file.
So look at your mount options and if needed add or edit the “umask” option. 😉 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umask#Mount_option
lol … yeah linux can read NTFS, but sometimes even linux failed to mount EXT partition on startup.
Unfortunately Steam Linux client or SteamOS isn’t compatible with the Raspberry Pi 2 because its ARM CPU. The only thing Steam related that is possible is turning the Raspberry Pi 2 into a streaming device.
Rasp? What? Duck that $hit. It’s worse than an Wal-Mart PC.