📝 Tips for gaming on Ubuntu
A few tips for gaming on Ubuntu with the Steam snap, and my overall experience with the distro after a few days of usage
A few days ago, I switched from Arch Linux to Ubuntu. I've been thinking about starting to use a distro more focused on stability and less on having the latest everything. Ubuntu was already the operating system my wife and my father were using, mainly due to the Ubunto Pro free tier, so I decided to go with it, too, and make my life easier when giving them support.
Surprisingly, the default Ubuntu experience improved a lot since I last used it. When was it? Ten years ago? More? I can't recall, but I know it was a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, and I remember using Unity. I miss Unity.
I did install some extensions for GNOME, changed the typeface, used my own .fonts.conf, and a few other configurations, installed and built some utilities I had used on Arch for more than five years, and that was it.
The only issue I've had is using the Steam snap package and running games installed via Heroic Games Launcher's flatpak package, with shortcuts for them added to Steam. The confinement rules set for this snap don't let it use a lot of stuff outside of it, so I can't use the same setup I had on Arch.
I could install Steam with the --classic flag, which disables the confinement. However, if I'm using Snap for isolation, I might as well take advantage of it. I could also use the deb provided by Steam, but I want to stay close to the default as much as possible so I don't have to deal with as many potential issues.
There's also the possibility of installing Steam via Flapak. I might do it eventually. But now, I want to use the Snap package and send some reports to the team. If you want to submit them, too, take a look at the Testing page at the repo's wiki, and read the instructions on how to submit carefully.
After thinking about this for a day, I remembered there's this application called Cartridges, that serves as a main hub for your gaming clients. Steam and Heroic are both supported, but for it to see the Snap package, you need to change the Steam path to /home/USER/snap/steam/common/.steam/steam. (don't forget to change USER to your username)
While this is not ideal, because I have to have another package installed, it fixes it for me. My main game hub is now Cartridges.
For custom Proton forks, like Proton-GE, ProtonUp-QT supports the Steam snap package out-of-the-box.
You can also use different Mesa environments with the package. The repo's wiki has all the instructions. Shoutout to Diogo for mentioning this to me and for giving me a few tips that helped make the transition to this distribution easier.