Community project: Ubuntu Budgie Gaming

@HellBringer419 this is super exciting. I can already see polychromatic and openrazer are marked to remove in the applet, because I already had those installed. I think it is a great start.
I will try to add, remove, and break stuff and send you my feedback. For now I am sharing your great work on Social Media. you can link as well to your friends to spread the good word.

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Exciting update from my side. It seems this community project has been quite successful so far. After checking with Ubuntu Budgie team members and friends, I had some very nice input on how to really make Ubuntu Budgie a gamer friendly distribution, with even more gaming related tools and clients. Many thanks to @GrindamN and Matt from Destination Linux Network.

@HellBringer419 @fossfreedom @bashfulrobot @GrindamN Please share your thoughts on the items below. I have been doing some digging around and see which ones are available for Ubuntu. Sharing my findings below here.

Game Clients:

-Heroic Game Launcher (Native Linux Epic Games Store Launcher)
https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher
There is a .deb available for download, a debian apt repository, and a ppa. many options to choose here: https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher#installation

-MiniGalaxy (Native GOG game Launcher)
https://sharkwouter.github.io/minigalaxy/
Available on ubuntu repositories: sudo apt install minigalaxy
Current version from ubuntu repositories is version 1.0.2-1 . There is also a debian package on github releases, which seems to be more up-to-date, version 1.1.0 . https://github.com/sharkwouter/minigalaxy/releases

Gaming Tools:

-GOverlay/Mangohud (think Linux version of FRAPS)
https://github.com/benjamimgois/goverlay
available on ubuntu repos sudo apt install goverlay
There is also a ppa created by Martin Wimpress that has up-to-date versions:
https://launchpad.net/~flexiondotorg/+archive/ubuntu/mangohud

-CoreCTL (harware Controller via Profiles)
https://gitlab.com/corectrl/corectrl
Available on this ppa https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/mesarcand then sudo apt install corectl
NOTE: This ppa also has updated mesa and other software that might be great for gaming but introduce instability. can we add extra warning?

-GreenwithEnvy (Tweak your Nvidia GPU)
Available via flathub. More info here. Better investigate if works well on laptops with nvidia-prime or only good for desktops with single disgrete GPU.https://gitlab.com/leinardi/gwe

-Piper (configure controller and mice)
available on ubuntu repos: sudo apt install ratbagd piper
There is also a ppa with daily builds for up-to-date features and devices: https://launchpad.net/~libratbag-piper/+archive/ubuntu/piper-libratbag-git

-Discord
Available via snap. recommend edge channel because when discord detects an update, it forces the client to update, and if cannot update. Discord won’t even launch. stable release of the snap might be a few days behind, which can make for a poor experience.

-Oversteer (configure gaming steering wheels)
https://github.com/berarma/oversteer It appears this one is packaged only for arch and gentoo. I could not find a debian/ubuntu repo with this software.

-OBS Studio (Streaming and screenrecording)
available both as snap, packaged with many plugins, or in ubuntu repositories. Either snap install obs-studio or sudo apt install obs-studio obs-plugins

Where possible I would prefer to add options to software that is available in the repos. I have no issue with adding more info/links where more up-to-date stuff possibly exists if this is PPAs. The reason for not wanting to depend on PPAs is that the maintainer of the PPAs may disappear / not produce a package for current and future versions of ubuntu.

Flathub - we dont currently support the means to install directly from flathub - so initially just a link to the flathub should be done. Its not beyond the wit of man to add flathub install support - it would be identical to how the snap install stuff was done (look through old git commits).

So from what I understand, the best idea is to use GitHub releases / snap.
The packages I’ve used in this are mostly from PPA; will try to find replacements.

Also, yeah I know Flatpaks maybe a bit crazy but as a user experience point of view, they are cool. (source, use it myself for steam).
Of-course, I’m not suggesting to use Flatpaks as a default for installing any packages.

And yeah we might need another tab for Game Launchers or do we put them inside Gaming Clients.

I’ll try to use as many of those tools as possible and then, add them. Also, definitely will add Discord and OBS as a gaming tool.

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@HellBringer419 A few of those you can see, can be installed from Ubuntu repos, others from snap. I think we can start adding those while we figure out other that are only via PPAs. What do you think?

Of the PPAs in the list, they all seem ok (no extra stuff) but there is one that might be an issue. Corectrl PPA has a lot of mesa git, firmware and other important packages. I think let’s leave this one for last, meanwhile I will try to reach out to corectrl developers and understand a bit more.

Sure, we can get started with that.
But, wanted to highlight that we are already using some third party PPAs and that we need to find alternatives.

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I have done some testing, installed openrazer and polychromatic and both worked fine, also very nice reminder below those 2 applications when you install them.

@HellBringer419 may I confirm with you if you added the command to add user to plugdev group? I ask you because after Install and reboot, openrazer worked and I did not have to add the user to that group. And i can confirm my user is in the plugdev group. However I forgot to check before installing. Just making sure it is done by your install script.

Umm… if the message is to install both at the same time, why wouldn’t we do this automatically rather than have two separate options?

@fossfreedom In theory, someone could install OpenRazer as daemon, and use other software for frontend.
However, I have never heard of someone doing that because OpenRazer and Polychromatic are just a fantastic combo. If you guys prefer to combine those in a single install box, I have no problem with that.

@HellBringer419 Another quick comment, don’t worry too much to eliminate PPAs. I believe @fossfreedom was expressing a preference to not rely on PPAs when possible.

For example, OBS, Discord, Minigalaxy, GOverlay, Piper, those are all available in either Ubuntu repos or as Snaps. So for those, let’s stick to Ubuntu Repo / Snap even if there is a PPA with slightly more up-to-date version. It makes a lot of sense.

For those that are only available via PPAs, I think we can move forward and add those, as usual there is a notification to users before adding PPA so those that are not happy, can just cancel install.

CoreCTL is still a big question mark because from a gamer enthusiast point of view, I can see the appeal to go with latest (or almost latest) mesa, firmware, and so on. But it introduces potential risks and makes it a bit harder for do-release upgrade as that ppa and its packages will most likely need to be purged first. And also transform that Ubuntu Budgie to something we cannot really support.
I will try to pull down the single deb package or compile it myself from sources and package it, to see if it can run with mesa stack that comes with Ubuntu Budgie instead.

No, on the install part, I didn’t do anything. These are the default behaviours after an apt install.

Yeah about that. Got a bit busy so haven’t done a whole lot on the PPAs thing.

Quick update about this one. You were right. I previously installed openrazer and polychromatic by hand so I did add my user to plugdev group. A recent test confirmed this:

  1. Removed openrazer and polychromatic using welcome - gaming tool.
  2. Rebooted the system and my user was still in plugdev group
  3. Removed my user from plugdev group by running: sudo gpasswd -d $USER plugdev
  4. Installed openrazer and polychromatic using welcome - gaming tool.
  5. Rebooted the system and my user was not automatically added to plugdev group. This is necessary in order to manage devices with openrazer+polychromatic
  6. Added the group by hand: sudo gpasswd -a $USER plugdev
  7. Relogged and all worked fine.

Long story short, it would be awesome if we could add either a note or a command to our scripts to add and remove current user from plugdev group. Maybe add a note in the initial warning about repo, or below the software?

add user to group after software install

sudo gpasswd -a $USER plugdev

remove user from group after software removal

sudo gpasswd -d $USER plugdev

I’m far from a gamer myself, but I’ve been following Ubuntu Budgie’s efforts in this regard somewhat. Therefore, I would like to draw your attention to an article I came across today. It’s about Gamebuntu, a new app created by the maintainer of the Ubuntu Unity distribution to help Linux newcomers build a game-ready Ubuntu setup on their gaming machines.

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Thanks for bring this to our notice.

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Quick update on this one. I know it requires a PPA and we are trying to limit PPAs. I strongly agree with this, but I am also aware that we do not have the resources to re-package everything. So, for now, I recommend we use what is available to us. Hopefully in the future some of the projects we use will transition to either snap packages or add the deb pacakges to debian/ubuntu repositories.

I have been testing this PPA with updated mesa and corectrl for a few weeks now. I am keeping an eye on it and so far it seems to be getting frequent updates, very stable, and gives my AMD desktop a nice performance boost. My recommendation is to add to our Budgie Welcome - Gaming.
I think we should add an extra warning message to inform users they are going to get updated packages that are not officially supported by Ubuntu, leave a link to the repo for everyone to check it out before installing. And recommend a clonezilla or timeshift snapshot before going ahead.

Thanks @HellBringer419 for the great work and @fossfreedom for your help getting this done.
Our edge version of the Ubuntu Budgie Welcome snap now has been updated. Lots of new and useful goodies to check out. We also included CoreCTRL that comes with major updated version graphics stack for AMD.
If you are willing to help us test, I recommend a system snapshot with timeshift or clonezilla.

Please remember, if you want to use edge version of the snap, you can switch channel from Software manager, or run this from a terminal:

snap refresh --edge  ubuntu-budgie-welcome 

UbuntuBudgie-Gaming

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Ubuntu Budgie Welcome - Gaming - Testing of ubuntu-budgie-welcome (edge) 0.16.9

General Feedback on PPAs

I noticed that when a software that requires PPA is removed using Ubuntu Budgie Welcome - Gaming, relevant PPA is not actually purged from system. Not sure if this intentional, but I wanted to point it out.

Gaming Clients

Lutris

  • Lutris reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

Steam

  • Steam always shows green to install, even if already installed in the system. Rebooting does not fix.

I believe the issue is because a manual download of steam-launcher deb is used, instead of using the package “steam” from ubuntu repositories. Recommend to switch to steam from ubuntu repositories.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

Retroarch

  • Retroarch reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

Games

Games list seems very good for a start, all “?” Icons work fine, show correct pages with games info. Same for Youtube links.

Game tools

Piper

  • Piper reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

CPU frequency applet

  • CPU frequency applet does a good job pointing to Budgie Extras. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

OpenRGB

  • OpenRGB reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

Polychromatic & OpenRazer

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

Polychromatic & OpenRazer Testing results - Removal

  • After removal from Budgie Welcome and reboot, app icon shows green to install it. However I still can see openrazer icon red as not working, in taskbar.

  • plugdev group not removed from user

Polychromatic & OpenRazer Feedback/Recommendations on removal task

  • It seems not all packages are removed, recommend manually do: sudo apt remove polychromatic-* openrazer-*

  • manually removing user from group and relogging works fine: sudo gpasswd -d $USER plugdev . Further investigation needed to understand why install script is unable to take care of this.

Polychromatic & OpenRazer Testing results - Install

*Install works fine, after reboot polychromatic icon shows up.

  • plugdev group not added to user, resulting in polychromatic unable to find any device.

Polychromatic & OpenRazer Feedback/Recommendations on install task

  • manually adding user from group and relogging works fine: sudo gpasswd -a $USER plugdev . Further investigation needed to understand why install script is unable to take care of this.

Discord

  • Discord reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

OBS

  • OBS reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

Mango HUD

  • Mango HUD reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

CoreCTRL

  • CoreCTRL reports correct status of client if installed or not. Install and removal work fine.

  • “?” icon works fine, shows correct page with software info.

  • Since CoreCTRL PPA brings graphics stack updates, it might be worth making it clear somehow before install. This could be a very good PPA to install for those that want latest graphics stack for AMD. Or something some users don’t want in their system.

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Thanks for the report … You went full all in.

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First of all: THANK YOU, on behalf of Linux gamers everywhere, to everyone contributing code and ideas to this. It’s so great to see Ubuntu Budgie taking gaming seriously.

I’ll download and install a daily build and hopefully can throw some feedback your way. If I don’t, I can definitely promise to shine a light on what you’re doing.

Thanks again!

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