Adding something new we discussed with Ubuntu Budgie team. This was not part of the initial scope, but we believe it will be great to help users with a good gaming experience, and is worth spending some time to provide the functionality outlined below here.
Intent:
Improve gaming user experience for all Ubuntu Budgie users. We want to make it as easy as possible to get a new install of Ubuntu Budgie very good at gaming.
Execution:
On first run of Welcome app - Gaming, GPU information will be gathered. Then, according to what GPU is found in the system, recommendations will be made so that the user can easily enable best drivers, install vulkan libraries, and other relevant packages.
After initial run, we believe an icon can be also added to gaming page, so users can manually re-run this checklist and recommended actions on demand.
AMD or Intel:
If Intel or AMD GPU are found:
recommend install of AMD/Intel related vulkan, and other gaming related drivers/libraries. Action icon to accept and install automatically
inform users that optionally, if they select the CoreCTRL, in the same repo there will be more up-to date driver stack for AMD/Intel. Action icon to accept and install automatically.
NVIDIA:
If Nvidia or Nvidia+Intel GPU is found:
recommend user to check the drivers page and install latest available proprietary Nvidia driver. Action icon to either accept and install automatically, or launch the drivers page where user can pick the driver he/she wants. This will automatically install optimus drivers and GPU switching applet if needed.
recommend install of Nvidia related vulkan, and other gaming related drivers/libraries. Action icon to accept and install automatically
Additional checks
Other hardware can be easily probed and recommended actions could be added as needed. A few examples:
Razer devices detected, recommend to install OpenRazer+Polychromatic. Action icon to accept and install automatically
RGB controllers or hardware compatible with OpenRGB detected, recommend to install OpenRGB. Action icon to accept and install automatically
After personally seeing it in action, I donât believe the Games tab belongs here.
My first instinct as a new user, especially within an âInstall Softwareâ section of the Welcome app, would be to actually install those games. Not seeing an install button feels a little confusing!
Thereâs nothing wrong with curation, but perhaps linking out to a living forum post or nice, clean wiki page with a growing list of game recommendations would be a better fit? This could be a good opportunity to start building regular content for the Ubuntu Budgie gaming community as well (like a podcast, dedicated forum section or frequent blog posts with recommendations).
For that Games tab, what about including a handful of quality FOSS games available within the repos? (Admittedly, that can be less exciting to some peopleâŚ)
A more complicated stretch goal might be âactivatingâ this tab once a game client like Steam or Lutris is installed.
As a gaming enthusiast, I hope I donât sound hypocritical â my intent is to help you avoid confusion and feature creep.
Thank you for your feedback, this is really useful. I appreciate you being honest with us. Constructive criticism is always welcome here.
You have a valid point, and now that you mention it, install software - games, and then you canât actually install those games, can be confusing.
Also, the way I see it, games are a bit like music. It is all very subjective and people have different tastes. I have a few options for this, and again, feedback or more options are welcome:
Forget the Games page for this release, hide it and focus on important tools for gaming. Regroup and think if we want to bring it back in some form later on.
Change it to a page where people can actually install games that are FOSS and available on Ubuntu repositories. This could be time consuming so we need to ask @HellBringer419 if he can pull it off or not. I am happy to help if this is the way to go forward.
Everything that links to external sources in my opinion adds a layer of complexity and also as @Linux4Everyone pointed out, would not be related to âInstalling Softwareâ, so I thought about it and personally I would not like that. But open to suggestions.
I noticed a minor issue with the Welcome App on the 22.04 daily and figured Iâd throw it in here. NOTE: This is using the Edge branch of the ubuntu-budgie-welcome snap!
The notification center said the Lutris install failed, but it did install successfully. I ran it and installed Starcraft II without issue.
Let me know any logs or data I can add to help troubleshoot.
It would also be cool to see if anyone else can reproduce the issue on the 22.04 daily with the edge branch ubuntu-budgie-welcome
Move âGamesâ Tab.
We are going to move the âGamesâ Tab to third place, having it between Gaming Clients and Tools is not optimal. Also we believe most users will definitely come here to install tools. Showing what games we like is not the priority.
Rename âToolsâ Tab.
In order to provide more clarity, and consistency I think we should rename âToolsâ to âGaming Toolsâ.
Rename âGamesâ Tab.
I believe again for more clarity, we could rename âGamesâ tab. Let us know if you want to keep it as âGamesâ or not. If you want to change, send us your recommendations. Something like this:
Please note that this item can be considered a ânice to haveâ extra feature for next releases, I do not want to keep adding work now that will delay initial release.
Currently, users can click on the â?â icon on top of each game to open the steam page, this for all steam games. However, in order to provide a better user experience, I believe we should have all action items in the same place. This is where we also have install or remove for all our other items. I made a quick mock-up with inkscape, just to show how It would look like.
@Linux4Everyone I tested on a 22.04 VM and I had the exact issue. Raven reported failed install, but Lutris actually installed correctly. Welcome reported correct status as the green âInstallâ icon became a red âremoveâ icon.
Funny enough, after removal, second time install returns no errors. I will try again purging the package, and if not enough to re-create the error, I will try on a fresh install of UB.
So first I want to say awesome job for all those working on this. I have been testing out the 22.04 builds, with the edge snap for Budgie enabled. I ended up installing Lutris and MangoHUD through the welcome app, However after a sudo apt update the MangoHUD PPA that is added and the Lutris PPA that were added refused to update Here is what apt spit back out for the errors.
E: The repository âIndex of /flexiondotorg/mangohud/ubuntu jammy Releaseâ does not have a Release file. N: Updating from such a repository canât be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default. N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: The repository âIndex of /lutris-team/lutris/ubuntu jammy Releaseâ does not have a Release file. N: Updating from such a repository canât be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
The issue with mangohud and lutris is the same:
PPAs added by welcome for the specific apps donât have packages for jammy. This is an easy fix as packages are available on jammy multiverse repositories. However, a bit less easy because the same apps donât have packages for focal multiverse repositories. So, this should be the fix:
Impish
if impish, installing mangohud should use universe repository: Ubuntu â Error
If impish, installing lutris should use multiverse repository: Ubuntu â Error
I have been testing all Gaming Clients and Gaming Tools and I have not found a single issue.
OpenRazer+Polychromatic now automatically adds and removes user to/from plugdev group. Also all needed packages are removed.
Only remaining issue, which is actually a minor annoyance, is that Steam client is not detected as installed, so our Budgie Welcome has a green icon to install, even if Steam is already installed and working. Once this is fixed, I believe we can focus on more testing and release.
Other additional items such as auto detect hardware and offer installation of additional tools, not sure if we can do it in time. I already did my homework on vulkan/wine and other components, but I would need @HellBringer419 and @fossfreedom or other devs help to actually get it done.
Steam client is now detected when installed. Green install icon becomes red to remove. Installation and removal both work great. Tested on 20.04, 21.10, and 22.04.
GAMES LIST
This minor update fixes cosmetic issues with icons in the âGames Listâ tab. Previously, games installed from Ubuntu repositories caused extended feedback messages that then moved the âwatchâ icon in a less than ideal position. This is now confirmed to be fixed.
STEAM
Also, it seems that steam installed with new method introduced in 0.16.10 is faster to launch. Quick note: If you have steam installed via steam-launcher or other legacy ways, it is recommended to uninstall and purge all steam related packages, delete .steam folder in userâs home, and reboot before installing via Budgie Welcome. I keep my games on a custom library on specific path, and after remapping it in freshly installed steam, all games were still there.
Fixes to typos and punctuation on âGames Listâ and âGaming Toolsâ.
Removed extra description from âPolychromatic & OpenRazerâ.
Moved all âWatchâ icons to the left side, and Install/Remove or Launch on the right. This was initially done only for games that had an Install/Remove icon (games installed from Ubuntu repositories). Since during and after install extra text would display, and âWatchâ Item was pushed as consequence, inverting the positions was a quick fix. However it led to inconsistencies with Steam games, which had Launch on the left and Watch on the right. We now have more consistency and a better user interface design.
Thank you @HellBringer419 for making those changes super fast, and thank you @fossfreedom for reviewing the PR and merging at a record-breaking speed. Itâs always a pleasure to work with Ubuntu Budgie team and community!
Thanks @ilvipero for finding the typos quickly too.
Also, thanks community for trying out in beta. This will make the gaming page better for new comers.
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