Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Update 15/03/22 - It's now fixed, with no word again from anyone. The EAC file was just put back nearly ~9 hours later.


Even though Apex Legends was marked officially Steam Deck Verified by Valve on March 9, that we covered in an article, it's now been updated and it's broken on Steam Deck and Linux desktops.

It's still not really clear what's going on. No announcement was made previously from any party. Valve didn't say anything, Respawn (the developer) didn't and EA (the publisher) also stayed silent. It just seemed to go through Deck Verified, and showed the whole world it worked as it was properly live on the Steam store and in your Steam Library on Deck. Now, a patch came in and it has removed the Linux Easy Anti-Cheat file so the game will boot you out telling you it's not working.

This is pretty frustrating. We've talked a couple of times now across articles and videos on issues with Deck Verified, and this certainly doesn't help. There's always going to be teething issues with a new platform of course but this isn't even a Top 100 title, Apex is constantly in the Top 10 on Steam. To have it break like this even though it's Deck Verified? What the heck is going on?

It does bring up other questions now too like: how long is the lag between a major game getting an upgrade, and it going through Deck Verified again to check it works? What about smaller games, do they have to wait longer? The list of questions goes on.

Such a shame, as it became an instant favourite of mine and worked so nicely on Deck:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
23 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
63 comments
Page: «5/7»
  Go to:

pleasereadthemanual Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: F.UltraThose individuals where sued because they used software that uploaded the copyrighted material to other people while they where downloading it themselves. AFAIK no one have been sued for just downloading, it's distribution that is protected under copyright, for usage to be infringing you have to go to patents.
It's not just distribution that is protected under copyright, though I'm unsure if you're making this distinction. Unauthorized transcription, translation, performance, and of course, making an unauthorized copy of copyrighted content is copyright infringement. Though transcription sometimes falls under fair use. What do you do when you're downloading something? You're making a copy.

Putting aside whether seeding qualifies as distribution, there are plenty of instances of people being sued just for downloading content. Whether they would actually win that lawsuit, I don't know, but most defendants choose to settle before it reaches the court.

Here's the RIAA, a frequent customer of the court, on what they think:

Quoting: RIAAA long series of court rulings has made it very clear that uploading and downloading copyrighted music without permission on P2P networks constitutes infringement and could be a crime.

I'll have to read the Copyright Act for my country in full one day.

Edit: The article I referenced seems to also be related to seeding.


Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 15 March 2022 at 3:16 am UTC
PublicNuisance Mar 15, 2022
If you give money to a company to play game that uses scumbag DRM don't be surprised when that scumbag DRM screws you over. Don't worry they're having fun spending your money.
[email protected] Mar 15, 2022
Good to see a lot of people enjoying it!
RichardYao Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: pleasereadthemanual
Quoting: F.UltraThose individuals where sued because they used software that uploaded the copyrighted material to other people while they where downloading it themselves. AFAIK no one have been sued for just downloading, it's distribution that is protected under copyright, for usage to be infringing you have to go to patents.
It's not just distribution that is protected under copyright, though I'm unsure if you're making this distinction. Unauthorized transcription, translation, performance, and of course, making an unauthorized copy of copyrighted content is copyright infringement. Though transcription sometimes falls under fair use. What do you do when you're downloading something? You're making a copy.

Putting aside whether seeding qualifies as distribution, there are plenty of instances of people being sued just for downloading content. Whether they would actually win that lawsuit, I don't know, but most defendants choose to settle before it reaches the court.

Here's the RIAA, a frequent customer of the court, on what they think:

Quoting: RIAAA long series of court rulings has made it very clear that uploading and downloading copyrighted music without permission on P2P networks constitutes infringement and could be a crime.

I'll have to read the Copyright Act for my country in full one day.

Edit: The article I referenced seems to also be related to seeding.

It is all a moot point given that the file has been restored to Apex Legends in the last update. It would be ridiculous to go after people for distributing backups of a file that they are distributing to everyone.

Also, the RIAA saying “could be a crime” is rather ridiculous. Copyright infringement is a civil issue, not a criminal issue. As much as their industry would like to see capital punishment for distributing music files, it is not happening. To be clear, that is not an exaggeration. One of them actually lamented that the government in some country was not executing people for pirating music:

https://boingboing.net/2010/06/14/music-industry-lobby.html

These people have been lobbying to criminalize anything that might hurt their bottom line for decades.


Last edited by RichardYao on 15 March 2022 at 4:18 am UTC
pleasereadthemanual Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: RichardYao
Quoting: pleasereadthemanual
Quoting: F.UltraThose individuals where sued because they used software that uploaded the copyrighted material to other people while they where downloading it themselves. AFAIK no one have been sued for just downloading, it's distribution that is protected under copyright, for usage to be infringing you have to go to patents.
It's not just distribution that is protected under copyright, though I'm unsure if you're making this distinction. Unauthorized transcription, translation, performance, and of course, making an unauthorized copy of copyrighted content is copyright infringement. Though transcription sometimes falls under fair use. What do you do when you're downloading something? You're making a copy.

Putting aside whether seeding qualifies as distribution, there are plenty of instances of people being sued just for downloading content. Whether they would actually win that lawsuit, I don't know, but most defendants choose to settle before it reaches the court.

Here's the RIAA, a frequent customer of the court, on what they think:

Quoting: RIAAA long series of court rulings has made it very clear that uploading and downloading copyrighted music without permission on P2P networks constitutes infringement and could be a crime.

I'll have to read the Copyright Act for my country in full one day.

Edit: The article I referenced seems to also be related to seeding.

It is all a moot point given that the file has been restored to Apex Legends in the last update. It would be ridiculous to go after people for distributing backups of a file that they are distributing to everyone.

Also, the RIAA saying “could be a crime” is rather ridiculous. Copyright infringement is a civil issue, not a criminal issue. As much as their industry would like to see capital punishment for distributing music files, it is not happening. To be clear, that is not an exaggeration. One of them actually lamented that the government in some country was not executing people for pirating music:

https://boingboing.net/2010/06/14/music-industry-lobby.html

These people have been lobbying to criminalize anything that might hurt their bottom line for decades.
I'm already well aware of how the RIAA feels about copyright infringement. I used them as an example because they're well-known to go after everybody, alive or dead, 12 years old or 80 years old, for unauthorized downloading of copyrighted content. If anyone were to go after people for downloading content, it would be them. I did not know, however, that the RIAA wanted capital punishment for infringers, though somehow I'm not surprised.

QuoteIt would be ridiculous to go after people for distributing backups of a file that they are distributing to everyone.

Maybe so, but this is copyright infringement nonetheless. Copyright is about preserving the copyright holder's monopoly over their creation. Ultimately, of course, the only entities that have the capital to pursue lawsuits for copyright infringement are corporations. I'm looking at this from a purely academic perspective because I'm interested in copyright. I don't even play Apex Legends and I probably never will.

The popular view at least in response to my comments seems to be that distribution is copyright infringement, but downloading copyrighted content is perfectly legal in the United States and everywhere. This doesn't sound correct to me, though I'm willing to be proven wrong. I have at least one source in my favor - even if it's Wikipedia.
braiam Mar 15, 2022
Liam, you might want to update the article that they added the file again (which is deliberate, as it is the only change in the last patch), but keeping the overarching point that Deck Verified (or whatever cert program) needs to improve.
The_Mystic_Triptych Mar 15, 2022
This makes me sad, but I'm sure they will fix it soon. I've already got over 10 hours of Linux playtime on Apex, such a fun game that I've missed a lot.
TheAltruisticHacker Mar 15, 2022
Just want to let people know that it appears another patch is going live tomorrow which adds the easyanticheat_x64.so file back where it belongs. source
Rehellio Mar 15, 2022
Looks like they patched it back in: https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/8372024/

Can confirm I can launch the game without having to copy my backed up copy of the .so file.
Perkeleen_Vittupää Mar 15, 2022
Quoting: braiamLiam, you might want to update the article that they added the file again (which is deliberate, as it is the only change in the last patch), but keeping the overarching point that Deck Verified (or whatever cert program) needs to improve.

Yes all is good again! https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/8372024/

Still would like an official explanation how can these things "just happen".

Can't get much more critical than this. Where was testing on Linux part after the "improving update".....
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.