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Firstly, hello, this is my first post here. Found you all through the GNU/Linux Gaming subreddit. Now, a little background on my history with Linux. I’ve maintained a Linux laptop for about fifteen years. I started on Ubuntu, distrohopped for quite sometime before settling on Debian with MATE. I used that for about eight or nine years. For the last two and a half years or so I’ve been using Arch Linux with MATE. However, on my gaming desktop I’ve stuck to using Windows. I’ve been growing more and more frustrated with Windows. Even with Start10, PowerToys, and a debloat script Windows 10 is getting more and more difficult to use. I don’t know if Windows is getting worse, I’m getting more used to Linux, less tolerant of Windows' BS, or if it’s a combination of these factors. Either way, for the last several weeks, I’ve been seriously considering switching my desktop to Arch Linux as well.
I have few concerns. One is that my desktop has been through several upgrade cycles and has a bit of a mishmash of parts in it as well as some fairly odd parts. I don’t know for sure that it will be compatible. I’ve used Arch long enough to know that it’s pretty tolerant of most hardware configurations, but I want to check in with those who have been doing this longer than I have. Hardware configuration below.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX X470-F Gaming ATX AM4
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18
Solid State Drive: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME (Primary drive)
Hard Disk Drive: Toshiba DT01ACA300 3 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM (Failing; needs replaced)
Video Card: Sapphire NITRO+ SE Radeon RX 6900 XT 16 GB
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Primary Monitor: Asus VX238H 23.0" 1920 x 1080 60Hz
Secondary Monitor: Unknown model of HP 1600 x 900 60Hz
DAC: SMSL Sanskrit 10th High-end DAC USB Optical Coaxial Input
The DAC especially concerns me. It’s a bit of an odd piece of kit.
The other concerns are software related. I don’t stream (as in on Kick or Twitch) nor do I plan to, but I have heard conflicting things about the status of Discord on Linux. I use it via Flatpak exclusively for its text chat functionality on my laptop, but I use the native Windows version on Windows to hangout with my friends in chat. I also sometimes stream what I’m playing either for help with certain sections of a game or just to show a game to a friend. Can I expect the same functionality to work on Linux?
I also have three main sources of games. I know I don’t need to worry too much about my Steam library. Steam makes it easy to run games with Proton. I have also checked those games on ProtonDB. They’re all primarily in the Platinum or Gold categories. I also have a bunch of old games on disks. I know those are a crapshoot. What concerns me is that I have a reasonable library of games on GOG Galaxy. I know of no way to get the GOG Galaxy client running on Linux. Is there an easy way to get those games to run? Or should I just download the installers from GOG and try them through Wine, Lutris, etc?
Lastly, how is multi-monitor support on Linux these days? I know that MATE still uses xorg for its display server.
Thanks for the help. If I can provide anymore info on my situation to help better answer this question just let me know.
Most of the hardware seems pretty standard, but the DAC is interesting indeed. No idea if that'll work.
As far as I know, all functionality is available in Discord. But I have no experience with the flatpak version.
GOG is working well with Heroic launcher and improving still. Ever allows you to use proton. For manual installs Lutris or Bottles are helpful.
Multi monitor on X11 has limitations and that won't change. Your hardware should be fine for Wayland, but it may take a while for MATE to catch up to that.
I'm sure others have more details. Switching does often mean making changes to the way you do things, so I hope you find your way with it.
And if you're still worried, dual booting is always an option.
Thank you for the reply. I think I might find an Arch based distro to make a live USB of sometime over the weekend to give it a stab on my desktop to see how it behaves on my hardware. I can only learn so much from a live USB, but it should give me an idea.
Thanks for the idea. I'll give that a spin over the weekend and see how it behaves.
Last edited by Bilskirnir3124 on 20 November 2023 at 2:10 am UTC
For the most part, it will work. But some media players might try to force it through Pulseaudio/Pipewire which can potentially lead to unnecessary resampling.
Some of those players frankly couldn't care about that:
https://github.com/clementine-player/Clementine/issues/5344
In any case, all hope is not lost! I strongly recommend using Strawberry, as this will allow you to properly use your DAC:
https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org/
For your musical audio needs.
Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 19 November 2023 at 2:40 am UTC
I have always been afraid to use a few monitors on Linux because they highly rely on the quality of the drivers. In this case, I knew that I waste hours if I encountered issues with it. The multi-monitor setup will probably never work flawlessly on Linux.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8deLZP1qLI
I just gave up on Linux in this area without even trying it.
Multiple monitors can work perfectly on Linux (I've been using them for years on both Nvidia and AMD for example, without real problems). Sure, there may be some bumps along the way if you use monitors at different frequencies, particularly with Xorg. But for the most part you can usually solve most issues. It's rarely due to the drivers though. It tends to be display server/xrandr bugs that cause most issues.
Generally, trying a different display server (say, Wayland instead of Xorg for example) or a different Desktop environment (such as KDE instead of Mate) may resolve the issues quickly and effortlessly for them.
While it is possible they may run into issues, it does not mean that they necessarily will. So to simply dismiss any attempt at making it work and instead suggesting to buy a single large monitor to replace an existing setup without trying it? That's just plain bad advice.
Particularly since you've admitted you haven't even tried it yourself.
View PC info
Great to hear for multiple reasons. I use Strawberry as my main music player already. Its playlists are great. Them being portable is a real nice feature.
Still good to know that it can work. They have the same native refresh rate so here's hoping that they don't I don't run into any serious problems. That does mean that, when I inevitably upgrade my monitors I'll need to get a pair and at the same time. I just can't go back to having only a single monitor.
But the good news is, the rig you mentioned in the OP has an AMD GPU. That's great for Linux! It means your graphics drivers are pre-installed, since they are open source. This means things like multi-monitor are much easier to setup than they would be had you needed to mess around with third-party nvidia drivers.
Otherwise there is Wayland, which basically removes that from being a problem. There may be some other drawbacks with Wayland, but really it's user specific. For most people, Wayland is good enough. And again, thanks to that AMD GPU it makes using Wayland better too.
I can't promise you won't have any issues at all, but a dual-monitor is quite common among the Linux community, so it's a well tried-and-tested configuration. So it's unlikely you'll run into any issues.
It's worth noting that anyone who is using a Steam Deck, and then plugging it into another monitor is technically running a dual monitor setup while they're doing that. (assuming the decks screen is still active).
But long story short: I genuinely don't foresee you having any issues with your monitor setup, both with or without Wayland.