My next O.S will be LINUX. Check this out!

[Thinder]

 

[BitMaster]

I hope one day each game comes as a bootable Linux distro with all tools onboard that you need and nothing else. It's not too far fetched btw.

Boot DCS and fly 

 

edit:  just watched this update video:

He mentioned DCS... so there is that. Wonder which controller/Hotas setups work and which don't. Iirc, my TM WH is not picked up in Ubuntu/Mint but also never tried to use it. Well, maybe I shrink one NVMe a little bit and install Ubuntu bare metal, fire up Steam with my DCS and give it a shot. That really interests me how far it has come now.

 

Most sense would make if the Server would run on Linux w/o Steam, that would cut the monthly cost some pay to have their server hosted with MS lic included. Linux is usually ~20€ cheaper per month. If the hoster doesnt mind Steam it could well be already in action if Steam offers DCS Server on Linux, don't know if they do.

Edited December 4, 2021 by BitMaster

[Thinder]

2 hours ago, BitMaster said:

I hope one day each game comes as a bootable Linux distro with all tools onboard that you need and nothing else. It's not too far fetched btw.

Boot DCS and fly 

 

edit:  just watched this update video:

He mentioned DCS... so there is that. Wonder which controller/Hotas setups work and which don't. Iirc, my TM WH is not picked up in Ubuntu/Mint but also never tried to use it. Well, maybe I shrink one NVMe a little bit and install Ubuntu bare metal, fire up Steam with my DCS and give it a shot. That really interests me how far it has come now.

 

Most sense would make if the Server would run on Linux w/o Steam, that would cut the monthly cost some pay to have their server hosted with MS lic included. Linux is usually ~20€ cheaper per month. If the hoster doesnt mind Steam it could well be already in action if Steam offers DCS Server on Linux, don't know if they do.

 

Yeah, there is DCS listed, and I think that before I feel the need to upgrade my O.S it will only get better, my personal dislike of Windows since 10 is the main reason, it became far more intrusive and is now a tool for Microsoft personal data collecting, reason why they created so many different triggers for updates and made it nearly impossible to disable the automation.

Fortunately I've been able to find ways around and prevent this to happen while obtening a good O.S stability in the same time but Windows 11 will chnage that when Win 10 is no longer supported, since I'm tired of this war against Microsoft breach of my privacy, Linux looks increasingly like the alternative I'm looking for.

[Svsmokey]

Think Skatezilla noted in another Linux thread that DCS is dependent on several Windows library's . 

[BitMaster]

Proton seems to have overcome the library issue. DCS, according to others, does run on Linux via Steam/Proton.

Make the server a Linux thing !

 

[BitMaster]

Let's see...

[Steel Jaw]

One thing is for sure"  Windoze blows for many reasons.

[AngleOff66]

I had a dual boot Ubuntu/Windows system.

Once I learned about the software libraries, I pretty much I had everything I needed.  

I deleted ubuntu due to space reasons mainly. I did not like what it did to the boot loader. That was my fault though.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1240994/how-to-restore-windows-boot-loader-after-removing-ubuntu

Main issue for ubuntu/linux is drivers imho.  But, I think in time that there will be much better support.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by NoCoolName66

[BitMaster]

It installs and it tries to load but gets stuck for ever in a black screen as of now.

I followed a few threads on how to fix some issues but none has helped so far, seems like I need to try out different Nvidia drivers, currently using the newest one Ubuntu offered but I know from the past that older ones are far more stable...so, when I get the time I will try different drivers until I can fly the Su-25T online

It's not trivial as of now, so I dont think it is suited for users who dont want to mess around in a shell and heavily modify the OS.

Once it's only click&fly in Steam it's where it should be.

[Thinder]

20 minutes ago, BitMaster said:

It installs and it tries to load but gets stuck for ever in a black screen as of now.

I followed a few threads on how to fix some issues but none has helped so far, seems like I need to try out different Nvidia drivers, currently using the newest one Ubuntu offered but I know from the past that older ones are far more stable...so, when I get the time I will try different drivers until I can fly the Su-25T online

It's not trivial as of now, so I dont think it is suited for users who dont want to mess around in a shell and heavily modify the OS.

Once it's only click&fly in Steam it's where it should be.

That's always been one of Linux/Ubuntu issues, driver support isn't best but I believe they can and will sort it out especially because Windows 11 seems to be a complete dud.

[The_Nephilim]

Well I had given it a go and it did not go very good, while it was cool learning new techniques for linux. plus the they did not have much support for VR Devices, especially the WMR H?MD's which since it was windows based is no surprise there. I think the idea of it is good I am just probally so used to how windows works it is gonna be hard to adapt to Linux..

I found out you can install older software on top of the newer ones and that can cause all sorts of havok upon the OS you currently have. I had installed it and was messing with some older files for my Sound card it got to the point it was just easier to start fresh with my install of Linux, I used Ubuntu 20.4.3. I did like the quickeness and DL seemed to been lightning fast more so then with Windows..

I was even willing to forgo the Thrustmaster drivers to the point where I was just hoping they worked and would have just programmed each game and plane individually. but I did not get that far. my entire goal was to see if there was support for the VR WMR Headset my Reverb G2 which there was none. I did find there are some hopefuly programs for VR Support but it was mostly older models like Rift 1.

Once I got Ubuntu Installed on my drive I was working with getting the Sound card and more importantly my Buttkicker. Well after much searching and tweaking I found a solution to get the buttkicker working and surround sound was supported to a degree. I found a program that was a GUI Interface to controls for Sound module. I forget what the driver was called and the GUI Interface but it is mostly all there you just need to find it..

Best way to describe Ubuntu 20.4.3, it did have some stuff already there and most other stuff needed either Wine for Windows stuff and Proton for Steam stuff. I was able with Wine to install some Windows programs and have them fully functional. to what point I did not find out as once I found out support for the WMR headset was non existant I threw in the towel as I really do not want to game without my VR Headset just yet.

If I kept my Rift S which there was some support for it I might have kept at it and I also thing there was support for Quest 2 which I don't have and was not gonna buy just for Linux.. I really wanted it to work as with most of you guys I am sick Of Windows and there shady way of doing things. I just need an OS to be an  OS not a Data miner. Really sucks as Meta Data is the new oil and gonna get worse but I digress..

 

I think there is a bright future for Linux in General and if they ever manage to get  support for my G2 I would hop right back in even tho they have a funny way of installing stuff and all, it is a little quirky but cool in a way once you learn some basics about Linux.. there are alot of resources for Linux like what driver or such I need to do so and so task in Linux but I think there is too mucch out there even older outdated info gbut good there is so much.. I think they have some reccomended sites but you can go down rabbit holes real quick..

 

 

[BitMaster]

Yes, basically that's how it presents itself right now.

As soon as you have more than a supported Game Controller, like Buttkicker, VR, TiR, Hotas..it becomes Quick Sand pretty fast and you can burn hours between Wine, Proton and "sudo apt install my_app"  LoL.

To be fair, I love it, Ubuntu Server pays part of my bills and I have the Desktop version installed it on numerous older machines of family and friends to keep them alive and secure for everyday computing. Most like it, some went back to Windows, but hey, you cant please everybody

 

My personaly feeling is that MS will put brute force on any company that tries to make Linux a real alternative, despite they themselves use it heavily in their data centers.

Their is no substitiute for Postfix, Apache and many others

Edited December 9, 2021 by BitMaster

[mkaito]

Maybe ED will target Proton some day. A native port is definitely not on the table, but Proton compat should be. If they want to. Which would be nice.

[Lurker]

Would a native DCS World linux port be possible with Vulkan? Since Vulkan is supposedly an advanced version of OpenGL, theoretically at least it should be possible. 

[BitMaster]

From what I have read DCS needs certain Windows DLL's. It's likely a matter of a lot of work, money and time if you take the challange to rewrite the part which is incompatible and I dont think it is gonna happen anytime soon due to the effort needed.

So, I didnt get DCS to work after all and also Ubuntu refused to fire up my desktop speakers but only my headphones which I couldnt solve this time, one of those mysteries you can come across if you stroll into Linux Land.

On the other hand, while my sound worked on Ubuntu, I installed Project Cars 2 via Steam in Linux, attached my buddies Fanatec Wheel and just drove off, no hassle, no drivers, just click & drive, THAT'S how it should be. So there are 2 examples of Proton supported games, 1 so lala and the other one is "golden" state or what they call it and that works fantastic. Less trouble than in Windows and same locked 144fps down through Fuchsröhre at the Nordschleife;) That was inspiring to be honest, to see it CAN work if enough work has been put intoi it.

Edited December 21, 2021 by BitMaster

[MustangSally]

Well, with a world wide market share of less then 1%, I'd say good luck!

Edited December 22, 2021 by MustangSally

[DeltaMike]

https://teamwadafak.com/how-to-run-dcs-dedicated-server-on-linux/

I understand there's an argument for playing on your own server.  Offload some of the work to somebody else's cores, right?  

What about say a NUC?

What about a VM? 

[BitMaster]

I have a ded. server installed on 1 of my VM 11's. It does run well but you need to consider that you need extra RAM, Cores and best a ded. SSD as well. The LAN card would be virtual and virtually lowest Ping there is :).

It's also possible to run it on Linux as a VM, tho you can't skip the MS License that way.

 

[xfirf]

Am 31.12.2021 um 16:59 schrieb BitMaster:

I have a ded. server installed on 1 of my VM 11's. It does run well but you need to consider that you need extra RAM, Cores and best a ded. SSD as well. The LAN card would be virtual and virtually lowest Ping there is :).

It's also possible to run it on Linux as a VM, tho you can't skip the MS License that way.

 

Hey,

I´m interested in a Linux dedicated Sever too. Can you give us a short howto on how to get it running with wine?

[BitMaster]

xfirf,

I think you misunderstood my Linux setup of back then. I was not using Wine or any other emulator in Linux. I installed a Hypervisor, VMware Workstation in my case, in Linux and installed a Windows OS as a virtual machine. The actual DCS Server ran inside a Virtual Machine hosted on a Linux OS.

 

What you want can be done with Steam on Linux. There are many guides around so I will only briefly describe what you need to do. I heavily assume you have worked with Linux before, if not it can be a rocky road to success for Linux beginners.

Install Ubuntu ( or any derivative's of it like "Mint" ), install Steam and configure it to allow Beta-Branch ( google for precise info ), then you can "click" on "install" DCS in Steam.

Afaik there is also a Server available for installation.

 

The thing is, it may or may not run out of the box, I had both scenarios. The good thing with the ded. srv is that you don't have to take too much care about GPU and Audio, especially Audio can be a pain with multiple devices ( Speaker + Headset and DualBoot ) as the Realtek chip can be set into a firmware state where it won't use your rear stereo out. I guess this is deeply buried in UEFI and what not else, I gave up on it after my own Linux desktop decided to again refuse to power my desktop speakers...that is one of the things that can drive you nuts....Audio problems in 2022.

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by BitMaster

[Berniyh]

On 12/4/2021 at 8:33 PM, BitMaster said:

I hope one day each game comes as a bootable Linux distro with all tools onboard that you need and nothing else. It's not too far fetched btw.

Boot DCS and fly 

I doubt this would really work well. You often need other programs to run in parallel, be it something like Steam, Anti Cheat software or maybe something like OBS. If you pack DCS into a bootable container, you would need to make this container modifyable and that's where the problems start. So it's not unthinkable, but it's quiet far fetched. Also, rebooting just to start up a game seems a bit too much.

Much more realistic would be to put the game into a container like AppImage or Flatpak. This [i]should[/i] be able to just run, without any additional setup like .Net installation or similar. In principle, this is even possible today, but nobody does it for legal reasons (would need to repackage/redistribute the game files and other stuff).

On 12/4/2021 at 8:33 PM, BitMaster said:

He mentioned DCS... so there is that. Wonder which controller/Hotas setups work and which don't. Iirc, my TM WH is not picked up in Ubuntu/Mint but also never tried to use it. Well, maybe I shrink one NVMe a little bit and install Ubuntu bare metal, fire up Steam with my DCS and give it a shot. That really interests me how far it has come now.

Hm, that's weird. I'm using the Warthog as well (actually only the throttle, but that doesn't matter here) and it works out of the box for me. There are some caveats regarding joysticks on Linux, i.e. there are two drivers (evdev and joydev) where one of them (joydev) is obsolete and should be masked by the user, since otherwise you'll have every joystick duplicated in games like DCS. tbh, I don't know why distributions even still ship joydev. Maybe some +20 year old, unmaintained Linux game wouldn't work anymore, but I highly doubt that anyone would even find out …

In addition, Linux tends to assign some stupid deadzone settings to axis, which you have to get rid of. I've described how to do this here:

https://community.granitedevices.com/t/driving-simulator-for-vehicle-research/5492/24

https://community.granitedevices.com/t/driving-simulator-for-vehicle-research/5492/30

 

Furthermore, recent wine versions have an hidraw backend, where wine programs can directly access the hardware. This way, I've even been able to connect my Brunner CLS-E to the CLS2Sim control software, so that works now on Linux as well (haven't tested it with the DCS plugin for the CLS-E yet, though).

The progress that has been made for wine, proton etc. in the last 3 years is really exciting and especially this year, things really improved for DCS and other simulation titles. I'm quite confident that I can bury my Windows installation in 2023 or 2024, or rather only keep it in a VM for special usages (e.g. firmware updates for devices).

On 12/22/2021 at 5:02 AM, MustangSally said:

Well, with a world wide market share of less then 1%, I'd say good luck!

Actually Linux overall has a much higher market share. Only for gaming/desktop it is in that range. Linux already [b]is[/b] a very important OS.

So yes, gaming on Linux still is a corner case, but you have to start somewhere and actually nowadays it works quite well. Sure, not everything works, but there is a lot of progress.

[BitMaster]

I can confirm, my TM WH-Hotas works in Ubuntu, meanwhile on 22.04 LTS. My old G25 wheel also works like a charm, just did some laps

Tho I struggle with DCS's colors on the maps. It works but is aweful to look at, many mismatches and anomalies....but it fires up and lets you fly.