DCS for linux?

[Hiob]

1 hour ago, oldcrusty said:

Little side note...  It's hilarious to see some folks on YT panicking about this new beautiful Win11 feature called 'Recall' coming soon .  Now they see a good reason to switch to Linux.

I'll run both and have some fun with this Recall and if it gets on my nerves... there is a way to kill it.

It‘s becoming real live satire…. what the hell are they thinking….. 

I haven’t so far (only inconsequential), but I think I will reduce the Win PC to a strictly gaming only device and move all my other stuff to linux, and the VM I am currently using for that goes to a second physical PC.

[maxTRX]

4 minutes ago, Hiob said:

It‘s becoming real live satire…. what the hell are they thinking….. 

I haven’t so far (only inconsequential), but I think I will reduce the Win PC to a strictly gaming only device and move all my other stuff to linux, and the VM I am currently using for that goes to a second physical PC.

Yep,  that's pretty much what I do. I just started my Linux journey (desktop) and got Ubuntu 24.04 running on bare metal and saw some nice improvements from 24.03. Better use of Nvidia cards among other things. I also started playing around with VMs, have been using Oracle Vbox so far, now it's time to try VMware Pro, free for personal use. BTW, Broadcom (new owner of VMware) made me jump through hoops before I was able to d/l this file .  Again... some help from YT made it easier.

[Hiob]

1 minute ago, oldcrusty said:

Yep,  that's pretty much what I do. I just started my Linux journey (desktop) and got Ubuntu 24.04 running on bare metal and saw some nice improvements from 24.03. Better use of Nvidia cards among other things. I also started playing around with VMs, have been using Oracle Vbox so far, now it's time to try VMware Pro, free for personal use. BTW, Broadcom (new owner of VMware) made me jump through hoops before I was able to d/l this file .  Again... some help from YT made it easier.

For private needs and a linux VM that serves the main purpose of doing „office“ stuff, Virtual Box is absolutely sufficient. Beyond that, I don’t know. The heaviest task I tried in Virtual Box was Onshape - and that worked quite well with enough resources dedicated to the VM.

Another option would be Docker, but I couldn’t wrap my head around that so far….

[maxTRX]

1 minute ago, Hiob said:

For private needs and a linux VM that serves the main purpose of doing „office“ stuff, Virtual Box is absolutely sufficient. Beyond that, I don’t know. The heaviest task I tried in Virtual Box was Onshape - and that worked quite well with enough resources dedicated to the VM.

Another option would be Docker, but I couldn’t wrap my head around that so far….

Well, I need to get a bit more proficient with CLI, not easy with my fat fingers, lol

[Daemoc]

I made the full time switch to Linux during the Windows 7-10 transition. After a little learning curve, I found Linux to be a much better user experience than Windows will ever be. I know people are afraid of change, but with distros like Mint, anyone can make that change. You can do everything in Mint without a single command line.

90% of my steam library works out of the box using proton. On top of that, a lot of older games that have issues with the newer versions of windows actually run more stable via Linux/Proton.

I told myself I would never go back to Windows. Every time I use it I want to pull my hair out.

My DCS rig is the only reason I still have a windows machine. DCS is all it does. It is my hope that DCS will at least work under Proton once they make the switch to Vulkan as my DCS rig is going Linux when windows 10 is end of life. DCS working or not.

[emc]

1 hour ago, Hiob said:

For private needs and a linux VM that serves the main purpose of doing „office“ stuff, Virtual Box is absolutely sufficient. Beyond that, I don’t know. The heaviest task I tried in Virtual Box was Onshape - and that worked quite well with enough resources dedicated to the VM.

Another option would be Docker, but I couldn’t wrap my head around that so far….

No any regular virtualization is no option for such heavy taks like DCS... you need a
* PCI passthrough so guess OS can access GPU directly through virtualization "barrier". Problem is it is not easy to setup and you need HW motherboard which support it and allow two 2 GPUs and switch between them. Your local OS (host) could use integrated GPU.
* CPU must support VT-X/AMD-V:

Here is quite old guide (just as example): https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Multiheaded-NVIDIA-Gaming-using-Ubuntu-14-04-KVM-585/

PCI passthrough requires IOMMU (Intel VT-d) support from the motherboard chipset, from the motherboard BIOS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input–output_memory_management_unit

Here: some nice blogs you may found useful:
http://michaelmk.blogspot.fi/2012/06/gaming-on-gentoolinux-via-xen.html
http://michaelmk.blogspot.fi/2012/08/gentooxen-part-two.html
http://michaelmk.blogspot.fi/2013/03/gentooxen-gaming-part-three.html
and some HW stuff:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1307834/xen-vga-passthrough-compatible-graphics-adapters
http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters

and some video guide:
www_youtube.com/embed/KVDUs019IB8?enablejsapi=1&iv_load_policy=3&autoplay=1

[Hiob]

52 minutes ago, emc said:

No any regular virtualization is no option for such heavy taks like DCS... you need a
* PCI passthrough so guess OS can access GPU directly through virtualization "barrier". Problem is it is not easy to setup and you need HW motherboard which support it and allow two 2 GPUs and switch between them. Your local OS (host) could use integrated GPU.
* CPU must support VT-X/AMD-V:

Here is quite old guide (just as example): https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Multiheaded-NVIDIA-Gaming-using-Ubuntu-14-04-KVM-585/

PCI passthrough requires IOMMU (Intel VT-d) support from the motherboard chipset, from the motherboard BIOS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input–output_memory_management_unit

Here: some nice blogs you may found useful:
http://michaelmk.blogspot.fi/2012/06/gaming-on-gentoolinux-via-xen.html
http://michaelmk.blogspot.fi/2012/08/gentooxen-part-two.html
http://michaelmk.blogspot.fi/2013/03/gentooxen-gaming-part-three.html
and some HW stuff:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1307834/xen-vga-passthrough-compatible-graphics-adapters
http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters

and some video guide:
www_youtube.com/embed/KVDUs019IB8?enablejsapi=1&iv_load_policy=3&autoplay=1

out of context - we were talking about everything BUT DCS/gaming…..

[emc]

52 minutes ago, Hiob said:

out of context - we were talking about everything BUT DCS/gaming…..

if you want play GPU extensive game (DCS here) using VirtualBox/KVM/VMware (with Windows as a guest OS) this is the way....

[Gunslinger52]

On 5/25/2024 at 3:57 AM, Daemoc said:

I made the full time switch to Linux during the Windows 7-10 transition. After a little learning curve, I found Linux to be a much better user experience than Windows will ever be. I know people are afraid of change, but with distros like Mint, anyone can make that change. You can do everything in Mint without a single command line.

90% of my steam library works out of the box using proton. On top of that, a lot of older games that have issues with the newer versions of windows actually run more stable via Linux/Proton.

I told myself I would never go back to Windows. Every time I use it I want to pull my hair out.

My DCS rig is the only reason I still have a windows machine. DCS is all it does. It is my hope that DCS will at least work under Proton once they make the switch to Vulkan as my DCS rig is going Linux when windows 10 is end of life. DCS working or not.

Hi Daemoc,

would be great to see a post from you once Vulkan is out, to hear how DCS goes on Linux.

If it runs okay, I will make the switch away from Windows finally.  Unfortunately I love VR, and am not sure how many headsets are supported by Linux.  I have a Reverb G2, so obviously very keen to go to linux, as MS is making my otherwise fine G2, unusable in Win 11 soon.

Cheers.

'52

[Dangerzone]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:57 AM, Daemoc said:

I made the full time switch to Linux during the Windows 7-10 transition. After a little learning curve, I found Linux to be a much better user experience than Windows will ever be. I know people are afraid of change, but with distros like Mint, anyone can make that change. You can do everything in Mint without a single command line.

90% of my steam library works out of the box using proton. On top of that, a lot of older games that have issues with the newer versions of windows actually run more stable via Linux/Proton.

I told myself I would never go back to Windows. Every time I use it I want to pull my hair out.

My DCS rig is the only reason I still have a windows machine. DCS is all it does. It is my hope that DCS will at least work under Proton once they make the switch to Vulkan as my DCS rig is going Linux when windows 10 is end of life. DCS working or not.

Do you play steam VR games? I'm interested to know how VR would work with Linux. Like you - I would love to switch. I'm so over MS and the direction they're headed. DCS is what keeps me with windows. 

The other thing I would need to consider is VAICOM/Voice Attack/SRS - so I'm guessing I'm stuck for the time being, but still interested in how you go with VR in the other games, because DCS on Linux - maybe I'd have to see what I could and couldn't live with when it comes to the addons. 

[Daemoc]

Sorry for the late reply gents, been busy at work.

I will definitely try DCS on Linux again once they make the switch to Vulkan and I will try to remember to post the results in this thread.

VR may still be a problem though even if DCS does work. As far as I know, the Valve Index is the only HMD that has official Linux support. There have been a few attempts at making open source drivers for other HMD's via "Open HMD" or "Monado", but I have not tried either yet. I was a early adopter of the Oculus Rift and a huge VR fan myself, but I am not going to buy new HMD until there is a proper open source product available. I am not a fan of expensive hardware being locked behind online accounts and activation.

Edited July 15, 2024 by Daemoc

[The Impostor]

Hi there! Since windows 10 eol is coming, and windows 11 is completely riddled with intrusive AI (features (esp. Recall)), forced updates that brick many people's systems, and coercive policies as well as DRM, there is no way people are going to use windows at any time soon in the forseeable future (after 2025). for this reason, ED should wake up and realize the fact that windows is already proving its inferiority while linux is doing the exact opposite. no need to find evidence to prove it - microsoft is already shooting itself in the foot.

That's why we believe that ED needs to either make DCS compatible with DXVK, Vulkan, VKD3D or OpenGL, so that they can be run natively on linux, or they can just publish their app as a flatpak (flathub) anyway without having to spend loads of time porting their apps to linux .

The YoTLD begins NOW. 

(btw, we already have a computer running mint, so that's the whole point of the this argument)

Edited March 15 by The Impostor

[AndyJWest]

4 minutes ago, The Impostor said:

... there is no way people are going to use windows at any time soon in the forseeable future (after 2025)...

Yeah, right...

[Czar66]

43 minutes ago, The Impostor said:

ED should wake up and realize the fact that windows is already proving its inferiority while linux is doing the exact opposite. no need to find evidence to prove it - microsoft is already shooting itself in the foot.

(steam hw survey) (yes, it is a good platform to sample)

Edited March 15 by Czar66

[Hammer1-1]

56 minutes ago, The Impostor said:

Hi there! Since windows 10 eol is coming, and windows 11 is completely riddled with intrusive AI (features (esp. Recall)), forced updates that brick many people's systems, and coercive policies as well as DRM, there is no way people are going to use windows at any time soon in the forseeable future (after 2025). for this reason, ED should wake up and realize the fact that windows is already proving its inferiority while linux is doing the exact opposite. no need to find evidence to prove it - microsoft is already shooting itself in the foot.

That's why we believe that ED needs to either make DCS compatible with DXVK, Vulkan, VKD3D or OpenGL, so that they can be run natively on linux, or they can just publish their app as a flatpak (flathub) anyway without having to spend loads of time porting their apps to linux .

The YoTLD begins NOW. 

(btw, we already have a computer running mint, so that's the whole point of the this argument)

Im going to continue using Windows 10. 11 can piss off; I have it, Ive used it for about a year before I got sick of it, now its installed as a secondary boot on my current rig. But after the AI announcement Im not touching it. If I have to use it, it will be offline only. If DCS can run on Linux after Vulcan is released, Im switching over to it immediately.

Edited March 15 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

16 hours ago, The Impostor said:

ED should wake up and realize the fact that windows is already proving its inferiority while linux is doing the exact opposite.

Two things can be true at the same time: ED can be awake and they can know that Linux is superior in many ways.

Except one: DCS doesn't run on it. That's the killer.

I'm a Unix/Linux (Ubuntu and Mach) head, and I'd love to see DCS (at least server) on both. I also accept the realities of business.

16 hours ago, The Impostor said:

The YoTLD begins NOW. 

Saying so doesn't make it so. Linux market share in gaming is minuscule.  I remember when Red Hat started and people screamed the same. That was in 1993. Yeah. Boy do they look foolish now, don't they? 

Edited March 16 by cfrag

[NAM]

Valve is going to release steamOS( Arch based linux from Steam Deck) for PC soon.

No doubt steamOS linux will capture a sizeable market share from ms windows.

Cannot see any reason linux wont able to dominate in gaming like it does in mobile and networking/telecommuniion system

Edited March 16 by NAM

[Hiob]

I hope so. 

Because we're inevitablely heading toward a subscription based payment model for windows. Like we already have with Office.
Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. But if not, it'll be the last time I used windows.

[cfrag]

On 3/16/2025 at 11:16 AM, NAM said:

Cannot see any reason linux wont able to dominate in gaming

Because those who play games on their 'daily work' machines happen to have a Win machine, and aren't going to get a second computer for gaming. Also few developers who today develop for Win are going to switch to a different OS and infrastructure on a chance. It's a chicken-and-egg issue. If and when (as was predicted for a decade) Linux overtakes Win for gaming, we may have a chance for our dreams come true. Until then it's just that - a dream.  

[Actium]

On 3/16/2025 at 10:26 AM, cfrag said:

I'm a Unix/Linux (Ubuntu and Mach) head, and I'd love to see DCS (at least server) on both.

The dedicated server actually runs nicely on Linux (via Wine). Only recent hickup was ED's DNS resolution experiment that backfired (and has been waiting to get fixed for 4 weeks). I'd even go as far as claiming that installation and setup is actually easier on Linux than on Windows: On Linux, it works (fully) automatically either using Docker or natively. Performance on Wine is not quite on par with Windows, but I'm hopeful that ntsync will improve that in the foreseeable future. I'll post some benchmarks once I've found the time to build Wine 10.0 stable with the ntsync MR applied.

As the dedicated server runs fine as-is on Wine, I'd rather ED use their time to fix the many bugs and inadequacies of the server before attempting to port it to Linux. The dedicated server is just a stripped-down client with all the baggage that comes along with it: It is made for interactive use and thus unreliable when used non-interactively. In fact, it bricks itself when anything goes awry. The ED master server is unreliable and a single point of failure. Servers randomly go missing from the server list. I'm sure the list of problems goes on. Of course, reports of these issues go unacknowledged.

[ShuRugal]

58 minutes ago, Actium said:

The dedicated server actually runs nicely on Linux (via Wine). Only recent hickup was ED's DNS resolution experiment that backfired (and has been waiting to get fixed for 4 weeks). I'd even go as far as claiming that installation and setup is actually easier on Linux than on Windows: On Linux, it works (fully) automatically either using Docker or natively. Performance on Wine is not quite on par with Windows, but I'm hopeful that ntsync will improve that in the foreseeable future. I'll post some benchmarks once I've found the time to build Wine 10.0 stable with the ntsync MR applied.

As the dedicated server runs fine as-is on Wine, I'd rather ED use their time to fix the many bugs and inadequacies of the server before attempting to port it to Linux. The dedicated server is just a stripped-down client with all the baggage that comes along with it: It is made for interactive use and thus unreliable when used non-interactively. In fact, it bricks itself when anything goes awry. The ED master server is unreliable and a single point of failure. Servers randomly go missing from the server list. I'm sure the list of problems goes on. Of course, reports of these issues go unacknowledged.

Is there a good admin guide on setting DCS up in linux?  i'm getting tired of blowing the OS out of my Winserver VM every couple months when the license dies and RDP stops working....

 

[Actium]

19 hours ago, ShuRugal said:

s there a good admin guide on setting DCS up in linux?

Dedicated server? I've tried to write a clear and concise README.md for my non-Docker installation method. Let me know in this thread if anything is unclear or missing. @aterfax created a video for the Docker install.

I haven't tried installing the DCS client on Linux, but if you need some info, you may find it in this TDCS thread. There's also a bunch of videos on Youtube, but for lack of having tried it myself, I cannot endorse any.
UPDATE: Just recalled the DCS_Standalone_on_Linux git repo that also appears current and quite detailed.

Edited March 18 by Actium

[MAXsenna]

On 3/17/2025 at 2:12 PM, cfrag said:

Because those who play games on their 'daily work' machines happen to have a Win machine, and aren't going to get a second computer for gaming. Also few developers who today develop for Win are going to switch to a different OS and infrastructure on a chance. It's a chicken-and-egg issue. If and when (as was predicted for a decade) Linux overtakes Win for gaming, we may have a chance for our dreams come true. Until then it's just that - a dream.  

And let's not forget about gadget and peripheral support.... 

[RVT2403]

On 4/4/2024 at 3:57 PM, BIGNEWY said:

No news for linux currently, that may change in the future. 

Regarding the Windows 10 security subscription announcement, why not just upgrade to windows 11?

thank you 

1) My PC is not ready for Windows 11 and i won't throw in new hardware i do not need just for a new OS.

2) Not interested in even more privacy invasion. Windows 10 was my last Microsoft Software. I moved over to Linux for pretty much everything except DCS quite a while ago.

[unlikely_spider]

On 3/15/2025 at 1:09 PM, The Impostor said:

Hi there! Since windows 10 eol is coming, and windows 11 is completely riddled with intrusive AI (features (esp. Recall)), forced updates that brick many people's systems, and coercive policies as well as DRM, there is no way people are going to use windows at any time soon in the forseeable future (after 2025). for this reason, ED should wake up and realize the fact that windows is already proving its inferiority while linux is doing the exact opposite. no need to find evidence to prove it - microsoft is already shooting itself in the foot.

That's why we believe that ED needs to either make DCS compatible with DXVK, Vulkan, VKD3D or OpenGL, so that they can be run natively on linux, or they can just publish their app as a flatpak (flathub) anyway without having to spend loads of time porting their apps to linux .

The YoTLD begins NOW. 

(btw, we already have a computer running mint, so that's the whole point of the this argument)

As much as I agree with you about Windows, I have been hearing "This is the year of Linux" every year since 2010. Has its market share increased measurably in the last decade?