Please don’t say Bazzite as I wasn’t able to get SteamVR working on it. I’m looking for alternatives. The current plan is to try plain old Ubuntu instead.
I used Ubuntu for years and snaps have driven me crazy. Recently I switched to LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) and I really like it.
Truly the best of luck, I hope your results are better than mine. The experience I had with SteamVR using Linux (Bazzite) with both a Valve Index and Quest 3 was inferior to Windows. It definitely worked, but out of the box Windows was much smoother. There may have been more tweaking I could have done but I had wasted so much time getting it to run as good as Windows that I gave up and dual boot now only for VR.
I’ve never had good experiences with VR and Linux. Godspeed soldier.
SteamVR on Linux as of now is a joke, features necessary to experience VR without getting nausea are missing, namely working asynchronous reprojection and correct vsync_to_photon timings.
I’m using HTC Vive Pro on Arch Linux (one of 4 SteamVR native headsets) for context.
There is an open-source alternative called Monado which does work better than SteamVR, but it’s game compatibility is a hit or miss, and you don’t get features like Chaperone/Guardian on it
Mint works for me.
Na use Fedora based distros. I recommend Nobara.
When I tried VR a couple years ago I had to use x11. Maybe you still do and bazzite is on wayland by default right?
Interesting. I use Bazzite for my SteamVR setup. Though I do have to swap to desktop mode for VR, otherwise works great (I have a steamdeck build installed because HTPC, so it boots to big picture, but the desktop mode still works).
Which headset are you using? Valve Index?
Yeah. Valve Index.
I originally got it working on a Ryzen 1700, and Vega64. But Vega64 is old GCN architecture and it performed poorly.
I have since upgraded the VR setup to Ryzen 5950x and Radeon 6900xt, and it works quite well. I just played an hour of Beat Saber actually.
That’s very close to my setup of Valve Index, Ryzen 5700X and Radeon 6900XT. Maybe I should spend some more time investigating it.
Try using the monado runtime instead of SteamVR.
See Kawane Rio’s 15 minute lightning talk about VR on Linux from this year’s FOSDEM:
This lightning talk requires running SteamVR for the room setup bits, and it recommends a few things in the name of “user friendliness” that I would otherwise not suggest (Ubuntu bad, Gnome bad, etc). (edit: so switching to Monado wouldn’t really help since it would require SteamVR working in the first place, and if SteamVR works… OP could just use SteamVR)
But it does show a lot of problems and solutions and things to try along the way.
Based on https://db.vronlinux.org/ (which is like protondb for VR, kinda), monado works better for VRChat, but otherwise SteamVR should honestly work just fine.
Is your issue getting it to start at all, or performance issues?
For me it wouldnt start at all in the default big picture mode and would only start in desktop mode.
I made a few tweaks to get performance tuned up when I was on the Vega64, but I don’t remember what all I did there.
edit: Also, I’m the KDE desktop (i wanted my HTPC/VRPC to be as steamdeck similar as possible, and also I have strong anti gnome feelings).
Nobara has been great for me. I’ve been using it nearly exclusively for probably two years. SteamVR works for me without any trouble.
Yeah, Fedora over Ubuntu/anything Canonical any day now. And Nobara is what Fedora should be for gaming.
Ive had really good luck so far with CachyOS. Have it on my desktop and laptop both for gaming
VR as well?
Too bad about bazzite. Maybe chimera? I think it’s Debian based so it might be slightly better. I’ve always liked pop, but I use it desktop, and it’s just a fork of ubuntu
Pop!_OS is great if you want Ubuntu without snap. I also like that you can choose an iso with Nvidia proprietary drivers included. It’s been a very stable work+gaming distro. I’ve not tried big picture mode or VR though.
