Running Elite Dangerous on Linux Mint in 2024

FoxTwo

FoxTwo
TLDR - Installed from Steam, and runs fine, no tinkering required.. It Just Works! (Kudos to Steam and their Proton)

Longer version -
Due to the recent moves by Microsoft and them forcing "features" on users who do not want it, I have set up a Linux Mint on an older PC from 2017 to prepare for the day I dump Windows and go fully on Linux.

Test System specs:
Intel i5-7600
GTX 970
16GB RAM
1TB SATA SSD (hey it's just for testing! A 1TB SATA is fine :D)

1 - Grabbed latest ISO from Linux Mint. I picked the most common one - Cinnamon Edition.
2 - Installed Linux Mint, then went to the default repo and installed Steam (not Flatpak).
3 - In Steam, I made sure to tick all options under "COMPATIBILITY"
1719559882578.png

4 - Looked for ED in Steam, clicked INSTALL
5 - Click PLAY after a successful install, waited like 15 mins for the "Vulkan Shaders" from Steam to update to 100%.
6 - Inside ED after launching, waited like 3 mins for Planetary Generation to complete.
7 - PLAY~!

Naturally I took my bindings from my Windows PC over to the Linux PC and selected my custom binds.

Location in Linux -> ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/359320/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Frontier Developments/Elite Dangerous/Options/Bindings
 

Shurimal

Shurimal
Nice! Now, if you're willing, would be splended to have a short summary/overview of how to run various tools like EDDiscovery, Odyssey Material Helper, Observatory Core, EDMC on Linux.

I personally am not a complete stranger to Linux, but mainly from server side of it—I run an OMV box (Debian-based) with a bunch of Docker containers for various services like Home Assistant, Jellyfin, Navidrome etc. My main rig is Win 10, but I plan to move to Linux at the end of the next year, even though there are a few stumbling blocks like Foobar2000 and Skyrim modding (a lot of Windows-only tools like SSEdit and DynDOLOD, which probably will need Wine to work).
 

FoxTwo

FoxTwo
Shurimal said:
Nice! Now, if you're willing, would be splended to have a short summary/overview of how to run various tools like EDDiscovery, Odyssey Material Helper, Observatory Core, EDMC on Linux.
Click to expand...

LOL.. I have never heard of any of those stuff you listed.

(Update - took a quick look and realised all/most of them can be run via MONO ... ie "mono <nameofexe>.exe"). Just be aware of quirks and limitations of mono when running EXE files raw. If they use .NET, there's a good chance mono runs it)
 
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Fixitman

F
ED standalone installs quite easily via Lutris as well. I personally prefer that due to Steam/ED flakiness in the recent past.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
FoxTwo said:
LOL.. I have never heard of any of those stuff you listed.

(Update - took a quick look and realised all/most of them can be run via MONO ... ie "mono <nameofexe>.exe"). Just be aware of quirks and limitations of mono when running EXE files raw. If they use .NET, there's a good chance mono runs it).
Click to expand...
Is there not an issue with that, in that a Mono app won't necessarily have access to the apps running under Wine/Proton?
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Shurimal said:
Nice! Now, if you're willing, would be splended to have a short summary/overview of how to run various tools like EDDiscovery, Odyssey Material Helper, Observatory Core, EDMC on Linux.

I personally am not a complete stranger to Linux, but mainly from server side of it—I run an OMV box (Debian-based) with a bunch of Docker containers for various services like Home Assistant, Jellyfin, Navidrome etc. My main rig is Win 10, but I plan to move to Linux at the end of the next year, even though there are a few stumbling blocks like Foobar2000 and Skyrim modding (a lot of Windows-only tools like SSEdit and DynDOLOD, which probably will need Wine to work).
Click to expand...
EDMC has a Flatpak release.
Odyssey Material Helper has a .deb release (for Debian derivatives).
There are clear and easy-to-follow instructions for installing EDDiscovery on Linux.
Elite Observatory Core can probably be made to work with a custom Wine prefix, but I don't use it and don't want to - exploration is boring.
 

Markzeero

Markzeero
I've been trying to get Elite to work on Linux Mint for a while now, I couldn't get it working with Proton, Steam or the Heroic launcher. I was about to give up when I found Bottles https://usebottles.com/
I installed the Epic games launcher from https://usebottles.com/appstore/ for my Epic games account and it worked straight away.
With that working I installed my Frontier version (my main account), I downloaded the install file and opened it in a Bottle. It worked first time too. I was so easy I kept thinking there was going to be a problem but none so far.

Cheers,
Mark
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Markzeero said:
I've been trying to get Elite to work on Linux Mint for a while now, I couldn't get it working with Proton, Steam or the Heroic launcher. I was about to give up when I found Bottles https://usebottles.com/
I installed the Epic games launcher from https://usebottles.com/appstore/ for my Epic games account and it worked straight away.
With that working I installed my Frontier version (my main account), I downloaded the install file and opened it in a Bottle. It worked first time too. I was so easy I kept thinking there was going to be a problem but none so far.

Cheers,
Mark
Click to expand...
I've found the installation process to be super easy on all my games. The only issues I've had are hardware-related:

Some Proton versions don't pass through my joystick properly.

X11 doesn't work properly when you have two displays with different refresh rates. It syncs to the lowest refresh rate.

ProtonGE-9.9 solved the input issue. Disabling my second monitor when gaming solves the refresh rate issue. Wayland doesn't suffer the mixed refresh rate limitation that X11 does, but I still find Wayland to be too flaky for daily driving.
 
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BetaToaster

B
the100thmonkey said:
X11 doesn't work properly when you have two displays with different refresh rates. It syncs to the lowest refresh rate.

Disabling my second monitor when gaming solves the refresh rate issue.
Click to expand...

The AsyncFlipSecondaries option is supposed to help with that, by driving your main screen with whatever refresh rate it wants, and tearing on secondary monitor(s) if necessary.
Code: 
Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "Funny name here"
    MatchDriver "amdgpu"
    Option "EnablePageFlip"         "on"
    Option "TearFree"               "auto"
    Option "AsyncFlipSecondaries"   "true"
    Option "VariableRefresh"        "true"
EndSection
The first two options repeat defaults, the fourth enables Freesync.
The driver recognizes these settings, but I have no way of testing whether it actually works until somebody donates a better monitor. ;)
Adaption to a driver other than amdgpu is left as an execise to the reader.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
BetaToaster said:
The AsyncFlipSecondaries option is supposed to help with that, by driving your main screen with whatever refresh rate it wants, and tearing on secondary monitor(s) if necessary.
Code: 
Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "Funny name here"
    MatchDriver "amdgpu"
    Option "EnablePageFlip"         "on"
    Option "TearFree"               "auto"
    Option "AsyncFlipSecondaries"   "true"
    Option "VariableRefresh"        "true"
EndSection
The first two options repeat defaults, the fourth enables Freesync.
The driver recognizes these settings, but I have no way of testing whether it actually works until somebody donates a better monitor. ;)
Adaption to a driver other than amdgpu is left as an execise to the reader.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this.

I am aware of this option, but had been devoting my time to getting EDHM-UI working. At the moment, workspaces are sufficient for my needs - EDO works better in borderless anyway, so if I need to flip to Discord or the like, it's just Ctrl+Alt+Left arrow. This is fine for the time being, and it takes seconds to turn the display back on.
 

Luriant

Luriant
I join the thread, minor linux knowledge.

I have a old pc, i5-4570 with GTX750Ti, Bazzite dont support GeForce before Series10.
Only use will be ED (Frontier standalone version) and firefox, no plugins needed, because its a "emergency pc".

Any distro recommended?
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
You're going to want something as light on resources as you can possibly get it - the 750 Ti was pretty weak even back in 2014.

Ubuntu Mate should run OK. You could also try Linux Lite, Lubuntu or LXLE. I've only used Ubuntu Mate, but it runs well on my old i5-4660 and GTX 960.

Recent Nvidia drivers should work with the card under X11. However, it's such an old card that I'm not confident it will have full Vulkan support, meaning that running games under Wine/Lutris/Proton/Bottles is likely to be problematic.

In other words, I don't think you're going to be gaming on it, but all you can do is try.
 

Luriant

Luriant
the100thmonkey said:
You're going to want something as light on resources as you can possibly get it - the 750 Ti was pretty weak even back in 2014.

Ubuntu Mate should run OK. You could also try Linux Lite, Lubuntu or LXLE. I've only used Ubuntu Mate, but it runs well on my old i5-4660 and GTX 960.

Recent Nvidia drivers should work with the card under X11. However, it's such an old card that I'm not confident it will have full Vulkan support, meaning that running games under Wine/Lutris/Proton/Bottles is likely to be problematic.

In other words, I don't think you're going to be gaming on it, but all you can do is try.
Click to expand...
I played Odyssey for 2 years on that 750Ti, work, thats all. But not without drivers, my problrem with bazzite. Linux dont use more resources than windows, so will be fine.
 

alexzk

A
Luriant said:
I played Odyssey for 2 years on that 750Ti, work, thats all. But not without drivers, my problrem with bazzite. Linux dont use more resources than windows, so will be fine.
Click to expand...
It will. Mitigations. Turn it off in kernel params (grub), or use "gamemode" which can be found on git with instructions. It turns mitigations off for launched program, usage in steam like
gamemode %command%

Kernel params to turn it off forever:
mitigations=off split_lock_detect=off split_lock_mitigate=off
 
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