I saw from a post that you can basically host your own mini windows inside of linux to play games with, and you can choose what to share with that little windows so microsoft can’t track you in any way. Does anyone have a tutorual/guide for that? Also what Distro would be best for it?
What you’re probably referring to is running a virtual machine with VFIO passthrough. I hate to be that guy, but this is one of those “if you have to ask for help, you probably shouldn’t do it” kind of situations. It’s complicated and easy to mess up, requires a decent amount of knowledge of both Linux and Windows, and every situation is unique. There’s no cookie-cutter way to set it all up.
But if you’re willing to buckle down and learn anyways, the best way would be to do it from scratch. This is the best documentation I’m aware of on the subject, but it’s tailored heavily for Arch Linux, a rather advanced distro to use.
alright, thanks. After I’ve read other comments I’ll pass on it because it seems I need an extra GPU anyways.
Not necessarily, if your processor has an igpu which many do you can use that for Linux and the discrete GPU for the VM
though like others have said if you don’t know about this technology already it’s not going to be an easy plug and play job
There are a few ways…
The easiest is using Steam, which handles everything for you (once you flip a switch in settings). The second easiest is using Bottles or Heroic, both of which lets you run Windows games and apps on Linux via Wine. The third is VMs, but that’s just Windows itself running virtualized (in its own virtual machine) in Linux. The fourth way to use the same computer for Linux and games is to dual boot (reboot from one OS into the other) and stick with Linux except for particular games that might not work with other methods — which is thankfully very rare these days (as most games work in Linux via Proton or in Wine via Bottles or Heroic).
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Steam on Linux has a switch in the settings to enable Proton for all games. Flip that on, and it’s basically transparent. For setting up Steam, the easiest way is to install it from Flathub.org. Depending on your distribution, it’s most likely set up for you. If not, then follow the setup guide @ https://flathub.org/setup. Once Flathub is set up on your system, you can install the flatpak of Steam from your app store (GNOME Software, KDE Discover, etc.)
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An alternate method is to set up Wine outside of Steam. There are a few ways to do that; Bottles is the most straightforward and super easy way, letting you have different Wine environments for different apps or games (or just one for everything, if you’d rather)… Bottles is easy to use and has installers for a lot of common apps and launcher. Additionally, Heroic is also a good way to run GOG, Epic, and Amazon games on Linux. Both are on Flathub too.
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There’s a third major way, and that’s installing Windows as a virtual machine on Linux. You’d probably want to use GNOME Boxes or virt-manager for that. Boxes is easier (and on Flathub) and will give you adequate GPU performance for a lot of things (however, isn’t ideal for high performance gaming), but if you have two GPUs (often one integrated and one discrete), then you can use GPU passthrough with virt-manager, but that’s way outside the scope of this comment. 😉 Perhaps having a Windows install in a VM just for some games that don’t work on Linux is what that person meant? But that would still get you tracked by Microsoft whenever you’re using Windows in that VM. (So I’m guessing they’re talking about Wine instead, which is option 1 and 2.)
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Dual boot is basically reusing the same hardware for two different operating systems, but only one at a time. When you’re in Linux, Microsoft doesn’t track you (unless you’re using Edge on Linux or specifically using a Microsoft service). You’d want to minimize your time in Windows.
You could use any of the above or a combination (perhaps even all of the above), depending on what you want. I only use 1 and 2 myself. While I do play a lot of games, all on Linux, I don’t play any that require Windows.
(There are only a few these days that don’t work on Linux. The notable ones I’m aware of are Fortnite, Destiny 2, Genshin Impact, and a few others that rely on lootboxes where the maker didn’t flip the switch to enable “anti-cheat” on Linux. Most everything else works these days, even a lot of other lootbox/pay-to-win games.)
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It’s pretty advanced. You’ll need 2 GPUs (so gaming laptop or gaming PC with at least 2 graphics adapters) and some more advanced Linux stuff like editing kernel/boot configs, messing with drivers, and BIOS settings.
Look at BlandManStudios on Youtube, he has a bunch of tutorials on this. But make sure you back up your system because, like I said, it’s not a simple setup.
Just a thing to note, if you’re considering virtualizing windows to play games that have anti-cheat software like BattleEye if they notice you’re virtualizing windows it might ban you. You’re almost better off using the other advice here and using proton with those that support it. For things that don’t you probably will have to flip the setup around and have the base os be windows and virtualize Linux :(
yes, thank you for the advice, I appreciate it!
Are you talking about a VM ?
I remember there being a script for fedora, that apperently workes since it made me realize my PC only has one GPU (no GPU)
Thank you everyone for all the lengthy and informative replies! I appreciate them all. I’ll probably go with gaming normally on linux and not do anything fancy
Not sure what you mean. You can virtualize a whole windows machine but that will NOT be good for performance.
What you really want is a compatibility layer than maps syscalls to your linux kernel and emulates a windows filesystem. I’m fairly sure that’s what Wine and Proton do, but am no expert.
If you install steam (on most distros) it should also install Proton to play games with (check ProtonDB for which games work well). Again no expert but maybe this helps a little.
You can virtualize a whole windows machine but that will NOT be good for performance.
Sorry but that is totally not true, if you have a second graphics card to passthrough to the virtual machine.
It will still be subpar performance, bottlenecked by the CPU resources you can allocate to the VM as well as your original hardware’s capabilities to power the VM among many other variables. Running a VM to game will always produce subpar results. Using GPU passthrough will increase performance, but it’s almost always preferable to play on real hardware.
The real answer will always be: if you want to game on Linux, utilize Wine/Proton and Steam/Lutris/Bottles/Heroic/some other launcher that lets you fine tune Wine/Proton to cater to the specific game.
Super late reply here, but I was searching the Linux sub for vfio because I love this topic, lol. I’m happy to report that as others are saying, a vfio setup can be very performant! The GPU is near native, and with the proper CPU configuration, you won’t be dealing with much overhead there either. The biggest factor is the overall load on your machine from running a host OS with the guest layered on top. I use my PC host OS primarily as a QEMU/KVM hypervisor, so when I need maximum gaming performance I simply turn off or suspend operation on all other VMs to free the resources for Windows. The only game I’ve had trouble with recently at 3440x1440 is Starfield, and unfortunately I think that is more a sign that an upgrade is finally due. I’ve used this setup for all kinds of games with no problem, including demanding virtual reality titles.
The biggest problem I’ve run into? Some anticheats truly despise any kind of virtualization. I’ve only run into issues with 2 games I like to play, but that is a real caveat. I consider it 100% an issue with the companies implementing these policies, who as I see it don’t deserve my money in the first place. But other than the initial configuration headache and extra hardware required (if you don’t have an iGPU anyway), this is the main drawback in my eyes.
As the other comment says, what you’re referring to is running a Windows VM (virtual machine) inside of your Linux machine. It’s a great asset for a lot of things, but gaming is not it’s strong point. A VM shares resources with it’s host machine, meaning it can only access so many of your CPU cores, utilize only so much of your RAM, and take advantage of CPU powered graphics – unless, as was pointed out in another comment, you happen to have a spare graphics card laying around. The set up for GPU passthrough is more trouble than it’s worth, IMO, especially for gaming. And you still have the other bottlenecks to contend with.
Gaming on Linux is best enjoyed by using a combination of Wine and Proton (Wine suped up for the express purpose of gaming by the fine folks behind Steam) paired with a launcher of some kind, usually Steam. For non-Steam games, Lutris is a fantastic second choice. These platforms make gaming on Linux easier than ever, and are actually the technologies powering the SteamDeck. If you decide to go this route and need any help setting up, please reach out! The community is here and (usually) quite helpful, lol.
If you decide to try the VM anyway, you should look into a software called VirtualBox. You will need to install a few packages to make your system a suitable host, and you’ll need the Windows installation ISO image to get it up and running. You can usually acquire it directly from Microsoft by running a search for “Windows XX ISO” where the XX is the version number you’re looking for. If you need help getting any of that together, I’d be glad to assist as well. ☺️
All this comes from years of running Linux and only Linux, on a PC I almost exclusively game on. I’ve had great success, especially with all the headway Valve has made into making the ecosystem viable and accessable.
However you decide to proceed, best of luck to you!
EDIT: As has been pointed out, if you want to virtualize a gaming setup, you should look into KVM, not VirtualBox! It sounds like it’s a much more performant option, I am just not very familiar with it myself.
If you decide to try the VM anyway, you should look into a software called VirtualBox.
God, please, no. Why do people insist on using subpar virtualization when KVM is far superior and built into the kernel? I will never understand.
Please, I beg of you, stop this madness.
Because it’s accessable, and is also the extent of my knowledge in running a VM. I won’t speak about KVM because I am not intimately familiar with KVM, nor will I ever be. I’m certain it’s a better solution than VirtualBox, just as running games in Linux with Wine/Proton is a better solution than setting up a VM to game in.
I’d be happy to hear about the details of why KVM is so superior, if you’d care to enlighten me! I’m always looking to learn new things.
The real question is why we’re down voting people who are adding to the discussion just because we disagree with them, instead of just having a conversation?
Because it’s accessable
Here, enjoy: https://virt-manager.org/
I’d be happy to hear about the details of why KVM is so superior
Essentially type 1 hypervisors, like KVM/Qemu, make direct use of the CPU’s virtualization technology (VT-d and VT-x) while type 2 hypervisors run all the calls through the kernel which is significantly slower. In a way type 2 hypervisors are closer to an emulator.
Thanks for the link! And for the info. I’ll give KVM an honest try, and maybe I’ll get motivated enough to spin up a VM for CaptureOne. A 1080 should be decent enough for light photo editing, and I was recently given one as-is. It may or may not work, neither I or the person who gave it to me had time to test it.
thank you for the lengthy reply! I think I’ll go with alternative options and not to virtualize windows, because I don’t have a separate GPU that I can pass in, nor a second monitor.
