I hear this all around and I am myself running GNU/Linux almost all the time, but running games on Steam on my default OS, which is a Debian with KDE currently, that is more miss than hit. I even know someone who has almost the same hardware, also runs a GNU/Linux system and for them almost all games work using Proton. For me however they don't. I already tried proprietary graphics card drivers instead of the ones that come with the OS for amdgpu, HWE kernel, another distro, using Steam installer downloaded from website ... nothing seems to fix the issue. When I click on the big green "Play" button in Steam, for many times it loads for a moment, and the button turns into a blue "stop" button, but then just turns back into a green "play" button, never starting the game. Mind, some games work, like Stardew Valley for example. But I think those are mostly already made to work cross platform.

I have no idea what I can still try, and it annoys me, that for most games I still have to reboot into Windows to play them. I seem to have had more luck following guides for using WINE for specific games in the past, when I made games like StarCraft 2 work better than on Windows, than I have had with Steam and Proton so far.

So anecdote. It is not smooth sailing for everyone yet, unfortunately, and I don't know what the issue is.

▲ esseph a day ago | parent | next [-]

Debian is just not going to have access to as much up to date software as it probably needs, even with testing back ports, to run well. I say this as a very long time Debian user that is really struggling in this day and age to find a place for Debian among my devices at this point.

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doodlesdev a day ago | parent [-]

Out of curiosity, what distribution have you been using lately instead of Debian?

Anecdotally, I've been using Fedora Workstation for a few years already, and my Steam + Proton Experimental experience has been fantastic with an AMD GPU using the drivers that come with the kernel.

Although I must admit, I miss having a Debian-based distribution sometimes, because in some situations I can't find rpm packages for more specific things I'm trying to do in my system. The problem is I just don't know any other distribution that's not Debian Testing that could work like Fedora Workstation but with .deb packages.

	▲	esseph a day ago \| parent [-]
		Fedora Workstation (42) I add flathub.org and remove the fedora flatpak repo. The few other things I need are in copr/terra, but honestly they are very rare. I think I have maybe 1 piece of software per thing that doesn't release a native .rpm (ghostty is one) https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/ https://terra.fyralabs.com/ When it comes to Steam, I go to steam -> settings -> compatibility -> Enable Steam Play for all titles I have used Nvidia GPUs and more recently switched to an AMD 6700. No issues with either.

▲ ecshafer a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Which steam do you use? I have heard that some people have issues with the Snap, Flatpack or Native versions. Also for proton there are different "versions" you can try, experimental or 9 is usually what I run.

	▲	zelphirkalt a day ago \| parent [-]
		`$ dpkg --list \| grep -i steam ii steam-devices 1:1.0.0.75+ds-6 all Device support for Steam-related hardware ii steam-installer 1:1.0.0.75+ds-6 amd64 Valve's Steam digital software delivery system ii steam-libs:amd64 1:1.0.0.75+ds-6 amd64 Metapackage for Steam dependencies ii steam-libs:i386 1:1.0.0.75+ds-6 i386 Metapackage for Steam dependencies ii steam-libs-i386:i386 1:1.0.0.75+ds-6 i386 Metapackage for 32-bit Steam dependencies` I am not using Snap, or Flatpack. I either used apt or an installer from their website. I don't quite remember. When a game doesn't work and the described symptoms happen, I usually try a few different Proton versions via the game's settings, but this has not helped me make a game run. If anything for some games it has reprocessed shaders or similar things that Steam games do before launching, maybe. But the result stays the same. Game is not starting, button changing back to "play" button.

▲ endorphine a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Hang in there for Trixie. Some things should be better there, especially around WINE performance, cause of the upgraded kernel