Hi all,
I’ve decided to switch over to linux for my gaming, i used Mint years ago and always loved the simplicity of it. I have also read multiple posts claiming that using steam is the simpler way to get games to install/run on linux.
My question is two fold, is Mint a viable option for gaming with Steam, and if so, will steam accept my accounts created using the standard installer from CCP.
If there are better options i’d like to hear also.
Thanks
I don’t used Steam for this reason, Eve Online has a launcher sucking up my RAM already at an alarming rate, Steam is just a simple method to install a Wine overlay, they called their version Proton. If you are running 16 GB RAM, or better then you should have no issue running Steam, Proton, Eve Launcher, and the Eve Client. If you plan to buy 2 or more omega accounts to multi-box ( which is allowed ) then you are looking at using a lot more RAM.
I can run this game on a 12 year old box, with 8 GB of RAM and a 2 GB passive graphics adapter. I do have to kill the launcher once the client starts. also avoid Jita like the plague as the 900+ players there cause networking issues, lag, and disconnects.
I had no issues using both Xubuntu or Manjaro, when testing Manjaro had better performance and was very simple to set up. Back in June of last year, I set up Eve to run in Manjaro. I never tested Linux Mint, but it is the preferred version for Windows users making the switch. My crossover OS was Kubuntu back in 2010, but all the doodads and fancy toys made it bloated just like Windows OS.
Lubuntu and Xubuntu are both slimmer versions of Ubuntu OS and Mint is another flavor of Ubuntu. Manjaro is Arch Linux, mine is using the XFCE Whiskers menus and I set mine up to mimick Windows XP desktop.
Steam or not to Steam is the real question. You can move your Steam Eve account to Eve by using the Steam icon to log into the main webpage. Access your account and change password. CCP’s webpage will notice you are running it through Steam and offer to set you up with a new User ID and password to access your steam account without running Steam. Launch Eve using Wine and you have one less program running in the background.
Fly safe o7
Thanks for the excellent reply, a lot to think through here.
I installed Mint today, haven’t tried either EVE or Steam so far, will let you how i get on.
Not sure if you got this sorted, but I can confirm that this guide from chloroken gets both the launcher and the client running on Mint. Regarding the Steam element, I cannot say one way or the other that running Steam or launching EVE would work. However, it might be possible to use the method above, then use “Add Account” to log into your Steam ID. I’m unable to verify this, however.
Hope this helps.
Hi Tsuiroha,
I installed Linux Mint 22 cinnamon, installed/updated the recommended Driver and SYS updates. I had zero problems with instalation, even picked up the network printer and was usuable from the get go.
Installed Steam with no issues, logged into my Steam account and downloaded EVE.
No issues with installation, but it wouldnt boot up. A bit of tinkering in options, had to manualy turn on support for unsupported games. Simply added my EVE account details and up they popped.
I had horrible frame rates, had to manualy reset to DX11, it ran fine with high frame rates.
I have been play testing it for a few weeks now. There are a few outstanding bugs, it can become very glitchy at times when multiboxing 2 accounts and discord, but mostly its good. RAM consuption is very high, I have 16Gig, Thinking of adding another 16.
Any Problems i had initialy we’re well covered on the Mint Forums, I will link below.
On the whole, pretty good, but as much as i hate to say it, not as smooth as windows.
(this may be my fault)
I’ll keep going with it, and learn as i go.
How did I miss this? Another convert to the glorious world of Linux.
This step is not mandatory, but it makes it easier as the work around is painful as I documented Pop_OS! & EVE Online ← here.
Its problematic, as the ‘eve launcher’ will redirect the login URL to a browser, the browser doesn’t know how to direct the response back into the launcher that is wrapped by wine.
Yeah, that may not be an EVE specific issue, many games on linux need this as a de facto step.
DX11 and Medium shader is the key.
Oh its extremely high, eve on linux uses over twice the resources it does on windows for some reason.
Its not, its consistent with other people with same specs, especially those who try and run more than one account.
If you get stuck, post here and I will see what I can do to assist, I don’t mind doing a new linux install now and then to try and troubleshoot issues.
A player who already plays Eve Online won’t need to download ( or even reinstall EVE ) switching out Windows for Linux ( any flavor ). However it is my opinion, at this point in time, Manjaro would be the simple way.
Using the home button you will see all your media drives here and look at your Windows drive.
Without Wine installed you will not be able to attempt to run those programs. When ready launch the installer. It is very user friendly.
This step is the important part - the one where you can do the most harm - deciding how to install.
Choosing alongside ( side by side ) will keep your drive data by shrinking it in size ( you will lose about 50 GB at best ) and make a new partition for the OS. Any disruption such as power loss could spell doom for the drive, back it up or forever hold your peace.
When done and you reboot you should have options to boot Windows or Manjaro. Once you are booted into Manjaro, open the menu → system → Add/Remove Software.
Add Wine and you are ready to play. Start up a Windows program from the file manager. You might find you need to update drivers, install more software, or have more to do to tweak the system. The vast majority of my installs seldom gave me issue beyond this point.
Hi guys,
Just to clarify, my long term intention is to completely remove Windows OS systems
from the home set up.
The Dual booting set-up above looks cool, but as my home doesn’t rely on any Windows dependent App’s or services it really isn’t needed. The Company laptop however, is a whole other Story.
Mint is pretty good in this respect, it feels a little old, Reminds me of XP, but this is a good thing as it does only what i ask of it, not constantly annoy me with cr#ppy feeds and suggestions.
Yes i’m getting old and cranky.
No problem, I just wanted to point out that a slow transition from Windows to Linux is possible, and you really don’t need to dual boot. The method above would be to see what games move over with you.
Then you create a new Linux partition and store the fully functional games within the new partition. You could shrink the NTFS Windows partition and grow the Linux partition as move the games over. This would save multitude of installs of your games.
My son tells me, I am old man screaming at clouds.
Hi all!
Returning to the game after 10 years, and tried to run it on my Acer Nitro 5 laptop that I use for CAD and other 3D stuff. However, the game does not even boot up for me.
I have Ubuntu 24, Steam, tried all the Protons, but the launcher only reports “Launching” for a short while, then back to start. The only log I have managed to find is this;
eivind@rifter:~/snap/steam/common$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 eivind eivind 94972 Oct 27 19:07 steam-8500.log
and this only looks like a Wine debug listing that makes little sense to me unfortunately.
Anybody have a tip on where I can start to search for my problem?
Also looking for a nice crew living in WH-space 
Cheers
That is simply pointing at a text file called “steam-8500.log” in the home/snap/common folder. You need to open that with a text editor.
I am a zen minimalist. I don’t care much for the bloat included in snap, flatpak, steam, etc… Don’t get me wrong, the Acer Nitro 5 is a good gaming machine but the RAM is 8 to 16 GB. You should be fine with the 8 GB.
My advice after being away for 10 years is to do a fresh download, straight from the EVE site, without all those extras above. Get your wine from the Ubuntu command;
$ sudo apt-get install wine
On my system, the launcher chews up 2 to 3 GB of RAM, the client snags 3 to 4 GB of RAM, and wineserver has to be using another GB maxing the RAM. I recommend turning off the launcher after the client loads. Once you know your system is up. You can play your Steam EVE direct on the EVE client. You need to login into the EVE main site and request to change your password. The web page notes you need a user ID because you are on a steam account. Pick a user ID and create a password for your account and now you can log directly into the EVE launcher and not even have steam running at all.
If you are running 8 GB, all those extra bloated programs never helped anyone. I still use Steam on a Windows box here, but Linux with minimum memory needs is best operating without the bloatware.
Try Wormlife, they have a lot of stations built in WHs. The corporate info in game gives you a link to their Discord.
Welcome back, fly safe o7
Thanks for the reply John.
Yes I know. As I wrote, the traces in this log gave little meaning to me. I did look at it. I was hoping there was some other way to see under the hood and figure where it went wrong.
I will give wine a go.
Thanks for the tip on Wormlife!
Vic
Cheers!
Just a quick Addition to info already discussed.
I installed an additional 16Gb RAM, doubling it to 32Gb. this was an absolute game changer.
I can now run 3 accounts with smooth stutter free gameplay, although this would be low load stuff,
mining ops’s, Indy and the likes. I tend to run PVP on a single account, saves confusion.
All in all, a succesful crossover from windows, will now move my main desktop aswell.
Thanks for the help guys, most appreciated.