just want to run 2 windows games but i cant :(

[CPL_Canada]

If that was Proton or Wine issue than it would do it for everyone.
View attachment 30822
You didn't share you hardware specs but could be you are using an Optimus laptop and it's, not using the correct gpu or something like that.

Btw I just remember something important about PopOS, it just recently transitioned to a new Desktop Environment(DE) Cosmic and I've read a lot of people running into issues and having complaints about it and that it's actually still "beta" software as in user experience.

Games & Launchers that dont work as intended & do work as intended (1.0.8) (4 April 2026) · Issue #311 · pop-os/cosmic-epoch

This list tracks games and launchers (both from Steam and other sources) that currently work or do not work properly under COSMIC. I will continue updating it until full compatibility is achieved. ...

github.com

Fallout 4 is listed there too.

My suggestion would be for you to for example instead of using PopOS to use PikaOS or Nobara with KDE Plasma, as this issue could be related to issues with Cosmic. It's just a bad time to be using PopOS at this time because of this.

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

Nobara Linux | The Nobara Project

Nobara is a Fedora-based experience tuned for gaming, streaming, and content creation — with everything ready out of the box.

nobaraproject.org

The thing you could first try and check though is to see is Cosmic has setup fractional scaling and if it does have that enabled disable it and if you are using multi-monitors make sure it's on the correct monitor if both your monitors have different resolutions.

again, my apologies... i use a 5 year old MSI GF65 10THINUE Canada edition... thte cpu is i5-10500H CPU @ 2.50GHz.. i have 16 gb of ram ddr4... gpu is nvidia 3060.. i have 2 m.2 ssd inside 500gb and 2tb

it WAS gaming laptop long time ago.. but its just an average laptop today.. hardly "optimus"

 

[CPL_Canada]

Pop!_OS is not the greatest general-use distro out there. They write the software mainly to work with their hardware (System76). This means it often has issues on other hardware, and those issues are often difficult (or impossible) to fix.

As such, I don't suggest using that distro unless you have their hardware. I'm told it runs just fine on their hardware, and they have many great reviews because of this. As you're probably not using their hardware, you'd do better with a different distro.



^THIS, basically, except with more details about Pop!_OS.

thank you so much but since i deal in mostly games to silence a loud brain (ptsd) and linus tech tips said pop os is good for gaming, ive tried many distros in my pc life.. ubuntu, lubuntu, manjaro, debian, the only difference i see is the install command some are "apt install" and some are "pacman -U" but this time microsoft really pushed me over the edge by deleting photos of my daughter and i.. so im willing to give linux 1 last go

 

[f33dm3bits]

thank you for offering pikaOS.. but i already broke my head this far to get to this point.. perhaps im stubborn
a famous youtube Canadian (linus tech tips) told everyone that pop OS is ideal for gaming...if i need simplified theres always ubuntu

Linus LTT is the worst person to take Linux advice from, as said before I've met more people who've had issues with Cosmic and all mentioned something in the lines of that it's still beta software. You're not doing yourself a favor this way. PikaOS is based on Debian but it's got the latest software, Ubuntu is based on Debian so for experience it will be similar but will have older software because being point of release distribution.

Also PikaOS is also a gaming distribution.

PikaOS is a gaming/optimization-focused Linux distribution that emphasizes ease of use and high compatibility. Built on a Debian base but with cherry picked and custom compiled packages ensures that Pika is stable whilst being bang up to date!

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

All most gaming distributions do is provide a post setup where you can select what other tools you want to install, including game applications and some provide a custom kernel with extra patches. Which you can also install on other distributions. Yes most distributions are similar and only difference is a package manager but there point of release distributions which generally have older software and there's rolling release distribution which provide newer software and there's distributions that are in between point of release but still ship with the newer software than normal point of release distributions.

Distributions that have a specific focus generally ship with some extra tools that make them standout or add something to it that others don't and all of them have some sort of theme with the DE that they install so that they don't look like the default look you would get when not theming. Lastly gamign distributions also have good support for being able to detect what best driver is that your gpu needs if you have an Nvidia gpu for example.

 

[CPL_Canada]

Linus LTT is the worst person to take Linux advice from, as said before I've met more people who've had issues with Cosmic and all mentioned something in the lines of that it's still beta software. You're not doing yourself a favor this way. PikaOS is based on Debian but it's got the latest software, Ubuntu is based on Debian so for experience it will be similar but will have older software because being point of release distribution.

Also PikaOS is also a gaming distribution.

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

All most gaming distributions do is provide a post setup where you can select what other tools you want to install, including game applications and some provide a custom kernel with extra patches. Which you can also install on other distributions. Yes most distributions are similar and only difference is a package manager but there point of release distributions which generally have older software and there's rolling release distribution which provide newer software and there's distributions that are in between point of release but still ship with the newer software than normal point of release distributions.

Distributions that have a specific focus generally ship with some extra tools that make them standout or add something to it that others don't and all of them have some sort of theme with the DE that they install so that they don't look like the default look you would get when not theming. Lastly gamign distributions also have good support for being able to detect what best driver is that your gpu needs if you have an Nvidia gpu for example.

yep.. i believe Nvidia and the owner of Linux dont see eye to eye about certain details regarding drivers but i did install the latest nvidia drivers package which i believe is 560... so it should be visible.. at this moment im executing
sudo apt install system76-driver-nvidia
.. ill let you know what happens after i reboot

 

[CPL_Canada]

Linus LTT is the worst person to take Linux advice from, as said before I've met more people who've had issues with Cosmic and all mentioned something in the lines of that it's still beta software. You're not doing yourself a favor this way. PikaOS is based on Debian but it's got the latest software, Ubuntu is based on Debian so for experience it will be similar but will have older software because being point of release distribution.

Also PikaOS is also a gaming distribution.

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

All most gaming distributions do is provide a post setup where you can select what other tools you want to install, including game applications and some provide a custom kernel with extra patches. Which you can also install on other distributions. Yes most distributions are similar and only difference is a package manager but there point of release distributions which generally have older software and there's rolling release distribution which provide newer software and there's distributions that are in between point of release but still ship with the newer software than normal point of release distributions.

Distributions that have a specific focus generally ship with some extra tools that make them standout or add something to it that others don't and all of them have some sort of theme with the DE that they install so that they don't look like the default look you would get when not theming. Lastly gamign distributions also have good support for being able to detect what best driver is that your gpu needs if you have an Nvidia gpu for example.

chris@pop-os:~$ nvidia-smi -L
GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU (UUID: GPU-6d08b1c4-786c-9b66-680a-da86a4914b4c)

well its there.. but the app i use to see my temps doesnt have Nvidia anywhere (i use Psensor)

 

[CPL_Canada]

Linus LTT is the worst person to take Linux advice from, as said before I've met more people who've had issues with Cosmic and all mentioned something in the lines of that it's still beta software. You're not doing yourself a favor this way. PikaOS is based on Debian but it's got the latest software, Ubuntu is based on Debian so for experience it will be similar but will have older software because being point of release distribution.

Also PikaOS is also a gaming distribution.

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

All most gaming distributions do is provide a post setup where you can select what other tools you want to install, including game applications and some provide a custom kernel with extra patches. Which you can also install on other distributions. Yes most distributions are similar and only difference is a package manager but there point of release distributions which generally have older software and there's rolling release distribution which provide newer software and there's distributions that are in between point of release but still ship with the newer software than normal point of release distributions.

Distributions that have a specific focus generally ship with some extra tools that make them standout or add something to it that others don't and all of them have some sort of theme with the DE that they install so that they don't look like the default look you would get when not theming. Lastly gamign distributions also have good support for being able to detect what best driver is that your gpu needs if you have an Nvidia gpu for example.

flashing pikaOS to a usb stick now.. i hope you are right aboot this

 

[CPL_Canada]

okay.. pikaos eunning now.. alot more annoying but it is functional

 

[CPL_Canada]

well.. im running pikaOS.. i installed ge proton.. i set that in the "compatability" section in steam.. there is NO lutris.. fallout 4 will not start at all.. master of orion is downloading now....

 

[kibasnowpaw]

I think you are still overcomplicating this by throwing too many tools at two Steam games.

Wine by itself is more of a power-user tool. It is not really where I would send someone who is only a few days into Linux, because then you need to understand Wine prefixes, Windows dependencies, how your distro handles libraries, and what is native vs what is containerized. That can turn into a mess very fast if you do not already know how the Linux side works.

For Steam games, I would keep the focus on native Steam first. Get Steam working properly, make sure Proton is selected in Steam, and check ProtonDB before doing anything else. Lutris is not something you need just because the game is Windows-only. For Steam titles, Lutris often just adds another layer of confusion.

Looking at your earlier output, the important part is not “do I have enough random libraries installed?” Your system already sees the Nvidia card with nvidia-smi, and Vulkan sees both the Intel and Nvidia GPUs. But your OpenGL output was showing Intel as the active renderer. That matters a lot more than chasing Wine tweaks. On laptops, that usually means hybrid graphics / Optimus behavior is still in play whether you like the word or not.

Also, ProtonDB for Fallout 4 does not really support the idea that this game just “does not work on Linux.” There are tons of reports showing it working on Steam with Proton 10, Proton Experimental, and GE-Proton across Ubuntu-based distros, Mint, Pop!_OS, Debian, Fedora, Arch, PikaOS, CachyOS, etc. A lot of people do use small launch tweaks, but the common pattern is still Steam + Proton, not Steam + Lutris + PortProton + standalone Wine all at once.

A few patterns from ProtonDB stand out:

• A lot of people report Fallout 4 working fine in Steam with Proton 10 or Experimental.
• Some Nvidia users still need a couple of launch options or small tweaks.
• Mouse capture issues are common, especially with Wayland, multiple monitors, or compositor weirdness.
• Some people need to cap framerate because Fallout 4’s engine has known problems at high FPS.
• A few hybrid-GPU users explicitly needed to force the discrete GPU.

So if it were me, I would strip this down and test properly:

1. Use Steam only for these two games.
2. Force Proton Experimental or GE-Proton in Steam.
3. Do not use Lutris for them.
4. Check whether the game is actually using the Nvidia GPU instead of Intel.
5. Check desktop scaling / compositor issues before blaming missing libraries.
6. Use ProtonDB as the baseline for known Fallout 4 quirks.

And for Fallout 4 specifically, I would also keep in mind that some of what he describes is not even Linux-specific. Fallout 4 is known to be weird about fullscreen, mouse capture, and framerate even on Windows. ProtonDB is full of people mentioning exactly that.

 

[f33dm3bits]

After installation it will go through a series if you want to install several things, one of them is the gaming meta which installs several gaming tools. If you didn't do that than you can just go to the software center and install "lutris" from there by searching for it. What you can also do install "gamemode" through the software center and add that to your game launch options for Fallout 4, it will then look like this.

gamemoderun %command%

Also through the PikaOS Welcome tool open the driver manager and check what Nvidia driver version there is installed for your gpu.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I think you are still overcomplicating this by throwing too many tools at two Steam games.

For Steam games, I would keep the focus on native Steam first. Get Steam working properly, make sure Proton is selected in Steam, and check ProtonDB before doing anything else. Lutris is not something you need just because the game is Windows-only. For Steam titles, Lutris often just adds another layer of confusion.

This is what I always do, as it's more simple that way.

 

[CPL_Canada]

I think you are still overcomplicating this by throwing too many tools at two Steam games.

Wine by itself is more of a power-user tool. It is not really where I would send someone who is only a few days into Linux, because then you need to understand Wine prefixes, Windows dependencies, how your distro handles libraries, and what is native vs what is containerized. That can turn into a mess very fast if you do not already know how the Linux side works.

For Steam games, I would keep the focus on native Steam first. Get Steam working properly, make sure Proton is selected in Steam, and check ProtonDB before doing anything else. Lutris is not something you need just because the game is Windows-only. For Steam titles, Lutris often just adds another layer of confusion.

Looking at your earlier output, the important part is not “do I have enough random libraries installed?” Your system already sees the Nvidia card with nvidia-smi, and Vulkan sees both the Intel and Nvidia GPUs. But your OpenGL output was showing Intel as the active renderer. That matters a lot more than chasing Wine tweaks. On laptops, that usually means hybrid graphics / Optimus behavior is still in play whether you like the word or not.

Also, ProtonDB for Fallout 4 does not really support the idea that this game just “does not work on Linux.” There are tons of reports showing it working on Steam with Proton 10, Proton Experimental, and GE-Proton across Ubuntu-based distros, Mint, Pop!_OS, Debian, Fedora, Arch, PikaOS, CachyOS, etc. A lot of people do use small launch tweaks, but the common pattern is still Steam + Proton, not Steam + Lutris + PortProton + standalone Wine all at once.

A few patterns from ProtonDB stand out:

• A lot of people report Fallout 4 working fine in Steam with Proton 10 or Experimental.
• Some Nvidia users still need a couple of launch options or small tweaks.
• Mouse capture issues are common, especially with Wayland, multiple monitors, or compositor weirdness.
• Some people need to cap framerate because Fallout 4’s engine has known problems at high FPS.
• A few hybrid-GPU users explicitly needed to force the discrete GPU.

So if it were me, I would strip this down and test properly:

1. Use Steam only for these two games.
2. Force Proton Experimental or GE-Proton in Steam.
3. Do not use Lutris for them.
4. Check whether the game is actually using the Nvidia GPU instead of Intel.
5. Check desktop scaling / compositor issues before blaming missing libraries.
6. Use ProtonDB as the baseline for known Fallout 4 quirks.

And for Fallout 4 specifically, I would also keep in mind that some of what he describes is not even Linux-specific. Fallout 4 is known to be weird about fullscreen, mouse capture, and framerate even on Windows. ProtonDB is full of people mentioning exactly that.

okay.. i finished all that with the help of a translator
in which case i need to ask.. HOW do i make certain either preotonDB or GEproton are using my nvidia instead of intel ?
you are right that somtimes things work and sometimes things dont work.. but since im doing my best to actually stick with linux this time.. id like all the tools on the C drive wether i use them or not.. call it a militerized brain thought process, better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it... i hope that explains my thought process

 

[CPL_Canada]

This is what I always do, as it's more simple that way.

i gotcha.. thank you kindly for getting me to this point.. master of orion and fallout 4 may not yet be functional but i was able to get a classic running on wine... star trek birth of the federation.. its an space empire 4x game.. it keeps my brain from having nasty thoughts and i dont know if youve ever served your home country.. ptsd isnt a laughing matter.. the 4x game keeps my brain focused on it.. itll do for now... hopefully ill get the other 2 going in due time.. no harm in having nice graphics

 

[kibasnowpaw]

okay.. i finished all that with the help of a translator
in which case i need to ask.. HOW do i make certain either preotonDB or GEproton are using my nvidia instead of intel ?
you are right that somtimes things work and sometimes things dont work.. but since im doing my best to actually stick with linux this time.. id like all the tools on the C drive wether i use them or not.. call it a militerized brain thought process, better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it... i hope that explains my thought process

To answer the Nvidia part first, for a Steam game you can force it in the game’s launch options. Right click the game in Steam, go to Properties, then in Launch Options put this:

gamemoderun __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia %command%

That does a few things:

• gamemoderun starts Feral GameMode if installed
• __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 tells the system to offload rendering to the Nvidia GPU
• __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only helps Vulkan prefer Nvidia
• __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia helps OpenGL use Nvidia instead of Intel
• %command% is the actual game launch Steam adds at the end

Since you asked about GameMode too, install it with:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gamemode libgamemode0 libgamemodeauto0

Then the launch option above is ready to use as-is.

If you want to test whether the Nvidia card is really being used, this is the easiest practical way:

• start the game
• alt-tab out
• run nvidia-smi
  If the game is using the Nvidia GPU, it should usually show up there.

As for the tools, the simple difference is this:

• Steam + Proton = first choice for Steam games
• GE-Proton = a custom Proton build, still mainly for Steam or launchers that support Proton runners
• ProtonDB = not a tool, just a site that tells you what other people had to do
• Wine = lower-level tool, more manual, better left for non-Steam stuff unless you know what you are doing
• Lutris = launcher/manager for Wine and other runners, useful for non-Steam games

So ProtonDB is where you check what worked, GE-Proton is one of the compatibility tools, and Steam is what should actually be launching the game here.

If you later want to use Wine through Lutris for a non-Steam game, then in Lutris you can force Nvidia in a similar way:

• right click the game
• Configure
• System options
• add these environment variables:

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
__VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

And if you want GameMode there too, add:
gamemoderun
either as a command prefix if applicable, or enable it in Lutris if that option is present in your version.

 

[f33dm3bits]

To answer the Nvidia part first, for a Steam game you can force it in the game’s launch options. Right click the game in Steam, go to Properties, then in Launch Options put this:

in which case i need to ask.. HOW do i make certain either preotonDB or GEproton are using my nvidia instead of intel ?

I thought you mentioned before that you only have an Nvidia gpu in your system. It will probably useful to verify their graphic setup with inxi since you mentioned earlier that you don't have an Optimus setup.

inxi -G

Since you asked about GameMode too, install it with:

I already explained to them how to do it via the software center, I was trying to not get to command-line unless needed but not sure how @CPL_Canada thinks about using it.

If needed I can buy those games as well and then try launching them, I did buy one of them for the screenshot but then refunded it.

 

[kibasnowpaw]

I thought you mentioned before that you only have an Nvidia gpu in your system. It will probably useful to verify their graphic setup with inxi since you mentioned earlier that you don't have an Optimus setup.

inxi -G

his glxinfo -B said

• GPU0: Intel(R) UHD Graphics (CML GT2) → integrated GPU
• GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU → discrete GPU

and where you know it is 100% is
VK_LAYER_NV_optimus NVIDIA Optimus layer

There is also this part:

• glxinfo -B shows OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics (CML GT2)

i think i own Fallout 4 not played it for years.

 

[f33dm3bits]

his glxinfo -B said

• GPU0: Intel(R) UHD Graphics (CML GT2) → integrated GPU
• GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU → discrete GPU

and where you know it is 100% is
VK_LAYER_NV_optimus NVIDIA Optimus layer

I missed that, was early in the morning when I read through it.

 

[f33dm3bits]

and where you know it is 100% is
VK_LAYER_NV_optimus NVIDIA Optimus layer

I also saw this.

PikaOS Modifications Over Debian

wiki.pika-os.com

• prime-run to enable optimus in cli applications.
• Added a GPU selector for KDE Plasma in systems with multiple GPUs.

So seems there should be gpu selector available in PikaOS and using prime-run to launch games will be worth a try. So I would search somewhere in the KDE Plasma settings for a "Select GPU" setting or something similar.

@CPL_Canada Can you search for or a "Select GPU" setting or something similar in the KDE Plasma settings for this?

 

[kibasnowpaw]

it should be on by default i think
try This

which prime-run
prime-run glxinfo -B
prime-run vulkaninfo --summary

 

[f33dm3bits]

_NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
__VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

Chapter 35. PRIME Render Offload

The most extreme option would be just to disable the integrated gpu so that only the Nvidia one is used, that's what I do on my desktop. I've never owned Optimus laptops so never had to deal with this.