skeevy

Here's the relevant part of the OP you forgot to scour....it's in-between the Pictures and Credits sections.... Dependencies Core Pack B9AnimationModules plugin by blowfish B9PartSwitch plugin by blowfish Firespitter plugin by Snjo and RoverDude ModuleManager plugin by ialdabaoth and sarbian RasterPropMonitor by Mihara and MOARdV SmokeScreen plugin by Sarbian Legacy Pack Depends on the core pack and all of its dependencies (not included in the legacy pack download) HX Pack B9AnimationModules plugin by blowfish B9PartSwitch plugin by blowfish ModuleManager plugin by ialdabaoth and sarbian SmokeScreen plugin by Sarbian

Download and install the 1.3 versions of all the B9 dependencies listed in the first post (I used CKAN for this step) Download the current 1.2.2 version manually. Open the B9 zip and copy only the B9_Aerospace into the KSP GameData directory. That's it. The same steps apply for the HX parts. This wouldn't be necessary if B9 didn't bundle its dependencies. Sort of related and could probably have its own topic, but I don't like it when mods bundle dependencies. I've had so many issues with CKAN and mods bundling dependencies that it isn't funny. Install "Mod A" and it has the latest MM dll bundled with it, two days later install "Mod B" and the mod maintainer didn't update the included MM dll so my local MM dll gets downgraded and I didn't even know it. CKAN aside, it's still a problem for inexperienced mod users because they'll blindly drag and drop crap. I understand why they're bundled (people are dumb and don't read the post(s) with the instructions), but when the mod is using a centralized repository...... Sorry, had to vent that. This issue is always the worst whenever KSP updates and I've had a "fun" time dealing with dependency bundles.....Oddly, B9 wasn't one of them because I had enough sense to read the OP and the posts in last two pages. Unfortunately, not all mods have detailed posts detailing the update\bundle got ya's.

Mine was April 2014.....I have the month right, does that count?

License and upkeep aside, ZFS is pretty good. BTRFS with BFS is pure suck. Haven't tried it with deadline, noop, or CFS yet. I used to run XFS exclusively until a random power outage corrupted my drives and I lost around 1.5TB of music, movies, games, and backups. XFS does not like losing power, especially during massive file operations. Haven't played KSP since my last post here. Been busy IRL and haven't had the time. I did pick up the game Verdun from Steam and managed to get a few hours in it. Just wanted an FPS and figured I'd support another up-and-comer as well as wanting a WWI game. WWII and Modern games get old after a while. I'd love a good FPS set between the 50's and 80's....1900's and 1800's btw...not that many good Cowboy, Civil War, Korea, or Vietnam games. Verdun's not bad, but it's obvious that it's a WIP. Needs more North American players (hint, hint). Bolt action deathmatch is a blast if there are a lot of players on the server. Same GPU that I have. The 25fps could be from V-Sync being enabled in combination with physics calculations. I had that issue too and those were the causes of it. Sadly, I could either get 25fps constant like that and stay in the Yellow no matter what or disable V-Sync and lower my physics calculations a bit and jump between normal and yellow with the framerate jumping between 9fps and 45fps depending on where I'm looking, where I'm currently at (orbit, Mun, launchpad, etc) or if my trajectory leaves the planet or not -- not sure why, but the second my trajectory exits the atmosphere I gain a massive FPS boost regardless of what's going on. If you can, run a 3.17 kernel and update Mesa to 10.3. You'll get a decent increase in performance. If the AMD Radeon development keeps on like it is, we should have some awesome drivers around the 3.19 or 3.20 kernel releases. It looks like AMD missed the deadline to get the AMDGPU driver added to the 3.19 kernel. Hopefully Mesa 10.4 and Kernel 3.18 will be released soon and we'll be able to use those (Mesa 10.4 due in December IIRC; Kerenl 3.18 was RC3 the last time I checked). Bonaire is the codename of the R7 260x. Thought I'd let ya know. I'm gonna be a bit pissed off if AMDGPU (the upcoming new opensource radeon driver) doesn't support our card since they're doing in-house testing with GCN 1.1 cards like ours. Rumor is that AMDGPU will only support GCN 1.2 and up (R9 285x is the only GCN 1.2 card at the moment). EDIT: @sal_vager Like the new OS tags and colors on the support pages

Linux user with ATI card (MSI R7 260x 2GDDR5) -- either run with xserver 1.15, kernel less than 3.17 and Catalyst 14.9 or xserver 1.16, kernel 3.17, and radeon driver (or use the Ubuntu 14.10 Catalyst 14.6 tweaked to use xserver 1.16...IMHO, radeon with kernel 3.17 is better than Catalyst 14.6). Either setup works decently enough...AA might not work, but that's about it really.

Most of my experience is setting them system wide or user wide, like in bash_rc or /etc/locale, /ect/env...places like that. KSP is the first time I've actually exported an LC command on a per-app basis, and honestly, I never bothered checking to see if it was being set system wide or not afterwards (a case of if it works, don't fix it anymore). I should know better than that...

Only reason LC_ALL=C is being set is because that's the recommended fix in the unmodded Linux thread. Did a bit of searching and LC_COLLATE and LC_NUMERIC have been used to fix the period and comma issue for different things. Arch Linux used to set LC_COLLATE=C system wide to act as a hacky fix for similar multi-language and sorting issues. One or both of those would probably be a better fix than LC_ALL=C system wide. Another option would be to determine what LC options the current system is using (run "locale"), stash those aside, set LC_ALL=C while KSP is being played, set system's original LC_* settings when KSP is quit. Thinking out loud here, but @Fail-Man 3D's script combined with my 2nd idea (locale backup/restore) and an automated git solution for backing up save games and settings would be nice to have -- think about it -- mods and mod ships (like with FAR) won't be polluting the game's directories so the KSP directories themselves would always be stock, LC_ALL=C while playing and original locale(s) restored upon exit, and backups of every save, autosave, and settings when they're changed or created. Thoughts or ideas? And yes, I can see issues arising if KSP crashes and the script doesn't catch that to restore the LC settings. Can't believe I forgot to add two "export"s in those scripts....red for syntax highlighting goodness (before this thread, had everything in two lines; made it a bit more human readable and screwed it up....thanks for catching that; had to color export red because the syntax highlighting is why I screwed it up...saw those lines had correct colors and completely brain farted that export was missing)

AUFS and ZFS are different file systems like FAT32 or NTFS, only much more advanced. CK are kernel patches made by Con Kolivas. BFS stands for brain f*ck scheduler and is an alternate IO scheduler to use instead of CFS (completely fair scheduler). Traditionally, Linux stuff is programmed for server use, but CK patches and BFS are more for desktops/workstations. For a new user, none of this is anything you should be concerned with (unless that script above gets tweaked to use AUFS....which is a possibility because I dislike dealing with dumbass r/rw errors and some mods do need to write to their directories (like ATM or Parts Catalog)). To install Linux and just play KSP....the easiest way is install Manjaro (or any distro really) to it's own hdd (one OS to a hdd is my philosophy; post if you need help), boot up, run as root "pacman -Syyuu", reboot, run as root "pacman -S steam-native", launch Steam, download KSP, Play. If you don't use Steam, after the first reboot, go to KSP's download page, download, extract, then play it. To put that in Windows terms: install it, boot up, update the system, reboot, install Steam or Downoad KSP...Except for graphics drivers, you hardly ever install any driver on Linux; I will note that WiFi cards are an exception to that. As far as Manjaro and Ubuntu installers are concerned, they're click, click, set up partitions, click, click, fill out user info/hostname/etc, click, click, done. Everything is WYSIWYG and real straight forward. It took me under 20 minutes to install Manjaro to its own hdd, maybe another 20 minutes to configure it, install Steam, and start playing KSP. If you're gonna install Linux to a HDD containing Windows, it isn't as easy but it is possible (though not really recommended). Instructions are different depending on Linux distro, version of Windows, BIOS or UEFI, etc. I don't know what basic instructions you've been reading, but patching kernels usually isn't necessary except for things like CK, AUFS, BFQ, and other things that most new users just don't need to be doing or aren't part of the mainline Linux kernel. Those shell commands....that's just basic system maintenance. A lot of that stuff can be done with a GUI app, but what you gain in convenience is a loss for fine control over what you're doing. For modern Linux setups, about the only thing you might have to configure is xorg.conf if you have some odd ass setup in regards to your GPU. If you want, link to what guide you're using and we'll try to simplify it for ya. I advise Manjaro, but only because, for new users, it has a lot of advanced functionality and features that actually require things like kernel patches and whatnot; it has that steam-native package that makes Steam use system libraries (the cause of a lot Steam Linux KSP issues is using the Steam libs); and it's really up-to-date -- there are only a handful of distros more up-to-date than Manjaro, and that handful of other distros come with a steep learning curve -- see here for an example of a steep learning curve. EDIT: just checked the BFS link....the forum cuss filter changed the F word to .... so replace the .... in the link with the F word. EDIT2: Have 4 more episodes of Star Trek TNG left. Kinda in a marathon of them so I may not be back for a few hours or tomorrow.

I'll look into it on and off throughout the next few days. I don't have the ability to run two monitors like that...my only two are my 42" 1080p TV (main monitor) and an old 1280x1024 (I think, been a few years) LCD 17" monitor...so the best I can do is Google and provide links. If I get the chance (and find a spare HDMI cable) I'll lower my main monitor's resolution down to match my old LCD monitor and experiment around with it. You should be able to tweak xorg.conf mixed with some xrandr magic to accomplish this; probably have to add in some virtual desktop modes into xorg.conf. Been a long time, but I did manage to get it working with Ubuntu 9 (or 10) with my old laptop, but that laptop really sucked and the onboard intel GPU didn't like doing it, so I only bothered with it for maybe two days 5 or 6 years ago. EDIT: This link may help with some of the xorg stuff I'm surprised the Xinerama settings in AMDCCCLE don't automagically do this for you. It shouldn't be any more than to configure it all in CCC & reboot.

That's awesome. It's like Skyrim Mod Organizer, only for KSP Linux in the form of a script and A LOT more manual. Nice. Anyone want another +1 for Manjaro? Nope? Well, too bad, you're getting it anyways -- Their stock kernels come with AUFS support (and ZFS support if that interests anybody). No patching required (at least on my 3.17 stock Manjaro kernel). They also come with some CK patches and BFS stock. Unrelated to that, just something I've been thinking about lately Now we just need a universal image conversion script for DDSLoader. I've been looking into it, but unless someone explicitly lays out what coverts to what, what needs to be skipped, what images need to be flipped, etc, I'd just be pissing into the wind. There's a lot of information on the KSP image formats spread throughout the DDSLoader thread and it's a lot to take in all at once. @Todacious has a basic Linux script and @Shaw has an img2dds program for Linux.

Multimonitor isn't really my thing. I haven't ran multimonitor since Win2K because it was weird having a 19" 1280x1024 LCD MM'd with a 42" 1080p screen or that same 19" LCD with a 17" CRT @ 1024x768 (remember when x768 was the cutting edge, top of the line HD resolution?). Did a bit of Googling and found multiple XFCE solutions. If you're running the latest XFCE version, it has multimonitor support built into it. Just go to XFCE Settings>Display to find them; located at "Start">Settings>Settings Manager>Display & "Start">Settings>Display on my system. XFCE Display Settings disper arandr AMDCCCLE If you have to use a command (or a script) like xrandr, just remember to set it as a start up option. That's in the same settings menu as Display, just scroll down a bit to Session and Startup.

Agreed and why I ended up ditching Ubuntu....for the hundredth time. You don't even have to patch manually with Arch. Add in the archlinuxfr repo for yaourt, and it's as easy as "pacman -S yaourt" followed by "yaourt -S catalyst-test". Much easier than doing it manually from the AUR with pacman and buildpkg. Manjaro is Easy-Mode Arch Linux. GUI Installer, click, click, click, done. Also has a GUI package manager with AUR support (do not use the GPU drivers or Kernels from the AUR with Manjaro; breaks mhwd, Manjaro's kernel and driver installer). If you like Arch but don't feel like doing everything "The Arch Way" or from scratch, Manjaro is a decent alternative. Ditto with Arch Bang, though it's pure Arch so you'll just get an easy install and have to know what you're doing afterwards. If you've ever ran Arch and broke you entire system with a "pacman -Syu" that forced you to start over, you'll appreciate Manjaro snapshotting Arch and fixing it ahead of time. EDIT: If you go with Manjaro 8.10 XFCE, on first boot you need to fire up a terminal as root and run "pacman -Syyuu" to fix a few broke things since the installer is a bit old (haven't ran one of the newer RC isos for the upcoming releases). Gah....just got some updates that require an hour+ for compiling (wine-rt and some LXQT git packages from the AUR...I need to add the pipelight patches to wine-rt...not today cause I feel lazy).

@Eiktyrner If I'm reading this correctly, you're trying to triple monitor with an HD 5870. Unless your CPU hits the 4ghz+ range, I don't think you'll have much success with that. My CPU runs just below 3ghz and struggles to play KSP at 1080p on a single monitor with a GPU that's a few generations newer than yours. That Tear Free setting in CCC is just Vsync on crack and really isn't worth the performance hit when playing games. It's fine for watching movies, web browsing....anything but games; unless you can run that game with a 60+ FPS constant before enabling Tear Free because you can lose half your framerate with it. KSP on Linux runs slower than KSP on Windows on the same system. Unless you have a really good system with resources to spare, which to me would be a quad core or better CPU (freq really doesn't matter for this tweak) and 8GB+ ram, things like Compiz, KDE, XFCE's Compositing tick box, Unity, and Gnome 3 shouldn't be used. If you have a quad core or better, you can always force KSP off the main thread and to two less used cores to mitigate system CPU cycles used. See my script posted at the bottom of the OP on The Other Linux Thread for more details. If you have a file system like BTRFS or ZFS, disable compression on the partition with KSP. BTRFS compression sucks anyways...at least when compared to compression with ZFS (speed and amount compressed). On the drivers -- only bother with the Radeon driver if you're running a 3.17 kernel with Xorg/Xserver 1.16 and Mesa 10.3+ (those combined have some good Radeon enhancements). If you don't meet that, stick with Catalyst 14.9. I can already tell you're running a 3.15- kernel with Xorg 1.15, probably Ubuntu 14.04 as well, just by you saying you're using the 14.9 driver. Without patches, 14.9 only runs up to kernel 3.15 (maybe 3.16) and isn't or can't be patched for Xserver 1.16. There is a Catalyst driver for Ubuntu 14.10 based on Catalyst 14.6 that does support 3.16 kernels (3.17 with AUR patches) and Xserver 1.16. That Ubuntu FGLRX is what I'm using with Manjaro (it's Manjaro's default Catalyst driver) because it's the only Catalyst driver that supports bleeding-edge systems. Here's a link to Arch's Catalyst-Test driver if you feel the need to patch it manually so you can run Catalyst on a bleeding edge system.

Your only options are lowering graphics settings, running with opengl, and using Active Texture Management; well, and switching to 64 bit KSP on Linux. Other than that, all you can really do is hope Squad either fixes the current Windows 64bit version or moves to Unity 5 and hope that 64bit works better with it.

Hmm. That is odd...action groups work just fine for me with my qwerty keyboard. And I thought action groups are what you meant...just wanted to clarify. Do us a favor. Play KSP, hit a few action keys, and post both of the logs. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something in it. Perhaps try Action Groups Extended if all else fails, it may help (guessing at that, but it's a mod I use regularly). It was the damnedest thing with my shoulder...all I did was press down with my left arm to stand up and it was out for a few days. Feeling better now so I can actually sit in my chair and use my PC for more than Netflix. See the OP of The Other Linux Thread under modded installs. On the bottom are some start-up scripts for KSP that are optimized for both Nvidia GPUs (but work just fine for AMD GPUs) and multicore CPUs. Another tip, don't lauch KSP from within Steam -- you'll be using old Ubuntu 12 libs when you'll be better off using your native system libs from starting KSP outside of Steam. Unless you're using something likes Arch/Manjaro's Steam-Native package, never start Linux KSP from within Steam. Last thing, the more up-to-date your OS, the better KSP should run (in my experiences at least; and why I recommend Manjaro over Ubuntu these days).

I just updated the OP with nothing but distro specific information geared towards playing KSP. As a long time Debian user (over 12 years on and off), I do not recommend Debian Stable as a platform to play games on. Debian has a tendency to become really out of date, and with games, you want to be as up-to-date as you're comfortable with or as possible (there is a difference). If you really want to use Debian, use Debian Testing or Siduction. If you run either of those and you see a lot of stuff needing to be updated when you do an "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade", stop what you're doing, go to the forums, and check to see if anybody else is having update issues, else you might reboot into a terminal and have to figure out what broke by checking logs or searching for the fix with a smartphone....and it sucks having to transfer commands from a phone over to a terminal (ssh and copy/paste are your friends). My recommendation and current OS is Manjaro (XFCE, Openbox, or Enlightenment editions if you have a dual-core or less cpu and/or under 8GB of ram). IMHO, it's the best there is for a middle ground between stability, bleeding-edge, ease-of-use, and gaming. Plenty of other distros do 1 of those 4 better, not many can pull off all 4 decently.

When I saw that, my first thought was "Looks like they designed that rocked with KSP" and my second thought was "Whoever double-tapped the space bar, activating two stages, then hit X during liftoff is in for a fun explanation of these events".

RDR isn't the best....I'll even say that the basic Rockstar engine just sucks period, but how many decent open ended cowboy games are there? Rockstar games need a FPS view. Third-person auto-aim games just aren't very fun to me...once ya learn the mechanics it ain't nothin but roll, auto-aim, tap up on R3, shoot for head shot, rinse, repeat, dive for cover, regen health, start over. I'd love a cowboy game that has Fallout or Elder Scrolls inspired open-ended worlds with BF or COD styled shooting mechanics and a decent 3rd person view for platforming mechanics. Dear Squad, Please consider my cowboy game idea after ya'll finish KSP. You'll make a lot of money. We all want a good cowboy/wild west game. Sincerely, Skeevy

I'm biased towards Android, but I didn't like the iOS way of doing basic system tasks, changing settings, and being locked into iTunes sucked (last iPhone owned was a 3GS; last iPhone used was a 4GS). I've only ever used Windows Phones display models in-store, but the OS seemed OK and the newer Lumia's take really good pictures. The Windows Phones' lack of "killer" apps is their downside. The Android downside is you really have to do your homework before you buy one else you might screw yourself (there are A LOT of crappy Android phones...can't go wrong with a 2013+ Motorola, any model really). The iPhone downside is their price and being more restricted in features and functionality than all the others.

I still prefer GTA:SA over all the rest. IMHO, it has one of their best storylines and the best leveling mechanics out of them all. To me, the GTA4 and GTA5 leveling mechanics feel like dumbed-down versions of the GTA:SA mechanics. I would rather have Red Dead Redemption for PC over GTA:SA....but that's just me.

That. Between custom roms, being able to install and chroot into a variety of Linux distros, and rooted specialty apps, you can do a lot with Android. Or Chrome as a browser on any OS. I plan on getting the 2014 G when my AT&T contract goes up in March next year. For their prices, either G is great, but I need the 2014 model because it has a MicroSD slot. I listen to a ton of music, so being able to just swap SD cards versus having to sync with a PC is a great feature (doesn't matter how, syncing GB's worth of music all the time sucks). I don't like those microUSB thumb drives...I'm just afraid I'll break my USB port with it connected to my phone in my pocket while I'm working around the house or at actual work. I'd love to have a Moto Nexus 6, but it costs $650-$700 USD. I just can't justify getting a phone that costs the same as a mid-tier gaming PC or half the price of a used car or work truck. The $180 brand new price tag of the G is just fine for my cheap and broke ass. Because the G's are World Phones released with a really cheap price, they have tons of custom roms and support communities. For me, that's their best feature above all else. It almost guarantees these phones will get Android OS updates for years to come, even if Motorola doesn't provide them.

They come in handy for WINE and other non-x64 Steam games ran from outside of Steam. Besides, it's not like they take up that much space.

Please refer to this and get back with us.

Glad you figured it out. What you did was my next suggestion. Romn: Pulled a muscle in my back and shoulder 10 hours ago and haven't played KSP at all. Hard to sit in my computer chair without wanting to rip my arm off. Sal_Vager: Thanks for setting me up with those other two reserved posts. I'll try to finish setting up that thread tomorrow.

The first thing you need to do is go and read the first page of the Unmodded Linux Thread. And I mean the entire first page of that thread. It contains a lot of good general information for KSP on Linux. One thing the Unmodded Thread doesn't go into very well is your choice of disto, kernels, desktop environments, Steam quirks, and more. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of different Linux distors to choose from*; all with different window managers, desktop environments, ease-of-use for noobs, style of update, rolling or non-rolling release, and more. *though in reality, there's only about 20 or 30 worth a crap ones; the rest are just clones, respins, or for very specific tasks; think email server, forensics, hacking, compiling code, media servers, HTPC, etc So which distro is best for KSP? Honestly, that's a hard question to answer. IMHO, the choice varies by your graphics hardware. If you have an Nvidia GPU, you can pretty much install whatever distro you're comfortable with because you'll have to use the Nvidia proprietary driver. If you have an Intel GPU, you need to be running a bleeding edge distro so you'll be able to use the updated software and drivers. If you have an AMD GPU, you actually have some choices -- you can pick whatever and go with the Catalyst Proprietary drivers or go bleeding-edge and use the Radeon Open Source driver. It should be noted that AMD plans to use the Radeon driver (renamed to amdgpu) as the base for both the free and Catalyst drivers within the next year. Another thing to consider when picking your distro is if it's a rolling release or not. If you don't know, a rolling release distro is install once and as long as you keep is updated, you're always up-to-date. Non-rolling releases distros, like Ubuntu and Debain, will require you to either install a new version every so often** or for you to do a risky upgrade process that might potentially break the system (especially risky if you tweak a lot of stuff). Both styles have their respective pros and cons. For Rolling, the pros are always being up-to-date while the cons are one of those updates might break something. For Non-Rolling, the pros are you know you're running a stable system while the cons are you'll soon be out of date and you'll eventually have to reinstall or do an upgrade. **every 6 months in Ubuntu's case; up to years for Debian (Debian Stable, while stable, is usually really out of date...you really don't want Debian Stable as a gamer's OS, IMHO) Whatever Distros -- Ubuntu 14.04 (LTS), Mint 17, Debian Stable, SUSE, Fedora (all non-rolling) More Up-To-Date -- Ubuntu 14.10, Debian Testing, Manjaro***, Debian Sid, Siduction (all rolling except Ubuntu) Bleeding Edge -- Arch, Gentoo, Funtoo, Sabayon (all rolling) ***that's the distro I use I recommend Manjaro. While it might not be the most noob friendly, it's just as easy to install as Ubuntu, and once configured, just as easy to maintain. With the way Manjaro is setup, it's really easy to change between the free and proprietary drivers (hint, hint AMD GPU users). Manjaro is also a hybrid rolling/non-rolling release. What Manjaro does is they snapshot the Arch Linux repos and call that Unstable, do some fixes called Testing****, do any other fixes and call that Stable. Manjaro gives you the bleeding edge of Arch Linux with scrutiny and fixes. If you've ever ran Arch, did a "pacman -Syu", and broke your system, you'll understand and appreciate that. You also have access to Arch's AUR (to an extent...do not use the graphics drivers or the kernels with proprietary drivers) which is access to almost every piece of Linux software available. Manjaro isn't all fun and games. It does require some terminal fixes from time to time (just check the Manjaro forums, you'll find the fix usually). On my first boot, my system was semi-broke and I had to do a bit of searching to fix it; all I had to run was "pacman -Syyuu" and reboot, but if ya didn't know what to search for or weren't used to Linux, something like that can really discourage further use and scare a new user off. After Manjaro, my recommendations would be Debian Testing, Fedora, or Ubuntu 14.10 with the Xorg-Edgers PPA...actually, all Ubuntu users, regardless of version, that are primarily running Linux just to play KSP should be using the Xorg-Edgers PPA, especially Intel, Nvidia Proprietary, Radeon driver users...not as much if you use AMD's Catalyst driver. Siduction (a distro based on Debian Sid) is also a decent choice to use, but like Manjaro, might require the terminal from time to time. Out of all the rest I listed above, they're good distros, but they come with steep learning curves and aren't recommended for new users to start with. Once some experience is gained and you have some free time, give Arch or one of the Too's a shot. You'll learn a lot starting with a terminal-only minimal system, configuring everything by hand, and building your system from the ground up. To Steam or Not to Steam? That is the Question. By that, I simply mean to launch KSP from within Steam, to run KSP from a script, or directly ran from the executable. For most of ya'll, you're going to want to run KSP with a script. Why? Because Steam uses old Ubuntu 12 libraries and KSP likes up-to-date libraries. Those old libraries are why so many Linux Steam KSPers post help questions. One exception to this is with Manjaro & Arch Linux's Steam-Native package that replaces the Ubuntu libraries with symlinks to your system libraries; which allows you to run KSP with Steam using your native system libraries versus using the old Ubuntu libs. Skip to the end of the post for my personal launch script. Kernels Just like the distro and KSP, this also depends on your GPU. Intel and Radeon users really want the most up-to-date kernel their distro supports so you'll be using the most up-to-date graphics driver for your respective GPU. Nvidia users, like stated above, you're locked into using the proprietary driver and therefore your choice of kernel isn't as much of a factor, still, newer shouldn't hurt. Regardless of your GPU, don't pick a low latency kernel. They're not the best for gaming and you might even lose some FPS if you pick one. Desktop Environment This is one of those "you should pick this yourself" things. But for gaming, you're going to want a DE like XFCE, LXQT, LXDE, & Enlightenment. With any of those, you'll be using less resources for the base system which means more resources for KSP and your games to use. Of the four, my personal favorites are XFCE and Enlightenment. There are even lighter options, but frankly, unless you pick a distro like Manjaro Openbox Edition or Arch Bang, you'll be in for a steep learning curve and you'll have to set up almost everything by hand. There are other popular desktops like KDE, Gnome, and Unity, but desktops like that use a lot of resources that you'd rather have for KSP. If you have a quad core or better CPU and 8GB or more of ram, you can pick whatever you want. If you have less that that, you'll be screwing yourself unless you pick a lightweight option. I have a quad-core with 8GB of ram, I run XFCE and Enlightenment (I swap between the two every few boots for a change of scenery). With all the choices there are, a basic intro to Linux with a focus on KSP should be helpful to a newcomer. I just hope this gives a new user an idea of what to look for in a distro and why you might want to use a respin like LxUbuntu over Ubuntu or something more up-to-date like Manjaro, Arch, or Sid. Start-up Scripts For Quad Core PC's #!/bin/sh export LC_ALL=C export LD_PRELOAD="libpthread.so.0 libGL.so.1" export __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 exec taskset -c 2-3 ./KSP.x86_64 For Single Core PC's #!/bin/sh export LC_ALL=C export LD_PRELOAD="libpthread.so.0 libGL.so.1" export __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 ./KSP.x86_64 To use these, create a blank document in your KSP directory named "ksp.sh" (don't use the quotation marks " " dammit). Copy and Paste the above into it and save. Next, mark it as executable, either by ticking the right tick-box in the right click properties menu or by opening a terminal to your KSP directory and using this command "chmod +x ./ksp.sh" (again, don't use the quotation marks). Now all ya have to do us just double click that script to play KSP. If you notice, the only difference between those is "exec taskset -c 2-3". What that little snip does is tell KSP to use the 3rd and 4th CPU cores (0=1, 1=2, so on and so forth). If you have an 8 core, you could use "-c 6-7" to use cores 7 through 8 or "-c 3-7" to use cores 4 through 8. Run "man taskset" for more information. Currently, KSP only benefits when forced down to two cores. The script above uses those two cores because they run the lightest when nothing else is going on on my PC. Your results may vary, but any two cores other than the main/1st core is better than not doing anything at all. Note for Intel users. I don't have an Intel GPU to test the LD_PRELOAD and export __GL_ commands. Those are helpful for Nvidia users and they've never given me negative performance with either the Radeon or Catalyst drivers with my AMD R7 260x. If you have issues, remove those two lines. If those issues still persist, you need an actual GPU or start praying that Intel makes you a decent driver (that's a wish in one hand, poo in the other situation). Post here if you need some Linux specific help and you run a modded KSP. I'll be updating posts 2 & 3 as more questions come in and fixes are found.