Linux install, worth it?

[Madscientist16180]

Hi everybody.

I'm looking for a way to have more mods on my ksp without it getting slow. From what i read, using Linux and the stable 64x is the way to go.

But i'm not very knowledgeable about computer. I understand the basics and this is it. 

So, in a nut shell, is it, on a pretty average 5 year old cpu (i'll post spec when i get home), normally really worth learning to use linux?

Does learning linux in itself à good enough thing that any reasons are good? Lol

[legoclone09]

Learning Linux is good, and Ubuntu is very user friendly. There are only a few cases where it isn't like installing graphics drivers and running some files, specifically .run and .sh, but that's just Linux in general. I'd run a dual boot if I were you, since that's what I do.

[Madscientist16180]

Tks. And are the gain worth the "trouble".

[WeirdCulture]

well... the thing with "not getting slow" is a litte bit uncomfortable for the OpenGL renders... you will face an decrease in performance when you switch to Linux and OpenGL.. if you allready running in OpenGL... try a dualboot

[Stone Blue]

Yes... very worth it...

I have a 4yr old laptop I run Linux on... It plays KSP better than on Windows 8.1...

You dont even have to dualboot... You can run most distros right from a USB flashdrive, so you dont have to mess with dualboot or HDD partitions... Just make sure your BIOS will boot off the USB flashdrive before your HDD...

You hardly need to know anything about Linux... Most Ubuntu desktops are VERY similar to a Windows 7 desktop...

I use Lubuntu, but many people use Kubuntu or Mint... My Lubuntu install only uses @250MB of RAM at idle, vs 1.3GB in Windows 8.1... I have 6GB RAM, and I've had VERY few crashes (all due to mod bugs, NO memory crashes)... I've pushed KSP RAM usage to 5.1GB by itself... MUCH better than the 3.5~3.7GB for Windows... I've run between 100~120 plugin mods, and two or three of the BIG parts mods...

Granted, I've been able to run more mods, but dont expect miracles (or even much difference) in actual PERFORMANCE... FPS seems to run about the same as on Windows... It will all depend on your hardware... Also, if you're on a laptop, using more RAM seems it will heat your computer up pretty good, so i suggest a cooler for laptops on Linux, if youre shooting for a heaviy modded install...

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by Stone Blue

[Madscientist16180]

Tks alk, i'll give it a try when the kids goes to bed and leave my cpu alone lol.

[Stone Blue]

@Madscientist16180 One caveat tho... What do you have for a GPU?... Seems there isnt much Linux support for AMD graphics... Intel & Nvidia: little to no problem... NOTE that Linux already forces OpenGL, as there is no DirectX in linux...

Once you find a distro you want to try, download the .ISO of it, then use the Universal USB Installer by Pendrive, found Here to install your distro on the USB drive...

Once its done, plug in the USB drive and reboot... Click "Try before installing..." on the menu that comes up... (I think thats what the option is called...)... That will run Linux off the drive, rather than installing it onto your computer...

Once you get to the desktop, see if your distro has a "Software Updater" listed in the menu... Open that, go to the Drivers tab, and select a graphics driver...Then run the Updater...

Hopefully you grabbed the correct driver, and there's no issues after that... Then go to your KSP folder, and dbl-click the KSP.x86_64 file... Execute it when it asks... Thats it!

Oh, and generally you can safely copy your /GameData & /saves folders from a Windows install of KSP to your Linux KSP folder, and all your mods and saves SHOULD work exactly as in Windows...

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by Stone Blue

[Madscientist16180]

That was quite comprehensive, tks. Gotta get myself à USB drive and try this somewhere today!

I got NVIDIA, should be fine.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Madscientist16180

[radonek]

As far as KSP go, IMO only real advantage of running on linux is working 64bit support. More mods, yes. But it wont be any faster. Can be slower - windows drivers tend to be better maintained and optimized. If you want to give it a try, be sure to install proprietary nvidia drivers (also known as "binary blob") and not open-source "noveau" ones.

Linux can be more snappy on older hardware if you use some lightweight distro and DE, but I guess that would not be very friendly to windows user. And for me, linux/KDE have much better mutlihead support, but that is nothing to you unless you have multiple screens. (And its bad for performance if you do)

[soulsource]

On 29.2.2016 at 1:57 AM, Stone Blue said:

@Madscientist16180 One caveat tho... What do you have for a GPU?... Seems there isnt much Linux support for AMD graphics... Intel & Nvidia: little to no problem... NOTE that Linux already forces OpenGL, as there is no DirectX in linux...

Once you find a distro you want to try, download the .ISO of it, then use the Universal USB Installer by Pendrive, found Here to install your distro on the USB drive...

Once its done, plug in the USB drive and reboot... Click "Try before installing..." on the menu that comes up... (I think thats what the option is called...)... That will run Linux off the drive, rather than installing it onto your computer...

Once you get to the desktop, see if your distro has a "Software Updater" listed in the menu... Open that, go to the Drivers tab, and select a graphics driver...Then run the Updater...

Hopefully you grabbed the correct driver, and there's no issues after that... Then go to your KSP folder, and dbl-click the KSP.x86_64 file... Execute it when it asks... Thats it!

Oh, and generally you can safely copy your /GameData & /saves folders from a Windows install of KSP to your Linux KSP folder, and all your mods and saves SHOULD work exactly as in Windows...

 

There is little difference between Intel and AMD on Linux - both have excellent open source drivers. The troubles start if one is masochist enough to install the AMD proprietary drivers, which sadly are still required for some games (as the AMD open source drivers currently only support OpenGL 4.1, and Intel only supports OpenGL 3.3 - source -, yet the AMD proprietary drivers support OpenGL 4.5, but they tend to crash, and crash, and, did I mention that they tend to crash?), but luckily KSP is running perfectly fine with the open source drivers. By the way, most games that don't run with AMD open source drivers will not run on Intel at all, given that they have a very similar feature set, with some OpenGL extensions available only on Intel, and some only on AMD, but both open source drivers are under heavy development, and new OpenGL extensions get added every few weeks.

Also, there is Direct3D 9 on Linux, but only for the AMD and nVidia open source drivers by using the Gallium3D Nine state tracker. It's far from perfect though (graphics glitches...), and also afaik there are no native Linux games using it. Windows games can use it when being run through WINE.

Regarding Live-USB: I'm pretty certain that for most Linux distributions it's not directly possible to install proprietary nVidia graphics drivers on the Live-USBs, as they typically write their system partition as a CDROM compressed read-only filesystem on the USB-drive, so said system partition is write protected... There definitely are exceptions to this, I think Linux Mint might eventually be one (I never bothered with Live-USB for anything but installation...). Anyhow, it's not too difficult to install Linux from a USB drive to another USB drive, and also Dual Boot is rather easy to set up. *buntu and Mint are indeed pretty easy to set up with very beginner friendly installer programs, but if you feel more confident with a well written handbook that actually explains what the different steps of the installation are doing, you might want to have a look at the Debian handbook which is excellently written, and targets an audience that doesn't have too much computer knowledge (but beware: Debian und Ubuntu, as similar as they may be, use different installers).

Edited March 1, 2016 by soulsource
Replaced CDROM by compressed read-only filesystem