Windows user seeking advice, how to determine required packages?

[ubuntupaulaus]

Hi,

I am a long-term Windows user looking at the feasibility of switching to Linux. I have installed Ubuntu 24.04.03 LTS as a test and am looking for some guidance.

How can I find out the pre-requisites / required packages for applications that I want to use? The list of installed and available packages is so extensive.

For example, I have installed the Steam Client and a Windows game which is known to work well on Linux. It stutters and generally does not work well on my Linux install. I assume this is because I have not configured things properly. But… I don’t know what to do?

I’d like to make my system capable of using the Proton / Steam Play feature(s). I would also like to add Wine for non-steam apps. Now, you can probably tell me what to do in this specific case, but how do I become self-sufficient so that I don’t have to ask other people for help?

I read that (despite my computer being 64-bit) I need to install 32-bit OpenGL and Vulkan libraries? How do I identify what is required for my needs and which packages to install?

I have experience with (Windows equivalent) DOS / Powershell, so the Linux terminal doesn’t worry me. The problem is me not knowing what I actually need to do!

Any advice appreciated,

[matt-rw]

Try a web search. I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/ryk6ze/choppy_stream_and_game_when_streaming_through/

[ian-weisser]

Adding the gaming-and-leisure tag, as the question seems specifically about gaming performance

It is possible that your stuttering / poor-performance problem may be unrelated to package dependencies.

If your question is really about poor performance, please let us know the basic specs of your hardware, particularly RAM and GPU. Proton, for example, notoriously consumes enormous amounts of RAM. If your install happens to be in a virtual environment, information about the host is important, too.

If you cite “I read that I need to install XYZ,” please provide a link. Maybe what you read is relevant, maybe not. We can’t tell unless we can read it too.

[ericmarceau]

As Ian has said it would be good to provide details of your hardware configuration. You can do that by providing the report from the command:

inxi -ACDMNSG

[rubi1200]

@ubuntupaulaus

How can I find out the pre-requisites / required packages for applications that I want to use? The list of installed and available packages is so extensive.

Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse

Not able to help with the gaming questions, not really a gamer.

But hopefully I can help with this question.

A good place to start is with the Ubuntu Packages search page here.

You can narrow it down by distribution and results will show dependencies and recommended packages.

You can also use the terminal to search, for example:
apt show [package-name]

If you only want to know the dependencies or reverse dependencies, then like this:

apt depends [package-name]
apt rdepends [package-name]

If you are ever unsure what installing or removing a package is about to do, then simulate a dry run like this:

apt install -s vlc
apt remove -s vlc

If you see things like metapackages or core packages about to be removed, stop and ask first.

Hope this helps.

[ubfan1]

All my Steam Windows games run fine on Ubuntu 24.04/Wayland using the Steam beta and Proton experimental. The machine is a hybrid laptop with Nvidia discrete hardware. The only issue I see is that sometimes the Nvidia hardware is not used properly for a game – the output of xrandr --listproviders shows that the source/sink have been reversed. At least Steam will notify you of a change of video hardware.
Steam does have an option something like: “usenondefaultgpu=1” which sometimes seems needed, but environment variables are easier. Set up an alias like: alias mce=‘__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia’ to run things that need the Nvidia GPU (like the CUDA samples). Desktop shortcuts usually have an option to launch “using discrete GPU”. running glxinfo |grep -i vendor will tell you which GPU gets grabbed. Used to be setting the “performance” power option would force the Nvidia GPU to be used, but not anymore apparently. A desktop will avoid all such hybrid problems. Sorry if the above is a bit confusing, but as you can tell, I can run things one way or another and haven’t bothered diagnosing what’s causing sporadic problems.

[paddylandau]

To add to the other comments, please tell us how you installed Steam.

There are (to my knowledge) three different ways, and people on various forums have said that the snap version isn’t the best.

[ogra]

@paddylandau

and people on various forums

Could you please link quotes when making such claims ?

There has been a massive amount of work invested into the snap by Canonical to sort all issues.

Recent snap versions of steam should run solid and partially even faster than the non snapped versions due to the newer mesa the snap ships …

See:

Core24 Steam | Call for Testing

This is copied from the original GitHub discussion. We have been working on a core24 version of the Steam snap and gaming-graphics, and they are finally ready for testing. Updating to core24 allows you to get the latest graphics libraries and most update to date features for Steam. Core24 Steam and gaming-graphics are still in testing stages, and should be treated like a beta test. You may encounter unexpected behavior or bugs. How to test Refresh Steam to core24snap refresh steam --chann…

and

Steam Snap Status & Improvements

It’s been just over 6 months since we called for testing for the Steam Snap’s stable release, and about a year and a half since early access, so I thought I’d share the notable areas of progress with the Steam Snap. Proton One of the major blockers for Steam tends to be games that rely on Valve’s compatibility layer Proton to function. We’ve made huge strides in improving the Snap’s compatibility in this respect, including some of the changes below. Some changes were made to snapd for the ste…

[paddylandau]

@ogra

Could you please link quotes when making such claims ?

Sorry, it’s something that I’ve read several times on Reddit comments. I haven’t kept any such links — as I say, it’s something that people have stated, not something that I myself have tested.

It might be that the information is out of date now, which would be good if true.

[eeickmeyer]

@paddylandau

Sorry, it’s something that I’ve read several times on Reddit comments.

Per Support and Help posting guide

@system

13. Your answer should be yours and not just something you have regurgitated from the internet.

So please come up with original answers when answering support questions.

Thank you.

[ubuntupaulaus]

Thankyou to everyone who tried to help me! rubi1200’s post in particular with the dependency flags for apt.

I forgot my username and password from the other day, so I decided to reinstall Ubuntu. Also, to familiarise myself with the setup process. Since then, the Steam Play and Proton version settings are showing up on the ‘Compatibility’ tab. I swear this was missing the other day!! (maybe I got an earlier version?). Anyway, I updated the nVidia driver and got my two Steam games working.

I have since installed Wine 10.0 and already got some simple Windows .exe’s running. I’ll be looking into the topic of MS dependencies for those, with a view to using Winetricks and Wine prefixes to get everything going.

I was really demoralised and feeling like a fish out of water the other day. But, things are now starting to fall into place.

Regards,

[rubi1200]

@ubuntupaulaus

things are now starting to fall into place.

This is the way most of us started.

We are here to help so feel free to come and ask whenever something is not clear or working as you had hoped/expected.

[paddylandau]

@ubuntupaulaus

I have since installed Wine 10.0 and already got some simple Windows .exe’s running.

You might find it useful to look into Bottles, which is a front-end for WINE, making it a lot easier to use. I don’t even know how to use WINE, because I let Bottles do the work. (Before Bottles, it was PlayOnLinux, which is no longer in development.)

At the moment, Bottles is available only as a flatpak.

[very-epic-gamer]

Just adding Heroic Games Launcher here. It has always been the most convenient one. Let’s mention Lutris too.

[very-epic-gamer]

Like others have also stated, it cannot be over emphasized to provide the information about your hardware (and which GPU drivers in use for example)

[jmgibson81]

https://mastodon.social/@TTimo/111772575146054328

I’d say a Valve developer would be a good proof of them being against the snap which is good enough for me personally. Granted it’s been a good while. Curious if there is any new information. Maybe it has changed since this post in January of last year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it hasn’t.

[rubi1200]

I am closing this thread for two main reasons:

Firstly, the original questions posed by the topic author appear to have been (mostly) resolved.

Secondly, the endless regurgitations of the benefits, pitfalls, issues, etc. with snaps vs. flatpak vs. .debs does not contribute to a vibrant or productive conversation.

As an aside, I have the Steam snap installed on an older machine with low specifications and it works perfectly for my needs.

If you encounter issues with the Steam snap then file bug reports to help the developers/maintainers fix the issues.

Provide your specific hardware specifications

Provide specific and reproducible steps that led to the crash or whatever happened.

Without this, the discussion is pointless and unhelpful.

Thanks for participating in this topic.