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Esleep

Member

Registered: 2023-03-01

Posts: 10  

[SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

So I decided to upload a new post about installing Devuan fresh

for a ROOT Only Linux Hyper Drive Ultimate Gaming System

and as a mini-guide for anyone out there looking to get into Linux Gaming

I build simple systems for the end-user tweaked out for security or high performance

as a hobby, and have worked with probably 80% of the different Linux distro's out there.

Getting The ISO

I chose the stable Devuan - Daedalus  5.0 and to use the Live installer

The install ISO's for Devuan are listed on this page

https://files.devuan.org/

Using the torrent download is the fastest way to get the install ISO

https://files.devuan.org/devuan_daedalus.torrent

The one I used was uploaded... (14-Sep-2023)

I used transmission to get the .torrent file, and inside of the torrent program you have to examine the file,
to pick out which files to download, because it includes all of the different installers for Devuan,
I opted to choose the Live x86 ISO which is useful to have around and includes all of the tools
for installation, and can be used for system rescue operations if needed at a later date.

Preparing A Usb To Install The Iso

I used gparted to format the Usb to fat32 with a gpt partition table

I used lsblk to verify the name of the Usb registered by the operating system
and that it wasn't mounted at all, which for me was /dev/sdb

Then I used the command line tool dd to write the iso to a usb like this...

sudo dd if=devuan_daedalus_5.0.0_amd64_desktop-live.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress; sync

Making sure to select the correct device name of the usb and the whole device "sdb" not a partition on it like "sdb1"

Booting Devuan Live

The methods for booting live disks(.iso) can vary widely because
everyone has different hardware, and are using different operating systems
as well. If the ultimate configuration between the operating system, and hardware
don't match up, then there will be issues.

The basic method is to get to the bios boot menu upon restarting the computer,
and to select the Usb the linux live disk is installed to. After that,
if default options on the linux grub menu don't work, then they can be edited
to work, and in some cases changing bios settings is necessary too.

The first important consideration isn't grubs(the linux boot menu) configuration

but the configuration of the bios which alters the context that grub->linux
will operate in.

For me, after boot up, pressing/holding down f11 brings up the bios boot menu

and I am presented with options to boot into, like my hard drive,

and two separate entries for the same Usb drive.

Because my bios has legacy support enabled for Usbs,

I'm not trapped with uefi only mode, and choose to use the older

more reliable bios mode, which has advantages I specifically want to utilize.

The menu for me shows the Usb like this...

USB : USB

USB : UEFI

Other bios software will represent this option between bios mode and uefi mode similarly,
if they have the capability enabled in their settings.

For me I didn't have to edit the grub menu, and it's default settings worked
perfectly after booting up in bios mode instead of uefi.

What happens is that often times we can only boot live disks in uefi mode,
or alternatively only in bios mode, depending on the configuration of the live system,
so that distinction is important to understand.

Installing Devuan

Devuan's live disk comes with some really powerful tools that make it unique,
and the installer is easy to work with.  The way it works though, is to let
the user format their own hard drive they want to install onto instead
of automatically doing it for them, which most linux distributions do automatically.

For me, I wanted to install Devuan on an ssd drive for high performance gaming,

so I opted to use the f2fs type of filesystem for the purpose ; D.

In order to use f2fs instead of like ext4 or xfs I had to connect to the internet and run,

sudo apt update && sudo apt install f2fs-tools

to enable gparted to create an f2fs file system

First, I used the included gparted program to prepare my drive for the install,
being careful to select the correct drive in it's menu to work on.

Device -> Create New Partition Table -> GPT

Partition -> New -> 8 MB unformatted bios/grub partition

This first little partition is utilized for installing grub to the mbr later on in the installer

which works properly when installing a linux OS in bios mode

Partition -> New -> Remaining Space f2fs

And the remaining space will be used for the f2fs root file system.

After properly formatting the drive for installation, the refracta installer Devuan provides

works perfectly. I opted to use only two partitions, and to skip making swap, because

these days with 16gb or more ram, there is rarely any time swap is necessary.

So the installer asks where is the root partition for install, and i picked out /dev/nvme0np2

which is the device name of my nvme drive's (like an ssd but faster) second partition I formatted as f2fs

Then at the end of the install it asks how I would like to install grub, and I chose mbr,
which is the first little 8mb partition I made initially. The mbr is usually designated by
the whole device name instead of a partition on it.

Tricking Out Devuan For Hyper Gaming

The way I like to use computers is like a lightning-bolt, dashing around
running through every program as fast as possible, and if there's so much
as a single interrupt, or moment of wait time, I will literally flip out and start complaining
in front of my room mate about my slow computer, and it's poor configuration.

For me, because I opted to use the non-standard f2fs file system type, which despite
being supported by the kernel developers for 12 years, is not being supported by the
operating system developers!-Devuan gets locked up after the initial install due to an fsck!

Which is a file system check, that runs automatically, based on some hidden parameters,
and which does not work on an f2fs drive preventing me from booting into the desktop environment at all.

The quick fix for this problem, is to edit the grub menu option, and to type in fastboot, which causes
the kernel->operating system , whoever is responsible for this madness, to skip the fsck letting Devuan boot normally.

to edit the grub menu option you have to hit the e key

then sort of navigate to the command line portion of it, after vmlinux... and type in fastboot

and hit f10 to boot

After booting up the first thing to do after installing an f2fs file system

is to disable the filesystem check (fsck) in the file system table (/etc/fstab)

using nano -w, to edit the table

nano -w /etc/fstab

for me it looks like this

UID=6cc5c47-eef2-40d1-aa1d-83d5gc68575a    /    f2fs   noatime    0    1

and I had to change the last 1 at the end to 0 to  disable fsck,
and I switched out noatime for lazytime for even less automation baked in

UID=6cc5c47-eef2-40d1-aa1d-83d5gc68575a    /    f2fs    defaults,lazytime    0    0

Then I hit control+o and then enter to save the file in nano

and control+x to exit

After disabling fsck on the file system table devuan can safely boot up without being locked out on an f2fs drive
and she's ready to become the Ultimate Hyper Gaming Linux OS she should be 

My plan is to use ROOT only for all systems operations in order to increase system response time comprehensively,
so in order to do that, certain programs will need to be tweaked later, my security habits will have to be altered, and
I have to use the user name root, and the root password I made in the installer, to log in the desktop environment
as the root user, every time I log in. ( I opted to turn off auto - login during install)

With Devuan (like debian, ubuntu) it's important to install packages in the correct order,
to prevent weird quirks that can happen if apt gets overwhelmed by conflicting packages,
so having experienced this many times, I have developed habits to build a nice happy deb/devuan system.

First System Upgade

After the first install upgrade the package database->upgrade the system->and if there's a kernel upgrade->reboot

apt update && apt upgrade -y

reboot

Graphics Driver/libraries

First add 32bit library support which alot of different gaming programs for linux expect us to have

dpkg --add-architecture i386

update the package database

apt update

install the meta-package for the graphics driver (mine is nvidia)

apt install nvidia-driver

And with the basic stable Devuan, these three steps automatically pull in all the required libraries
and drivers, and basic things I need for gaming.

I use this page as a reference, (even if im not using lutris) to understand the dependencies
I need for Linux gaming in general. It also has instructions for other types of graphics cards.

https://github.com/lutris/docs/blob/mas … Drivers.md

Now the nvidia-driver package will also pull in a package called nvidia-persistenced
which is a service meant to be useful in specific scenarios, but is totally unnecessary otherwise,
and will not build it's kernel module appropriately in the Devuan system, which will cause errors
when installing kernels later on.

This package is totally unnecessary, and the problems it causes are fixed immediately at this stage with a simple command

apt remove nvidia-persistenced

and after installing the graphics driver, similarly to a new kernel, reboot the system

reboot

Tweaking Grub

The first thing to do for a ROOT only gaming system -> is disable all kernel mitigations
which are security features that slow down our computers, and make them less fun.
I'm still learning about this subject, but right now i use

mousepad /etc/default/grub

to edit the grub configuration, to pass some commands to the kernel on bootup

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="mitigations=off mds=off tsx_async_abort=off rootwait"

save the file

and in a command line update-grub

update-grub

Which are all different kinds of security mitigations that can be turned off right at the grub command line,
and as soon as I discover more in the kernel documentation, they will be appended to my growing list,
of hyper-gaming performance tweaks.,

What happens when tweaking out a computer for hyper-performance, is that a ton of bugs will appear,
and programs will behave in ways that are totally bizarre, and unheard of to others. Most people,
sit around waiting for innumerable loading times, or intervals, instead of skipping past the red tape,
and taking full control of their computer, and the programs on it.  And this is going to cause some errors,
but that is normal because generally most programs are designed to run at slow speeds, and not hyper-speed.
Linux is really unique among all the operating systems because of it's extreme level of configurability->
which gives it the unique potential of becoming the most profound and most powerful gaming system possible.

To avoid system errors, we need the help of configurations that lend themselves to system stablility,
such as in the case of my grub command line, which are commands passed to the kernel at bootup,

I use rootwait, which helps prevent the system from locking up, and waiting to sync with a nvme type drive.

I also use a low power bootup mode, called "battery mode" in my bios settings, which prevents the systems start
up process, and all of the programs in it from crashing into each other, and essentially exploding the boot process,
under high clock speeds.

Grabbing A Custom Gaming Kernel

## to install the xanmod kernel for devuan I had to...
## quoted mostly from the xanmod website...

1. Register the PGP key:

wget -qO - https://dl.xanmod.org/archive.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/xanmod-archive-keyring.gpg

2. Add the repository:

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/xanmod-archive-keyring.gpg] http://deb.xanmod.org releases main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xanmod-release.list

##. Then update

apt update

## Then use apt search to find the right kernel for your system
##  (turn on unlimited scrolling in your terminal program)
## or like apt search xanmod | grep 6.1

apt search xanmod

### Then install

apt  install linux-headers-6.1.35-x64v3-xanmod1 linux-image-6.1.35-x64v3-xanmod1

## my cpu architecture is x86_64 v3 for other people it would be different....but what is also important
## is that I picked out a kernel version next to what devuan is using i.e. 6.1
## so my graphics driver could properly build against it,

update grub and reboot after installing a new kernel

update-grub

reboot

Installing Packages For Gaming

apt install wine winetricks gamemode lutris steam -y

Desktop Tweaks

Settings->window Manager Tweaks->Compositing

There are two possible settings for compositing, in the context of a Linux gaming computer

that is completely off, or the bare minimum (enable display compositing in xfce)

Always use a firewall.... I like gufw for it's simplicity

apt install gufw

Settings ->  Firewall Configuration -> Default enabled

Alternative Web Browsers

Firefox or Chrome are essentially like mini-operating systems by themselves inside
of our own operating system, and they're difficult to get away from because they
have a ton of features packed into them, and the internet, for lack of a better phrase,
just works!- with these main stream browsers.

These internet-operating-systems are extremely dangerous in reality, and should be treated
like an actual virus, or a pathogen, that is dangerous to us.

That means, we need, -> need <- to find alternatives.

I like lynx, and sometimes elinks

apt install lynx

I also build my own little offline internet using simply an external hard drive, and web resources,
like html pages, saved to it, or websites mirrored with wget.

This is how you mirror a website with wget, you'll want a more refined command to pick out specific subdomains
of a website, or in other words, specific parts of a website.

wget \
  --mirror \
  --page-requisites \
  --html-extension \
  --convert-links \
  <SITE-ADDRESS>

that command can be copied and pasted into a terminal, replacing the site address part with
the site desired to keep offline, and we can develop our own offline internet, separate from
external systems, and manage it ourselves.

Sysctl tweaks

This subject matter gets very technical here, and right now we are reliant on the expertise
of volunteers in many of these regards. Right now I use the archlinux wiki as a goto reference
for tweaking system control parameters stored in /etc/sysctl.d/ under a file you have to make local.conf

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sysctl

https://enterprise-support.nvidia.com/s … ctl-tuning

https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Adv-Routing-HOWT … ernel.html

https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/sysctl/index.html

Tweaking Services On Devuan

Devuans selling point is that it is an alternative to Debian, for those who prefer
the design of the Deban Linux OS, and provides an alternate Init system
to the dreaded systemd.

Similarly to talking about the kernel, and it's importance in the context of our systems,
Init presents the context of our operating systems operations, and is an extremely
important process in that light.

For the Ultimate Hyper-Drive Gaming System, we need to remove as many taxes
on our systems resources as we can possibly find: running around like the xfce mascot
mouse, into every single place we can possibly go, removing obstacles to improved performance.

Managing Services on sysv init

use this command for a quick overview of services, and their status

service --status-all

Here's how you run a script using service:

service httpd start

Here's how you stop an already running script using service:

service sshd stop

Here's how you fetch status for a script:

service httpd status

Here's how you restart and already-running service:

service sshd restart

To clarify the best solution, similar to the answer Tobu gave:

    Do not use update-rc.d with the remove option.
    Instead, use update-rc.d with the disable option.

Example: update-rc.d postgresql disable

PLUS, You can also find (and disable) other, more specific services with systemctl.

Example: systemctl disable pppd-dns.service

Tobu is absolutely right, but for completeness there is a tool to give you a smart overview: sysv-rc-conf. For copy&patse:

apt-get install sysv-rc-conf

Running sysv-rc-conf you'll see which script is executed in which runlevel. You can enable/disable services via space and quit with q.

These are quotes from some websites I found talking about service management under sysv

These are specific system tweaks, to free up system resources: getting closer to our goal...of Hyper-Drive Linux Gaming

update-rc.d avahi-daemon disable
update-rc.d bluetooth disable
update-rc.d speech-dispatcher disable
update-rc.d saned disable
update-rc.d acpi-fakekey disable
update-rc.d rpcbind disable
update-rc.d nfs-common disable
update-rc.d cryptdisks disable
update-rc.d cryptdisks-early disable
update-rc.d cups disable
update-rc.d cups-browsed disable
update-rc.d exim4 disable
update-rc.d cron disable

Disabling these unnecessary services freed up for me 500 MB of RAM, Which is enormous.
If one of the services is needed at a later time, they can be re-enabled again.

Useful Links To Projects For Linux Gaming

https://appdb.winehq.org/

Winehq is a database for storing information about using the wine compatibility program in order to play games made for windows
on Linux instead. Generally using a combination, of wine, winetricks, and possibly even playonlinux (three separate programs)
would enable Linux users to play games made for windows on linux, and is still a very important project today, but thanks to efforts
of other development projects gamers on linux now can turn to alternate resources to get into gaming more quickly than using wine.

https://lutris.net/

Lutris is a program similarly to playonlinux, that provides a simple gui interface for using wine among other programs to, again,
play games made for windows, but on Linux instead. And via the lutris website we can use user-made scripts to quickly install
many games on linux without much difficulty. The perquisite for using those scripts are listed on this next link below...

https://github.com/lutris/docs/blob/mas … Drivers.md

This page lists the basic instructions for installing graphics drivers, and their basic dependencies, as well as
other dependencies for gaming on Linux, and is a good first step to check out before installing graphics drivers.

https://www.protondb.com/

Protondb is a database for users of Steam Valve's Proton, which is another package designed to enable Linux users
to play games, but for Steam games. This website in tandem with graphics drivers, and Steam, enables linux gamers
to access most of the games that steam makes available and start playing right away. With protondb we can quickly
search for games and find out other users experience getting them to work on linux, and find instructions to do so.

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom

Proton Glorious Eggroll is probably the most important package for enhancing
linux gaming, based on Steam Valve's Proton which enables Linux users
to play games made for other platforms. Different versions of GE-Proton
just like steams Proton, will work differently with different games, so it's
important to find out the correct versions of these packages to use with different games.

Used in tandem with steam and protondb Linux gamers now have access to
the vast majority of games that exist. Instructions for getting steam games
to work are stored on the protondb website and based on users personal experience.

https://nobaraproject.org/docs/modifica … fications/

From the maker of GE-Proton, is Nobara, a fedora based distribution for gaming.
This is their list of specific system tweaks utilized to improve gaming performance on linux.

All of these projects, revolving around Linux Gaming, are a work in progress, and that work is steadily
improving every day.

https://www.protondb.com/

Protondb is a database for users of Steam Valve's Proton, which is another package designed to enable Linux users
to play games, but for Steam games. This website in tandem with graphics drivers, and Steam, enables linux gamers
to access most of the games that steam makes available and start playing right away. With protondb we can quickly
search for games and find out other users experience getting them to work on linux, and find instructions to do so.

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom

Proton Glorious Eggroll is probably the most important package for enhancing
linux gaming, based on Steam Valve's Proton which enables Linux users
to play games made for other platforms. Different versions of GE-Proton
just like steams Proton, will work differently with different games, so it's
important to find out the correct versions of these packages to use with different games.

Used in tandem with steam and protondb Linux gamers now have access to
the vast majority of games that exist. Instructions for getting steam games
to work are stored on the protondb website and based on users personal experience.

https://nobaraproject.org/docs/modifica … fications/

From the maker of GE-Proton, is Nobara, a fedora based distribution for gaming.
This is their list of specific system tweaks utilized to improve gaming performance on linux.

https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk

DXVK is a program that translates directx calls to vulkan and so has become an irreplaceable
asset in linux gaming that revolves around using wine to 'pretend' to be windows users
in order to run windows games on linux. The dxvk.conf listed on that page can be dropped
in a games folder and altered, to tweak how games will perform.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Improving_performance

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling

Search Man pages online for a quick reference about programs/components of Linux systems

https://www.die.net/

Search debians man pages for more debian specific manuals about programs/components of Linux

https://manpages.debian.org/

Kernel Documentation explaining the intel_pstate driver which is concerning for those using an intel CPU

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v6.2/ad … state.html

I have yet to find a complete list of potential kernel command line parameters, and the kernels own documentation
is incomplete, and doesn't represent the fact. These parameters are essential for booting up with
alternate hardware/operating system configurations, and altering the performance of our systems, and can be invoked
at boot up, with for example.... grub

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.14/a … eters.html

and some more unsorted links... there are tons of resources for learning about
how to improve the performance of gaming on linux, it's out of scope to cover
all aspects of this subject matter here... I just wanted to post a helpful mini-guide.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/ne … g-guide/#1

(improving performance on vulkan)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ … 2780250477

Notes On  Wine-Proton

We should actually just call it Wine-Proton. That actually makes sense of the situation...

Proton is essentially a customized wine package that steam valve made, and
has become largely the basis for Linux gaming as of this writing (02/12/2023)
because of the fact that it quickly enables us to play games, without having
to worry about all the technical details.

Another project based on Proton called GE-Proton has improved on their efforts
even further, by taking a lens to individual games and developing patches to
improve performance for them, so instead of waiting for steam protons development
to improve, linux gamers have been relying on GE-Proton to get the best possible
performance.

Different games behave differently with different versions of proton or GE-proton, so
you'll want to discover what other people have reported works in each case, by
referencing... for example: https://www.protondb.com/

It's also possible to use Proton, again, just a customized wine package, outside
of steam, and use it just like you would use wine, and guides for doing so are actually
very difficult to find online, but I'll search around in my mountain of notes and find
the guide I found and post it here eventually.

and here's the guide

Use playonlinux to install the game, and create a prefix.
Move /Ge-Proton/files/ into /.playonlinux/wine/amd64

(/files/ contains all the bins and libraries for wine proton)

rename /files/ to /proton/ so you can identify it later.

After game is installed you can select in playonlinux
to configure the game and select proton to run it.

Sometimes changing the wine version is enough to fix
issues like audio problems, but generally you have to
resolve dependencies for more demanding/newer games.

Ideally you want to use system libraries if they will work,
such as dxvk for directx, but when that doesn't work you have
to find their equivalent via wine.

Tweaking Proton / Wine / DXVK

We can issue commands to proton to improve gaming performance, via
for example: the steam command line found under launch options in a games properties in steam.
Proton has commands unique to it, but also wine, and dxvk, so we can issue proton, wine, or dxvk specific commands here...

Right click game in steam -> properties -> launch options

...options... %command%

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton … ig-options

You'll find references to these listed all over the place, but here's some examples

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
1 – Have Proton use OpenGL instead of Vulkan for DirectX 10 and 11

Make Proton disable DirectX 11 and run on DirectX 9,
which can be used for games that have legacy Microsoft
DX support and will run better this way. Some older games work better this way.

    PROTON_NO_D3D11=1 %command%

You can read more about Wine's ESYNC feature.
on here, this feature can be useful for running games that are
CPU-Bound and require more of this component than usually happens,
such as the Rockstar Games game, GTA V.
Turning this feature on or off in many cases will not make much difference,
but in others it may bring drastic changes.

    PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%

PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 %command%

PROTON_USE_D9VK=1  %command%

DXVK_HUD=fps,api %command%

DXVK_ASYNC=1

Other Notes

the program gamemode isn't working properly on Devuan-Daedalus for whatever reason.
typically Linux gamers will install gamemode and invoke it, like in steam for example, like this

gamemoderun &command%

as of right now that's not working, until we can find a workaround, or solve the problem

Fixing broken yt-dlp

the youtube-and other website-downloader program is routinely broken, and we have to update
it to newer versions which is not available in a stable distributions package database. To fix it,
enable daedalus-backports sources in /etc/apt/sources.list

update the package database

apt update

and download yt-dlp with the backports repo as the target like this

apt install -t daedalus-backports yt-dlp

Using Programs As ROOT

The first thing many programs do, is consider the context of their usage, and deny us
access if, for example: we don't meet their dependency requirements, or are not operating
with an isolated domain such as a limited user account as opposed to the ROOT account
with full system access.

Using VLC as ROOT

This is what worked for me. No compilation required.

sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc

Using VLC media player 2.0.3 Twoflower on a Raspberry Pi.

Explanation: The initialization script check if the UID is equals to zero. Zero is reserved for the root user. Using sed to replace geteuid for getppid fools the initialization script because it is always > 0.

Using Steam as ROOT

Steam checks initially to ensure the user is not operating as ROOT, but the way
it implements this design doesn't account for a ROOT user installing the program.
Which is great news for us.

So installing steam as ROOT, enables us to use it as ROOT without having to alter it's program.

Installing steam as a lesser user account, and then attempting to run it as ROOT necessitates altering the program.

Open /usr/bin/steam
    Comment or delete such lines:
    if [ "$(id -u)" == "0" ]; then
    show_message --error $"Cannot run as root user"
    exit 1
    fi

Using PlayOnLinux as ROOT

Playonlinux even implements this same strategy of forcing users to operate in a lesser context
with decreased access to system resources, which surprised me, putting us in a box separated
from our own computer and hardware we own.

# This solution didn't work for me which suggests new changes have appeared to ensure
# we are locked out of our own computers, by refusing to operate with ROOT privileges.
# Playonlinux even takes a more advanced approach to ensure we don't have access to
# our systems by using two(or more) programmatic checks to limit our capability.

Run PlayOnLinux as root

If you’re running Kali Linux (or any other distro) as root, you’ll run into a message saying “PlayOnLinux is not supposed to be run as root. Sorry”. To get around that, you’ll need to edit two files:

    leafpad /usr/share/playonlinux/python/mainwindow.py

EzoicWhen the file opens, you’ll want to look for the following lines and comment them out by adding a # in front of the line:

if(os.popen("id -u").read() == "0\n" or os.popen("id -u").read() == "0"):
wx.MessageBox(_("{0} is not supposed to be run as root. Sorry").format(os.environ["APPLICATION_TITLE"]),_("Error"))
os._exit(1)
Ezoic

So that it looks like this:

# if(os.popen(“id -u”).read() == “0\n” or os.popen(“id -u”).read() == “0”):
# wx.MessageBox(_(“{0} is not supposed to be run as root. Sorry”).format(os.environ[“APPLICATION_TITLE”]),_(“Error”))
# os._exit(0)

    leafpad /usr/share/playonlinux/lib/sources

You’ll want to find the 5 lines below and comment them out by adding a # in front of the line:

if [ "$(id -u)" = "0" ]
then
echo "PlayOnLinux is not supposed to be run as root. Sorry"
exit
fi

After making the changes above to the files, you should be able to run PlayOnLinux as root in Kali Linux (or any other Linux distro). If you’ve tried the steps above, let us know how it worked for you by leaving us a comment below.

Showcase

I will be making some videos to demonstrate how powerful Devuan's unique operating system is for high performance gaming.

I'm kind of a video making noob, but I'll work out the details and upload higher quality videos as time goes on.

https://rumble.com/v3zfjkn-root-only-li … aster.html

Last edited by Esleep (2023-12-03 21:44:14)

steve_v

Member

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 381  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

Not to put too fine a point on it: Post some (properly controlled) benchmarks or I call shenanigans.
Without data to back it up (with the notable exception if side-channel mitigations, which have a well-documented performance impact), this is nothing but pointless ricer rambling.

This in particular:

What happens when tweaking out a computer for hyper-performance, is that a ton of bugs will appear,
and programs will behave in ways that are totally bizarre, and unheard of to others. Most people,
sit around waiting for innumerable loading times, or intervals, instead of skipping past the red tape,
and taking full control of their computer, and the programs on it.  And this is going to cause some errors,
but that is normal because generally most programs are designed to run at slow speeds, and not hyper-speed.

Is complete and utter hogwash.
Computers are deterministic systems, and applications haven't been written to rely on system performance for correct operation (e.g. delay loop timing) since the 1980s. If your "tweaks" are causing bugs or unintended behaviour then your system is grossly misconfigured, your compiler is producing broken code, or your hardware is unstable (i.e. overclocked).

Programs being "designed to run at slow speeds" is pure fantasy, running as root to "reduce delays" is questionable at best (again, benchmarks or baloney) and gratuitously dangerous advice at worst, and the rest is a lightly-mangled manual install guide with a garnish of hyperbole and a dash of blatant misinformation.
If you're going to advise people to ignore decades of security best-practice and run a GUI as root, at least provide some benchmarks so they can make an informed decision WRT the supposed benefits.

Which is a file system check, that runs automatically, based on some hidden parameters,
and which does not work on an f2fs drive preventing me from booting into the desktop environment at all.

The conditions which cause a fsck on boot are not hidden, but f2fs is prone to triggering a full (and extremely slow) fsck on kernel version changes. Its fsck is also arguably quite broken, and both of those are good reasons it's not a supported root filesystem in the installer.
Forcibly skipping filesystem checks is a real good way to end up with a hosed filesystem, and comments like this do not improve the credibility of your "mini-guide" one bit...

Nor does:

I chose mbr, which is the first little 8mb partition I made initially.

Because the MBR is not a partition and can never be one, so this is misleading bollocks. What you are presumably referring to is reserving space for GRUB at the start of the disk, and 8MB for that is ridiculous.

FWIW, I run Gentoo as a daily-driver, and have benchmarked things like LTO and some (not completely stupid) experimental compiler optimisations fairly comprehensively. I too can make an unstable system with weird bugs and bizarre behaviour... That doesn't make it any faster under real-world workloads, only more broken.
Even the most rabid -fbroken-math -funroll-brain -fomg-speed gentoo ricers admit that objective gains are minimal for anything but very specific (usually scientific data analysis or synthetic benchmark) workloads, and that's going deep into the weeds at the compiler level, not just futzing about with "gaming" kernels and unfsckable filesystems on a binary distro.

About the only useful advice here is 'mitigations=off' (which should also have a warning WRT the security implications), and the use of lazytime over noatime, which is not widely known but will actually reduce disk access.

For the rest:
Where is your proof that f2fs is faster than ext4 or xfs?
Where is your proof that running as root improves latency?
Where is your proof that the xanmod kernel improves game performance?

And last but not least, what is:

Systemctl tweaks

doing in a "guide" for a distribution that doesn't package systemd or systemctl to begin with?

Last edited by steve_v (2023-11-30 07:08:13)

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aluma

Member

Registered: 2022-10-26

Posts: 646  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

@steve_v
Don't take it seriously
I have the full impression that ChatGPT is already starting its third branch.

Regards.

Esleep

Member

Registered: 2023-03-01

Posts: 10  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

To be clear, having worked with all of the main-stream linux distros,
and working with different configurations for years, to improve the
performance on Linux for gaming, is the basis for the mini-guide.

I know that using ROOT is a taboo subject in the Linux world,
but it's not whenever system administration is required, and
improved access to system resources as well.

These views, again, are based on my personal experience,
and the development of enhanced interaction between Linux,
computer hardware, computer programs, and computer games
are a daily work in progress....

Please if you have any suggestions related to improving the performance
of Linux, and gaming on Linux, by all means share them : D

steve_v

Member

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 381  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

having worked with all of the main-stream linux distros,
and working with different configurations for years

Then I suppose you also have years worth of benchmarks to back up your claims, right? Please, post them so we can all see exactly how much faster your "Hyper-Gamer" install is.

using ROOT is a taboo subject

No, it's just a stupid idea to run a GUI as root. It's insecure, it will likely provoke permissions-related bugs because developers don't test usually this scenario, and it and provides no benefit whatsoever (besides making it easier to trash your install, which seems to be what you're aiming for anyway).

improved access to system resources

For which you have still not provided any evidence whatsoever, or even presented a plausible mechanism.

based on my personal experience,
and the development of enhanced interaction between Linux,
computer hardware, computer programs, and computer games
are a daily work in progress.

Sounds like a long-winded way of saying "I have not properly tested any of this, but I want to sound like I know what I'm talking about" to me.
You can claim experience all you like, without proof all you are doing is blowing smoke.

if you have any suggestions related to improving the performance
of Linux, and gaming on Linux, by all means share them

Disable side-channel mitigations, extraneous background tasks, and power saving / clock modulation features (and/or consider installing and configuring tuned). Run a light DE or window manager and turn off compositing.
On an otherwise properly configured system, expect a couple of percentage points at best.
The end.

Oh, and refrain from making ridiculous claims without providing any data to back them up.
You do whatever you want to your own system, nobody cares. Advising others to engage in this nonsense is another matter entirely.

Last edited by steve_v (2023-12-01 04:18:15)

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Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

Esleep

Member

Registered: 2023-03-01

Posts: 10  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

I think it's bizarre that so many people are engaged in harassing people online and spreading disinformation,
and it really hurts those of us trying to benefit the community we share in common.

But that's the nature of the world we live in. And we all have to get used to filtering out the relentless storm

of bad information that finds its way into web forums everywhere.

Esleep

Member

Registered: 2023-03-01

Posts: 10  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

I decided to make some videos to show that Linux is indeed capable of being a competitive E-Sports operating system,

and that Devuan is uniquely designed unlike other distributions to enable technology enthusiasts to get really high

performance levels consistently, which is what competitive gaming is all about...

https://rumble.com/v3zfjkn-root-only-li … aster.html

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,485  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

Asking to see benchmarks to support performance claims if they're not already provided is not harassment. It's standard procedure in all sciences.

siva

Member

Registered: 2018-01-25

Posts: 282  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

ransomwareOS

Semi-related: Steam Deck provides root/privileged execution via sudo, which I always found surprising.

More related: https://hackerone.com/reports/1974296

Last edited by siva (2023-12-06 18:16:38)

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,316  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

@siva . . . OMG! Nice to see you after a loooong time . . .

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siva

Member

Registered: 2018-01-25

Posts: 282  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

@siva . . . OMG! Nice to see you after a loooong time . . .

I still lurk

The-Amnesiac-Philosopher

Member

Registered: 2023-08-24

Posts: 429  

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan ROOT Only Linux Hyper-Gamer Install

@siva . . . OMG! Nice to see you after a loooong time . . .

Indeed!