 Death to Microsoft! The open source community is ready to send you to your grave! Your tyrannical reign over PC gamers is at an end! Freedom! Is what I would say if I lived with Linus Wallace III over here in Fantasyland where any of that was true. So far, the one month Linux gaming challenge has been as advertised, a challenge. And in part two, Luke and I are gonna be taking it to the next level by not just gaming on Linux, but by recording and streaming our gameplay to viewers on Twitch. Now I'd be lying if I said I'm not expecting some speed bumps, like this small one here to tell you about our sponsor. Are you running into poor quality video meetings? Use GlassWire and instantly see what apps are wasting your bandwidth during your meeting and block them. Get 25% off today using offer code Linus at the link in the video description. Okay. With our desktop environment set up, Luke and I have a deceptively short pre-flight checklist of tasks to complete to be streaming ready. We'll need comms to chat and collaborate with our fellow creators, and software that's capable of capturing our gameplay, audio and face cams. And obviously, we'll need the aforementioned audio interfaces and cameras both working. We both use Elgato and OBS software is both working. We both use Elgato key lights, which we've always controlled using Windows software. So we'll both need to find a workaround for that. And no points will be awarded for having an ugly or bad sounding stream. It's got to look every bit as legit from a viewer perspective as it did on Windows. Immediately, I started overthinking things. Sometimes that's the problem with knowing just enough to be dangerous. I tried to apt get OBS, the industry standard for desktop capture and streaming in the terminal, only to discover that Manjaro, the Linux distribution that I'm using, doesn't come with apt because apt is for managing packages on Debian and related OSes. Oops. Making life more difficult, the message that comes up when you try to execute the command doesn't say, hey, you should probably be using Pac-Man, ya dunce. It tries to install some kind of dependency for apt, then just quietly fails and prompts you to do the same thing again when you try to use it. Infinite loop, baby. Speaking of which, I had a panic moment when I checked OBS compatibility and found out that it is actually unsupported in Arch by the Way and its derivatives. But the good news is that upon launch, I was immediately relieved to find that it works exactly as expected, with some exceptions. For example, the NVENC new encoder doesn't show up as an option, which appears to be down to Nvidia's poop-tastic drivers on Linux. Side note here, I always kind of assumed that the Linux community was grousing about Nvidia primarily for their locked down proprietary approach to things, and that it had less to do with the actual quality of the product. Now, I properly understand that it is definitely both. As mentioned, core product functionality from like a couple of years ago is missing. The control panel looks like it's from 10 years ago, and the interface is kind of confusing. Thankfully, I was able to enable G-Sync on my display, but for whatever reason, you allow it in order to actually turn it on, which you then verify in a completely different tab. And this kind of confusion is not a deal breaker. It's just obvious that the Linux software has never gotten the kind of TLC from the UX team that the Windows software does. For me, acquiring OBS was no problem. I just got it from the package manager, and it was all okay. Once installed though, we noticed something. Window capture on Linux can be a little problematic. We couldn't seem to get it working at all at the start. I had an option for it, but it didn't work, and Linus didn't even have that. But a few days later, I tried it again for a different project, and it worked just fine. I checked in with Linus and his did too. Neither of us know what might've fixed it, but that's cool, I guess. The bigger issue for me ended up being the software that just doesn't exist. There are third-party tools, for example, that allow key remapping. Keyboarding master is evidently a popular one. But if your peripherals have a manufacturer-provided tool that is used to reconfigure RGB lighting or the liftoff distance of your mouse or the sensitivity steps of your DPI button, then get ready to install Windows in a virtual machine, pass those devices through, configure them, and then hand them back over to Linux. It's extremely tedious and doesn't even remotely restore full functionality. For example, don't expect to get a low battery warning for your G Pro wireless mouse. And it's even worse for my audio interface. The Go XLR has a handful of unique features, including decent preamps, reprogrammable screen labels, a built-in soundboard function, and the infamous beep button that I am so fond of using during my live streams. About the kind of bull that Nvidia puts them through, I'll have it in the affiliate link down below, by the way. The bad news about it is that as far as I can tell, TCHelecon has given exactly zero thought to Linux whatsoever. But wait, there's a solution. All I have to do is follow these simple instructions to download a random script off GitHub and run it with no indication given whatsoever for how exactly to run a script. Even the process of downloading it was unintuitive. And I know GitHub is for developers and not for end users, but it's really hard to hide behind that shield when it took me less than two days to run into a situation where I had to use it. I mean, at that point, if GitHub is only for developers, then desktop Linux is only for developers. You can't have it both ways, unlike on LTT store, where you can find great merch at fair prices. Our mouse mats are rated five stars with literally thousands of reviews. Go see what all the fuss is about at the link below. Anyway, I found a guide on how to run a script. I'm grateful for that, but I'm frustrated by the condescending tone. I mean, my assumption that a file with a.sh extension would behave as I would expect it to and launch in some kind of script running application doesn't seem that unreasonable. Newsflash random contributor, you can also change a file extension in Windows, and it will attempt to launch in the default program for that file type. It actually serves exactly the same fundamental purpose, hinting at the contents of the file. The only difference is that these hints for the user are also used as hints for the operating system. It's actually a lot more convenient than digging into the properties of the file to find out what it does. Anyway, pompous tone aside, that contributor did help me figure out my GitHub download. So it turns out that right-click save target as gets you an HTML file in.sh clothing, because I don't know, some borderline arbitrary reason probably. And in order to get it to be an actual.sh file, I had to copy it into a text editor, Kate, and then save that as a script and execute it in the terminal. It spat out a bunch of errors, and as I expected, most of the buttons don't work, but all the inputs and outputs that I had already configured in Windows did show up. My faders work, I even have my button until my GoXLR loses power for any reason, at which point I will have to pass it through to Windows, reconfigure it in Windows, and then pass it back over to Linux without losing power. Compared to that, all the other stuff is minor, I hope. The most notable issue I had was that my audio devices were just kind of screwy in OBS. My voice came across very unnaturally deep, and it sounded like my mic input had been duplicated. My voice just feels deeper now. I don't know if I've got something lodged or what. And? Chat was pretty convinced that I had set something up incorrectly, and if I was a viewer of my stream, I probably would have said the same thing. But I've been using OBS for like six or seven years now, so I had my doubts. I even streamed my OBS settings panel to prove it, but eventually, feeling out of options, I just restarted OBS, and yeah, that solved pretty much everything. Which was kind of frustrating, because I've heard time and time again that you don't have to turn things off and on again to get them working in Linux, but hey, maybe that's just because I'm not really great at Linux yet. Maybe there's something else I could have done. Not sure. On the good side of things though, my mixers worked flawlessly from the start, but it is pretty simple as far as mixers go. I didn't have to change any settings. I didn't have to install anything for it. I just set it as my default input device and was good to go. Once I got PAMAC figured out, getting comms going was surprisingly simple. PAMAC is a program with a graphical user interface that functions similarly to the PacMan package manager that you operate in the terminal. At least it does once you find the hidden button in PAMAC to search snap, flat pack, and Arch user repository entries. It's basically like the pop shop from Pop OS, except it didn't try to brick my system the first time I used it. The only really difficult thing was choosing the right package to install for Discord. There's regular Discord, and then there's Canary Discord, whatever that is. I chose the most official looking package and I was up and running almost immediately once I found the super convenient per application volume mixer in the bottom right corner. The interface is kind of kludgy, like scrolling with your mouse wheel scrolls through both the audio devices and the levels of the individual devices, which is not great. But other than that, it works really well. And my first voice call to Luke went completely without a hitch. Or it would have if I'd known that it was starting. Unfortunately, I actually still have not figured out how to get desktop notifications working. I found a guide, but the instructions fell apart almost immediately when my Discord package didn't show up in the list where it's supposed to be for me to fix it. I think that's probably a project for another day. Discord was an easy install for me. Again, it was just automatically available in package manager. That being said, there was certain missing features. Screen sharing across Slack teams and Discord are kind of sketchy at best. They feel less stable or they're even missing some features here and there. Outside of that, there's even really simple stuff missing every now and then. Like if I download a file in Slack and then try to click the open containing folder button, just nothing happens. And speaking of missing features, I use the phone app for the Elgato Control Center just like Linus did. I had found another solution through a script on GitHub, but I thought that way would potentially be problematic in the longterm, so I just avoided it. Unfortunately for my camera, however, Canon EOS Utilities doesn't work on Linux. I'd been using that software on Windows for quite a while now to get a live feed from my Canon 70D over USB to my computer. It was flawless and didn't require a capture card. I do have an AVIO 4K capture card, which does work on Linux, but I don't have the micro HDMI cable that it would need to connect to my camera. I could pick one up, but just for this challenge, I decided to go with my old Logitech C920, which while it doesn't remotely look as good, it works just fine. And when you make the window for it really small, no one can really tell. I think overall the easiest part for me was getting my Cam Link 4K up and running. It was garbled when I selected one of the duplicate sources in OBS, but immediately after trying the second one, it cleared up and has been picture perfect ever since. So it works, but there's a much larger upfront investment in getting it working. The question is just whether it feels worth it. In the end, it worked. If you connect it to the stream after we were done about 15 minutes of troubleshooting while we were just in the thick of trying not to starve, I'm sure any random viewer wouldn't have been able to tell a difference between one of my old Windows streams and this one. Audio was good, capture was good. That's where the good ends, however. Literally everything I used past this point was a lesser experience compared to its Windows counterpart. Almost everything was missing at least one feature and some I'd say most notably OBS and Teams were just buggy, requiring restarts for simple settings to actually apply and had other various problems. It definitely wasn't impossible and it was actually easier than I expected, but due to various bugs, missing features and incompatible software, it wasn't as simple or clean as doing it on Windows, but I wouldn't say that was enough for it to be a deal breaker. For me, the bottom line is what you're looking to get out of it. If you're daily driving Linux for game streaming out of a genuine passion for learning more about it, then have at it, have fun, but just know what you're getting into. PC gaming already requires a certain amount of tinkering. I mean, there's a reason that more people game on consoles, whether it's trying to track down save files in some Vista era folder or forcing an aspect ratio in an I&I file, but a Linux gaming PC, it requires all of that crap and then another mountain of crap on top of it. Like when something doesn't work, you can tell yourself, well, I never wanted to use that functionality or I never wanted to play that game anyway, but honestly, it just comes across as sour grapes. It is not that easy to use. The good news though, is that a shocking number of experiences don't start and end with, sorry, you can't do this. So stay tuned for part three, where Luke and I are gonna be trying to get as many games up and running as possible, starting with Twitch's top 20 and then expanding into some of our personal favorites. It's gonna be a really good one. Just like this message from our sponsor. Thanks to Pulseway for sponsoring today's video. Pulseway is an all-in-one platform management tool that can help protect your business from things like phishing and ransomware. How? Pulseway's got features like automated patching, central user and system management, disaster recovery backup, and stolen credential monitoring. So protect your business today and try Pulseway for free at the link in the video description. It's sponsors like that that are gonna put him through college. Wanna say hi to YouTube? Hi. All right, he wanted to be in the video. Okay, off you go. If you guys are looking for another video to watch, check out part one of this series so you don't miss any of the action. Or if you've already watched that, maybe check out my I switched to Mac series from a little while back. Okay, it was quite a while back, but it was definitely interesting.