If you accidentally ban linux users in three[1] different[2] banwaves[3], then linux was only halfway supported in the first place, even if they overturned (almost) all of those bans.

I think the real reason they did it was EA’s financial situation. Since money is tight, the amount of resources they were willing to put into real linux anti-cheat probably dropped to “none at all,” and now we’re here. Otherwise other cheater-prone games like Counter Strike, Overwatch, Halo, The Finals, DayZ, Hunt Showdown, etc would have probably dropped/blocked linux by now too.

@helios@social.ggbox.fr @griefreeze@lemmy.world, a Respawn employee responded on reddit and wants a list of user IDs/gamertags for those banned on linux:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/1fi77vs/comment/lnh13kj/?context=8

EDIT: A Respawn employee on reddit is now asking for the user ID/gamertag of those banned on linux: https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/1fi77vs/comment/lnh13kj/?context=8

— Original comment —

Looks like you’re not the only one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1f5kyd1/psa_using_proton_experimental_or_at_least/

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1ffxfjb/apex_legends_proton_epic_bug_that_do_that/

They’ve falsely banned linux players before, once in March 2023 and again in August 2023.

I got hit in the Aug 2023 ban, and had my permaban overturned after 1-2 weeks. Expect to have your appeal rejected, we had to make enough of a fuss about it to get a community manager to reach out to the development team to get people unbanned:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/15uqt7w/linux_users_getting_falsely_banned_again/

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Linux-players-getting-banned/td-p/12338557/page/50

I haven’t played in 9-10 months since the false positive put a really bad taste in my mouth, so I don’t have any datapoints to add for the current state of things, but I wish you the best of luck getting unbanned.

I had a very similar issue with Heroic Games Launcher (streaming to steam link, steam shortcut added, game thought I was using mouse and keyboard instead of controller). I fixed it by enabling “minimize heroic on game launch” in Heroic’s options. Maybe see if something similar exists for Lutris

SteamOS uses PipeWire, Pulse Audio isn’t even installed

You didn’t list your distro, but I had the same issue on Pop!_OS. I fixed it by modifying the ALSA properties in /usr/share/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua. I’d first try uncommenting headroom and changing it to 1024, then logging out and back in. If that doesn’t work, go 2048. If that still doesn’t work, then I’d maybe try adjusting period-size.

For me, a value in the ~1200 range for headroom fixed it completely. But it will entirely depend on your sound card/hardware. And note, these values will probably be overwritten with any wireplummer updates.

Also keep in mind, increasing headroom will increase audio latency, so try not to increase it too drastically.

These don’t exactly “fit in” with the rest of the list, but on Deck I’ve personally had a blast with CarX Drift Racing Online and the Sonic &ASRT Collection

This is already fixed in proton experimental bleeding-edge.

I specifically bought a Pixel 5a because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack. Then after a year, it died on me, and they sent me a 6a as a replacement.

I miss the jack. A lot. But it’s hard to justify buying a whole new phone for one. Once this one dies, I don’t know what I’ll do.

I don’t think it’s possible to filter the trending games that way, but you can filter the all-time highest rated games that way by using the “Platforms” filter in instant search: https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList[oslist][0]=Steam Deck Verified&refinementList[oslist][1]=Steam Deck Playable

It also has an option to filter the search by year(s) and by number of ratings/followers, so you could select the current and/or previous year to see what has been trending well-received and popular in the (relatively) short-term.

If you’re looking for an indie alternative, Roboquest seems like a good recent shooter for two players. It’s on both Steam and GOG. Gunfire Reborn also seems fun.

These aren’t indies, but there’s also Deep Rock Galactic, L4D2, and of course the original Helldivers.

I’ve been able to stream my non-steam games from my linux desktop to my steam link, at least the ones in Heroic Games Launcher. Although, for that to work I had to use Heroic’s “add game to steam” and “minimize heroic on game launch” options. Without the minimize option, the game thought I was using a mouse and keyboard instead of controller.

You could probably play the SCS Truck Simulator games basically indefinitely.

Vampire Survivors is an absurdly addicting Deck game, and can be considered grindy if you go for the eggs late-game.

Deep Rock Galactic is a good one too, if you’re okay with no aim assist and playing solo or with randoms.

The beta is now live

If you need Android Auto, the closest thing you’ll get is LineageOS with some sort of GApps, but those are far from the “privacy and security first” goals of GrapheneOS.

If you are looking for something private/“FOSS-focused” and don’t need Android Auto, I like CalyxOS a lot, and have heard good things about DivestOS.

As far as I know, no one has ever gotten their account banned store-wide.

Like you mentioned, sometimes games with anti-cheats like Apex Legends or Overwatch will falsely ban linux users (from that specific game - not the whole Battle.net or EA store), but they usually undo those bans within a week or so for most users.

I was hit with one of the Apex bans, and it was overturned within a week or two. But there were a few people who I am pretty convinced did not cheat and are still banned, so maybe be cautious with that particular game.

Yes, a lot of games work fine without precompiled shaders. Others, like Apex Legends or Rocket League, are a complete mess (at least for the first few minutes of gameplay - it used to be much worse but DXVK 2.0 helped a lot with this). You’ve probably just only tried the games that work fine.

“Having to deal with pre-shader work” that you mentioned is a good thing. Without it, games will stutter more. And you always have the option to skip it or disable it entirely.

But otherwise, it’s a classic delimma:

A surprising amount of games support linux anti-cheat now: https://areweanticheatyet.com

Oculus does not work, but that’s expected for a Facebook product… Valve Index and HTC Vive work pretty good. I’ve personally played 5-10 VR games on linux with an Index I borrowed from a friend

Through proton, yes. The game has always worked with anti-cheat disabled (so no PvP multiplayer), but proton-compatible anti-cheat has been supported since early April, so all multiplayer functionality has worked since then.

This article is referring to a recent MCC patch that broke proton anti-cheat for about a week, thankfully it’s fixed now.