Hello all, I made the jump.
And I saw the avatar for the community, and for this fleeting moment thought it was a post about successfully making some particularly hard jump in supertux2.
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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Are you only wanting to emulate games with PCSX2 or multiple different emulators? If the latter, have you tried the automated install process of Emulation Station or EmuDeck? I haven't dealt with PS2 games through it yet, but maybe the automated installers and configs will help?
Hmm, has been a while since I last tried PCSX2, but isn't there a module for it in Retroarch these days? Usually that works better.
Seconded. I went down the dark path of trying to hook up each emulator and it was pain. RetroArch made it so much simpler. (OP it's not just for Arch, I learned that too late)
There are emulators that works better as standalone, and sadly - as I love RetroArch - this is true for PS2 emulation since LRPS2 or Play! are not as good as PCSX2.
I have no experience with PCSX2, but maybe something in its configuration causes your issues. Reinstalling or updating it will not make a difference. If you really want to start over, close the application, remove the directory ~/.config/PCSX2 and restart the application. You will have to run through the initial wizard again. If it still won't work, some other issue is the culprit and you would likely need to share logs. Alternatively, if the application prints logging to stdout, you could run the application from a terminal (f.e. by launching pcsx2-qt) and see if anything is printed there when it shuts down.
Okay so uninstalling and then pressing the shortcut opened it meaning it wasnt gone. This confused me. So just deleting the directory is how you uninstall?
I got it back working, I left it hang for ages beyond the forcr quit prompt ans it started.
no, you uninstall with the package manager/app store, however, that directory is where your config files are kept, and those are not removed when you uninstall the app.
Emulators work pretty well on Linux. I mainly use them on steam deck with the bazzite distro, perhaps you might consider that over Linux mint? Don't get me wrong, mint is amazing for switching from windows but bazzite is full on gaming focused.
What advantage do you see in running Bazzite on your SD over SteamOS?
I run bazzite on a deck as well, and the main reason is because I can actually use it as a pc without as much hassle from SteamOS really wanting to be read only.
If I want to set up say, a dev environment, from git sources, and all the required libraries to compile things, bazzite comes with distrobox so it's not too hard set that up... whereas SteamOS will blow up all of that when it updates, even after you turn read only mode off.
...
That and the AUR sucks, lol.
I thought Bazzite was immutable as well? I know I've faught with SteamOS a few times to make something work only to get it wiped, so that makes sense, but I assumed the same would happen with Bazzite.
How do you find it? Do you miss SteamOS for anything or does it feel the same in gaming mode?
A simplified explanation is:
Bazzite itself is immutable, but then on top of that base layer, its a customized version of Fedora, via DistroBox, which itself mostly is mutable, and allows for you to set up other DistroBox instances pretty easily.
Bazzite's system updater utility updates both the underlying Bazzite core, and all of the DistroBox instances running on top of it.
99.9 % of the time there is no reason to mess with the immutable core bazzite stuff, but the distrobox containers built on top of it? You can do whatever you want.
Also if you do fuck up the Bazzite core, you can fairly easily roll it back and reset it without losing your existing files, without having to re-image the whole SteamDeck.
As far as the non desktop mode, actual SteamDeck mode experience? Seems the same in terms of game performance, but it is easier to add things like DeckyLoader and EmuDeck and what not, as that base Fedora instance comes with a bunch of utilities that help you install and set them up.
EDIT: I am almost certainly not 100% technically correct in some way here, but I think this is generally accurate.
I run a lot of "alternatively sourced" games and it has better compatibility with that. Pretty similar otherwise.
Could you expand on that? Not the alternative sourcing, but why the compatibility is better. Is it just something to do with Fedora vs Arch, or is there something else that makes Bazzite work better?
I source almost everything officially, but one I was trying to do was Mass Effect 2. I played 1 on the Deck and loved it, so I wanted to buy 2 and 3 only to find that they don't sell them anymore. You have to buy this huge trilogy remaster pack with remastered graphics and huge file sizes, which defeats the purpose of a battery powered 720p device.
I couldn't for the life of me get it unpacked and working, even if I copied the files from a Windows computer over. I assume that I'm just not good enough at Linux to figure it out but that it is possible. Would be helpful to know of a different distro would make that easier.
Would be great if u would share log of pcsx2
I fixed it, but before you congratulate me just know that I dont know how and I dont know how to share a log
Congratulations!
Does it work if you install the PCSX2 flatpak from Software Manager? I haven't tried it myself yet, but this page may help and has more detail about the installation methods:
Not sure recommending a flatpak installation is the best thing to someone kinda new.
Yes and no.
Has it got its own set of rules you'd have to learn and thus an accompanying learning ~~curve~~ bump? Sure. Which, in actuality is mostly just knowing that Flatseal is your go-to whenever a flatpak causes issues.
Is it a surefire method after you've become accustomed with it? Absolutely. All kinds of jankiness can prevent any piece of software from working on your system. With Flatpak, especially on distros that enable it by default, you at least know that your system isn't the culprit.
Besides, Flatpak is enabled by default on Linux Mint. The PCSX2 flatpak is even verified. So no additional setting up or whatsoever is required.
What makes you weary besides what's already stated above?
For someone who just wants to play a game it's a great suggestion, as long as the application uses portals etc.
Welcome in from the cold. We have cocoa and blankets.
While I don’t have experience in this area, I trust that someone will be able to give you some advice.
Hey thanks, it is a lot of fun but I cant explain why tinkering with basic shit makes me happy when I could get windows to do this stuff easier. I hate those guys but I feel like I spent ages setting the channels on a car radio and my brain relessed the dopamine as if I educated myself to be a mechanic
I spent ages setting the channels on a car radio
Ha. Same.
Did you have backups set up for your mint installation? Depending on how long its been, restoring via timeshift might be worth a shot. I'm relatively new to Linux so idk if that could fix it.
How did you install PCSX2? The fact that you are launching it through Cartridge makes me a little worried that you are using the windows version. Try the AppImage or Flatpak packages and see if you have any improvement (assuming you aren't already using those)
I got the flatpak initially, I realised it was a few releases behind current and got the appimage direct. For whatever reason, the flatpak version is now current in my manager.
Another oddity, opening in steam blocked my dualsense from being recognised by pcsx2 despite steam seeing it and pcsx2 seeing it when launched directly or through cartridge.
Honestly I recommend the version made specifically for your distro. I haven't had the best luck with flatpak but the ones made for Debian, rpm, etc always work great
Lutris has an option to act essentially as a frontend for pcsx2, so in theory it should be a Linux version, but I have also struggled in the past with lutris's versions of things like emulators not having the right permissions to run, since they are a sandbox in a sandbox.
have you tried a different bios for PCSX2
Yes, I swapped to a US one when I saw a game was marked as US. I thought that kicked it off so I reset to the default swttings and selected the bios folder again