Don't have much to add to the thread but another tool that setup the live USB with persistant changes is Universal USB Installer. I haven't used it for a loooong time *checks last download: 2017* but it was neat and easier to use than Rufus, wich at the time didn't had that feature.
Nowadays if I need to use persistance I use a dedicated distro. MX Linux in the past, Porteus at the moment.

I just switched to Bazzite, which is pretty good, but the desktop version is nothing special. HGL this time would not even load my game library, but Lutris works for me. Dino Crisis was having issues, and the workaround I found online didn't work. This is why I keep both OS.

Any Pipewire experts here?

On OpenSUSE, otherwise GOG gaming has been quite smooth sailing... but that darn "pipewire" keeps causing crackling audio every now and then. This doesn't happen only in games but may come also while watching Youtube videos etc. Usually the crackling goes away in time, maybe comes back later etc.

I've been googling a lot about it and also asked somewhere else, and apparently you need to somehow increase "lag" to your audio so that your audio hardware has time to process the audio, ie. the default settings in pipewire may be too tight.

This seems to have something to do with "quantum" and the frequency (e.g. 48kHz) of the audio.

https://www.google.fi/search?q=pipewire+audio+crackling

So far what I've tried with many instructions and suggestions:

1. Created a file /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/10-rates.conf containing the following, which supposedly allows(?) pipewire to use several different audio frequencies:

# Adds more common rates
context.properties = {
default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 88200 96000 192000 ]
}

If this causes some problems, why doesn't pipewire allows those by default? Anyways, moving on...

2. Created a file /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/pipewire.conf to force applications and drivers to use a higher "quantum" value. In what format those values should be presented differs from instructions to instructions, but this is what I have there at the moment, the commented lines are what I've also tried because some instructions presented them in that format. I have no idea what that "context.properties" part is, and is it needed or not, but that doesn't seem to affect the end result.

default.clock.quantum = 2048
default.clock.min-quantum = 1024
default.clock.max-quantum = 16384
#context.properties = {default.clock.quantum = 4096}
#context.properties = {default.clock.min-quantum = 512}
#context.properties = {default.clock.max-quantum = 16384}

With those changes and after rebooting the PC, I still get that annoying audio crackling and weird audio every now and then, when I watch Youtube videos or play e.g. Divine Divinity (GOG version). I am unsure if I am getting those issues less frequently than before or is the situation the same, but I still do get the weird noises especially while playing DD.

I use my trusty old Logitech V20 USB speakers which otherwise work great both in Windows and Linux, not sure if they affect it as well (I presume they act as the "sound card" in this case, ie. do all the audio processing needed).

I have a feeling those pipewire config changes I've done don't have an effect because when I run e.g. Divine Divinity and check the audio situation with "pw-top", to me it appears that those quantum values are not enforced, but are something lower. I have attached a snapshot of what pw-top is showing to me while playing DD, somehow it is hard to get any text output from it because pw-top clears the console screen if I exit it...

So as you can see, both of the active lines seem to have a "quantum" value much lower than what I am trying to enforce in the pipewire config file, so am I doing something wrong? Also the "Divine Divinity" line has lots of errors reported, 33, which I presume are manifested by the occasional weird audio.

Ok after some more reading, I decided to do it a bit differently to what I had done above:

1. I removed the existing pipewire config files I had created manually:

sudo rm -rf /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d

2. There seems to be a "template" for the config file, so I copied that under /etc/pipewire/ and edited it:

sudo cp -p /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire.conf /etc/pipewire/
sudo vi /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf

3. In that config file, uncommented (removed the # from the beginning of the lines) and edited the following two lines:

default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 88200 96000 192000 ]
default.clock.min-quantum = 512

4. Rebooted the PC.

After this things seem at least better. I did still get occasional weird audio on Divine Divinity but 95% of the time it was ok, so I am unsure if I just need to bump up that value even more. Some instructions suggested you should NOT bump it over 1024, but didn't explain why (I love the instructions which tell or forbid you doing something, but don't explain why so that I could assess myself if I need to heed those warnings).

What I still don't understand that in the pw-top output, while the "Logitech USB" line now indeed shows quantum value 512, the next line "Divine Divinity" shows 240? Should they both now show 512 or how that works? Maybe I am misinpreting the output.

I am also unsure about the significance of the following lines, but some instructions suggested they are not as important, that minimum value is mostly what matters apparently.

#default.clock.quantum = 1024
#default.clock.max-quantum = 2048
#default.clock.quantum-limit = 8192

PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60

Increase if needed.

1.) The Biggest & Largest Misconception Everyone Has Today In The 2020's
With Technology Is That They Keep Falling Into The Same Trap They Are Trying
To Protect Themselves From Being Apart Of, ~_~

A. They Leave Windows Over Arbitrary Reasons, But Then Bring Arbitrary AI
Along For The Ride Right Along With Them To Linux, ~_~

B. They Leave Windows, Because Their System Is Not Compatible To Run It,
But Then Go To A System Like Linux, Which Is Also Not Able To Bring Their
Stuff Over From Windows, Because It's A Completely Different Operating System...

C. They Wanna Leave Windows Over Arbitrary Reasons, & Go To Linux,
Because They Find It More Secure, But Don't Realize A Lot Of The Stuff
Their Bringing From Windows To Linux Is Actually Tracking Those Arbitrary
Means To Linux Breaking The Platform & Their Experiences Badly For People, ~_~

Don't Leave Open Doorways From Windows To Linux, That's Just Stupid...
-- Talking About You Proton, o___O

D. People Want To Get Away From All The Bloated Windows,
Soo They Bring The Bloated Windows To Linux, ~_~

-- Heavy Tasked Memory Hogging STEAM,
-- Heavy Tasked Memory Hogged AI
-- Along With Other Software From Windows That Hurts Linux

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Whole Point Of Going To Linux From Windows
To Start With, Is That Your Trying To Get Away From
An Arbitrary Environment, & Also Trying To Protect
Your Own Environment As You Do It...

How Does One Do This, If They Do Everything Above?? ~_~

Linux Is Supposed To Work Differently From Windows,
It's Supposed To Be Kept Low Resource For Battery Efficiently,
& It's Supposed To Keep Things Like STEAM Out Of It's
Overall System Causing Issues For It...

You Deal With A Lighter Weight System
To Keep Privacy Theft Out Of Your Environment,
& Keep All The Bloat Out As You Run This
Overall Environment, & Keep You From
A Broken Computer Later Down The Road...

Your Trying To Protect Your Hardware, Not Throw It Away...

The Entire Purpose Is To Keep Your Computer Out Of Harmsway...

You Can Save Video Games, By Having Them Offline,
& Making Them Run Without Internet, & Having Them
Protected By Your Own Back Up Security, & You Can't
Do That If You Just Flawntly Run STEAM Online, ~_~

What I Mean Is, You Have To Actually Protect Things
Differently Then You Normally Would, Such As Games,
You Can't Just Rely On A Company Anymore, You Have
To Give Up Certain Games To Protect The Ones That
Matter The Most, & Sometimes That Also Means Giving
Up The Platform They Run On As Well, Not All The Time,
But Sometimes Yes, o___O

In Some Cases, It Also Means Finding Other Means
To Aquire Those Games, Software, Or Other Things
You Want To Protect... Sometimes Getting It From
Another Source, Or Even Going As Far As From A
Completely Different Place All Together, Or Even
Going As Far As Getting Other Material Somewhere
Else, & Ditching The Entire Platform & Product Your
Currently In All Together, & Disappearing & Going
At A Much More Privated Lower More Hidden Area
In The Same Market That Can Still Find People Who
Can Join You Along The Way... Weather That Is In
Gaming, Books, Food, Or Other Means Of Material...

The Misconception Is Everyone Wants It, But They Keep
Falling Into The Same Trap Every Time That Keeps Them
Falling Victim To The Same Problems Their Trying To Get
Out Of All The Time...

People Need To Think More,
Be More Serious About This,
& Actually Put A Halt On Their
Overall Trends They Are Glued To,
& Actually Change How They Run Things,
If Their Ever Gonna Actually Break The
Large Problematic Cycle Their Stuck With...

The Cycle Which Is The Arbitrary Environment
& Destruction Of Technology They Don't Want...

Think Smarter & Be Less Wreckless,
That's How We Beat The Problem Here...

What Do Other People Think??

Am I Right About This??

Any Opinions Or Responses Back??


----------------------------------------------------------

PS: I Forgot To Include That When Windows 10 Ends??

I Have No Intention Of Going To Windows 11, ~_~

I'm Not Staying Away, Simply Cause My System Isn't Compatible,
I Just Don't Want To Be On Windows 11 At All, I Don't Like It...

They Can't Force Me On There...

My Platforms Are Windows XP / Windows 7 / Wndows 10,
If Any One Of Them Should At Any Time Be Lost, Then I
Just Lose It, & That Does Not Mean I Jump To Windows 11, ~_~

I've Tried Linux Myself, & Can't Make It Work For Myself...

Linux To Me Is As Good As A Browser Online & That's It...
-- Safe
-- Reliable
-- Pretty Clean & 90% If 98% Private So Far

No Need To Risk Ruining That With Bloat Not Needed... =D

Little off topic, but I was checking the Steam Hardware Survey for this month. Looks like Windows 11 jump +1.54% giving Windows +0.22% increase. At the same time, Linux dropped by -0.12% which is a little more than Max OS.

So much for Windows 10 users going to Linux. I don't hate Linux
It works as a great OS, but has a lot of issues that come with it, which you need to fix on your own. The average person can barely work Windows for anything more than basic use, let alone Linux.

I've been using Windows 11 for a while now and barely have any issues compared to Linux. Reminds me of someone in a thread taking 3 days just to fix issues to get a game working on Linux. Images average person doing that.

Where? In the pipewire.conf, or is that some pulseaudio or "pipewire on pulseaudio" setting?

Anyway, those changes I made seemed to have at least some positive effect now. I think the latency is somehow calculated from the used clockrate (Hz) and quantum value, one is divided by the other etc. etc... One of those googled pages mentioned it, that's all I know.

Not really surprising because the reasons many seem to vow to switch to Linux are things that most don't care about or are not affected. At least the reasons I keep hearing are:

1. Don't want to create an online Outlook account that Windows 11 pretty much requires by default.

Even though I am a Linux user too, even I didn't have any issue doing that. I already had even a couple old hotmail/live/outlook accounts so I just picked the one I use most often and have used that as my "Microsoft account". I did that already with Windows 10, kept using the same account also with Windows 11.

2. The hardware doesn't support Windows 11. That basically means so old CPU and/or motherboard that such people probably are not very active Steam users anyway, ie. playing relatively new games. I do have some laptops that don't fulfill the Windows 11 requirements but they are quite old and cheapo supermarket laptops, like over 10 years old or so.

3. One some have mentioned as well and that bugs me in Windows 11 (and 10) is how it keeps advertising MS services and trying to lure you to use them, starting from Windows Live/GamePass memberships, to buy more online storage from MS etc.

Yeah that is quite annoying at times and Linux is like a breath of fresh air without any such marketing, besides the little Ubuntu wants you to subcribe to Ubuntu Pro for extended support and whatnot... but it is not a killer, not annoying enough to abandon Windows.


Unfortunately Linux has one big killer which makes it unsuitable for many PC gamers: many online anticheat systems don't work on it, so Windows is the only option for such PC gamers. Apparently Valve online games like Counterstrike 2 and Team Fortress 2 have Linux support, but Fortnite/COD/Modern Warfare and whathaveyou don't work on Linux and WINE due to their strict Windows-only anticheat systems, period. So for lots of online gamers Linux is a no-no at this point.

Heck, even I am miffed that Roblox dropped support for Linux and actively even prevents Linux gamers from joining Roblox, and I think their reason or excuse was that the cheaters tended to come mainly from Linux and their new anticheat system works only on Windows or something.

If Roblox still worked in Linux even with WINE, I would have already replaced Windows with Linux in one of my son's gaming laptops because it is one of those older ones that Windows 11 doesn't deem suitable, so it is running Windows 10 at the moment.

Steam survey stats have to be taken with a grain of salt, perhaps two...

As far as I know it count diferent users, not diferent machines and not every user/machine got to enter the servey. Not sure how it deals with places like China where internet cafes are very popular, but from what understand, at least a few years ago, the sheer amount of users got thrown at the pie chart like any other.
Not long ago, simplified chinese was the most popular language and when internet cafe machine got upgrades, you could see the video cards sudently jump from non-existent to top score (usually nVidia **60 class).

The Steam Deck really have changed the stats, since Linux users usually wandered between 0.5% and 1% of total users.
That said, 2.57% of many, many million users are still a lot!

I hear those reasons as well. What do you mean by creating an online Outlook account? By the way, I dislike Outlook but have to use it at work.

I’ve never really understood the complaints about advertising. Most of these users likely have phones that engage in similar tactics, or they experience the same issues on their Linux devices with launchers. I’m pretty sure Steam does that as well, but you can always close it out. However, you can also debloat Windows which is not bad idea.

The second reason is probably best reason to switch. I use Linux on my older laptop. Sure I'm not using daily like windows but I like to mess around in it or game on it when I go on trip's.

I had no idea that Roblox was dropped on Linux. Seems dumb to do that. I believe Linux will continue to grow, but I don’t think it will ever reach the same level of popularity with consumers as Windows for various reasons.

Linux will always appeal more to enthusiastic gamers and tech-savvy individuals, which I think is a good thing, in my opinion.

One of the reasons I don't fully switch is because company I work for is everything MS windows. So windows right now is benfitting me more. We are soon switching everyone over to 11 which will be hell soon. Lol

It's an environment variable. This one works for all WINE gaming, because wine uses Pulseaudio. That is why you will have pipewire-pulse installed on your system, to get software using pulseaudio to work with pipewire.

I used to use PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=85 on my system when I had audio crackling gaming in the past. At some point, with latest kernel, wine/proton-ge, pipewire amongst other things, the problem apparently was fixed and I no longer require it (found out by accident when I forgot to set it for some game).

Depending on how you run your games/apps, where you put that environment variable varies a bit. Lutris, Heroic and Steam have a place to stick it in, in their settings. Plain wine: type it in terminal before everything else. Alternatively system-wide in /etc/environment. For Flatpaks, use Flatseal to set an env for the whole application, like Heroic. If all else fails, run the app in the terminal, with the env set at start, or export the env before running any command.

The world is your oyster (?).

Which is funny because I seen Linux users use steam survey as reliable source of Linux growing alot.


Agree, it might be 2% but that still millions of user's like you said..

For Roblox on Linux, use Sober.

I use it every weekend, to play Roblox with my nephew. Works great.

The Linux experience can be quite different for various reasons. Maybe it partly depends on the Linux distro (how old the kernel is), how old versions of WINE and other stuff is provided with the distro (in case you try to directly install them from that distro's repositories) etc.

Also, Steam gamers generally have it easiest on Linux, for the most part the experience doesn't differ at all from the Windows experience... except that not all Steam games run on Linux, at least officially and with a click of a button. But quite many do.

1. When I tried Rocky Linux 9 two years ago or so for playing Windows games on Linux, for some reason I had lots of issues there. It was probably partly because I didn't know what I was doing and made some wrong assumptions, but it was probably also that the kernel was a bit older as were many application versions provided by the distro.

I recall trying to get e.g. Lutris and Bottles to work on it (in order to run e.g. my GOG Windows games on it), and I started getting the frustrating feeling that nothing works as it should. Even installing the NVidia proprietary Linux drivers was very convoluted on it and I even wrote some updated installation instructions for them to the Rocky Linux user forums when I finally succeeded in it.

Also, even Steam had a bit of issues. I think the only option to install Steam on it was as a Flatpak and while that in itself is not a real problem, I had a weird issue in e.g. Team Fortress 2 where some of the audio, like the female announcer voice, was missing completely. Otherwise it worked fine though.

2. In Linux Mint, I had much better success getting my GOG Windows games to run on it and also Steam gaming is just as easy as in Windows on it. Installing NVidia proprietary drivers is quite straighforward and easy, and I think getting Lutris to work was also pretty easy.

I think there was some hiccup there though, was it that I needed to install WINE separately and needed to follow separate instructions on how to install the newest stable WINE version in Mint because the one offered in the official repository was quite a bit older. But after that, smooth sailing.

3. To my surprise, in OpenSUSE (Tumbleweed) the experience has been the easiest and smoothest so far. Basically all I've done is:

a) Install Steam and Lutris from the OpenSUSE software center application (Discover). Basically behind just one mouse click. I think you had an option to install either the distro or flatpak version(s), I went with the distro versions.

b) Install Steam games through the Steam client, and GOG games with Lutris.

That's pretty much it so far. For GOG games, I installed Dragon Age, Demonicon, Gothic 2 and Divine Divinity through Lutris, and they all installed with a couple of clicks within Lutris, and seem to run flawlessly. Dragon Age doesn't even seem to have the CPU affinity issue it currently has on Windows, and Demonicon doesn't even run anymore on Windows 11, while no issue in Linux (installed and tried it both in OpenSUSE and Mint).

However:

- I have had that crackling sound issue in OpenSUSE (not in e.g. Mint, maybe it just doesn't use pipewire yet where these issues seemed to surface), but with some googling I seem to have been able to mitigate the problem. It didn't happen only with games but also while watching Youtube videos etc.

- My OpenSUSE laptop has only Intel HD Graphics so I don't know yet if installing NVidia proprietary drivers is easy like in Linux Mint, or complicated as it was two years ago in Rocky Linux 9. I am probably going to install OpenSUSE soon also to another laptop, I will see there if NVidia drivers cause any hiccups.

Maybe one thing I've recently learned from someone either here or some other Linux forum/discussion is that maybe it isn't such a great idea for a beginner to try to install Windows games with vanilla WINE. Sometimes it may be very simple, sometimes not and you need to add "WINE prefixes" to get to game to work and good luck understanding anything about them. :)

So yeah, better give e.g. Lutris (or some other similar application) a chance, or if you don't mind using a gaming client, that Hero client that many mention too (I haven't used it so far because the Steam Linux client works fine for Steam games, and Lutris seems to work great using the GOG offline installers; you don't even have to download the installers separately if you don't want to, Lutris does that downloading of the offline installer and installation from it for you if you so wish).
Ok I have to check that. It has been months since I checked the Roblox Linux status the last time, and back the it seemed to be "no can do, and the Roblox developers don't want you to even try".
Yeah I'm still trying to figure that one out. I got the impression earlier that at least those (Wine/Lutris) games are using "pulseaudio-on-pipewire" (or was it the other way around?), so I am still a bit lost am I supposed to change pipewire, pulseaudio or "pulseaudio-on-pipewire" settings.

Anyway since I had those crackling sound issues also with Youtube in Chromium, I presume this issue exists also out of pulseaudio? Unless Chromium uses pulseaudio too...

Seems like this is some kind of turning point now where the Linux audio is migrating from pulseaudio to pipewire or something like that, and right now I am in the crossfire when pulseaudio applications are using pipewire... or something like that? Hopefully this becomes clearer soon, feels a bit like the move from X to Wayland with graphics; I recall there also being those issues like "this application is not yet updated to work with Wayland" or vice versa...