General questions around Clear Linux - Gaming context

General Discussion
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Hi guys,

as I just subscribed I would like to ask a few questions:

  • What Linux is Clear Linux derived (forked) off?
  • Can provided Intel GPU drivers compete with Windows performance in Games?
  • Is dual boot with Windows possible out of the box?

I have a MSI Claw 8 Gaming handheld device, and would like to play in Gaming mode on it;
→ Is it possible to add repositories to Clear Linux to achieve that?

I tried CachyOS which was running really great on my AMD based Lenovo Legion GO, but I was really disappointed of it’s performance compared to windows on my Intel based Claw 8 because of the available drivers…

→ So I was wondering if I could hope for better performance on Clear Linux being optimized for Intel from the get go?
→ I heard there are actually good and performant open source drivers for Intel graphics - is that true?

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Hey there!

Sadly, I don’t know the answers to all your questions. It might be better if I don’t answer them at all.

However, I can tell you that ClearLinux is not a fork of any other distribution. Like Fedora, it is based on GNU/Linux. ClearLinux is not focused on being a desktop distribution. It excels in server or container (productivity/performance) use cases. Gaming is probably possible, but it will likely be painful to set up and maintain.

I would recommend not investing a lot of time in this. :sweat_smile:

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Clear Linux is (currently) x86 only so it does not support ARM and other architectures.

Gaming is doable since the setup is simple but figuring out when and if things go wrong would be the hard part. There is some support but the community is effectively this forum, the github and the IRC.

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@pamalosebi and @Kingfisher,

thank you a lot for your answers! I sincerely would be willing to put some effort into it, also being a YouTuber and thinking about making a story (video) out of it, if it’s working out nicely.

I would only like to know if anyone has done it before, and if the performance is at least on par with Win11. If not it wouldn’t be worth the hussle for me sincerely as I tried about 1-2 months ago with CachyOS (a generally really great and performant Linux distro as well, which even has a handheld gaming mode out of thr box), but I had to put a lot of effort into it, as I was co-testing. At the end I was getting it to run properly with their developer’s and community support but got mostly a 20 to 50 % decrease in FPS and therefore was really disappointed… With AMD hardware I had really great results before, as you can see on this video:

@Kingfisher
I didn’t see it in the brief description you shared;

  • Does Clear Linux come with Xbox Controller support out of the box?
  • And is there a way to get some kind of Gaming mode running on it? Is that evrn possible if the OS doesn’t contain it from thr get go?
  • And do you know how performant the most uptodate Intel GPU drivers are?

Sorry for the many unusual questions, but the concept of Clear Linux really sounds interesting to me and would be fitting to the hardware I currently own. If there would be a developer who would be willing to collaborate with me I would also be happy to do some testing/tweaking for gaming together :wink::+1::+1:.

My problem is just, that I’m an experienced gamer (40 now / gaming since I was 4) who knows quite ok about hardware, and 2D/3D graphics, but I lack in Linux knowledge… Just had a little bit of experience with the gaming distros; CachyOS, Bazzite, Nobara, Chimera and Garuda…

So if anyone would like to work with me on this it would be really awesome! :wink::+1::+1:

By the way;
Do you have a more direct way of communicating than on this forum? Something like a Discord channel, or a Telegram group, or something like that?

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Ah, by the way;

I tried the latest mesa drivers out about 2 months ago (with CachyOS) and didn’t see big differences in comparison to Intels own drivers for Linux sincerely…

Has there been any performance advancements lately?
Are those open source drivers?

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For gaming you might have a look here :

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity

Clear is currently at #164 there

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@Businux
For me not really… Sorry…

I asked further questions which are not covered on the linked page…

Just ignoring them wouldn’t be nice. If you think this is something which you can’t help with fully fine, but please let me know.

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Gentlefolk,

Your curiosity is well-placed, and your ambition to chronicle the journey commendable. Allow me to address your points succinctly, yet with the candour they deserve.

Clear Linux is no derivative. Intel forged it from the ground up, tuning every library and compiler switch for contemporary x86-64. Think native, not borrowed.

Clear Linux ships the vanilla, up-to-date Linux kernel. It already contains the xpad driver (wired/USB) and hid-xpadneo (Bluetooth on recent kernels).

Intel’s open driver is canonical code, upstream first. With Vulkan titles it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Windows; with older DirectX it is respectably close; with the newest DirectX 12 one should still defer, on occasion, to Microsoft’s turf.

If Windows already dwells on a UEFI disk, Clear Linux will courteously add itself alongside. Shrink, install, reboot—no theatre.

The distribution trades traditional repositories for curated “bundles”. Augment with Flatpak when you must. Anything deeper is a hobby, not a necessity.

sudo swupd bundle-add <name>

On the MSI Claw 8, Clear’s cutting-edge kernel and Mesa give you Intel’s best foot forward. Expect brisk CPU throughput, credible iGPU performance, and battery life in line with any Linux host. Keep Windows nearby for that awkward, freshly-launched AAA title.

In sum: Clear Linux offers a polished, Intel-centric experience that warrants an evening’s experiment. Should it satisfy your library, you may never glance back.

Cordially,
—A Fellow Traveller

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  1. Does Clear Linux come with Xbox Controller support out of the box?
    Yes (with a few caveats). I use an Xbox One S when playing clone hero through lutris but ymmv. I also use a Thrustmaster eswap (PS, Xbox variant fails). Clear linux also provides xboxdrv which was requested here xboxdrv · Issue #3175 · clearlinux/distribution · GitHub

  2. Is there a way to get some kind of Game mode running on it
    There have been others who were successful with this method, you may refer to this post Notes on building a Clear SteamOS appliance

  3. And do you know how performant the most uptodate Intel GPU drivers are?
    No, but you can ask @Aqua1ung . he has an Intel arc running through a thunderbolt dock
    Clear linux uses mesa git for its driver stack. Its good, but i use an AMD R9 Fury X, so cant comment on intel performance. I plan on getting an ARC gpu as my next card so Im looking forward to testing it on CL

I’m not a part of the dev team, but we occasionally report bugs and fixes on the CL Github repo.
There is an unofficial discord link floating around this forum, but you can ask @Gorian or @pixelgeek for an invite to the official one

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@ghostFromSpiritRealm and @Kingfisher thank you very much! It sounds very promising! :wink::+1: I will have a look at your answers more in detail and the links you shared in the next days.

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@Gorian could you provide me the unofficial Discord link please? :wink:

@Aqua1ung Could you tell me what your experiences with the ARC GPU have been? Was the performance comparable to Windows for Games? Do you know?

I have a Claw 8 AI and wanna test installing Clear Linux onto it to test it out. I have Windows on my fast ssd, so I would install it on my SD-Card (UHS-1 - a fast one from Sandisk) first and if I really like it maybe install it as well onto my SSD.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1hxib6a/msi_claws_poor_linux_support/

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@ghostFromSpiritRealm
Sounds great! :wink::+1::+1:
Is it normal though first boot up takes hours to start from a fast and modern Sandisk USB-C drive?

Should I maybe try flashing it on my Sandisk Micro-SD card? By data nrs. they should be on par with write and read speeds more or less…

@Kingfisher
I’m stuck at this point in loading from my USB-Stick since over 1 hour already, is that normal? :sweat_smile:…:

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that is not supposed to happen, but is quite normal (unfortunately)

.iso support is spotty at best, your best bet would be to flash the .img file, since those have a good track record.

You may try 43630 from here Index of /releases/43630/clear/

The version I currently have on my rescue disk is 43470

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Hi @Kingfisher,

thank you very much! I’ll give it a try :smiley::+1::+1:

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@Kingfisher
There are so many different image files (img), can you please tell me, which one I should use out of the ones on the screenshot (or out of the link you shared with me)?

I tried following with following result

  • alyun (which I couldn’t boot at all…)
  • live-desktop (which I could boot, but which got stuck at another point again…)

I used both Balena Etcher and Rufus in Windows for it, but always having issues of different type…

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  • we can ignore all images except for live-desktop, since the others are mainly for cloud installs.
  • rufus works fine for both .iso and .img files (Ive had issues with balena for some odd reason).
  • set it to GPT instead of MBR and write the image to the drive
  • if you get stuck at a black screen with only an x mark, it can either be fixed a restart or trying a different version of CL, i recommend trying 43470
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Thank you! I’ll try it out :wink::+1::+1: