Bazzite Buzz #8: Spit & Polish
ATTENTION AMD/INTEL DESKTOP IMAGE USERS
We are switching from using the bazzite-arch Distrobox container to layering Steam, Lutris, and other gaming packages to the image itself like every other image. This prevents issues exclusive to using the custom Arch Linux container and makes everything simpler for our users.
Bazzite is a custom image of Fedora Linux 39 utilizing Universal Blue’s custom image framework designed to bring users the best in Linux gaming for their PCs, including the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs. Bazzite’s newsletters highlight all of the work we have been doing to bring gamers the best features ready to go for their PCs, home theater setups, and handheld gaming devices.
If you are new to the project, then here’s how this technology works: Bazzite and other Universal Blue images follow the continuous delivery methodology of development, which means we’re constantly adding new features and squashing bugs to the image through updates. These updates also include anything directly from upstream (Fedora and Universal Blue) and upgrades from the packages we include.
Steam & Lutris Preinstalled
Oops! Remember how the 2.0 announcement and last newsletter mentioned how we were finally at a stable place without any major changes? About that… We had a major change happen to AMD/Intel Desktop images. All of the images are now going to be uniform by having Steam, Lutris, and other gaming-related packages layered onto the image. This fixes a lot of the issues users have experienced running Steam through a Distrobox container and keeps every image consistent. Now that this change is out of the way, we can finally say Bazzite is in stable a place.
Your current bazzite-arch installation is still intact and remains maintained if you prefer the Distrobox method for gaming or for using it outside of Bazzite.
Steam Deck OLED Initial Support & Wayland Desktop Mode for Steam Deck Images
Bazzite now has initial support for the upcoming Steam Deck OLED. When our users start to get their hands on one, then we can accommodate other changes if necessary too. It will be ready very soon.
Desktop Mode is no longer using X11 on Steam Deck images. This is one of the major differences of Bazzite versus SteamOS. SteamOS may not use Wayland until KDE Plasma defaults to it with the next major release.
Wayland support allows for:
- Better Waydroid integration.
- Better multi-monitor support.
- Closer to working HDR support, when GNOME and KDE Plasma support it.
- A much more secure windowing system over X11.
- No screen tearing by default in Desktop Mode.
Bazzite is now on Discourse!
You may have already noticed this. The forums, documentation, and newsletters are now on Discourse! We now have a central place for all kinds of discussion about the project. The Universal Blue Discord still exists for casual discussion on Bazzite, but this will be the main website for all things Bazzite and Universal Blue discussion and support threads. This move also solves the issue of relying on the Universal Blue website for documentation, which was too fragmented attempting to cover the project as a whole.
Documentation has also improved dramatically. The Frequently Asked Questions has also been cut down and organized based on the category. The Bazzite Github README section will also be updated shortly to reflect the new documentation changes.
Survey Results & Conclusion
The survey has now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey and gave feedback on the project! Here is the major feedback and most popular survey answers:
- Project moves too fast and it’s kind of difficult to keep up with all of the changes to Bazzite even with the newsletters and other documentation.
- Concerns with too many images which comes across as daunting to the user when they have to choose one in the installer.
- HDR support, which is coming as soon as soon as Fedora Linux supports it.
- Most of the other
justcommands should be in the Bazzite Portal or some other GUI. - Nix/Home Manager/Fleek GUI so users can be build their
$HOMEenvironment easily. - A warning built into Bazzite for major changes especially since updates on the desktop images are automatic. The Nvidia image changes where Steam+other packages went from the
bazzite-archcontainer to the host image caused issues for this user because of the unexpected change that occurred. - Handheld PCs that are NOT the Steam Deck need better support if possible.
Results of the most popular answers of the survey:
| New to Linux | New to Universal Blue? | How did you hear about Bazzite? |
|---|---|---|
| No | Yes | Youtube Video |
| Most popular image | PC Build | Average Experience Rating |
|---|---|---|
bazzite-deck |
Steam Deck | 4.5/5 |
Thank you for our users who have been sticking with the project for so long. Please give us any feedback on Bazzite that you have on the new Discourse forums or our Discord. Our end goal is to have a stable, flexible, and a newbie-friendly gaming experience on desktop Linux.
Install the latest Bazzite here. Check out the documentation for installation instructions, troubleshooting, and FAQ. Report issues on our issue tracker if you experience any major issues with Bazzite.
Changelog
New Features
- AMD/Intel Desktop images are now uniform with all of the other images.
bazzite-archDistrobox container is not used anymore.- However, it will still be maintained and anyone who has been using these Desktop images previously with it will still have all of their data from it saved.
- Steam, Lutris, and other gaming oriented packages that originated in the container are now part of the image too (protontricks, LatencyFleX, etc.)
- Added needed changes to support OLED Deck.
- Wayland is now the default on Steam Deck, HTPC, & Handheld PC images.
- Enhance and fix zram and deckswap scripts.
Bug Fixes
- Resolve xdg-desktop-portal issues
- Fixes file picker issues.
- Fixes KDE images not opening applications instantly on boot.
- Fixed bluetooth controllers and other devices not connecting.
- Fixed issue with NTFS dricves in the latest udisks2.
- Restore noto-san change removed from main.
- Fixed branches not working in Game Mode on Steam Deck images.
- Steam Deck images now have Xvfb preinstalled for some services used for Game Mode.
- Don’t consider errors in steamos-automount to be fatal.
- This is just a request for external drives to be mounted.
- Fixed branding not showing for Fedora 39 builds.
- Re-added Gwenview and Okular flatpaks to default install list after they were removed from Fedora Kinoite.
- Corrected zram disabling karg
vkcaptureis disabled on all Microsoft Surface images due to a major bug.- Restored Calculator application on KDE builds.
- Fixed GNOME Software acting sluggish.