When I was building a new dedicated Linux gaming PC, I opted for Mint as my Distro because of all of the recommendations and the very helpful compatibility database which gave me more confidence in the new components I was picking out. What ultimately killed my interest in Mint with the Cinnamon DE was the use of X11 and I had an issue with screen tearing that no amount of tweaking could fix.

After forcing Mint to use a newer kernel version, so it could actually detect my Radeon 9060XT, and making my system unbootable while trying to edit the X11 config file, I ultimately switched to Fedora Workstation which uses Wayland. This solved my problem and also allowed me to use variable refresh rate and HDR with no issues. I am not using the rolling release version of Fedora; the versions I am getting appear to be stable and only a few weeks/months behind.

As a Win10 end-of-support refugee, I ended up on Fedora Workstation which uses GNOME as the DE and I have really enjoyed how clean and functional it is for me. I guess I just don’t care enough about extensions and customization to want to use anything else so the common complaints about GNOME don’t affect me.

In sharp contrast, when I demo’d the KDE version of Fedora using a LiveOS on USB, I immediately disliked it and stuck with Workstation. I have been daily-driving Windows based operating systems since 1995, and grew up in an exclusively Apple/Mac household; so having experienced all three, Linux with GNOME has been the coziest option and meets 100% of my needs.

I can appreciate that others have strong opinions on this, but I don’t have any issue going between Win11 at work and Fedora Workstation at home and it just makes me love my Linux system even more.

TL/DR: I despise MicroSlop and their persistent enshittification of their products and user experience; Linux with GNOME allows me to experience something simplified and clean that looks nothing like what MS offers.

+1 Fedora (Workstation, in my case) When I set up Fedora on the machines I loaded it on, I normally allocate 50 GB to /root and the balance of the space to /home after setting up my swap and /boot partitions. This has worked well for me so far, YMMV. It also sounds like its not a bad idea to leave a small percentage of a drive un-allocated but I haven’t done this personally.

You beat me to it. I loved my Dreamcast. It had so many great innovations like the VMUs, those chonky controllers, high density discs, and some really excellent games. If you picked up a VGA box it could also display on a PC monitor and you got super crisp video output…I played a ton of Phantasy Star Online and this was the ideal setup. Sadly, Sega screwed up their timing on the release since the PS2 was around the same time, if I recall correctly, and I think that is what ended their contention as a serious console maker since I am sure they lost bucket-loads of money.

I finally unloaded my DC about 6 years ago during a yard sale to a console collector…ahh well, good times.

Yeah I am hoping the Dev improves the controller support since I noticed the same thing; I believe that is on the to-do list before 1.0 release. I switched to mouse and keyboard controls and have been playing for over 40 hours with a ton more to do in the game.

Another one to consider if you prefer less intense (i.e. frustrating) combat is Swords N Magic and Stuff. It’s on Steam in early access and is a steal for about $25. It offers the large open world and tons of exploration along with a variety of play-style options, crafting, and farming. The only thing it doesn’t really seem to offer is the over-arching narrative but there is definitely lore to discover along the way.

Just as an update to this, I noticed that there was a new version of gnome control center (49.4-2.fc43) in the latest update push for Fedora so I took a chance and did the upgrade hoping it would include a fix to this issue. Based on initial testing on my two machines at home which were affected and needed to be downgraded to 49.1-1.fc43, it looks like this new version resolves the line-out audio problem. Thanks again for your efforts to raise awareness of this and your suggested workaround.

NieR: Automata. This game was definitely not something that I would normally pick up but it kept showing up on “must-play” lists so I figured I would give it a shot when it was marked down like 70%. The initial impression from the intro/tutorial was pretty underwhelming due in large part to the confusing change in gameplay from top down shooter to side-view to normal 3rd person but once I got through that I found the setting and presentation of the game really compelling. I was even reading about the lead developer and searching for other projects to potentially pick up once I finished this one. That lasted for about 10 hours or so…spoiler ahead but I figured out how to hide the text if you haven’t played this and are considering it.

Obviously this is a bit of an unpopular opinion based on the super high scores it gets and others stuck it out for multiple replays to see the “good” endings but I just couldn’t convince myself to even finish it the first time. YMMV.

Hey I tested the downgrade script and it fixed my issue just like you suggested. But of course now my OS wants to update the files back to the version I rolled back from. It doesn’t seem to be a forced update and I updated and upgraded everything before I tried this but I was wondering if the issue will immediately return once I allow the system to go back to version 49.4-1.fc43.

Doesn’t look like there is any way to skip those file updates so I suppose I just need to do the downgrade again if the sound problem returns? Hoping the next revision of gnome-control-center resolves it.

Thank you again for your efforts and information sharing. This is what I love about the Linux community and it is making the transition from commercial slop-ware so much easier.

Thank you for working through this and sharing your findings. I will try this out tonight.

I am seeing the exact same issue on a PC I just put together and loaded Fedora 43 Workstation on. If I hook the 3.5mm jack for the speakers (older Creative Pebbles) to the green port on the back panel it shows up just like OP’s when I try to test; however, if I plug the jack into the headphones port on the case (which is connected to the motherboard audio pins) it detects and works properly. I was also seeing some Dummy Output options with the line out connection in use, and not knowing what it meant, I selected one and this kicked me back to the login screen and gave me an unhelpful kernel alert.

In contrast, the speakers on my other PC, which is also running Fedora 43 Workstation, works fine off of the back panel. Both motherboards are using Realtek audio chips but it may not be the same version since one board is a B650 and one is a B550.

Curious to see what the solution ends up being but I also recently installed pavucontrol on the newer PC so I will try and set the speakers up using the line-out that way. If that doesn’t work I will migrate to bluetooth speakers or just leave things as is.

This is really interesting. I started with Mint-Cinnamon since it sounded like it would be ideal for me as I had no desire to switch to Windows 11 and I needed a daily driver OS; I did not like Mint at all and spent too much time trying to make it work with newer hardware. Fedora Workstation has been a great experience for me and it checks all the boxes with minimal troubleshooting. What is about Arch that made you decide to switch? Genuinely curious as I am all-in on Linux now that I know I can do productivity stuff and gaming so easily and I don’t have to give another dime to MS.