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Running Steam and games securely (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 weeks ago by oldfart@lemm.ee to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.ml

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Is there a consensus on how to run Steam and games isolated from the main system? I've seen Flatpak mentioned in some Reddit post but I'm not sure how good the separation is. Everything about Flatpak sounds like an early work in progress, but I can be convinced otherwise.

I don't trust Steam or the closed source games at all. Currently I've got a second disk with a separate system for gaming, but I very rarely have the motivation to reboot. I want to game more (and spend less time on social media) but compromising my main OS is out of the question. Stuff in the home directory should be isolated from the games. Ideally no network access too, but Steam will not work in that case.

If someone has seen a ready made guide I'd be happy to read it. Any tips would be nice too.

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[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (10 children)

Intermediate route: pass through your GPU to a virtual machine running Windows or Linux+Proton. This is the strongest isolation aside from dual boot or using a second device. There are a lot of tutorials online but the archlinux wiki is a good place to start. This usually means you need a second GPU for your main system (an iGPU works if your CPU has it), or you can use janky scripts to switch the GPU between your main system and the VM. You also might need a KVM switch to switch your monitor and keyboard between your main system and the VM.

Expensive route: if you have two PCs you can set up one for game streaming using Sunshine, and stream games to your primary PC. Benefit of this approach is you can also stream to your tablet or android TV.

[–] oldfart@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

That is an interesting idea, I was about to buy a GPU for AI, right now I have one whose primary feature is not using a lot od energy. Am I going to need a dedicated monitor for games if I set it up this way?

[–] Giloron@programming.dev 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yes/no. The KVM solves that. When I did it I just connected my monitor's second input to the second video card.

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