Homecoming Launcher - Linux Advice

[Hatchet_Manners]

1 hour ago, strix_ said:

In my experience, KDE has worse performance in CoH than GNOME overall and introduces a ton of bugs (ranging from visual to UX to crashes.) AFAIK this is because it's using a lot of janky workarounds under the hood to get x11 (the old gpu code) and Wayland (the new code) to play nice, whereas GNOME is just.... a lot more set up to just use Wayland. If your distro has a "use with xorg" option, I'd try running that and see if the problems go away?

 

What I found works best for keeping CoH running smoothly in general tho was using Lutris or Steam to run the HC installer so I could manually set which version of Wine to use with the game, tho. With older games sometimes you get way better results using older versions of Wine. I use the default 8.x version that came bundled with Lutris, and I haven't had any of the issues people are reporting with 9.x/10.x

I use KDE and I stopped using Wayland because it sucks. Moved back to xorg for my desktop. Xorg was never broken for me and I've read the slide deck on why Xorg sucks and we should move to Wayland and it certainly didn't convince me to stick with Wayland. 

 

Issues like what you mentioned are why Wayland is not ready. If it solves a certain problem you're having then great use it, but otherwise sticking with Xorg is the right choice. 

[strix_]

2 minutes ago, Hatchet_Manners said:

I use KDE and I stopped using Wayland because it sucks. Moved back to xorg for my desktop. Xorg was never broken for me and I've read the slide deck on why Xorg sucks and we should move to Wayland and it certainly didn't convince me to stick with Wayland. 

 

Issues like what you mentioned are why Wayland is not ready. If it solves a certain problem you're having then great use it, but otherwise sticking with Xorg is the right choice. 

Haha, no arguments here. Just posting this in case switching back to X11 helps other people with the problems they're having!

[CyberWoLfman]

On 4/19/2025 at 2:51 PM, Hatchet_Manners said:

I use KDE and I stopped using Wayland because it sucks. Moved back to xorg for my desktop. Xorg was never broken for me and I've read the slide deck on why Xorg sucks and we should move to Wayland and it certainly didn't convince me to stick with Wayland. 

 

Issues like what you mentioned are why Wayland is not ready. If it solves a certain problem you're having then great use it, but otherwise sticking with Xorg is the right choice. 

 

Update: Wayland is still not ready. No CLI command for backlit LED keyboards (Xorg has this with "xset led on," and, quite frankly, I prefer to work in a dark room with minimal lighting), the City of Heroes game glitches with Wayland but not Xorg if you re-size it, if you're in a program and try to browse to a directory, the program crashes, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Been using computers . . . for a very long time. Not feeling nostalgic at all for the days when programs frequently crashed. Xorg is far more stable. But, if you've disabled Wayland and you're running the latest Ubuntu (25.04 "Plucky Puffin") and you're a GUI type, you can't use the App Centre. But, I'm more comfortable with the CLI, anyway.

 

Right. For those having stability issues with Wayland and are un-certain how to get back to Xorg from Wayland, you should look it up. But . . .

 

*Disclaimer:

 

1.  The following worked for me on a (nearly) 'bare bones' install, but, it might not work for you.
2.  Look up anything someone tells you to put into your OS's CLI (AKA Terminal) before you do it.
3.  Remember to back up the important things, first!
4.  Physically disconnect (not just un-mount) any drives you don't need (so you don't format a drive by accident, as some of us have done in the past, when we weren't paying attention).
5.  Have an .iso of the operating system you might need to re-install written on a USB stick (not just copied and pasted, as there's a difference) and be familiar in how to set your BIOS to boot from that USB just in case before you make any system changes.
6.  Double check and triple check the above and think very, very carefully before you do it, as there may be other reasons you might not want to do it (such as the possibility of another OS on a physical drive and if you remove all partitions on it, it'll be gone).
7.  If you're not absolutely certain you can do this without any consequences, don't do it!

 

If you're using Ubuntu 25.04, you can do the following:

 

Open up the Terminal and type in:

 

sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

 

Use your up and down arrow keys to go down to where it says the following and remove the # from in front of it (it'll make it something that'll take effect instead of being a hidden comment, like what you might find even in some Web pages):

 

# WaylandEnable=false

 

Save the file with Ctrl+O (or use Ctrl+X and hit Y when you're asked if you want to save it), then exit with Ctrl+X, whichever you prefer.

 

Re-boot.

 

Your system should be more stable after that and you'll be able to run Xorg commands in the CLI, again.

 

[nacho2k3]

Disclaimer to the above... X11, for lack of maintainers, is kind of a sinking ship. Keep in mind that bug fixes on Wayland are more likely to get work done over X11 at this point.  Not trying to say which is better, they're both flawed in my purview.

Temporary fix, works for today?  Sure.  Knock yourself out.  Just keep that .conf file in mind when it stops working.

[Hatchet_Manners]

On 6/14/2025 at 10:36 PM, nacho2k3 said:

Disclaimer to the above... X11, for lack of maintainers, is kind of a sinking ship. Keep in mind that bug fixes on Wayland are more likely to get work done over X11 at this point.  Not trying to say which is better, they're both flawed in my purview.

Temporary fix, works for today?  Sure.  Knock yourself out.  Just keep that .conf file in mind when it stops working.

This is the same type of logic people use to explain why we should use systemd, yet here I am still using a much older init system that works better than systemd.

 

It is time to come to terms with the fact that this type of technology (desktop computers and their IO) has plateaued. There is no need for constant changes and illusory "improvements", just security updates and hardware compat updates (another area that has plateaued; 5 year old cpu? No problem).

 

Wayland needs more maintainers because it is still immature and needs the hardening that only decades of use can provide. After those decades of bug fixes and design compromise for weird user requirements, wayland will be just as messy a codebase as X.

[nacho2k3]

In Parallel--
Users: "Tequila is no longer being supported.  Move to HC Launcher before it is retired."

HC Staff: "No, seriously, Tequila manifests will stop being published soon."

-- but no, let's keep using Tequila.  HC Staff doesn't know what they're talking about, and if enough of us insist on using Tequila, they'll have to relent.

 

This isn't practical advice, but okay. 

Edited 15 hours ago by nacho2k3
Nah, not doing this.