The Ultimate Guide to Installing and Optimizing Lutris for Steam Deck

As an avid Linux gamer and Steam Deck enthusiast, one of my top recommendations for enhancing your Deck‘s gaming experience is installing Lutris, the open source gaming platform for Linux. With over 10 million total downloads as of 2022, Lutris has proven itself as a must-have tool for setting up a Linux-based game library.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll show you how to install Lutris on the Steam Deck and leverage all of its features to consolidate and optimize your game collection for on-the-go gaming!

Overview of Lutris – Why It‘s Essential for Steam Deck

For those new to Lutris, it essentially solves two key challenges for Linux gaming:

1. Simplifying installation and management of games from multiple stores like Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, etc. via an integrated game library. No more juggling multiple clients!

2. Enhancing compatibility and performance by customizing Wine and Proton configurations for each game. Windows games can run faster on Linux with Lutris.

This makes it an extremely useful tool for the Steam Deck. Having Lutris handle optimal compatibility setup means you spend less time tinkering and more time actually playing!

Some core capabilities:

• Supports over 9,000 games and counting
• One-click installers for a growing library
• Automatic integration with Steam library
• Custom runners for emulators and Windows apps
• GOG, Humble Bundle and more importable

As Lutris co-creator Mathieu Comandon states:

"Lutris was born from the difficulties of getting all my games working on Linux and the lack of an application centralizing games from different sources. The goals were better integration of games in the Linux desktop along with easier installation and configuration."

Let‘s dive into getting Lutris running on your Deck!

Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Lutris

Thanks to the Steam Deck‘s built-in Debian-based Linux environment, installing Lutris only takes a few quick steps:

1. Switch to Desktop Mode – From the main Steam Deck UI, bring up the power menu by pressing the Steam button. Select "Switch to Desktop Mode". This will load the Linux desktop.

2. Open Discover Store – Discover is the default software store included with SteamOS. You can launch it from the applications list or desktop shortcut.

3. Search for Lutris – Type "lutris" into the Discover search bar and you should see the community-maintained Lutris package appear.

   

4. Install Package – Select the Lutris entry and click the Install button. This will automatically fetch the latest release from the Flathub repository and perform a full install.

   

5. Launch Lutris – Once installation completes, Lutris will be available in your applications list and desktop shortcuts. Fire it up to get started!

And that‘s all there is to it! The whole process usually takes under 5 minutes thanks to SteamOS being Debian/Arch-based like most game-friendly Linux distributions.

Next let‘s go over how importing and managing your library…

Importing and Organizing Your Game Library

Now for the fun part – leveraging Lutris to easily install and organize all your games from various sources into one unified library!

Here are the key capabilities for consolidating your collection:

• Import Steam games with one click. This will automatically pull in your existing Steam library and apply optimal compatibility settings. Can toggle integration on/off per game.

• Connect GOG account to import your GOG game purchases, again with properly configured installers. Supports new releases automatically.

• Link other platforms like Humble Bundle via API keys for quick access. Configurable sync frequency.

• Manual game addition via customized Wine runners if the title isn‘t in Lutris library. Ideal for Windows apps.

For the Steam Deck specifically, I recommend initially importing your Steam collection to have Lutris manage the compatibility configuration. This allows you to spend less time adjusting Proton layers and more time actually gaming!

You can see your full library broken down by platform via the sidebar:

Now let‘s go over tips on actually installing games and adding them to Steam Deck‘s Game Mode interface…

Lutris Installation and Steam Shortcuts

When installing new games directly through Lutris, the one-click installers will automatically detect your Linux distribution and configure Wine appropriately during setup. Easy!

For adding games to the Steam Deck‘s standard gaming interface, utilize these tips:

• Select Create Steam Shortcut when installing new Lutris games

  

• Or right click on existing game and choose Create Steam Shortcut

  This will make the game visible in Game Mode‘s library.

• Can toggle desktop icons if desired

I suggest using Lutris as the main installer/manager but leveraging Steam shortcuts to launch games from Game Mode‘s Big Picture-like environment.

Lutris vs Other Game Managers

How does Lutris compare to other open source game managers for Linux? Here‘s a quick rundown:

So while Steam obviously owns the storefront, Lutris excels at behind-the-scenes configuration for performance and compatibility.

Now let‘s move on to optimization and customization…

Optimizing Performance on Steam Deck

One major advantage of Lutris is the ability to easily customize Wine and Proton for enhanced game performance through runners. Let‘s explore key optimization areas:

Custom Wine Build Configuration

For Windows games under Lutris‘ Wine integration, you can tweak the build configuration via the Runner Options section:

Start with DXVK and vkd3d enabled for Vulkan support, change VR runtime if needed, adjust feature level. Testing different builds is easier than base Wine.

Editing Proton Compatibility Layers

For Steam games running through Proton, the Integration menu allows customization:

Manually adding launch arguments, forcing Proton versions, and toggling FSR can squeeze out extra FPS.

Tuning Specific to Steam Deck Hardware

Under System Options, I recommend:

• Toggle Feral GameMode – Optimizes system resources during gameplay sessions (battery life tradeoff)
• Set CPU Governor to performance – Disables CPU throttling for steadier high speeds
• Set I/O Scheduler to none – Reduce storage latency spikes for loading
• Custom Tuning Presets – Per-game profiles for max FPS

Combine that level of customization with enhanced compatibility from Lutris and your Steam Deck will be a Windows-game crushing machine!

Which leads me to the final topic for more stubborn games…

Fixing Compatibility Issues

Despite Lutris handling a ton of the Wine complexity behind the scenes, some tricky Windows games may still face crashes or launch failures. Here are my top troubleshooting tips:

Check ProtonDB Reports

If it‘s a Steam game you imported into Lutris, checking ProtonDB user reports can reveal potential workarounds for the title. Apply any launch arguments or protonforcedaisy chains suggested.

Force Different Wine Build or Runtime

For non-Steam games, test running on different Wine versions via the Runner Options. Try stable builds vs bleeding edge like GE or custom TkG builds.

Launch Windows Steam via Lutris

Some game key authentication can fail when launching titles direct through Lutris instead of Steam. Running Steam via Lutris as a Windows app first often helps.

Disable Esync/Fsync

If encountering stuttering cutscenes or music, disabling these Wine sync methods sometimes resolves it. Can cost a few FPS.

Double Check File Permissions

Game files not having proper Linux execute permissions can lead to launch issues without clear errors. Re-adding permissions resolves it.

Hopefully with those tips you can get any stubborn games running smoothly on the Steam Deck alongside Lutris!

Let me know in the comments if this helped you supercharge your Deck and if you have any other optimization tricks to share!