Best Linux distro for X-Plane 11

[Djang0 1]

Q1) What are the best linux distros for running X-Plane and why?

Q2) Can I expect compatibility issues with 3rd party developers like Flight Factor when trying to install addons?

Q3) Can I expect frame rate hit under Linux?

Q4) Can I expect a frame rate hit using Linux NVIDIA drivers?

[propduster 1]

Hi,
You might want to check at the org, there are linux specific forums.  It seems quite a few different distros are used, probably Mint, Debian and Ubuntu are the most popular.  I have been running X-Plane  11 (and previously 10) on Antergos without problems, using a GTX1070 and nVidia 396.24 drivers.

Most users report as good or better performance on linux compared to win.  There are some developer considerations.  The FF 320 Ultimate is currently not supported on linux, nor are any of the products from X-Aviation.  The rest of the Flight Factor a/c run under linux, I have the 767 and 752, both very good models.  Best Airbus, IMHO, is the Toliss A319. 

Hope this helps,

Don

(Also:  IXEG 737 and X-Enviro weather addons not supported)

[soaring_penguin 428]

As above, get some prereqs setup correctly (drivers, sound) and it should run at least as good as under windows. The only problem is with  3rd party not supporting linux. Another example of lacking support  are the various weather engines, they are usually windows only. 

[Djang0 1]

Q5) Do gaming orientated distros like Fedora Games Spin provide any advantages for running X-plane? (If yes, which would you recommend?)

Q6) Any recommendations for Linux desktops that work particularly well with X-Plane, or is this a non issue? (E.g. in the past I've hear that Xfce has a smaller memory footprint than some other desktops.)

[soaring_penguin 428]

5 hours ago, Djang0 said:

Q1) What are the best linux distros for running X-Plane and why?

Q2) Can I expect compatibility issues with 3rd party developers like Flight Factor when trying to install addons?

Q3) Can I expect frame rate hit under Linux?

Q4) Can I expect a frame rate hit using Linux NVIDIA drivers?

Q5) Do gaming orientated distros like Fedora Games Spin provide any advantages for running X-plane? (If yes, which would you recommend?)

Q6) Any recommendations for Linux desktops that work particularly well with X-Plane, or is this a non issue? (E.g. in the past I've hear that Xfce has a smaller memory footprint than some other desktops.)

Let me retake from the beginning:

A1): Any modern distro should be able to run it, make sure to use proprietary  drivers from AMD or NVidia.
For sound, you need OpenAL set up correctly.

A2) YES! This is the biggest turn off from using Linux for X-Plane.
additional, VR for Linux is not (yet) existing, also there are issues with multiple screen setup (but that is solved now, I believe. There is a whole topic on the .org about this).

A3) on the contrary, X-plane runs better under Linux.

A4) You do need the Proprietary drivers, Nouveau is not supported.

A5) no idea, but turning off anything not related to gaming should increase performance. I would go with whatever distro you feel familiar with.
Personally, I recommend Ubuntu, it has good support, and is used by Laminar to compile X-Plane for Linux.

A6) non issue, X-Plane is a memory hog, it will take whatever it can get. recommended setup is between 16 GB and 24GB. Those few MB will not hurt you.

All by all, X-plane is running very decent on my Ubuntu 18.04, without crashes while using the stable version (but be careful with beta's, as they can break stuff).

[propduster 1]

Why not try some of the distros you're interested in by dual booting?  Pretty easy to do and check things out, if its a no-go for you, try another distro.

[mike4 3]

Sure I triple boot all os, but for testing distros I quickly fire it up in virtualbox. I like Ubuntu 18.04 with unite extension.

Edited July 10, 2018 by mike4

[Djang0 1]

My go-to distro has been Linux Mint + Xfce but I haven't been using it for the last 6 months.

[mike4 3]

I use it every day and only boot Win10 for VR, which I hope soon to get OpenXR. Here's a benchmark, scroll down to xplane:

https://openbenchmarking.org/result/1806226-AR-WINLINUX713

[Bjoern 1,157]

Can the binaries for Windows and Linux coexist in the same X-Plane folder?

If so, I'd give it a try on Arch.

[Djang0 1]

I think i'll give Linux Mint 19 a try.

Q7) When settiing up Linux is there an advantage to putting X-plane on a separate hard disk or SSD to the OS like with Windows?

Edited July 10, 2018 by Djang0

[Djang0 1]

So any tips for setting up X-Plane on a separate drive in Linux?

[ohsirus 241]

Not all XP11 program run under Linux. So Buyer Beware.

[mike4 3]

That's no problem, many developers use Linux. Looking back using Ubuntu saved me some money. I might have bought 2-3 addons, but wouldn't buy them today anymore.

@Bjoern Yes I remember to have run xplane from a NTFS partition but sim loading is longer. I would rather try to read Linux filesystems from Windows. Never tried that, but as it's opensource, unlike NTFS or VFAT, it could be better. Let us know.

[Djang0 1]

Does anyone know a good guide for installing X-Plane 10 and 11 on Linux? I'm getting nowhere with Linux Mint 19 - can't get the installer to run!

 

OK update... I got the installer running!

https://www.x-plane.com/kb/install-x-plane-10-dvds/

Just wondering if I will need any additional libraries?

Edited July 15, 2018 by Djang0