g# Post installation things Once you've installed Linux and are on the desktop, before rushing to do things, you may want to do a couple of additional steps.

To change some config files (nothing to worry about), I'll recommend nano because it just works. To save a file, use CTRL+S and to exit CTRL+X.

Update your system caution

Updating your system can be a bit of a pain in the ass, as some of the packages can't be updated.

WARNING

Some packages can't be updated on PS4, at least for the time being. This is because they are specifically tailored to the system, and updating them breaks the entire OS.

Debian/Ubuntu based distros (untested)

To make sure that the PS4 packages don't get updated run the command below:

sudo apt-mark hold lib32-libdrm-git lib32-mesa-git libdrm-git mesa-git lib32-libdrm lib32-mesa libdrm mesa lib32-llvm-libs llvm-libs mesa

Then, you should be free to update your system with:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Fedora based distros (untested)

To make sure that the PS4 packages don't get updated, you need to modify the dnf config:

sudo nano /etc/dnf/dnf.conf

Then, at the line next to the [main] section:

exclude=lib32-libdrm-git lib32-mesa-git libdrm-git mesa-git lib32-libdrm lib32-mesa libdrm mesa lib32-llvm-libs llvm-libs mesa

Then, you should be free to update your system with:

sudo dnf update

Arch based distros

To make sure that the PS4 packages don't get updated, you need to modify the pacman config:

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

Then, in the [Options] section, add this:

IgnorePkg = lib32-libdrm-git lib32-mesa-git libdrm-git mesa-git lib32-libdrm lib32-mesa libdrm mesa lib32-llvm-libs llvm-libs
IgnoreGroup = mesa

Then, you should be free to update your system with:

sudo pacman -S

Otherwise, you can always update everything but not those packages.

Fix language

Some pre-packaged distros you can download are in foreign languages. Unfortunately changing it from your DE (KDE, Gnome...) doesn't apply system wide. So here's a cheap rundown of all of the commands:

Debian/Ubuntu based distros (thanks triky1)

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

Fedora based distros (to-do)

No idea, sorry

Arch based distros

You first need to edit your locale.gen, to generate your locale settings.

Comment out any language you don't want and uncomment yours:

sudo nano /etc/locale.gen

Now, you can generate your locale with:

sudo locale-gen

And last but not least, to change it system wide, add your language in this file:

sudo nano /etc/locale.conf

If needed, change your language in yout DE (KDE, Gnome...)

Reboot to apply these changes.

Change username and password

Honestly? Create a new user. It's faster. Or just keep it.

You can however change the password, by doing:

sudo passwd

And setting a new password.

Download more RAM?!

No, seriously, we can do such a thing. To do that, we must use Swap and ZRAM.

Enabling Swap

CAUTION

It's ABSOLUTELY NOT recommended to use the internal HDD as swap, you'd just add fuel to the dumpsterfire of slowness that it already is. Disable it and move on.

Swap is storage that you are taking from your drive and allocating as "extra RAM": it works by moving unused software over there if extra main memory needs to be reserved for another program or game. This means we can improve the memory situation a little bit.

We will be using a swap file instead of a swap partition, as it's easier to change in size. First of all, we need to remove any existing swap:

sudo swapoff -v /swapfile  
sudo rm /swapfile

Then, we need to enable new swap (8GB for this tutorial, you may change it)

sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile 8GB # Allocates 8GBs
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

Finally, go to the fstab file, and check if the line /swapfile none swap sw 0 0 exists. If it doesn't, add it by going here and pasting it at the end of the file:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Enabling ZRAM (thanks Qba for mentioning this)

ZRAM on the other hand, is a part of your memory that you are compressing and allocating as swap. A kernel that supports it is necessary.

This means that we trade some CPU cycles for compressing and decompressing a part of your system memory. If it is enabled by default on Android you can guess how little performance impact there is.

To enable ZRAM, we need to install the zram-generator package. On Arch, we installing using:

sudo pacman -Syu zram-generator

We then create the config file:

sudo nano /usr/lib/systemd/zram-generator.conf

And we paste this inside of it:

[zram0]
zram-size=ram
compression-algorithm=zstd
swap-priority=60

zram-size is how much RAM we are allocating for the ZRAM device. Possible values are, for example, 50%, 2G (i.e. 2 GB), ram or max for maximum allocation (all RAM is ZRAM). Don't change the other values unless you really know what you're doing.

It is also recommended to disable ZSWAP. Some distro already do this, but just in case go to your grub config:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

And in the LINUX_CMDLINE_DEFAULT check that zswap-enabled=0 is present. If not, add it.

---

Thanks again to Qba for this showcase.

And that's it. You now have a bit of extra memory to work with. I say it's pretty useful, so you can have like 2GB of VRAM, and the 6GB of remaining memory allocated as RAM become more like 6.5 or 7. On top of that, add that Linux is more memory efficient than Windows, and it's like having 8GB of RAM! Pretty sweet huh?

Oh, and don't worry if you see that your installation is using a lot of memory. It's normal and is meant to happen in order to improve performance. Check this link to learn more.

Get more CPU performance

You may have realized that the PS4's CPU is pretty lacking and is most likely it's biggest disadvantage. But apart from a really optimized distro, what else can you do?

In computing you are always going to gain something and loose something else. Either your time, money, or in this case...

Disengage safety protocols, and run program.

Yes, you can disable some security patches for attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, to gain some CPU performance. It does work and should have a noticeable improvement.

Obviously this is not recommended in most cases, but if all you want to do is game from your Steam library and occasionally browse the web (which is most of us), you are probably going to be fine.

To do that it's surprisingly simple. Open the bootargs.txt file, or create it in the same folder of the kernel if it doesn't exist already, then add this line, save and reboot:

mitigations=off

And there you go! You can change it anytime of course.

In the past there were overclocked kernels, but alas they don't make them anymore. Maybe in the future...

Do not go and download an older kernel to try as they don't work anymore either!

Install more applications

I recommend you install these programs:

• Steam
• Heroic Games Launcher (for Epic, GOG and Amazon)
• Lutris (for other PC games not in those launchers)
• Prism Launcher instead of those other shitty Minecraft launchers
  • Minecraft has graphical issues in versions newer than 1.21.5
• And a bunch of emulators!

To do that, if using anything other than Arch based distros, use your Store app from the Start menu and install as a Flatpak. It works well.

If you chose an Arch based distro however, use pacman or yay to install your packages. All packages you can even think of and more are available.

If you have any issues...

... Go to the next page! I'll walk you through most problems and help you fix them!