I am looking for help on how to run closed source / pirated games on linux within a virtual machine. I would like to start by saying if I could walk into a shop and buy with cash, a game on a CD like in the old days I would. I have recently become very privacy conscious and until I figure out a way to anonymously and privately purchase things like this I am going to stick with pirating. Also, it is helping me to archive content as everything seems to be moving online and I want to stick with offline applications / media etc in my control.
Now, I am familiar with virtualbox but of course, it is no good for gaming. I have read about other applications that offer much better performance with support for GPU passthrough or similar (but how does this affect the security side of things when running pirated games). Forgive me, this is all quite new to me.
What I want is a virtual machine capable of gaming so that I can more safely run pirated games on linux. Also, I am very new to linux and some help in how I should actually go about running games on linux in the first place. I do not want to just install steam because it has closed source elements and being more privacy conscious now, I’m not sure I want to. Though I am aware I can use the proton layer to enable gaming support which I believe is fully open source. For my purposes lutris sounds like it may be the route to go. Thoughts on this welcome.
As a side note, I am thinking of signing up to GOG as they, to me, seem like a better alternative to steam where I can actually own a DRM free copy of a game that I buy. On a pirating note I thought locating signed, hash checked GOG installers to be a good option for security for dipping my toe into pirating games on linux. I am much, much more comfortable with detecting and removing malware in a windows ecosystem. Linux, completely foreign. So I am trying to be careful.
Once I get fully set up I plan to buy the games I enjoy on GOG, I think that will be the path I can be most comfortable with. At the end of the day I will own a DRM free copy of the game itself. That is the best I can do where I cannot get it on physical media I think. I already do this for CD’s and DVD’s etc.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Thank you for your reply, this sounds on track to what I am looking for.
Very interesting on the clean file + emulator route. Sounds like a similar line of thinking to my signed / hash checked GOG installer thoughts.
Regarding using a VM with a GPU passthrough, what software would you recommend for doing this with? I am very familiar with virtualbox and do prefer a GUI though I recognise I will probably have to adapt in order to get what I want.
Thanks again.
I forgot about the gog part. Yeah, you can also use those. There used to be a website that uploaded clean gog installers, but now all the download links are behind those sketchy filesharing services. Though, if you manage to get one, the binary should be signed by the developer. On windows I know you can check the signature by right-clicking on the file, on Linux I don’t remember because I haven’t needed it in a long time.
For the VM you need qemu/kvm. I suggest to use virt-manager which is just a graphical interface for qemu.
Thank you, your responses have been most helpful.
Yup, I used to check the signature / hash for GOG installers in windows. I’ll have to look into how to do it in linux.
I’ll look into qemu/kvm. Virt-manager rings a bell. Thanks, I’ll look into all of that.
Do you have any site recommendations for clean steam / gog files?
For steam I already told in the previous comment, cs.rin.ru. You need an account to access the clean files threads.
For gog unfortunately not anymore. Check the r/piracy megathread, see if you find something
Thank you for your response.
Apologies on missing that it was you that mentioned those sites, new to lemmy and viewing through the unread messages area where it only shows the current comment, not the thread. I am struggling to see something I can click to bring the message up in a thread so I can see the message flow.
Thank you for the clues, I shall disappear down a rabbithole some time following your breadcrumbs.
Btw, I just remembered.
You said that “if you could go to the store, buy a disc with the game, like in the good old days” you would prefer that over piracy.
I do encourage you to buy games on GoG (Good Old Games), download the installer, and burn it on a blue ray disk for you to keep.
I shall most likely be doing so. It is a means of owning the original install files for the game. From a privacy standpoint, still not as good as buying it in a shop with cash but it is most certainly a step in the right direction. There was a time when I pirated simply because I wanted to try things out for free when demos became less popular. Then it led to why bother buying it now. However, as I have matured I am happy, moreover I want to pay for something I have tried and enjoyed to support the creator so long as I have ownership and can do with it what I like. I do not want to support the conditional ownership systems that are developing, telling me how I may use something that I have purchased. Or that I do not truly own it such as is the case with most digital “purchases”.
You seem very relatable in several areas I have identified, like minded and able to comprehend my point of view. Able to explain without condescension. I am new to socialising online (in general really, trying to step out of my shell). I found the fediverse on my travels to escape big tech, see my original post here. If you do not mind sharing your thoughts, where would you recommend looking for someone socially awkward, very concerned over privacy but not to the point where that becomes the central point of discussion as it can be a little triggering, a place to discuss things intellectually yet open and respectfully of one another?
I am just curious to hear your thoughts on this point. Thanks.
KVM Passthrough, e.g. with https://looking-glass.io/
However, it’s way too much hassle. Just run Steam in a sandbox, e.g. Firejail.