I recently switched from Windows 11 to Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon and most of the desktop experience has been good, but Steam games frequently crash and sometimes leave the entire system nearly unresponsive. Deadlock is the main problem, though The Bazaar has also crashed during ordinary actions such as opening Discord or taking a screenshot. Afterward, the mouse still moves, but the keyboard, terminal, and normal restart controls do not respond, so I have to hold the power button. Deadlock may then crash again during startup until I reinstall it. Secure Boot is disabled, the Nvidia driver is detected, and Proton is installed. VSync is disabled and the graphics settings are similar to what I used on Windows. The system has an Intel i7-9750H, GeForce RTX 2060, 16 GB RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. Is this likely a Proton, Nvidia driver, Cinnamon/compositor, or hardware issue, and what logs or troubleshooting steps should I check?
4 Answers
A hard freeze like this is more likely a graphics driver, kernel, compositor, or hardware problem than an ordinary game crash. Check the previous boot after restarting with `journalctl -b -1 -p 3`, and look for Nvidia, Xorg, kernel, GPU, or out-of-memory errors. Also check `dmesg` or the system logs for GPU resets. Note your kernel and Nvidia driver versions, then try a different recommended Nvidia driver if one is available. You can also test the game from a Cinnamon session with desktop effects disabled, or another desktop/session, to see whether the compositor is involved.
Mint and Cinnamon are not automatically incompatible with Steam, but switching sessions is a useful diagnostic. Try an X11 session if you are using Wayland, turn off Cinnamon effects, and test one game with a clean Steam launch and no overlays. If the problem disappears in another session or with effects disabled, report it as a compositor/Nvidia issue. If every session freezes, compare another kernel or a live Linux environment before concluding that reinstalling games will help.
Before forcing the power off, try the Linux Magic SysRq sequence if it is enabled: hold Alt and Print Screen while pressing R, E, I, S, U, and B with a few seconds between keys. That can restore keyboard control or safely reboot a badly stuck system, although it will not work if the kernel or GPU is completely locked. Make sure important files are backed up, and consider testing RAM, temperatures, and GPU stability too, because Linux can expose marginal hardware that Windows did not trigger.
Check the game's ProtonDB reports and try a different Proton version, including Proton Experimental or a recent community build. Disable Steam Overlay, Discord overlay, recording tools, and other hardware-accelerated overlays while testing. Verify the game files and remove only the game's Proton prefix if its configuration is corrupted; a full reinstall usually won't fix a driver or desktop-session problem. Since Deadlock is still in beta, it may have additional compatibility issues, but that would not by itself explain every system-wide freeze.
The symptoms also occur outside Deadlock, especially when alt-tabbing or opening Firefox, so I’d treat the desktop/driver path as the main suspect rather than assuming the game files are damaged.
The lockup affects more than just Deadlock; it has also happened in The Bazaar when switching to another application or taking a screenshot. I’ll check the previous-boot logs instead of reinstalling the games again.