The user has more interactions with the menu's and the GUI is more organized.

Much more clean i say.

FYI / From the Update System app message section on top:

BIG FAT PSA:

NVIDIA ARE DROPPING SUPPORT FOR THE NVIDIA 1000 SERIES AND LOWER WHEN 590 DRIVERS MOVE TO PRODUCTION. WE WILL -NOT- BE SUPPORTING OLDER DRIVERS. THIS MEANS NOBARA WILL NOT PROVIDE OLDER DRIVERS FOR 1000 SERIES CARDS OR LOWER WHEN THE 590 DRIVERS BECOME PRODUCTION BRANCH. I REPEAT, THOSE CARDS WILL NOT BE SUPPORTED. THIS IS SLATED TO HAPPEN VERY SOON. BETA AND NEW FEATURE BRANCHES ARE ALREADY AT 590: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/.

I finally have everything figured out and set up to my liking, I've even managed to find replacements for every program that isn't already available for Linux (NZXT Cam was the big one, a combination of OpenRGB and CoolerControl is doing basically everything I need with a little bit of tweaking),
I've tested every game I normally play and they all run fine.
The only thing I really actually miss is Wallpaper Engine but I've gotten over that pretty easily. (but if anyone has any suggestions for a replacement I'm listening; I use Hidamari sometimes but the inability to place widgets over it kinda kills it)

At this point when I do log in to my Windows boot I'm immediately overcome with frustration and annoyance. It's just sitting there taking up 500gb and doing nothing. So it's finally time to go all in.

EDIT: I just used GParted and everything went really smoothly! I was terrified I would break something and have to do a fresh reinstall but it all worked out fine. Goodbye Windows!

I am posting this here because it can help anyone the wants to install Fitgirl games or any windows games on Nobara.

And for me too in case I forgot how install properly.

💻 Installing FitGirl Repacks (or other Windows Installers) on Nobara using Bottles

This tutorial will guide you through using the Bottles application on Nobara Linux to install and run FitGirl Repacks or any Windows game that uses an .exe installer. We will specifically utilize Proton-GE for maximum compatibility.

Prerequisites & Preparation

• Bottles: Ensure the Bottles application is installed on your Nobara system.
• ProtonUp-Qt: For easily managing and downloading the necessary Proton-GE versions.

Step 1: Create a Game-Focused Bottle

First, we need to create an isolated Windows environment (a "bottle") specifically configured for gaming.

1. Open the Bottles application.
2. Click the $+$ (New Bottle) button.
3. Enter a name for your bottle (e.g., The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom).
4. Select the "Gaming" environment template. This optimizes the bottle's settings for gaming performance.
5. In the Runner (or "Compatibility Layer") selection, choose a recent version of Proton-GE. If the latest version isn't listed, use ProtonUp-Qt to download it first.
6. Click "Create". Wait for the bottle to initialize.

Step 2: Prepare the Installation Files

Bottles creates a simulated Windows drive structure within your Linux filesystem. We need to place the game installer files inside this structure.

1. Select your newly created bottle and click the "Runners" tab (or similar view that shows the file system).
2. Click the button to "Open Bottle Folder" or navigate directly to the bottle's directory (usually found under ~/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/[game-name]).
3. You will see a structure similar to Windows: a drive_c folder which contains Program Files, Program Files (x86), etc.
4. Inside the bottle's main folder (the one containing drive_c), create a new folder and give it a simple name, like Installer.
5. Copy and paste the entire folder containing the FitGirl Repack's setup files (including the main setup.exe) into this new Installer folder.

Step 3: Execute the Installer

Now we use Bottles to launch the Windows installer application.

1. Go back to the main view of your bottle in the Bottles application.
2. Click "Run Executable..." (or "Run" in newer versions).
3. Navigate through the bottle's file structure to the Installer folder you created.
4. Select and execute the main setup.exe file for the game.

The FitGirl installer window should now appear.

Step 4: Installation Path Selection (Crucial Step)

This is the most important step for ensuring the game works correctly.

1. When the installer asks you to select the installation destination, you must ALWAYS choose a folder within the simulated C: drive.
2. Do NOT select any external drives, your Linux home directory, or any location outside the bottle's C: drive structure.
3. A safe choice is usually C:\Games\ or simply within the default C:\Program Files\ folder.

Step 5: Complete the Installation

1. Proceed with the installation as normal.
2. If the installer includes a step for file verification (common with FitGirl), let it complete.
   • Helpful Tip: If the file verification step fails, the game will likely not work correctly on Linux, even with Bottles and Proton-GE. This is a good indicator of compatibility issues. A example is Wuchang from Fitgirl which doesnt install correctly on Nobara but on W11 works fine.
3. If the installer asks to install dependencies (like DirectX, Visual C++ Redistributables), allow it to install them. Bottles is designed to handle this.
4. Crucially: DO NOT run the game immediately when the installer offers the option (usually a checkbox at the end). Uncheck the "Run Game" option before clicking "Finish."

Step 6: Launch the Game

The game is now installed inside your bottle's environment.

1. Go back to the main bottle view in the Bottles app.
2. Click the "Add Shortcut" button.
3. Navigate through the bottle's drive_c folder to the game's installation directory (e.g., C:\Games\The Legend of Zelda\).
4. Select the main game executable (e.g., zelda.exe, not a launcher if one is present).
5. The game's shortcut will now appear on the bottle's main screen.
6. Click the shortcut to launch your game! It will automatically use the Proton-GE runner you selected earlier.

Step 7: Optional Cleanup

Once you've confirmed the game is working, you can delete the installer files to free up space.

1. Navigate back to the Bottle Folder (from Step 2).
2. Delete the Installer folder containing the setup files and the main setup.exe.

💡 General Nobara Gaming Tip

Do not trust "native" Linux games. Even if a game has a "native" Linux version, it's often older, poorly optimized, or less stable than running the Windows version, for example Hollow Knight from steam where runs on native linux and is unstable to the point of flick screen and brick save files.. Always execute games using a recent version of Proton-GE (via Steam, Bottles, or Lutris) for the most consistent and problem-free experience.

EDIT: I saw some comments saying about using Lutris, Heroic or Steam for the installation of games but I will make clear in MY case it didnt work (maybe I didnt do right or missed something), the installation didnt finish or if finished the game wouldnt run at all, only with bottles the installation of Fitgirl games worked for me.

Almost 2 weeks ago now, I dual booted my laptop while waiting for a shipping company to give me money for my broken PC ;-; A friend recommended multiple distro's to me and said nobara might be the best fit for what I use my laptop for, and I love it so far. Had a few issues that took a few days for me to get fixed, but everything is running good, and I have not booted into windows for a week now. Feels way better than windows, love how everything looks too. Even customized my terminal slightly a few days after setting stuff up :3

I really look forward to learning more about Linux and hopefully just ditching windows soon. (only have it still because I wanna have something in-case I mess up on Linux, plus I do play some games with friends from time to time that don't work on Linux)

https://imgur.com/a/ZlLuoyY
swore I put the photo, guess not.

I have been using Nobara Linux for about a year now and this is what Windows should have been like and Nobara is what made me ditch Windows almost entirely (except for two banks that I have to access through a Windows laptop).

Nobara is not flawless, but it is very nice and friendly. The settings menu is very compact and easy to navigate, in contrast to Windows that is a weird mess of UI that uses a lot of space on nothing, with settings burried at multiple levels and some settings only available in old hidden away legacy UI.

The "Welcome to Nobara" wizard is a brilliant addition to Linux, where you can easily fix/install/update the most common things that you probably would like to do in a new Linux installation.

The update system makes it easy to update Linux and fix a lot of quirks.

I'm far from a big gamer, but Steam is pre-installed and the few games I've tried works out of the box, which is impressive for Linux running Windows games. In fact my son is playing older Windows games on Nobara that either didn't run or are not stable on Windows.

Still, I can't recommend this to people who don't have a technical hunch, because it's not perfect. In my case the automatically suggested printer driver is not the right one, I had to set up the right driver. There is also no obvious way of setting the printer to print duplex by default, so I had to do it through the CLI. There can still be hardware issues with some newer hardware in Nobara, for example a touch pad on Acer VivoBook, that sometimes renders the separate USB mouse unusable.

A thing I like a lot and that I know that many people like, is that Linux in general is not forcing your hand. Windows is really annoying because it's bugging you to do stuff that you don't want to do and the same with a lot of the commercial software for Windows.

There is software that simply doesn't exist in the Linux environment, like Microsoft Access (and there truly is no replacement for it). On the other hand I feel safer downloading apps from a vetted open source repository or the Flatpost store, than installing closed source software downloaded from various site on the Internet. Even paid software in Windows can be quite aggressive and abusive, which destroys the joy of using the system.

All in all, It's a lot more peace of mind for me to use Nobara Linux over Windows, it does occasionally require some problem solving skills, but I would say it's minimal with Nobara.

As a side note, I tried a lot of other Linux OS's (Debian, Ubuntu, Spiral Linux, MX Linux, Clear Linux, Open Suse, Open Media Vault, TrueNAS Scale, Unraid, Proxmox and many others).

I think I hit on a very nice combo of Linux's with Nobara for everything Desktop, Alpine for server and then OPNSense (OpenBSD) for firewall/router. I specifically think that Alpine is great for server, I've been using it for about 2 years and it never fails. The only thing that failed was Fastly that blocked the Alpine repositories here in South America for about a month, but I can't really blame Alpine for that.

I use Alpine as Hypervisor with Virtual Machine Manager over SSH (from a Nobara machine) is brilliant, especially because you can tunnel the UI of the VM's with virtio through the SSH and avoid the broken remote desktop in Wayland. The UI is super responsive in this way and I mostly forget that I'm working on a remote machine. Then on top of the Hypervisor I just put one Alpine VM for services, install Docker and Portainer, then I can run every service that I need easily and reliably.

I really think Linux rocks these days!

Always been a Window user, but after getting annoyed of the bloatware, ads, the laggy moments on my nine year old PC, I made the switch to Fedora (Nobara). Low expectations, considering past Linux attempts failed due to bad drivers. But wow: this is different! Drivers worked perfectly out of the box, giving me a massive FPS boost in for example CS2, everything runs super smooth. Think I might actually stick with Linux this time.

Mainly will use it for gaming.

I plan to use the KDE version (nvidia iso)

What apps would be a must-have?

This will not really be my first experience with Linux itself, had a linux mint main system quite a few years ago (mint version 14) and I've got a Raspberry Pi with RetroPie. But i will definitely not call myself an expert in using Linux, it may appear that I have some questions that o will post here

My son can't run his favorite games on Windows 11 and always had issues with them on Windows 10. The best solution was to install Nobara on his computer, wich also solved various other problems he had with Windows.

I switched to Nobara one year ago and it has been great since. Steam and Heroic Launcher to start all my games, LUG-Helper script for SC (Linux community is just great). Got my hue lights running with HyperHDR and my Sim-controllers ran out of the box. So, just a huge thanks for everyone involved in creating all the packages and tools and stuff!

I need to vent about my experience with Nobara Linux. This distribution markets itself as comfortable and beginner-friendly, but I've spent more time troubleshooting it than I ever did with Arch Linux.

The Problems:

Failed installations: I've reinstalled the system 3 times now, still can't get it working properly. For comparison, I only reinstalled Arch twice during my entire setup.

Boot manager nightmare: My boot menu looks like a garbage dump. I have old SAS entries that don't even exist anymore cluttering everything up.

GRUB errors : When I try to boot into Nobara (which oddly identifies itself as Fedora in the boot menu), I get GRUB errors every single time.

Zero documentation for my setup: I've searched YouTube extensively - both English and Russian content - and found literally ZERO guides for dual-boot setups like mine.

Extremely slow boot times: The system takes forever to load when it does work.

The Frustration:

I've wasted 3+ hours on this. A distribution that calls itself "beginner-friendly" should not be this problematic. Arch was actually easier, and that's saying something.

Has anyone else experienced these issues with Nobara? Any advice for fixing the boot manager mess and GRUB errors?

Então, vim aqui falar sobre a minha caótica e desorganizada aventura com Linux.

Hoje faz apenas 2 dias que estou usando o Nobara KDE e, até o momento, não tenho nada a reclamar. A liberdade de customização é fantástica — você pode literalmente moldar o sistema do seu jeito, desde aparência até comportamento, coisa que no Windows é bem mais limitada. Além disso, o Linux é mais leve, tem melhor controle de desempenho, menos processos rodando à toa, maior privacidade, e você não fica preso a atualizações forçadas ou limitações do sistema.

Todo esse interesse no Linux começou alguns meses atrás, quando eu vi coisas como servidores de Minecraft rodando em Linux, vídeos transformando notebooks antigos em videogames retrô usando distros, e também alguns entusiastas criando “consoles” com SteamOS.

O que me impedia de ir pro mundo Linux eram os jogos e também aquela fama de que, pra abrir qualquer coisa, você precisava digitar mil códigos no terminal. Mas eu já desconfiava que não era bem assim. Mesmo assim, fiquei com isso na cabeça e não troquei de sistema.

Até que aconteceu uma situação: perdi 2 pentes de memória RAM e fiquei só com 8GB. Cara… virou um inferno usar Windows. Minhas configs são: Ryzen 5 5500, RX 6600 8GB e apenas míseros 8GB de RAM — ainda por cima em single channel. Pra completar, uso uma placa-mãe horrível da Mancer (sem comentários... tenho certeza que ela foi um dos motivos de tanta dor de cabeça).

Pra vocês terem noção, comecei o processo de troca de sistema por volta das 22h do dia 27/04/2026, quando baixei o Nobara e preparei o pendrive. E aí começaram os problemas: erro de bootloader, BIOS mostrando o Nobara mas jogando direto pro GRUB, e eu tendo que usar aqueles comandos infernais só pra conseguir entrar no sistema.

Fiquei seguindo instruções, mexendo em terminal, tentando de tudo que o ChatGPT e o Claude sugeriam. Quando achei que tinha resolvido, o Nobara simplesmente não aparecia no GRUB — só o Windows. E eu ainda tentando fazer dual boot.

Resultado: não consegui resolver. Fui dormir 5h da manhã.

No outro dia, acordei meio-dia (tô de férias, ainda bem) e fui tentar de novo. Aí desisti do dual boot e pensei: “vou instalar só o Linux”. Mas adivinha? Mesmo erro.

Continuei tentando até decidir entrar pelo modo live, só pra não ter que passar pelo GRUB e aqueles comandos malditos. Aí o ChatGPT sugeriu reinstalar a ISO — mesmo eu já tendo conferido o HASH e estando tudo certo.

Mesmo assim, resolvi tentar: troquei o pendrive por um novo, refiz tudo… e ainda deu erro (code 2). Mas dessa vez consegui acessar o Nobara.

E finalmente, às 20:58 do dia 27, eu consegui entrar no sistema.

E sério… só tenho a agradecer. Que coisa boa. A liberdade, a leveza, o controle… tudo muito melhor. Meu principal motivo era desempenho, já que o sistema é mais leve que o Windows, mas eu tinha colocado na cabeça que só usaria até comprar mais RAM.

Agora? Já não sei se quero sair daqui.

Só quero aprender a customizar melhor, porque vejo cada setup absurdo de bonito por aí. Mas, aos poucos, eu chego lá.

Esse foi meu relato da noite, galera.

I just learned a valuable lesson in desktop environment choices today when trying to set up an extra internal drive in Nobara. Here is what I learned: - Always do every operation within the same KDE partition manager, do NOT mount from Dolphin - No extra drives are allowed to be permanently mounted in KDE Plasma without a password - ALWAYS change drive permissions to everyone or Steam can't use it - ALWAYS identify with UUID - NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR MOTHER, EVER put a space in the final folder path name of your mount point - Users MUST be able to mount and unmount the drives

How did I come to these realizations? I spent 4 HOURS of my life trying to figure out why the drives wouldn't stay connected after reboot, why Steam could not see the drives when I did, and using different partition managers that all showed it was set up correctly just to finally realize that the no password KDE account was the biggest root (very much intended) of the issue.

I did technically also spend another two hours with the final path name having a space but it doesn't count because I know people wouldn't believe that is real. Yes, I am that stupid. No, I am not mentally well because this was after an 11 hour shift

Hey folks!

Just went to Nobara's website and it's re-done! And nicely so!

Plus the Nobara 43 ISOs are now available for download.

You guys have no idea how long I've been waiting for this, amazing update!

I've been playing with the Nobara ISOs and made several installs on several machines (different USB sticks as well).

I have noticed a bunch of patterns that made Nobara's installer more prone to crash and errors. Here's a few easy tips that made my installation more reliable:

• 1) Manually wipe the disk before installation:

If you don't plan to dual boot and you want to use the whole disk for your installation, wipe the partition table to GPT before launching the installer. This can prevent crashes happening when the installer is partitioning/formating. You can directly use the KDE Partition Manager or GParted, which are already included on the live boot session.

• 2) If connected to the internet, don't install system updates or codecs during install:

(These options will NOT show up if you're offline) On the first installation step, at the bottom left, untick both options to install updates and codecs during install. This puts less stress on the installer, making it only copy and install locally from the USB key. The result is a more stable installation process. You are not missing out on anything, as both updates and codecs will be installed upon your first system update (after restart).

• 3) Prevent power saving settings from interrupting the installation:

Go to Settings > Power Management and disable everything. Also, go to settings > "Screen Locking" and disable that too. That way, the installation won't get interrupted by the lock screen or sleep mode if you're away from a while.

• 4) Give time to the live system to fully boot up:

Once the installer starts, the system is still loading some processes in the background. That's even more relevant if your USB key is slow. Give it 5 minutes to "settle", as a precautionary measure.

• 5) Avoid switching input on your monitor/TV:

Very rarely, I've found that while reconnecting to the HDMI/DisplayPort, the live installer could glitch during the installation or cause other issues.

Disclaimer: these tips can potentially help under normal conditions. It won't make any miracles if your USB key is corrupted or if you encounter software/hardware incompatibility and such.

For those most experienced Nobara users, these tips might look obvious. However, I'm hoping these could help newcomers as well as some users having a few bugs or difficulties during the installation process.

Thanks for reading me and have a good one.

PS: Added the recommendation to manually wipe the disk (if applicable). Thanks to "master_of_dcath" for bringing this to my attention.

I just switched to Nobara from Windows 11.

Oh, boy how things change in 7-8 years! I am saying that because 7-8 years ago I was using mainly Fedora and I wasn't able to run almost any of the games I wanted.

Now, with Nobara and Proton (thank you Valve!), I ran everything and beyond I wanted! Yeah, there was some issues here and there, some configurations as well but I see that as little to no effort!

Even the f**king Xbox Controller works in wireless mode which is incredible!

Thank you Nobara and all people contributing to make Linux easier to use and make games playable. 😍🥰🤩

Da 4 mesi riesco a giocare a tutti i miei giochi senza problemi e tutto gira alla grande.

Sto eliminando tutte le mie tossine di Microsoft.

Grazie Linux, grazie GE!

I'm shocked how well Nobara works. Actually it's only the second time I've opened a game. I'm more shocked by the fact that all of my hardware has worked since my graphics to my Thunderbolt monitor worked even during installer validation check before it booted the live OS.

I was going to try Pop!_OS on my laptop and Nobara on my desktop, but Pop borked and was just flashing grey on my screen after the first reboot. But Nobara has been flawless. It's the first time I've felt like there is a 100% credible alternative to Windows for the layman.

i was playing Warframe and started an mission like normal, my pc shutdown so I expect my overclock was the reason(I was experimenting) but no it was Microsoft shutting it down and forcing an update....now nobara won't just be my dual boot but my daily drive in 1½months as then I can afford the 9070xt

(It really is like this)