I have started to use Arch linux as my main linux distro and to be honest it is very close to gentoo linux with regards to custom building what type of setup you are wanting, but without the pain of compiling.
You do lose some of the configuration options compared to gentoo, but to be honest not enough to be spending that time compiling!.
So I am using kde, with also having steam to play some games :), but the half life 2 game kept on crashing and upon ssh’ing onto the box there was the error within dmesg of
[ 2334.498295] INFO: task hl2_linux:4442 blocked for more than 120 seconds. [ 2334.498298] Not tainted 4.8.13-1-ARCH #1 [ 2334.498300] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. [ 2334.498303] hl2_linux D ffff8807cdeeba88 0 4442 1 0x20020006 [ 2334.498308] ffff8807cdeeba88 00ff8807cdeebb50 ffff88081af15580 ffff8807c8169c80 [ 2334.498312] 0000000000000000 ffff8807cdeec000 ffff880817c1c580 ffff880817c1c548 [ 2334.498317] ffff880817c18000 ffff8807641ef828 ffff8807cdeebaa0 ffffffff815f40ec [ 2334.498321] Call Trace: [ 2334.498324] [<ffffffff815f40ec>] schedule+0x3c/0x90 [ 2334.498359] [<ffffffffa0144ab8>] amd_sched_entity_fini+0x68/0x100 [amdgpu] [ 2334.498364] [<ffffffff810c0450>] ? wake_atomic_t_function+0x60/0x60 [ 2334.498396] [<ffffffffa010c2dd>] amdgpu_ctx_fini+0xcd/0x110 [amdgpu] [ 2334.498427] [<ffffffffa010cb65>] amdgpu_ctx_mgr_fini+0x65/0xa0 [amdgpu] [ 2334.498454] [<ffffffffa00e520e>] amdgpu_driver_postclose_kms+0x3e/0xd0 [amdgpu] [ 2334.498465] [<ffffffffa0004703>] drm_release+0x203/0x380 [drm] [ 2334.498469] [<ffffffff8120b42f>] __fput+0x9f/0x1e0 [ 2334.498472] [<ffffffff8120b5ae>] ____fput+0xe/0x10 [ 2334.498475] [<ffffffff8109a0d0>] task_work_run+0x80/0xa0 [ 2334.498479] [<ffffffff810806e2>] do_exit+0x2c2/0xb50 [ 2334.498483] [<ffffffff810b4155>] ? put_prev_entity+0x35/0x8c0 [ 2334.498487] [<ffffffff81080feb>] do_group_exit+0x3b/0xb0 [ 2334.498490] [<ffffffff8108be08>] get_signal+0x268/0x640 [ 2334.498494] [<ffffffff8102d0f7>] do_signal+0x37/0x6b0 [ 2334.498498] [<ffffffff815f7241>] ? do_nanosleep+0x91/0xf0 [ 2334.498501] [<ffffffff810ecdb0>] ? hrtimer_init+0x120/0x120 [ 2334.498504] [<ffffffff815f720a>] ? do_nanosleep+0x5a/0xf0 [ 2334.498508] [<ffffffff81003651>] exit_to_usermode_loop+0xa1/0xc0 [ 2334.498511] [<ffffffff81003df7>] do_fast_syscall_32+0x157/0x170 [ 2334.498515] [<ffffffff815f987b>] entry_SYSCALL_compat+0x3b/0x40 </ffffffff815f987b></ffffffff81003df7></ffffffff81003651></ffffffff815f720a></ffffffff810ecdb0></ffffffff815f7241></ffffffff8102d0f7></ffffffff8108be08></ffffffff81080feb></ffffffff810b4155></ffffffff810806e2></ffffffff8109a0d0></ffffffff8120b5ae></ffffffff8120b42f></ffffffffa0004703></ffffffffa00e520e></ffffffffa010cb65></ffffffffa010c2dd></ffffffff810c0450></ffffffffa0144ab8></ffffffff815f40ec> |
of which was to do with the AMDGPU-PRO graphics driver.
So with some digging around you are able to alter the video settings within half life 2, so if you goto “options->Video” the below will be shown
Then click on “advanced”, which will show
If you turn “Multicore Rendering” to disabled and also “Wait for vertical sync” to Enabled, this should stop half life 2 from crashing.
Happy gaming.!!!.