stuner

It sounds like this will be your fist time running Linux. In that case I would recommend against using CachyOS or Arch. Those distros are meant for experienced users that are willing to solve problems on their. In the words of the Arch wiki:

Whereas many GNU/Linux distributions attempt to be more user-friendly, Arch Linux has always been, and shall always remain user-centric. The distribution is intended to fill the needs of those contributing to it, rather than trying to appeal to as many users as possible. It is targeted at the proficient GNU/Linux user, or anyone with a do-it-yourself attitude who is willing to read the documentation, and solve their own problems.

In general, you can have a good gaming experience on almost any distro. The main limitation is probably running brand-new hardware, which can be a bit difficult on some of the slower distros (Debian, Ubuntu LTS, Mint, ...). There are only very minor performance differences between distros.

If you're a new user that wants to use a fast-moving distro with many options for customization, I'd recommend Fedora (e.g. Fedora KDE).

Makes sense. But for an Arc B580 you'd probably want 6.12 or newer (according to https://www.phoronix.com/review/intel-arc-b580-gpu-compute). Unfortunately Linux Mint is not that great for running the very latest hardware (and especially GPUs).

I think it is a disaster and that the lack of long-term API/ABI stability (outside of the kernel) is one of the biggest things holding commercial software on Linux back. It's much less of an issue for FOSS software, which can easily be recompiled or adapted. However, a lot of people (and companies) want to run proprietary software (e.g. games) on Linux.

This type of breakage causes problems for both developers and users. If you develop software for Linux you need to continously maintain it in order to ensure that it keeps working. And as a user it can mean that software which was working perfectly suddenly no longer works after an upgrade. For example, you may just no longer be able to play any of your older Linux games. If they were built for Windows you can still run them after 20 years, and they probably even work on Linux too.

Is there a particular reason that you want to update your kernel? Generally, the best idea as a new user is to stick with the default kernel that your distro provides What Stable Kernel Should I Use. Given your hardware, I'd expect that kernel 6.8 should work fine for you.

Linux Mint switched to the HWE kernel with version 22. Theferore, the kernel should be updated to 6.11 with the release of Ubuntu 24.04.2 (planned in a week).

Sorry to hear that Linux Mint is not working well for you. Unfortunately, things can sometimes still be rough when it comes to hardware support. I have personally also had issues with Nvidia GPUs and Bluetooth. Often this is because the manufacturers only provide drivers for Windows and Linux drivers need to be created by the community.

Regarding Nvidia and secure boot. I've had the same issue (on both Mint and other distros). After some frustrations (including a BIOS update) I finally gave up and disabled secure boot. Since then, I haven't had any issues with my dual boot with Win 10 (but I probably won't buy another Nvidia GPU). What makes you say that Windows requires Secure Boot?

No I didn’t. When I installed Linux mint the first time I was able to fix everything. I needed to reinstall it and that is where this controller issue started

This seems quite weird. Are you perhaps missing a package (e.g. steam-devices)?

Forgejo became a hard fork about a year ago: https://forgejo.org/2024-02-forking-forward/ And it seems that migration from Gitea is only possible up to Gitea version 1.22: https://forgejo.org/2024-12-gitea-compatibility/

The article mentions that it works fine on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, so it shouldn't be an issue unless you're running something older than that.

What a terrible article. The margins for board partners is small, but Nvidias margin is huge.

Yes, I would recommend creating a backup (perhaps on your phone or a different computer over the network) and then upgrading to 21 and then 22. IMHO Mint has steadily gotten better and there is typically no reason to stay on an older version.

Currently, my favorite ways of running non-Steam games are the Heroic Games Launcher and Bottles. Heroic is especially nice if you have games from GOG or EGS. However, looking at ProtonDB, it seems that both DCS and Flight Sim 2024 don't work too well on Linux. Overall it sounds like it might be challenging for you to switch to Linux, but you can always give it a try and see how much works.

Given that you installed Linux on a separate drive, it's likely that the Windows bootloader is perfectly fine but your BIOS chooses to prioritize the Linux disk. I would check if you can still select the Windows drive / installation in the BIOS / boot media selection.

Typically, Fedora should also add the Windows installation to its bootloader (https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/grub2-bootloader/#_adding_other_operating_systems_to_the_grub2_menu). It uses os-prober to find other operating systems. Can you post the output of sudo os-prober?

Edit: The output of lsblk -f would also be useful (though you may want to anonymize it first).