What about firejail vs a separate limited user account?

Thank you, that is something to consider. What are your thoughts on sandboxing vs using a user with no privileges?

Firejail is definitely something I’ll be looking into on the sandboxing front as it may be the better solution from the sounds of it. How does a sandbox compare to running in a VM? Technically speaking, is the VM safer? Though I appreciate the difference in this scenario may be very small.

When you say repacks, are these repacks of files designed to be used in windows with pre-installed cracks etc or is it more specifically a repack designed to be run under linux?

Sounds like a good idea, thank you for the suggestion.

Thank you, I shall check that out.

Thanks for the reply. I have been progressing down the virt-manager route as it seems to come up a lot when talking about pass-through. Firejail is definetly on my list to research. Thank you.

What are your thoughts on https://incognet.io/?

The systems that allow windows games to run on linux also allow for windows malware to run on linux. That is the threat I am trying to avoid.

Running pirated games in the manner you are describing is risky as a result, even on linux.

I shall look into your other suggestions though, thank you for taking the time.

This is a thought, thank you for your suggestion.

In defence of my pirating, it is more complicated that just getting stuff for free. See this comment.

Sure, there was a time I’d pirate just because I could, now I have matured there are real reasons and ethical dilemmas. The above comment explains things pretty well though.

Is there anything for linux with the ease of gui setup that comes with virtualbox, that supports gpu passthrough. Wherever I look there is a need to dive into the terminal and use multiple applications to get things running.

Thanks.

Thank you. I appreciate your honesty. I too share the “do as I say, not as I do” mentality.

I am naturally tentative about revealing too much personal information on the internet so am reserved in revealing too much information, contrary to the masses of course who seem all to eager to divulge. I can say that I have isolated myself over the years, I am sure you can understand social demand to do so given your honesty.

Real people, real fears, so complex. So I am gravitating towards the idea of the relative anonymity of the internet (such that it is at the moment) to test the waters. Get things wrong, make mistakes, learn from them, evolve. From my limited experience, most people are hard to get along with. Most are without patience and understanding. The “if I can do it / get it, then they should be able to also. If they cannot, it is their problem” is all too prevalent. This community increases the odds of finding individuals such as yourself that appear to break this norm, at least that was my hope. I too believe I fit into this category, taking the time and patience to understand people and the ever present desire to be of use, to help.

I understand there is a DM function on lemmy, but I do not yet understand the etiquette so I’ll just ask, would you be OK with me DM’ing you? If not, I shall of course respect that. I do not wish to impose or make anyone feel uncomfortable. I do not know how to make friends on the internet, in general really. Sure there have been people over the years but I have yet to be able to connect the way I see others do. I’m at a point in my life where I am trying to figure out why and if it is even possible. So, this is me asking would you like to talk further without everything being on the public ledger?

I do not wish to isolate any more, I am beginning to recognise social needs that need to be fulfilled in order to be happier, it is just that I find it very, very hard to just be myself around others. Most of the time I put others’ needs above my own and I recognise that after a while that becomes self destructive. I shan’t go into to much more information publicly, those privacy threads are starting to pull at me.

You interest me as a person, identified simply by the few responses I have seen from you. Similarities I see in myself perhaps eluding to social compatibility. I should like to explore that more. Forgive me if this all sounds a little analytical / weird, this is just me being honest in my natural way.

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.

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.

Ah I did mean that the VM would be using proton inside. i.e. proton would be running in the guest os. I think it was my bad wording.

Thanks for confirming what I’d heard about wine / proton not being the same as virtualisation when it comes to preventing malware from running just because it is now on linux. I am also fully aware that just because something is inside a vm, does not mean malware cannot escape. I am just trying to make it less likely.

Thanks, I’ll look into crossposting for going forwards.

I’ll check out firejail. Thanks for the recommendation.

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?

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 would like to forget about windows, everything linux. So the VM would be linux using proton, my thought is that a vm isolates stuff inside it from the host os, thus allowing you to run malware inside the sandbox. Yes there is still a risk malware can get out, but far less of a threat than just running it in the host os. So, like I can do with applications and fully utilise the CPU, I’d like to do the same for the GPU.

I have heard that malware designed for windows can still run under linux due to the way wine / proton works. So I thought using a VM could offer a solution, or at least a step in the right direction.

What is an online game? Everything at the moment, when pirating, I am in control. Need no internet connection, no account, just execute and run like when I used to buy a game on a CD. That is why I am looking at GOG.

Can you recommend any tutorial videos for qemu and kvm setup and usage for linux?

My threat? I want to take precautions from installing malware on the linux system when running pirated games. Like on windows, running pirated applications in a vm. But I’d like to do it with games.

My primary concern is malware.