Intel Arc Gaming - Omarchy

Video Guide

SteamOS-like gaming mode for Intel Arc on Omarchy (Arch Linux + Hyprland). Press Super+Shift+S to enter a full-screen Steam Big Picture session powered by Gamescope, just like the Steam Deck.

Supports Intel Arc discrete GPUs (Alchemist DG2, Battlemage) and modern Intel Arc-branded iGPUs (Lunar Lake Xe2, Panther Lake Xe3) — anything driven by the xe kernel driver.

Requirements

• OS: Omarchy (Arch Linux + Hyprland)
• GPU: Intel Arc on the xe kernel driver (see support matrix below)
• AUR Helper: yay or paru

Older UHD/Iris GPUs on the i915 driver are intentionally not supported — they're under-spec for Gaming Mode and the script's GPU detection is xe-only.

Quick Start

git clone https://git.no-signal.uk/nosignal/Intel-Arc-Gaming-Omarchy.git
cd Intel-Arc-Gaming-Omarchy
chmod +x ARCGames_installv2.sh
./ARCGames_installv2.sh

After installation, press Super+Shift+S to enter Gaming Mode.

What It Does

1. GPU detection (xe-only, bus-based, gen-aware)

The selector walks /sys/class/drm/card[0-9]* and considers only xe-bound devices. It classifies each card by PCI bus location (bus 00 = iGPU, anything else = dGPU) — name patterns alone misclassify Intel because Intel reuses the "Arc B-series" brand for the Xe3-LPG iGPUs in Panther Lake.

Selection ranking:

1. dGPU with a connected display (best)
2. dGPU without display
3. iGPU with display
4. iGPU without display

The chosen card's Vulkan device ID is then mapped to a generation tag (alchemist, battlemage, xe2, xe3, other) which gates gen-specific workarounds in the gamescope wrapper.

2. Installs gaming dependencies

• Steam (multilib) and 32-bit libraries
• Gamescope (Steam Deck compositor)
• ChimeraOS gamescope-session-git + gamescope-session-steam-git (auto-installed; -steam reinstalled if Steam compat scripts like steamos-session-select are missing)
• MangoHud (FPS overlay)
• GameMode (performance optimiser)
• Vulkan ICDs for Intel (vulkan-intel, lib32-vulkan-intel)

Note: As of v1.6.0 the script no longer manages Mesa drivers. The previous mesa-git swap and USE_MESA_GIT config option have been removed — the script uses whichever Mesa is installed on the system. Arc support in stable Mesa has matured enough that the swap is no longer worth the risk of leaving the box without a graphics driver mid-install.

3. Steam first-run bootstrap

Gaming Mode (gamescope-session-steam) expects Steam to already be initialised and logged in. The installer launches Steam interactively, waits for it to download runtime files and for you to log in, then resumes. You can decline (n) to skip — Gaming Mode will fail to start until you've logged into Steam at least once manually.

4. Gen-specific workarounds (gamescope wrapper)

The gamescope wrapper sets generation-specific Intel env vars based on INTEL_GPU_GEN detected at install time:

Gen	Env vars
alchemist	INTEL_DEBUG=norbc, ANV_QUEUE_THREAD_DISABLE=1 (disable Render Buffer Compression to avoid visual artifacts; ANV thread workaround)
battlemage, xe2, xe3	None — current Mesa handles these cleanly
other	None

5. Gaming Mode session

Same session-switching mechanism as the NVIDIA/AMD variants:

• Super+Shift+S — switch from Hyprland to Gaming Mode
• Super+Shift+R — return from Gaming Mode to Hyprland
• Steam's Power → Exit to Desktop also works

6. Performance tuning

• Intel GPU pinned to performance mode
• CPU governor set to performance during gaming
• PipeWire low-latency audio configuration
• Shader cache optimisation (12 GB Mesa/DXVK cache)
• Memory lock limits raised for esync/fsync

7. External drive support

Auto-detects and mounts drives containing Steam libraries during Gaming Mode (ext4, NTFS, btrfs, exFAT, …).

8. NetworkManager integration

Handles the iwd → NetworkManager handoff that Steam needs for its network settings UI (same approach as the NVIDIA/AMD variants).

Supported Intel Arc GPUs

Tier	Series	GPUs	Codename	Driver
dGPU	Battlemage	B580, B570	Xe2 (BMG)	xe
dGPU	Alchemist	A770, A750, A580, A380, A310	Xe HPG (DG2)	xe
iGPU	Panther Lake	Arc B360 / B370 / B380 / B390 (Core Ultra 300, Jan 2026)	Xe3-LPG	xe
iGPU	Lunar Lake	Arc 130V / 140V (Core Ultra 200V)	Xe2	xe

Not supported: older UHD/Iris (Gen 9–12.5 on i915). The script will refuse to run if no xe-driven Intel GPU is found.

Usage

Command-line options

./ARCGames_installv2.sh              # Full installation
./ARCGames_installv2.sh --version    # Show version
./ARCGames_installv2.sh --help       # Show help

After installation

Action	Keybind
Enter Gaming Mode	Super + Shift + S
Return to Desktop	Super + Shift + R
Exit (fallback)	Steam → Power → Exit to Desktop

Configuration

Edit /etc/gaming-mode.conf or ~/.gaming-mode.conf:

PERFORMANCE_MODE=enabled    # Set to "disabled" to skip performance tuning

The previous USE_MESA_GIT option was removed in v1.6.0 along with the Mesa-management section.

Uninstalling

chmod +x ARCGames_uninstall.sh
./ARCGames_uninstall.sh

The uninstaller supports --dry-run to preview what would be removed:

./ARCGames_uninstall.sh --dry-run

What gets removed

• All gaming-mode scripts (/usr/local/bin/switch-to-*, gaming-*, etc.)
• Udev rules, sudoers files, polkit rules
• SDDM gaming session config
• PipeWire, shader cache, and memlock configs
• Hyprland gaming-mode keybind
• Gamescope capabilities

What is NOT removed

• Installed packages (Steam, gamescope, etc.)
• User game data and Steam libraries
• User group memberships

Troubleshooting

Gaming Mode doesn't start / black screen

# Verify the right Intel GPU is detected
lspci -k | grep -A2 -iE 'vga|3d|display'

# Confirm xe is the bound driver
lsmod | grep -E '^xe '

# Check Vulkan can see the Arc
vulkaninfo --summary

# Session logs
journalctl --user -u gamescope-session -n 100

Poor performance / stuttering on Alchemist

The Alchemist gen-specific block sets INTEL_DEBUG=norbc to disable Render Buffer Compression (a known source of visual artifacts on DG2). If you've manually edited the gamescope wrapper, make sure that line is still present.

Steam shows wrong GPU on a hybrid system (iGPU + dGPU)

The selector prefers a dGPU with display when one is present. If your monitor is plugged into the iGPU port instead of the dGPU port, the iGPU will win the selection — re-cable to the dGPU's outputs and re-run the installer, or set the GPU manually in the gamescope wrapper.

# See which Intel GPUs the script considered and which it picked
./ARCGames_installv2.sh 2>&1 | grep -E 'Found Intel GPU|Selected:'

Steam runs but Gaming Mode immediately drops to desktop

Almost always means Steam isn't logged in (gamescope-session-steam requires an existing session). Re-run the installer or launch Steam manually and complete login.

Credits

• Omarchy — the Arch Linux distribution this was built for
• Valve — Steam, Gamescope, and the Steam Deck
• ChimeraOS — gamescope-session packages
• Mesa — open-source GPU drivers

License

This project is provided as-is for the Omarchy community.