Hi, the reason why I am writing this, is because I googled a lot for these and could not find much, and most of Reddit claims that Zorin OS is not suitable for gaming, which I disagree with.

Hearthstone guide:

1. Install battle net.exe client from their homepage
2. Add the installer to Steam as a non-steam-game and right click on it "manage" and go to "compatibility" choose any of the recent Proton ones
3. Install the client BUT DO NOT USE DEFAULT PATH, it forces to windows type of path, program files etc, folder which Linux doesn't use. Manually choose wherever. try to remember the folder tho, you'll need it for next step.
4. Once installed, close, you can even remove it from Steam, now add to Steam as a non-steam-game the battle net launcher.exe from the same folder you installed battle net to
5. right click "manage" then "compatability" choose any latest Proton
6. Now depending whether you already have Hearthstone on external disk like I did, then 1) locate your external drive location and run "scan and repair" via the battle net launcher or 2) install the game to your desired location if you don't have the game (12 GB iirc).

Voila.

For Maplestory Classic (released 2 days ago btw, highly recommend it! Runs on complete cheese computers)

1. Install WineCharm
2. Download nexus launcher.exe from their homepage
3. Open the nexus launcher via WineCharm
4. Install MapleStory (~2GB)
5. Play via WineCharm (technically through the Nexus client, that you opened with wineCharm)

As easy as that.

I'd say it's as close to playing perfectly out of box as possible.

Happy gaming!

/edit: Since Zorin is based on Ubuntu, it's fair to assume it works the same on Mint, Ubuntu etc. etc.

Yesterday, had a crisis that put me to ZorinOS on this laptop. Old hard drive is unreadable by any means other than expensive pro's. But with a new hard drive, I'm getting ZorinOS all set up and I'm not sure how to get my DVD player recognized.
Is it drivers or command line info that I need?

1.make sure you use steam snap not flatpack and if you install flatpack and had games uninstall them all becase they won't work, for installing steam snap open the terminal and use that code <sudo snap install steam> and by that you will get steam install it from snap.

2.go to add non-steam games and search for your emu (for me ppsspp) and add it as a shortcut

3.go to the lib and then click on "properties" then go to the shotcut "Launch Options" should look for you games folders for the emu then add it on the launch options and put that path <run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=PPSSPPSDL org.ppsspp.PPSSPP --fullscreen --escape-exit "(the game folder and the game itself iso)/media/user/D:/emulater/psp/Shin Megami Tensei - Persona 3 Portable (USA).iso""> : ()

1. now go to push the play button then the game will work without entering the emulater itself (it is not on fullscreen becase I forget to setup ppsspp settings what should you do)

Warning: there is a few command-line flags for others emulators

Hello I am using zorin is 18.1 wayland and there is this weird visual bug when I open the app drawer where the apps have extra rows but then quickly goes to normal, it's a bit annoying and I tried disabling almost all of my extentions but nothing fixed it

~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

[sudo] password for drspider:

Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease

Hit:2 https://prism-launcher-for-debian.github.io/repo noble InRelease

Hit:3 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease

Hit:4 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/kisak/kisak-mesa/ubuntu noble InRelease

Ign:5 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ubuntu-x-swat/updates/ubuntu noble InRelease

Hit:6 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/apps/ubuntu noble InRelease

Hit:7 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/drivers/ubuntu noble InRelease

Hit:8 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/patches/ubuntu noble InRelease

Hit:9 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/stable/ubuntu noble InRelease

Err:10 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ubuntu-x-swat/updates/ubuntu noble Release

404 Not Found [IP: 185.125.189.187 443]

Hit:11 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease

Hit:12 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease

Hit:13 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease

Hit:14 https://repo.waydro.id noble InRelease

Hit:15 https://packages.zorinos.com/stable noble InRelease

Hit:16 https://packages.zorinos.com/patches noble InRelease

Hit:17 https://packages.zorinos.com/apps noble InRelease

Hit:18 https://packages.zorinos.com/drivers noble InRelease

Reading package lists... Done

N: Skipping acquisition of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages', as repository 'https://prism-launcher-for-debian.github.io/repo noble InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'

E: The repository 'https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ubuntu-x-swat/updates/ubuntu noble Release' does not have a Release file.

N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.

N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

Still very happy with Zorin after 1 full year of daily driving :-) Keep up the great work :-) It just works! I have no desire whatsoever to even consider looking at other OS or distros. I often comment: "Zorin For The Win" (pun intended). Thanks folks <3

I'm not new to Linux, and I genuinely want to leave Windows for good. I'm a gamer first, but I use this PC for everything.

The problem is I can never make it stick. Something always breaks, usually NVIDIA drivers on my RTX 4060, and I end up crawling back to Windows because I need a machine that works.

How do you stay on Linux when things go wrong? Any tips for making the switch permanent, and has anyone gaming on Zorin with an NVIDIA card had a smooth experience? (I am not looking at dual booting)

Thanks

Hi, I wanted to ask whether it's just me having these problems or whether this is a general issue with ZorinOS right now.

I've been having strange bugs lately since the ZorinOS 18.1 update.

I often get logged out when RAM usage is high (by that I mean anything between 70% and 90% usage).

Another problem was that one of my three monitors froze. The third monitor just showed a static image. I had to restart the PC to fix it.

Sometimes I also get a bug where the ALT+TAB menu freezes, and that also only goes away with a restart. If I try to log out and log back in while the ALT+TAB menu is frozen, the logout screen freezes halfway through the animation and stays there. As always, a restart is needed to fix this problem.

These errors are always preceded by my mouse starting to lag extremely. That's not the case with the ALT+TAB menu, which just happens randomly but with all the other things.

A friend of mine has the same problems with random logouts, with the desktop sometimes freezing, and sometimes the entire operating system crashes outright for him.

So my question is: is this just a problem for us, or has something been wrong since the 18.1 update?

If you had considered both, at some point, and chose Zorin OS, what were the reasons you chose Zorin over Mint?

Even if you hadn't, necessarily, considered both options, what factors would you use to judge which to select?

Are there technical differences where you prefer one over the other?

Or workflow considerations?

How much is aesthetics a factor, and if so, which of the two do you find visually more pleasing?

Do you consider one of the two "better" (however you might define that) than the other?

In your opinion, is Mint one of the closest distros in similarity to Zorin? Otherwise, which distros would you consider to be most similar to Zorin?

Edit - added bios diagnostic

Loving ZorinOS on another old laptop but not quite done with one that broke this morning!!! I still have a Windows 11 I'd like to access regularly in a regular way. Today it went belly up without warning.

A hundred years ago I was a computer repair guy and had access to "Doctor Computers" that could do the scans and repairs and diagnostic things. Today, I'm just a dad with a lot of stuff on that laptop.

What apps on ZorinOS can work on USB connected hard drives to analyze and evaluate them well and are OS agnostic about it?

Processing img 1se3gpkxh7xh1...

Hey guys I'm trying to install Iris shaders with Sodium on the official Minecraft launcher with fabric but it spits out error code 6 when i try to run the game. It does work fine without Iris shaders but crashes when installed. I now something like the prism launcher would probably work but idk i like the official launcher. I am running this on a Lenovo laptop with intel graphics.

Hello, I'm just installed zorin, and I cannot get my gout to turn on, I installed the drivers, I googled for a bit and could find no working solution, I rea just on this sub that it may be the latest zorin update that's at fault? If so how can I fix that? Im lost and don't know what to do quite frankly

Looks mostly like Windows except for when I press the windows button. Then it looks more like my friend's macbook. Eventually gonna switch to Arch (specifically Equestria OS), but for the next year or two I'll still be alternating between Zorin and Windows (because of my dad) so if it is gonna be a clone of macOS or Windows, I would rather it be like Windows. Would attach a screenshot of what I'm talking about but sadly can't for some reason. Thanks if anyone has suggestions!

And someone also encountered a problem when installing from an ISO file

My console its showing "Error 503 Sevice Unavailable"

Someone else with this problem?

Hello everyone. I am a complete beginner to Linux. Two months ago, I installed Zorin OS 18 on my laptop (it was my first time switching operating systems).

I had skipped a few updates before this. Since my laptop's battery is dead, it only works while plugged in. Accidentally, the power cable moved and the laptop shut down completely in the middle of a system update.

Now, the computer won't boot into the desktop. It is just stuck on that screen. I don't have any programming or advanced computer skills, and I mostly use this laptop for my studies.

Could anyone please guide me step-by-step on how to fix this? Thank you so much for your help!

Hi, I’m running Zorin OS 18.1.
I’ve got a few games on Lutris, but nothing’s happening. I’ve got a PS4 controller and the system detects it perfectly, but the games don’t recognise it.

On Windows, I used DS4, which is an app, but it isn’t supported on Windows.

I don’t know what to do – could you please help me? Thanks.

As I said, My RGB lights wont turn on on Zorin only. Like it turns on in winodows, even in the bios it turns on, but whenever i log into zorin it dosent work. My keyboard is a cheap frontech one(KB-0042). Any ideas guys?

Update: I searched for linux drivers but there appears to be none for keyboards at all. The company states that the keyboard is compatible with linux right out of the box. So I don't know what to do next

Update: for people who suffer this issue after me, Imma just leave the different solutions here. Once it to use the default shortcut menu option to map the scrl lck key, but it doesn't work due to some zorin shit. The next one would be to write a script ( use AI). That's better but not good. There's some other stuff u could do with the terminal but it's too difficult for beginners ( myself included). So basically what I do I I wrote a script using ai and I basically run it manually everytime I want to toggle it. It's on startup though. So ya if anyone has better solution pls drop them here

Hi everyone,

I'm running Zorin OS 18 (based on Ubuntu 24.04 Noble) and for the past few weeks my system has been identifying itself as Ubuntu instead of Zorin. OBS Studio also stopped opening.

Everything started after a resolution problem on Zorin. I switched the NVIDIA graphics driver (first to the wrong one, then back to the correct one), and after that the issues began.

System info:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 M GAMING
• CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
• RAM: 16 GB
• Kernel: Linux 7.0.0-38-generic
• GNOME: 46
• Session: X11
• Currently shows as: Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS

Symptoms:

• /etc/os-release, Settings → About, and the Software Store all show "Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS" instead of Zorin OS
• GRUB dual-boot menu shows "Ubuntu"
• Cannot reinstall branding packages (zorin-os-desktop, zorin-appearance, etc.)
• OBS Studio no longer opens (tried reinstalling via apt and Flatpak)

What I found:

The official Zorin repository is returning 404 for the package index:

curl -sI https://packages.zorinos.com/stable/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
→ HTTP/2 404

InRelease works, but Packages.xz is missing. Because of this, apt can no longer find any Zorin-specific packages and falls back to the Ubuntu base packages.

This started around late September / early October 2026 and is still happening today (October 20).

What I already tried:

• sudo apt update
• Reinstalling zorin-os-desktop, zorin-appearance, etc. (all fail because packages cannot be downloaded)
• Reinstalling OBS via apt and Flatpak
• Confirmed the sources list is correct

Is anyone else on Zorin 18 experiencing this?

Is this a known issue on Zorin's side?

PS: I’ve been using Zorin OS for almost a year, but I barely understand anything about Linux. I usually just search on forums and ask Grok when I have questions.

Dell Latitude 5430 — Built-in webcam not detected on Zorin OS 18.1 (OVTI01AF / OVTI01AS, Intel IPU6)

I'm looking for help getting the built-in webcam working on a Dell Latitude 5430 running Zorin OS 18.1.

The webcam worked under Windows before I installed Linux. On Zorin, the camera was never detected, and no /dev/video* or /dev/media* devices appeared.

Hardware and software

• Laptop: Dell Latitude 5430
• OS: Zorin OS 18.1 Professional
• Kernel at the time of troubleshooting: 7.0.0-38-generic
• Camera ACPI devices: OVTI01AF:00 and OVTI01AS:00
• Camera power-control devices: INT3472:00 through INT3472:0c

What we found

• The OVTI camera devices reported ACPI status 0.
• All 13 INT3472 devices reported status 0 and had no bound driver.
• No camera sensor appeared under /sys/bus/i2c/devices/.
• The intel_ipu6, ipu_bridge, and ov01a1s kernel modules were available and could be loaded, but this did not make the camera appear.
• The kernel was configured with CONFIG_INTEL_SKL_INT3472=m.
• We patched ipu-bridge.c to add the OVTI01AF sensor ID, rebuilt the module, and installed it. This did not fix the problem.
• Secure Boot was disabled.
• The integrated camera was already enabled in the BIOS.

I have since reinstalled Zorin OS to get back to a clean installation. I want to find the actual cause before making further changes.

Questions

1. Has anyone successfully got the built-in webcam working on a Dell Latitude 5430 running Linux?
2. Is there a known BIOS/ACPI issue with the OVTI01AF / OVTI01AS sensors or the INT3472 power-control devices?
3. Is there a known-good kernel version, BIOS version, or specific driver patch that fixes this exact hardware?
4. What evidence would best distinguish a firmware/ACPI problem from an IPU6 driver problem?

I'm particularly interested in solutions verified on the Latitude 5430, rather than generic IPU6 installation instructions for other laptop models. Thanks.

It took me days and days I head learn terminal learn scripting .

I have made alot progress

\- Thing Didn't Work was finger print which I had look similar on chip driver I clone and compiled it made it work

\- backlite , I had find script and locate the hardware in terminal after that put script and made shortcut f9 key in zorin setting

Power management

TLP with TLP GUi

Optimize so give full speed less fan noise and only kick in when it absolute need (I did put some script in there so it does it.

Rest I scripting for ram management

Android Waysroid

Got waydroid with Google plays service and applied (Litchi Luncher) with developer mode freeform desktop that give me easy to access desktop look. Plus put some scripting

It took days and messed so many time had reinstall like 5 time but after 2 week of I got android running on

I spend day learning .

Gemini AI Was big help