Bazzite 45 launches with Fedora 45 and an anti-cheat checker

The Universal Blue team has released Bazzite 45, rebasing its gaming-focused Linux distribution onto Fedora Linux 45. Rolling out with build 45.20261104, the update brings a refreshed kernel foundation, updated desktop environments, and a built-in diagnostic tool designed to test systems against upcoming Linux anti-cheat requirements.

Under the hood, the desktop variants step up to GNOME 51.1 and KDE Plasma 6.8.2. The graphics stack moves to Mesa 26.2.6 (with compatibility maintained for 26.2.4), while systems running older Nvidia hardware on the Long Term Support branch get bumped to driver version 580.196. Kernel duties now fall to Open Gaming Collective builds 7.2.15-ogc1.1 for standard images and 6.18.60 for Nvidia LTS configurations, aligning hardware support across several collaborating handheld distributions. There's also an optional networking optimization available through bpftune.

Auditing for Easy Anti-Cheat v2

The most practical addition for multiplayer gaming is a command-line diagnostic utility: ujust check-anticheat. Epic Games is tightening security expectations with its upcoming Easy Anti-Cheat Linux v2 update, and this script audits a host machine to see if it will actually pass muster. It checks the local environment for Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, measured boot, IOMMU, BPF LSM, and whether kernel lockdown is running in integrity mode.

I'm curious how many custom desktop builds and older handhelds will fail that audit out of the gate, given how often Linux users disable Secure Boot during installation and never look back. Having a simple terminal command tell you what's missing beats getting kicked out of a match with a cryptic error code.

For day-to-day system management, Bazzite Portal now supports system tray notifications, quick-toggles for remote SSH, and background update scheduling that integrates alongside Decky Loader plugins in Gaming Mode. Behind the scenes, the maintainers also overhauled how the operating system is compiled, replacing a sprawling 800-plus-line Containerfile with a 102-line version connected to modular shell scripts and a unified Python build tool (build.py) to cut down image generation times.

Running it on our Steam Deck and everything else

Bazzite launched in 2023 under the broader Universal Blue initiative, a community project started in 2022 that builds bootable, cloud-native container images on top of Fedora's immutable Silverblue and Atomic Desktop technologies. Instead of modifying the root filesystem directly like a traditional Linux install, Bazzite uses rpm-ostree to deploy the operating system as an atomic image. If an update goes sideways, you can roll back to the previous working boot image in seconds.

We use Bazzite on our Steam Deck, where it works as a drop-in alternative to SteamOS that still keeps Valve's standard Gaming Mode interface intact. Because it's built on standard Fedora packages and ships with proprietary GPU drivers and InputPlumber pre-configured, it runs across a huge variety of hardware. You can install it on a standard desktop PC, a living room home theater box, or Windows-first handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and Ayaneo devices.

Version 45 expands that hardware list further. It adds support for the Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld, stabilizes compatibility across ASUS ROG Ally models, adds new Ayaneo HID controls, and updates InputPlumber alongside better force-feedback drivers for Logitech racing wheels. Existing Bazzite users don't need to reinstall to get the Fedora 45 base; the system handles the jump through its standard atomic update process.