Hello, new to pokemon speed running and looking to give crystal a crack I installed gambatte-speedrun from source on linux, and my version shows up as "interim"; am i correct in assuming that my runs will not be accepted if this is the case?

Hey there, this forum isn't used too much anymore. You're more likely to get a reply on the Gen 1 - 3 Pokemon Speedruns discord here: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmncrystal/thread/fypqw .

I can try to answer here though. The correct version of gambatte should read in the top left: Filename.gbc <PSR> - Gambatte-Speedrun (r717) and upon hard resetting your Crystal Rom should read "Reset R717" followed by either EE6F5188 or 3358E30A or BB6DD80C.

But definitely go ahead and join the discord and ask under #emulator-help and people may have a linux specific tip for you.