Steam

Refresh Steam files

If there are any problems with your Steam installation first try to reset it's configuration and files. This won't affect your currently installed games.

$ steam --reset

Bug 1040: Let Steam client windows be managed by the window manager

Lets you close Steam to the tray instead of having it sit in the task bar.

File: ~/.bash_profile

# Steam close to tray workaround
# https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1040
export STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=1

Bug 529: Error: SELinux is preventing steam from using the 'execheap' accesses on a process

Enable workaround:

# setsebool -P selinuxuser_execheap 1

Disable workaround:

# setsebool -P selinuxuser_execheap 0

Force Steam to use the system libs instead of the STEAM_RUNTIME (STEAM_RUNTIME is the default and only supported upstream configuration)

$ STEAM_RUNTIME=0 steam

Start Steam with debug output enabled

$ STEAM_RUNTIME=1 STEAM_DEBUG=1 steam

Debug a Steam application / game with strace

Open the Steam options of the specific application and enter the following command into the start parameters form.

$ strace %command% 2>&1 | tee ~/strace.log

Engine and Game specific workarounds (required on e.g. Fedora)

No sound (e.g. in Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues)

Most of the time this is solved by removing the PulseAudio libraries Steam ships with its STEAM_RUNTIME to force the game to use the system installed PulseAudio libraries.

$ rm ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpulse*

$ rm ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpulse*

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition

$ cd ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Duke\ Nukem\ 3D/bin/

$ ln -s /usr/lib/nvidia/libGL.so.1 libGL.so

Shadow Warrior Classic Redux

$ cd ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Shadow\ Warrior\ Classic/bin/

$ ln -s /usr/lib/nvidia/libGL.so.1 libGL.so

Dungeon Defenders Eternity

Right click the Dungeon Defenders Eternity in the Steam library, choose "Link Steam Libraries" in the context menu.

Steam on Exherbo Linux

As of May 2015 after the multiarch merge it is not easily possible to install a reduced set of packages so the following workaround is required if you only want the 32bit libraries installed Steam needs.

On the host you need to enable additionally installing the 32bit libs of nvidia.drivers.

File: /etc/paludis/options.conf

# Steam (32bit libGL.so)
x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers install-compat32

Create a copy of your paludis environment.

# cp -a /etc/paludis /etc/paludis-cross

In the cross environment you can remove any repository not needed, at the moment you'll need ::arbor, ::desktop, ::gnome and ::media.

File: /etc/paludis-cross/bashrc

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
x86_64_pc_linux_gnu_CFLAGS="-pipe -O2 -march=native"
i686_pc_linux_gnu_CFLAGS="-pipe -O2 -march=native"

File: /etc/paludis-cross/platforms.conf

*/* x86 ~x86

File: /etc/paludis-cross/options.conf

*/* targets: i686-pc-linux-gnu
*/* build_options: jobs=5 -recommended_tests -expensive_tests symbols=strip
*/* LINGUAS: -* de
*/* VIDEO_DRIVERS: -*
*/* INPUT_DRIVERS: -* evdev
*/* X86_CPU_FEATURES: -* avx mmx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 sse4.1 sse4.2

# Steam minimal dependencies setup
*/* -bash-completion
*/* parts: -configuration -documentation
sys-sound/alsa-plugins pulseaudio
media-sound/pulseaudio -tcpd -systemd

# cave -E paludis:cross resolve --make cross-compile pulseaudio --ignore pavucontrol --suggestions ignore

This will install ~40 packages which is enough for Steam to run if you use an Nvidia card, if not you might have to install mesa and a driver to provide a 32bit libGL.so.

File: List of installed packages

n   app-arch/bzip2:0::arbor 1.0.6 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/expat:0::arbor 2.1.0 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/libffi:0::arbor 3.2.1 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/openssl:0::arbor 1.0.2a to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sound-themes/sound-theme-freedesktop:0::gnome 0.8 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/skeleton-filesystem-layout:0::arbor 0.84 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-devel/gnuconfig:0::arbor 20140728 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-devel/libtool:0::arbor 2.4.6 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/json-c:0::arbor 0.11-r2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/ncurses:0::arbor 5.9-r3 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/timezone-data:0::arbor 2015b to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/zlib:0::arbor 1.2.8 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-sound/alsa-lib:0::arbor 1.0.29 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   virtual/libssl:0::arbor 0-r1 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-lang/python:2.7::arbor 2.7.9 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   app-admin/eclectic-python:2::arbor 2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   app-arch/xz:0::arbor 5.2.1 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/orc:0.4::arbor 0.4.19 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-util/elfutils:0::arbor 0.161 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   media-libs/libsndfile:0::media 1.0.25-r2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   media-libs/speexdsp:0::media 1.2_rc3 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/attr:0::arbor 2.4.47 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/coreutils:0::arbor 8.23-r3 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/kmod:0::arbor 20 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/cracklib:0::arbor 2.9.4 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/gdbm:0::arbor 1.11 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/libcap-ng:0::arbor 0.7.4 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/pam:0::arbor 1.1.8-r2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/kbd:0::arbor 2.0.2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-libs/libcap:0::arbor 2.24-r1 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/glib:2::arbor 2.44.0 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/dbus:0::arbor 1.9.14 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/pciutils:0::arbor 3.3.0 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/systemd:0::arbor 219-r2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-apps/util-linux:0::arbor 2.26.1 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   dev-libs/glib-networking:0::arbor 2.44.0 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   gnome-desktop/dconf:0::arbor 0.24.0 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   gnome-desktop/gobject-introspection:1::gnome 1.44.0 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   media-sound/pulseaudio:0::desktop 6.0-r2 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu
n   sys-sound/alsa-plugins:0::arbor 1.0.29 to ::i686-pc-linux-gnu

For Steam to run you'll need to create a symlink, there's ongoing work on a tool called multiload which will eventually solve that problem in the future and this workaround won't be neccessary anymore.

# ln -s /usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/lib/ld-linux.so.2 /usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/lib

To remove the symlink:

# rm /usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/lib/ld-linux.so.2