Steam for Linux(beta)
Steam for Linux has been released, a while back - 20 Dec. 2012[1] -, and since then, the games have been poring in.
There are currently 42 Linux games, browse some of those games if you like. In this tutorial we will update/upgrade our Ubuntu distribution, install some goodies, to better the Linux performance, and fix some annoying flash issue!
Now, first thing we will do is, make sure we have the latest updates installed. Ubuntu has been receiving updates to better the gaming performance. Press CTRL-ALT-T, and then run these commands in the gnome-terminal. It will update and upgrade your Ubuntu distribution, Silently!
- sudo apt-get -y update
- sudo apt-get -y upgrade
- sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade
These next commands adds the Ubuntu-x-swat ppa, and installs, configures your nvidia drivers.
- sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
- sudo apt-get -y install linux-source
- sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-generic
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get -y install nvidia-current-updates
This will fix the Graphics: Unknown bug, in the system information window.
- sudo apt-get -y install mesa-utils
- glxinfo | grep render
- glxgears
The last command glxgears, will open a windows with `gears` in them, this is just to test the frame-rates, you can close it, if it's running smoothly.
Now here comes the good part, downloading steam and installing it. Download steam.deb(32bit/64bit) save it somewhere, in you're default folders Downloads, Documents, NOTPORN... Double click it. then the Ubuntu software-center will open, and guide you through the installation.
In the gnome-terminal type this in to install a openGL library that steam depends on: sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
And your good to go, there should be a steam icon on the launcher, if not search `steam` via the dash
steam-login
Steam is now installed, but there are a few things you can do, on top of running an up to date system. It is called steam login, meaning when first started, you can choose steam as a desktop interface, as you would any other interface. it will only start the needed library's for steam to function properly.
webupd8: steam-login
how do we install steam-login, well via its ppa. Copy/paste this in your gnome-terminal.
- sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thor27-gmail/steam-desktop
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install steam-login
Flash issues
Fix annoying flash issue, which renders you unable to watch game-trailers via steam.(64bit issue alone) Copy/paste the code below, and it will: download, extract, and install flash, so that steam can use it.
- cd /tmp
- sudo -E wget --output-document=/tmp/flashplayer.tar.gz https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/11.2.202.258/install_flash_player_11_linux.$(uname -m).tar.gz
- tar vzfx flashplayer.tar.gz
- mkdir -p ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins
- cp /tmp/libflashplayer.so ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins
- sudo apt-get -y install libxt6:i386
After this you can restart steam, and you can now enjoy your game trailers.
If you like the default skin of steam you can skip this step, or if you don't you can install a skin-manager for steam to choose the skin of your liking.
How do we install this you ask. Well i am glad you asked, like so:
- wget https://iubuntu.cz/Steam/steam-skin-installer.deb
- sudo dpkg -i steam-skin-installer.deb
There are still a number of games not yet ported to Linux, here are is a list of those games, gives you a nice view of how much money you will spend in the future. you can also vote on which game should come to linux via steam greenlight
I realized that this is a lot of copy/paste, and to have a script that does this automatically, would be great, and a time saver! so i wrote a script that does all of the above, keep in mind that this is version 0.1 and my Linux batch-script knowledge is very basic, run this at your own risk!