Steam: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:58, 4 March 2024

Steam is a popular game distribution platform by Valve.

Note: Steam for Linux only supports Ubuntu LTS. Thus, do not turn to Valve for support for issues with Steam on Alpine Linux.

Installation

Steam requires glibc to run, and thus doesn't straight up run on Alpine Linux. To work around this problem, we'll use Flatpak. Make sure you have the Flathub repository installed.

Note: commands prefixed with # are run as root, commands prefixed with $ are run as a regular user

 # apk add flatpak
 $ flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
 $ flatpak --user install com.valvesoftware.Steam

After installation Steam can be started using it's .desktop file or on the command line:

 $ flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam

Troubleshooting

My controllers aren't detected

By default Steam doesn't have permission to read your controllers. This can be fixed by installing an udev rule from the official Steam package, but the udev rules are also available as an Alpine package.

 # apk add steam-devices

SteamVR won't launch

Out of the box SteamVR might not be able to launch and give you various errors. Steam tries to fix this itself by setting the right capabilities on the SteamVR binary, but this doesn't work in the Flatpak. Instead we'll have do it manually.

 # setcap CAP_SYS_NICE+ep ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/linux64/vrcompositor-launcher

Then restart Steam.

There is an issue for this on the Flathub repository.

Steam - Error: OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display

Add the Mesa gallium driver and reboot your system.

# apk add mesa-dri-gallium

eventfd: Too many open files

Due to a low amount of allowed open file descriptors, Proton games may crash shortly after launching. This can be worked around by disabling esync but many games will perform measurably worse without it. Instead, user limits should be increased. In order to do this, you will need PAM and a PAM enabled login.

Add the following to /etc/security/limits.conf:

@users hard nofile 524288

Note: Although you should already belong to the users group, you can run groups to check.

Reboot and run ulimit -Hn to verify the new limits are applied.

dbus-launch: no such file or directory

Set up dbus for your session.

Steam games launched via Proton crash before creating a window

Instead of just using the in-Steam menu to install and select a Proton version, try installing the flatpak community build for Proton onto your system. There are several versions, depending on your desired stability, and the experimental version available in Flathub is called "com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton-Exp". After you install your chosen version, go into Steam to specify compatibility tool for a game as usual. The installed community build will now be an option. Select that and try launching the game again.

As your last resort, you can try installing proton-ge-custom, but please note that in order for this to be even detected by Steam, you will need to install Steam via Nix due to high level of isolation that Flatpaks utilize. This can however come at the expense of your privacy.

Steam spams dmesg with x86/split lock detection entries

Add the below line to /etc/sysctl.conf:

 kernel.split_lock_mitigate = 0

Steam hangs on start with a steamwebhelper popup

If this happens and ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/steamwebhelper.log says that you are missing X server or DISPLAY, it means your DISPLAY is not present in the activation environment. For more information please see https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10554

Sway: go into your sway config file and add DISPLAY to the following line, then restart:

exec dbus-activation-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway

For more information about this line, please see the Alpine Wiki's entry on Sway

Hyprland: add an exec-once to the configuration file at ~/.config/hypr/hyprland to set DISPLAY. Similarly to Sway you may already have a line that sets other variables. If so, add DISPLAY to the line. The line should look similar to this:

exec-once = dbus-update-activation-environment DISPLAY

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[http://store.steampowered.com/about/ Steam] is a popular game distribution platform by Valve.
+[https://store.steampowered.com/about/ Steam] is a popular game distribution platform by Valve.
 {{Note|Steam for Linux only supports Ubuntu LTS. Thus, do not turn to Valve for support for issues with Steam on Alpine Linux.}}
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 Make sure you have the Flathub repository installed.
-   # apk add flatpak
+{{Note| commands prefixed with # are run as root, commands prefixed with $ are run as a regular user}}
-   $ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
-   $ flatpak install com.valvesoftware.Steam
+   # apk add {{pkg|flatpak|arch=x86_64}}
+   $ flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
+   $ flatpak --user install com.valvesoftware.Steam
 After installation Steam can be started using it's .desktop file or on the command line:
@@ Line 22: / Line 24: @@
 By default Steam doesn't have permission to read your controllers.
-This can be fixed by installing an udev rule from the official Steam package, but the udev rules are also available as an Alpine package.
+This can be fixed by installing an [[udev]] rule from the official Steam package, but the udev rules are also available as an Alpine package.
-   # apk add steam-devices
+   # apk add {{pkg|steam-devices|arch=x86_64}}
 === SteamVR won't launch ===
@@ Line 38: / Line 40: @@
 === Steam - Error: OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display ===
-Add the appropriate Mesa DRI driver for your video card and reboot your system.
+Add the Mesa gallium driver and reboot your system.
-Find the appropriate Mesa DRI driver:
+  # apk add {{pkg|mesa-dri-gallium|arch=x86_64}}
- # apk search mesa-dri-
-For Intel cards, use:
-  # apk add mesa-dri-intel
 === eventfd: Too many open files ===
-Due to a low amount of allowed open file descriptors, Proton games may crash shortly after launching. This can be worked around by disabling esync but many games will perform measurably worse without it. Instead, user limits should be increased.
+Due to a low amount of allowed open file descriptors, Proton games may crash shortly after launching. This can be worked around by disabling esync but many games will perform measurably worse without it. Instead, user limits should be increased. In order to do this, you will need [[PAM]] and a PAM enabled login.
-In order to do this, you will need PAM and a PAM enabled login:
- # apk add linux-pam shadow-login
 Add the following to <code>/etc/security/limits.conf</code>:
   @users hard nofile 524288
 {{Note|Although you should already belong to the users group, you can run <code>groups</code> to check.}}
-reboot and run <code>ulimit -Hn</code> to verify the new limits are applied.
+Reboot and run <code>ulimit -Hn</code> to verify the new limits are applied.
+=== dbus-launch: no such file or directory ===
+Set up [[D-Bus|dbus]] for your session.
+=== Steam games launched via Proton crash before creating a window ===
+Instead of just using the in-Steam menu to install and select a Proton version, try installing the flatpak community build for Proton onto your system. There are several versions, depending on your desired stability, and the experimental version available in Flathub is called "com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton-Exp". After you install your chosen version, go into Steam to specify compatibility tool for a game as usual. The installed community build will now be an option. Select that and try launching the game again.
+As your last resort, you can try installing [https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom proton-ge-custom], but please note that in order for this to be even detected by Steam, you will need to install Steam via Nix due to high level of isolation that Flatpaks utilize. This can however come at the expense of your [https://tosdr.org/en/service/180 privacy].
+=== Steam spams dmesg with x86/split lock detection entries ===
+Add the below line to {{path|/etc/sysctl.conf}}:
+  kernel.split_lock_mitigate = 0
+=== Steam hangs on start with a steamwebhelper popup ===
+If this happens and {{path|~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/steamwebhelper.log}} says that you are missing X server or <var>DISPLAY</var>, it means your <var>DISPLAY</var> is not present in the activation environment. For more information please see https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10554
+'''[[Sway]]''': go into your sway config file and add <var>DISPLAY</var> to the following line, then restart:
+<pre>exec dbus-activation-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway</pre>
+For more information about this line, please see the Alpine Wiki's entry on Sway
+'''Hyprland''': add an exec-once to the configuration file at {{path|~/.config/hypr/hyprland}} to set <var>DISPLAY</var>. Similarly to Sway you may already have a line that sets other variables. If so, add <var>DISPLAY</var> to the line. The line should look similar to this:
+<pre>exec-once = dbus-update-activation-environment DISPLAY</pre>