Steam

2025-10-25T07:21:33Z

Moon: Fixed grammar error

This page explains how to run [https://store.steampowered.com/about/ Steam], a popular game distribution platform by Valve on Alpine Linux. Steam requires glibc to run, and thus won't run natively on Alpine Linux. The simplest approach is to run it as [[Flatpak]]. Other workarounds involve using a virtual machine, a chroot or a container. It is theoretically possible to run the windows version of Steam using {{Pkg|wine}}.

== Installation via Flatpak ==

# Follow the [[Flatpak#Installing_Flatpak|Flatpak]] wiki page and ensure that [[Flatpak#Installing_Flatpak|Flathub repository]] is enabled.
# Install the Steam flatpak package from Flathub.{{Cmd|$ flatpak --user install com.valvesoftware.Steam}}
# After installation Steam can be started either using its .desktop file or from the command line: {{Cmd|$ 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 {{pkg|steam-devices|arch=x86_64}}

These udev rules rely on the <code>TAG+="uaccess"</code>, and are therefore only expected to work reliably when using [[Elogind]].

=== 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 [https://github.com/flathub/com.valvesoftware.Steam/issues/636#issuecomment-779763326 on the Flathub repository].

=== Steam - Error: OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display ===

Add the Mesa gallium driver and reboot your system.

# apk add {{pkg|mesa-dri-gallium|arch=x86_64}}

=== 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 <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.

=== 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 ensure that <var>DISPLAY</var> appears in the {{ic|dbus-update-activation environment}} line, as well as the [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki#systemd-and-dbus-activation-environments others stated here], then restart:
<pre>exec dbus-update-activation-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway SWAYSOCK I3SOCK XCURSOR_SIZE XCURSOR_THEME</pre>
For more information about this line, please see the [[Sway|Alpine Linux wiki 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>

== See Also ==
* [[Gaming on Alpine|Gaming on Alpine Linux]]
* [[Flatpak]]
* [https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Steam Steam on postmarketOS]

[[category:Gaming]]

Alpine Linux - User contributions [en]

Steam