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Steam for Linux Beta Now Available
- mukyu 14y agohttp://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb (Ubuntu 12.04, supposedly is only supposed to work for people in the beta)
- ninetax 14y agoYes, I get a message saying it's only for accounts in the closed beta. It does install and run though. Can beta participants invite others?
- sp332 14y agoYou can run the client without beta access, but can you install any games?
- Munksgaard 14y agoI just installed and ran Uplink without beta access. Ran smoothly even in a Virtualbox. Edit: To clarify, I have lots of indie games on steam that are readily installable on Linux. TF2 doesn't seem to be available without beta access though.
- ninetax 14y agoDoesn't look like it. A popup is in the way. And I can't install any games.
- ajross 14y agoAugh. Some really craptastic distro-specific code in there. The wrapper script tries to detect missing dependencies on its own (gee... aren't package dependencies already handled by something, maybe the package manager?) and install them via "gksudo apt-get ...". Sigh... Valve: come on guys, get it right. Look at how Chrome or Dropbox do this for a clean example. Basically, you define your own repository and your "install now" link simply adds it (and its key) and pulls your package via apt/yum/zypper/whatever.
- kevindication 14y agoA Beta test is usually a call for this kind of feedback. You should send it to them. Save the HN comment for after the Beta.
- ajross 14y agoI'm not in the beta (just used the download link above) so sadly I lack such a channel. But broadly in my experience your suggestion simply doesn't work. Betas are for bug reports. Criticism of the code never makes it to the dev team, period. On the other hand, it strikes me as quite likely that some of them read HN...
- avolcano 14y agoThis might sound ridiculous, but Valve are actually really good at responding, or at least reading, emails sent right to the top. If you just send your thoughts to gaben@valvesoftware.com, I'm sure he'll forward it to whoever it's relevant to. (I say this from experience - I sent him an email saying I thought the end of Half Life 2: Episode 2 was really fantastic stuff, and got a response back from the script writer, who he had forwarded the email to :])
- FaceKicker 14y agoI've always been curious - is it known whether Gabe himself actually reads emails from non-employees sent to that address, or could it just be an assistant that handles routing most of the emails? I really can't imagine how he could possibly have time to deal with a public email account, but maybe I'm overestimating the volume of email he would get...
- nitrogen 14y agoOne 25-employee company I was aware of during the first .com wave had at least three different people handling mail sent to the CEO's public address.
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- gzgz 14y agoFor someone who actually is the beta to examine / report. If $HOME/steam exists before installation, some files goes into $HOME/steam other in $HOME/Steam. And the installation fails.
- pdknsk 14y agoIf you're not in beta, but still want to play around with the client (without games), install Steam and start it like this. wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb sudo dpkg -i steam.deb steam steam://open/store/ & This bypasses the beta check (but still requires Steam account). Next right click the Steam icon in the Unity launcher and pick Store. Pin the icon to directly pick Store next time.
- odiroot 14y agoIt seems i386 only. Is there a way to test this on 64-bit Ubuntu without breaking my packages beyond repair?
- bryanlarsen 14y agoIt appears to work fine on 64 bit with the compatibility libraries. Do an `apt-get -f install` if your `dpkg -i` complains about missing dependencies. And if you're using XMonad, switch to something else first.
- doki_pen 14y agoSo annoying that I keep clicking on steam articles and I still can't use it on Linux.
- drv 14y agoHere's a list of games available via Steam for Linux currently: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?os=linux http://store.steampowered.com/search/?os=linux The link provided just redirects to the front store page for me: http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/ http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/
- Tyrant505 14y agoAnd.... I recognize 2 titles :P
- Munksgaard 14y agoIt's mostly indie stuff that already has linux clients. Neat that they're included though.
- afterburner 14y agoIt's not so bad... I recognize 9! :)
- Yuioup 14y agoI just discovered that Crusader Kings II (for Linux) is in closed beta as well.
- jeltz 14y agoAwesome! So that list is not complete? Any more games missing from that list?
- Yuioup 14y agoThis reddit link seems to have a nice list of games: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/12qs6z/steam_for_linux_its_here_deb_in_the_link/c6xf19p http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/12qs6z/steam_f... You'll notice that Crusader Kings II gives a "no files" error when you try to launch it from the library (you have to own the game already). When I posted this as a bug I was told that CK2 was in an invite-only closed beta. I guess that means I have to get an invitation from Paradox. I'm assuming the rest of the games with a "no files" error are still being tested or prepped for release.
- thedangler 14y agoI know it is only in beta but all this "how can I get it to work" talk makes me think it is not user friendly yet. Windows and Mac it is simple as download and go. But with Linux there seems to be issues and work arounds. Still not for the average user. Look at all the comments.
- km3k 14y agoIt's a CLOSED beta. Not intended for the average user yet. It'll be easy once they've worked out the bugs.
- acomar 14y agoIt will possibly still require workarounds for non-ubuntu users though, the official sources are only citing compatibility with Ubuntu as a goal. That said, every distribution will likely have a package available through non-official sources. Arch for example already has a working user package for the current client. And I can also confirm that it is slow and buggy as was to be expected.
- ricardobeat 14y agoIf you are not a Ubuntu user, odds are that you won't mind the trickery required.
- carlosantolin 14y agoNo, I dowloaded a .deb which installed steam, witch then downloaded the full program without any issue.
- qu4z-2 14y agoWell, the workarounds seem to be mostly for people using unsupported distros or (more commonly) installing it despite not being in the closed beta.
- jiggy2011 14y agoI run it and it strongly recommends that I install a new nVidia driver that is marked as "experimental". I know that it's not fair to dump on a beta but the interface is really unresponsive even compared to the Windows version and half the time I can't even drag windows around. Looks like this still has some way to go.
- zfran 14y agoWorking perfect on Archlinux i368 with XFCE. Way more responsive than in Windows for me.
- viraptor 14y ago> “An overwhelming majority of beta applicants have reported they’re running the Ubuntu distro of Linux” I'm sure the survey results were really valuable and contained only true answers after they announced that "ubuntu" is the "right" answer for the first beta... I hope they don't take them too seriously.
- w1ntermute 14y agoYep, I run Arch but answered Ubuntu because I knew I'd have no chance of getting into the beta otherwise. No doubt someone will manage to create an AUR package for Arch that uses the Ubuntu version of Steam. Unfortunately, I wasn't selected, so I have no way of knowing when I'll actually get to try it out.
- AYBABTME 14y agoThere's this: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/steam/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/steam/
- asdfaoeu 14y agoDoes it work without being accepted into the beta? I would try but I'm at work currently.
- Clocwise 14y agoThe first time I connected it didn't work, but I put in the command to download tf2 (which didn't download) and after that it seemed to work fine, I could talk to my friends and download/play my HIB games.
- AYBABTME 14y agoIt does, but you must run Steam from the command line: $ steam steam://open/store/ & Also, sometimes the client will say that you're account is not in the Beta and shutdown. Just try again and it will eventually work.
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- viraptor 14y agoFor users of Arch Linux: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/steam/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/steam/ - it was also a very quick hack: First Submitted: 2012-11-06 19:06
- husam212 14y agoThis is great for a closed beta, I thought its gonna be a farm of bugs with almost nothing working ... I really appreciate steam team for their hard work, I hope we see hardcore gamers soon using Linux.
- sown 14y agoIf you break your ubuntu 12.04 install because nvidia driver 304 breaks, here's how you fix it. Hopefully you made backups of your x config files (it's a selectable option when you install new nvidia drivers). If it's x is truly broken, then you won't see any windows or GUI. Hit ctrl-alt-F1 and login to your user, then do this sudo service lightdm stop sudo nvidia-uninstall sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-current
- knome 14y agoYeah, I managed to kill X by installing 310 after having installed 304. It was managing to put 304 in the kernel while using 310's interface to it. Removing the packages for both and then installing just 310 fixed it.
- trotsky 14y agoI guess we all have to pay more than the average to get left 4 dead 2 added to the bundle.
- JamesArgo 14y agoWho would have expected this two years ago? And Nividia finally released a decent driver.
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