linux Steam for Linux Beta Now Available

[Colin McGregor]

I do recall hearing that they were initially targeting it primarily at Ubuntu users.

its smart to target the noobs and let others like Gentoo users that already know how to use Linux to install on their own.

[Syanide]

The closed beta's apparently been bypassed, so anyone can play: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/11/reddit-users-bypass-valve-linux-beta-invitations

[Noir Angel]

its smart to target the noobs and let others like Gentoo users that already know how to use Linux to install on their own.

No, I think they were doing it because Ubuntu is the most popular distribution.

[codygman]

Sorry that I was gone so long, but it took a while to test everything and create a good, reliable guide for installing the current Steam for Linux beta on Debian 7.

Backporting multiarch

The reason that Ubuntu 12.04 has a later version of multiarch than Debian 7 is because multiarch is directly tied to the version of libc installed on the system. Debian 7 will ship with libc 2.13 while Ubuntu 12.04 shipped with libc 2.15. While it is extremely unlikely that Steam relies on anything in libc 2.15 that is not also in 2.13, since Steam is closed-source no one outside of Valve can recompile it from source against libc 2.13. Therefore our only alternative to get Steam running on Debian 7 is to upgrade Debian's libc to 2.15. Follow the instructions below to compile Ubuntu 12.04's libc for Debian 7.

# Install build dependencies for multiarch-support.
sudo apt-get install build-essential devscripts
sudo apt-get build-dep multiarch-support

# Create a build directory for the package.
mkdir ~/multiarch-backport
pushd ~/multiarch-backport

# Download the multiarch-support source package from the Ubuntu 12.04 repository.
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/eglibc/eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.2.dsc
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/eglibc/eglibc_2.15.orig.tar.gz
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/eglibc/eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.2.diff.gz

# Extract and build the Debianized source. (This may take a while... be patient.)
dpkg-source -x eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.2.dsc
cd eglibc-2.15
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
cd ..
rm -rf eglibc-2.15

# Install the packages you compiled.
sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i libc6_2.15-*.deb libc6-dev_2.15-*.deb libc6-i386_2.15-*.deb libc6-dev-i386_2.15-*.deb libc-bin_2.15-*.deb libc-dev-bin_2.15-*.deb multiarch-support_2.15-*.deb nscd_2.15-*.deb

# Move out of the build directory and (optionally) delete it if you don't want to keep the packages.
popd
rm -rf ~/multiarch-backport
[/CODE]

[b]Installing Steam[/b]

Once you have your version of multiarch upgraded to 2.15, installing Steam is relatively easy. All other dependencies can be satisfied directly from the official Debian repository. However, you cannot install the Steam package directly using dpkg unless you already have all dependencies installed from the repository, which is unlikely. Instead, use the following procedure (assuming that the Steam package is located in the current directory and named [i]steam.deb[/i]).

[CODE]
sudo apt-get install gdebi
sudo gdebi -n steam.deb
[/CODE]

After copy/pasting all instructions my system hangs at:

[CODE]
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/cody/multiarch-backport/eglibc-2.15/build-tree/amd64-libc
[/CODE]

My system shouldn't take more than a few hours at most, I left it on all night.

[CODE]

cody@debian-wheezy:~$ uname -a
Linux debian-wheezy 3.2.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Mon Jul 23 02:45:17 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux
cody@debian-wheezy:~$ grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo
8
cody@debian-wheezy:~$ free -h
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7.7G 7.1G 670M 0B 362M 4.5G
-/+ buffers/cache: 2.2G 5.5G
Swap: 3.3G 0B 3.3G
[/CODE]

Thanks!

[Karl L.]

codygman, libc is a very important and widely used package in Debian. Your build could freeze for any number of reasons. If possible, I recommend that you try compiling it in a clean chroot, which is the offical method for compiling packages anyway. Since I did not compile mine in a clean environment and it is such an important package, I'm not going to post my binary. However, let me know if you run into further problems and I'll try to backport it the right way so I can post my binaries.

[Karl L.]

As an alternative to the method I posted above for installing Steam on Debian, I built Ubuntu 12.04's libc 2.15 for Debian 7 AMD64 in a clean chroot and uploaded my unsigned binaries so you can install them instead of building it yourself (so long as you have a 64-bit Debian system). Just follow the instructions below to upgrade Debian 7's libc from 2.13 to 2.15 and install Steam.

# Download my libc tarball and the latest Steam beta package.
wget https://dl.dropbox.com/u/62647756/multiarch-support/eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.3_wheezy_deb.tar.lzma
wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb

# Extract and install the libc packages.
tar -xJf eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.3_wheezy_deb.tar.lzma
pushd eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.3_wheezy_deb
sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i libc6_2.15-*.deb libc6-dev_2.15-*.deb libc6-i386_2.15-*.deb libc6-dev-i386_2.15-*.deb libc-bin_2.15-*.deb libc-dev-bin_2.15-*.deb multiarch-support_2.15-*.deb nscd_2.15-*.deb
popd
rm -rf eglibc_2.15-0ubuntu10.3_wheezy_deb

# Install the Steam package.
sudo apt-get install gdebi
sudo gdebi -n steam.deb
[/CODE]

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Got my invite today. I was quite surprised given that I'm running Arch Linux, which I thought would have been low on the list given it's high configurability. I was also pleasently surprised to see that I have 20 games available to me already, although the 12GB TF2 download is monstrous :p

[Karl L.]

I just got my invite today too! I guess they just sent out another batch of them. (Apparently they decided to invite Debian and Arch users too, although the beta is still officially only for Ubuntu. I can't wait to play TF2 in Debian!)

[BoneyardBrew Member]

Got my invite today. I was quite surprised given that I'm running Arch Linux, which I thought would have been low on the list given it's high configurability. I was also pleasently surprised to see that I have 20 games available to me already, although the 12GB TF2 download is monstrous :p

I just got my invite today too! I guess they just sent out another batch of them. (Apparently they decided to invite Debian and Arch users too, although the beta is still officially only for Ubuntu. I can't wait to play TF2 in Debian!)

Do they email you if you've been accepted or is it done via a pop-up in the client?

[Nothing Here]

People who are on x64 Linux systems, only help I can offer is to say install an x86 version of your distro and enable the PAE kernel. This way your system is capatible and you have access to all your ram.

Do they email you if you've been accepted or is it done via a pop-up in the client?

They were suppossed to email people. But at the time, they only wanted people on Ubuntu.

[ViperAFK]

I had no problem installing it on 64 bit ubuntu.

Got my invite today, installed it on my laptop. I'll have to get around to getting a dual boot going on my gaming desktop eventually to test it there. Its nice having it on my laptop even though I don't really play much games on it, because I can have my friends list up and not miss game invites :)

[BoneyardBrew Member]

They were suppossed to email people. But at the time, they only wanted people on Ubuntu.

Alright, thanks. I only signed up recently and wasn't sure how they were contacting people. I know most times when games/software are concerned it's done with a popup on Steam. I'd get emails sometimes and other times I wouldn't.

[Karl L.]

I can also attest that Valve emailed me to inform me of my acceptance into the beta. Also, I have no problems running Steam on the AMD64 port of Debian using a variation of the method I posted earlier in this thread. Arch users should have no problems with anything but packaging (even on AMD64), I suspect.

[Chasethebase Veteran]

Closed thread, official topic on final release is here

I note there were two posts from recently asking for help, they're now in that thread.