Getting Steam Beta Running in Fedora 17

Update 11/01/2013: Steam is now available using RPM Fusion in the rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing repo. I have not tested it yet, but should make installing Steam in Fedora much easier. I have had steam running for almost a year now with few issues in both Fedora 17 Beefy Miracle, as well as after upgrading to Fedora 19 Schrödinger’s Cat.

You can install it like so: yum -y –enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install steam

Update 01/13/2013: Since writing this, the opensuse packages have been removed from their site, at least in part due to “the unclear permissibility regarding the distribution.” However, instructions for converting the deb steam package using the “ar” command are available via GitHub. I used this to do the update(although had to install the old version,) as steam notified me a new version was available.

While I used to play computer games a good deal in the past, I haven’t really played in a while, largely due to time constraints. At the risk of dating myself, I think the last time I gamed Unreal Tournament 4 was still pretty popular, so it has been awhile.

However, now that steam is running a Linux Beta and has opened it to the public, I decided to give it a shot and see how it works.

Steam Native Client Support

Valve is only currently officially supporting Ubuntu, but if you goto their support page, they have links to openSUSE, Gentoo, Fedora, and Arch packages. UPDATE: These have largely been removed, see update above!

The Fedora repo page was initially 404ed, which is sadly par for the course when using Fedora, but the openSuse page has Fedora packages which I was able to get running and they have since updated their wiki to use the link to openSUSE page.

I am currently running Fedora 17 64-bit, with XFCE, Nvidia Drivers, with dual monitors.

The Steam Client runs and I have downloaded and played a Team Fortress Mulitplayer without any issues.

Steam Native Client in Fedora 17 64-Bit w/XFCE

The basic Process to get the Steam Client Running in 64-bit Fedora Linux is:

• Checkout the readme on Github github.com/xvitaly/steamrpm/blob/master/README.md for instructions.
• Process involves downloading the deb, available directly from steam here
• Use the ar command to convert the deb to an RPM, install as normal.
• Goto OpenSuse and Download RPM for your package: software.opensuse.org/package/steam
• Locate and install the correct RPM for your package, will install some additional dependencies.
• Install libtxc_dxtn.i686, because it is apparently needed for Team Fortress II.

The steam client would not start right away, largely due to missing 32-bit packages and my 64-bit system and I ran into the below issues.

Additional Dependencies when running XFCE – 64 Bit (see below for Steam Client Error Message and Resolution): xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686, openal-soft.i686

Troubleshooting Client Startup Issues:

VGUI_Setup failed

Fixed by installing xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686

Fatal Error: Could not load module ‘bin/FileSystem_Steam.dll

Fixed by installing: openal-soft.i686

Finding Missing Dependencies

Thanks to a forum thread on steam, I was able to find what was missing regarding the dll error by issuing the following commands:

cd ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH ldd * | grep "not found"

The result of the above command was: libopenal.so.1 => not found

Which pointed me to downloading the 32-bit version of openal.

SE Linux Issues

I also temporarily disabled SE-Linux, because switching to “Big Picture” in the steam client caused a “steam.sh: line 287” crash, due to it trying to access execheap.

What Works So Far

Currently, the client, including registration works correctly and I am currently installing Team Fortress. I will post an update when it finishes downloading.

Update: Team Fortress is installed and I did not run into any issues playing the tutorial. The graphics look pretty nice too, although I haven’t done any configuring!

Update 12/29/2012: I have had a few issues with Team Fortress thinking I am not logged into the steam client, even though it is running. Starting Steam from the command line, as opposed to the XFCE Desktop icon, seems to fix this.