Arch Linux: Steam installation

By | 03/06/2019
 

Got a new PC and want to play games here.

World of Tanks already works – check the World of Tanks: installing and running on Arch Linux, and now I want to install Steam.

It worked with no issues on Ubuntu a few years ago and I could play Civilization V there – so now let’s try to run it on the Arch setup.

Installation docs here>>>.

With a couple of issues – but it works here too.

Enable the multilib repository. Edit /etc/pacman.conf, and uncomment:

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install Steam client:

[simterm]

[setevoy@setevoy-arch-pc ~]$ sudo pacman -S steam

[/simterm]

VERSION_ID: unbound variable

Run it:

[simterm]

[setevoy@setevoy-arch-pc ~]$ steam
Setting up Steam content in /home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam
/home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 106: VERSION_ID: unbound variable
/home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 106: VERSION_ID: unbound variable
Running Steam on arch  64-bit
/home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 106: VERSION_ID: unbound variable
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Pins potentially out-of-date, rebuilding...
/home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 828: /home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/run.sh: No such file or directory
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)
libGL error: No matching fbConfigs or visuals found
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast

[/simterm]

okay…

“Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/run.sh: No such file or directory” – why?

The first discussion googled here>>>.

Try to enable steam-native (although I have the commonsteam-runtime installed – check here>>> for details):

[simterm]

[setevoy@setevoy-arch-pc ~]$ export STEAM_RUNTIME=1

[/simterm]

Doesn’t works.

Another discussion found here>>>.

Let’s try – edit the /home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh:

...
function detect_release()
{
    if [ -f /etc/lsb-release ]; then
        (. /etc/lsb-release; echo $DISTRIB_RELEASE)
#   elif [ -f /etc/os-release ]; then
    elif $(grep 'VERSION_ID' /etc/os-release > /dev/null 2>&1); then                                                                                                                                                                   
        (. /etc/os-release; echo $VERSION_ID)
    elif [ -f /etc/debian_version ]; then
        cat /etc/debian_version
    else
        # Generic fallback
        uname -r
    fi
}
...

Run again:

[simterm]

[setevoy@setevoy-arch-pc ~]$ steam
Running Steam on arch 4.20.11-arch2-1-ARCH 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled by the user
Pins up-to-date!
/home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 829: /home/setevoy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/run.sh: No such file or directory
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)
libGL error: No matching fbConfigs or visuals found
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast

[/simterm]

Okay… A bit better now.

Next googling led me to this>>> discussion – let’s try it:

[simterm]

[setevoy@setevoy-arch-pc ~]$ sudo pacman -S multilib/lib32-nvidia-utils

[/simterm]

Aha!

What’s interesting – the VERSION_ID errors still present:

But Steam works now.

Can’t run Civilization yet – but will figure it out.