Installing Valve Steam Beta on Ubuntu 12.04

Welcome to the limited access beta of Valve's Steam client for Ubuntu "precise" 12.04. Below are directions for registering, installing, and running Steam, and (if needed) upgrading your video drivers.

Join #ubuntu-steam on FreeNode IRC if you'd like to chat with others about anything in this document.

Equipment

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• A Steam key (this will have been emailed to you). If you're already in the beta program, you don't need this.
• 1 GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP1500+ with 512 megabytes of RAM, or better
• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, fully updated
• A recent model graphics card:
  • NVIDIA series 6 and newer
  • Intel HD 3000 or better
  • (Coming Soon: AMD series 5 and up)
• At least 5G free hard drive space (more if you want to play games!)

The Steam client and most games should also work under Ubuntu 12.10, however that's been less widely tested so YMMV.

Installation

1. Download the linux client: steam.deb. Save to your Downloads folder

2. Click on the folder icon on the Unity Launch bar to open the file manager
3. Navigate to Downloads and double-click on steam.deb
4. Ubuntu Software Center will launch and walk you through installation

Alternatively, install from the command-line via the commands:

  wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
  sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
  sudo gdebi steam.deb

Or, with straight dpkg, you can brute force it:

  sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
  sudo apt-get install -f   # (If the above command errors)
  sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

If you've installed Steam previously via wine or some other means, you may be able to use that to do the registration. If you've gotten the linux client previously, you likely will need to move it aside (including its config files and any cached game data) in order to successfully get the official client installed.

Registration

If you're already registered for the beta program, you can skip this section.

Using the Linux Client

Once you've installed the steam linux client you can activate the beta key by following these steps:

1. Run in a terminal or in Alt+F2 steam steam://open/games

2. When you get to the Valve Steam login dialog, either log in to your existing account or create a new one
3. Click the Games Menu
4. Choose Activate a Product on Steam... You'll be prompted for the key that you received in email.
5. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

Using Wine

Your Steam key must be redeemed using a Steam for Windows/Mac client (via Wine, Windows, or Mac) before you can access the Steam for Linux client. Here's how to do it with Wine:

1. Install wine and winetricks

2. Launch winetricks: Applications > Wine > Winetricks

3. Select 'Install an app'
4. Select 'steam' as the package to install (you can uncheck everything else), and follow the prompts
5. When you get to the Valve Steam login dialog, either log in to your existing account or create a new one
6. Click the Games Menu
7. Choose Activate a Product on Steam... You'll be prompted for the key that you received in email.
8. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process. (The games-to-install bits can be skipped, since you won't be using this client for playing the games.)

Driver Upgrades

Some games will run fine with your current set up, others may require updated drivers to get the best performance, and a few may refuse to run without the driver updates. Determine what graphics hardware you are using and follow the appropriate section below.

NVIDIA Graphics

1. In 12.04, launch the Additional Hardware Drivers dialog from System Settings. In 12.10, launch Software Properties, then click on the Additional Drivers tab in the Software Sources menu.

2. Install the newest nvidia-experimental-NNN driver. Note that you probably will need to scroll down to see the experimental drivers.

AMD/ATI Graphics

NOTE: The fglrx-experimental-9 driver will be available in precise-proposed soon, but is not yet available.

Once it's available in -proposed, the following directions will work for installing it:

1. Launch Update Manager

2. If you have any pending updates marked, go ahead and install them first and reboot if told to do so. (In particular, you need to have jockey fully up to date.)

3. In Update Manager, click Settings... button, select the Updates tab, and then check Pre-released updates (precise-proposed). Enter your password if prompted, and then close the dialog.

4. Click the Check button. This will update your sources

5. In 12.04, launch the Additional Hardware Drivers dialog. In 12.10, launch Software Properties, then click on the Additional Drivers tab in the Software Sources menu.

6. Install the newest fglrx-experimental-9 driver.

Intel Graphics

For Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, you'll need to update your mesa stack using the x-updates PPA.

On the command line, run

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then log out and back in, or reboot.

12.10 already includes all the necessary Intel bits, so if you're on this release no update is required.

Running Steam

A Steam icon should now be present in the Unity Launcher. Alternatively, just run the command

  steam

Log in, and then in the Store section look for a Linux tab to see the native titles available for purchase.

The Steam for Linux official game forum is worth joining for future beta announcements and other information, as well as active discussion about the client and games.

Problems?

The #ubuntu-steam IRC channel can be used for general help and discussion about Steam for Linux.

If you encounter any issues while using Steam for Linux or playing any of the available Linux games, please create a new post in the Limited Beta forum with the following information:

1. Start your post title with "Issue Report: <problem description>" and in the body provide a detailed description of the issue, including any output from the command line or crash logs generated by the issue.

2. Steps for reproducing the issue.

3. Your system information. The easiest method is to open the Steam for Linux client and click Help | Hardware Information. Once your information appears, right-click within the dialog and choose Select All, right-click again, and then choose Copy. Paste this information into your post.

If you're curious about already-reported issues, do a search in the forum on "Issue Report:". But only comment on someone else's post if you can help them towards a solution. Definitely don't 'bump' old posts or add comments that basically just say "me too".