Quick install tip for Steam’s beta linux client on Ubuntu/Kubuntu AMD64 system.

Installing Steam client

Download linux installer

Linux installer is available at http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/; which gives me the steam_latest.deb (on 21 December 2012).

Install package and dependencies

So I run (bold commands are those entered, you shouldn’t need the first bit if you’re on a 32 bit system):

user+localhost:~$ sudo apt-get install libjpeg-turbo8:i386 libcurl3gnutls:i386 libogg0:i386 libpixman-1-0:i386 libsdl1.2debian:i386 libtheora0:i386 libvorbis0a:i386 libvorbisenc2:i386 libvorbisfile3:i386 libasound2:i386 libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libx11-6:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Unable to locate package libcurl3gnutls
user+localhost:~$ sudo dpkg -i /home/pandfi/downloads/steam_latest.deb
Selecting previously unselected package steam.(Reading database … 194089 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking steam (from …/downloads/steam_latest.deb) …
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of steam:
 steam depends on libcurl3-gnutls (>= 7.16.2-1).
 steam depends on zenity (>= 3.4.0-0ubuntu4).

dpkg: error processing steam (–install):
 dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme …
Processing triggers for man-db …
Errors were encountered while processing:
steam
user+localhost:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Correcting dependencies… Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libcurl3-gnutls:i386 zenity zenity-common
The following NEW packages will be installed
libcurl3-gnutls:i386 zenity zenity-common
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 269 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 532 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,395 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Get:1 http://mirror.de.leaseweb.net/ubuntu/ quantal/main libcurl3-gnutls i386 7.27.0-1ubuntu1 [245 kB]
Get:2 http://mirror.de.leaseweb.net/ubuntu/ quantal/main zenity-common all 3.4.0-2 [222 kB]
Get:3 http://mirror.de.leaseweb.net/ubuntu/ quantal/main zenity amd64 3.4.0-2 [64.8 kB]
Fetched 532 kB in 2s (188 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libcurl3-gnutls:i386.
(Reading database … 194105 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libcurl3-gnutls:i386 (from …/libcurl3-gnutls_7.27.0-1ubuntu1_i386.deb) …
Selecting previously unselected package zenity-common.
Unpacking zenity-common (from …/zenity-common_3.4.0-2_all.deb) …
Selecting previously unselected package zenity.
Unpacking zenity (from …/zenity_3.4.0-2_amd64.deb) …
Processing triggers for man-db …
Setting up libcurl3-gnutls:i386 (7.27.0-1ubuntu1) …
Setting up zenity-common (3.4.0-2) …
Setting up zenity (3.4.0-2) …
Setting up steam (1.0.0.17) …
Processing triggers for libc-bin …
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 608 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 608 KiB

user+localhost:~$ steam steam://open/games

This leaves me with a working steam client but for some reason there are no games available to install. I suspect I need to join the beta and get a code …

Bugs so far

As someone else pointed out it doesn’t seem that they use the linux standards for where to place files, cf http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/lsb/fhs.

None of the ToS or Policy that one has to agree to on install can be copied and printing doesn’t work on my system (clicking the button just has no effect).

It seems there’s something screwy going on with username choices too but I can live with that.

Installed

That’s it. I’ll post more when I’ve worked out how to get TF2 installed.

click Steam installer image for larger version

These links may be useful:

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Valve
• http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Steam
• http://www.valvesoftware.com/linuxsurvey.php