Steam tidbits [SOLVED]

[kexolino]

I know most of you don't game, but some do, and maybe someone will find this useful, as Steam on Linux is far from perfect (probably on Windows too)...

Starting off with the most annoying one, Steam sometimes decides it's missing something (happened twice so far):

You are missing the following 32-bit libraries, and Steam may not run: libc.so.6

which is complete bullshit, because I am on 32-bit, and as I learned a few weeks ago, if that library was missing, I wouldn't run shit xD So the solution is to run Steam like this:

Code: Select all

LC_ALL=C steam

Also, if Steam doesn't want to run for whatever reason, sometimes this can help (although this hasn't happened in quite a while, except for the case above):

Code: Select all

steam --reset

The second thing I always have to fix is that when I click the close button on the Steam window, it doesn't close, only minimizes. The fix:

Code: Select all

STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=1 steam

And this is how I launch it from the Openbox menu:

Code: Select all

sh -c 'LC_ALL=C STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=1 steam-debian' %U

If all of a sudden Steam does this (no text):


then extract the Steam fonts into ~/.fonts or /usr/share/fonts. If that doesn't work and you are using your local xinitrc file, then it needs this line:

Code: Select all

. /etc/X11/Xsession

There are some more fixes and info here and possibly here.

[rhowaldt]

thank you! i still haven't started with Steam yet, but do have plans to do so in the future, so this will be useful :)

[wuxmedia]

Yes, me too, once I have a 'puter/gfx card that runs fast enough 8)

[rhowaldt]

^ we are in the same boat :)

[wuxmedia]

heh, might be a while, all my computers do everything great, apart from games, new flat mate will have a Xbox 360, so might not even bother.
depends what pops up on ebay I guess.

[kexolino]

Today I've been switching around window managers, and in pekwm I started Steam like in Openbox, and it had no text whatsoever. Then I switch back to Openbox, still no text...



The problem is, I'm using slim, so when I install a new WM, I just like to use the ~/.Xinitrc file to switch between them, so I changed /etc/slim.conf like this:

Code: Select all

login_cmd           exec /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session
# login_cmd           exec /bin/bash -login /etc/X11/Xsession %session

and in my .Xinitrc

Code: Select all

exec openbox-session

but like this, Steam has no text. If I change back to the /etx/X11/Xsession line in slim.conf, everything's fine. I guess the exec openbox-session line is missing something that the one in slim.conf has, but I haven't figured out what.
Anyway, seems like this is a thing to look out for, if you have no text, this might be it...

[machinebacon]

Hi kexi,
maybe

Code: Select all

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session openbox-session

and also run lxappearance to set a generic font (Sans?), also check your .gtkrc-2.0 and .config/gtk-3.0/* files if the font is set.

[kexolino]

Thanks, I'll try when I get to my PC.

[Alad]

Steam's always been a pain for me too, be it under Windows or Linux.

Besides the various issues described here (which I wasn't familiar with, so thanks), I've encountered stupid libc6 requirements (all the more ironic since SteamOS is based on Wheezy), the need for an en_US locale (for me LC_ALL=C bugs out), half of the time failed connects to the steam network, all the while it overloads MY network and crashes my router. Oh and the sys tray icon works better under WINE than native Linux (!!!)

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session openbox-session

I wonder if adding

Code: Select all

. /etc/X11/Xsession

would do the job instead; there's a bunch of consolekit files in Xsession.d, which should be read by Xsession

[kexolino]

Bacon's suggestion fixes that Openbox's autostart wasn't loading either for whatever reason, but Steam's text is still missing (I checked the gtk settings files).

I wonder if adding

Code: Select all

. /etc/X11/Xsession

would do the job instead; there's a bunch of consolekit files in Xsession.d, which should be read by Xsession

How would the line look exactly then? (yeah the dot confuses me xD)

And yup, I got the connection errors a few times too, and the systray icon doesn't work very well for me either, it lags like crazy.

[machinebacon]

Install the steam fonts and copy them to .fonts or /usr/share/fonts

https://support.steampowered.com/downlo ... mFonts.zip

[kexolino]

^ That was the first thing I tried, no luck.

[machinebacon]

Are they selected in lxappearance and set in gtk-* files right?

[Alad]

How would the line look exactly then?

The little dot sources the file, so .xinitrc should be

Code: Select all

. /etc/X11/Xsession

exec openbox-session

You can compare to the file in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Also, is that problem with WINE or native Steam?

[kexolino]

^ Thanks 2x, firstly because while I knew about sourcing, I didn't know about the dot (DERP), and secondly because that fixes the issue.
It's native Steam BTW.

Edit: I'll just edit the fix into the first post, easier to find that way.

[machinebacon]

Added a [SOLVED] :)

[rhowaldt]

good to hear Kexo finally learned about the dot ;)

[wuxmedia]

Thanks - this worked perfectly on my machine, the fonts weren't missing however, they were totally garbled.
I just extracted the steamfonts.zip and put them in /usr/share/fonts/
My Colleague suggested I should install steam - so he could share his game library, which I thought was nice.

Thanks chaps.

[kexolino]

If by any chance you want to run steam --reset, don't, It deletes your games and you'll have to redownload them. Don't know if this is the intended behavior nowadays, but it could use a warning at least...