Steam

''Steam is an Internet-based digital distribution, digital rights management (DRM), multiplayer, and social networking platform developed by Valve Corporation. Steam provides the user with installation and automatic updating of games on multiple computers, and community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud saving, and in-game voice and chat functionality.'' - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Games

 * Official Steam Linux games list.
 * SteamDB Linux games list.

Dependencies
The following packages are required for Steam:

The following packages are optional for Steam:

Install the Steam set:

USE flags
The following USE flags are required for Steam on :

Update the system:

Kernel
Steam expects that, which requires kernel tmpfs support, is mounted prior to being started. should be mounted automatically by OpenRC and systemd during boot, but can also be explicitly mounted via :

Installation
The Steam installer downloads and installs the Steam client to the users home directory. This prevents Portage from managing the Steam client updates or the software installed by it. The Steam client is solely responsible for managing software installation and updates.

Manual
Fetch and extract the Steam installer:

Run the Steam installer:

Steam can be started with:

To avoid restarting or running two X servers in parallel, su to the Steam user, and use to give the Steam user access to the running X server. Refer to bash-steam-launcher for details.

Manual with alternative installer script
Fetch the Steam installer and extract the required files:

Fetch and run Julian Ospald's (hasufell) Steam installer script:

Overlay
The steam-launcher ebuild is available from the Gentoo Gamers overlay or anyc's Steam overlay.

Chroot
It is possible to run Steam in a 32-bit chroot on without relying on multilib, or the emul-linux-x86-* packages (which are masked and scheduled for removal ).

Create the chroot directory:

Fetch and extract the stage tarball:

Copy DNS information:

Create the Portage directory:

Mount the necessary filesystems:

Chroot with linux32, which is provided by the package, and update the environment:

Create the Steam user:

Next, install Steam from one of the above installation methods. When complete, create the following wrapper script to setup the chroot, su to the Steam user, and start Steam.

Although the above script uses D-Bus, it is possible to run Steam without it, but a manual method is required to connect the X server from within the chroot.

Adobe Flash Player on amd64

 * Installation via Portage (recommended)

The following USE flags are required:

Install the package:

Create the directory:

Create a symbolic link to in the  directory:


 * Manual installation

Create the directory:

Fetch the 32-bit Linux Adobe Flash Player tarball, and then extract :

Set as executable:

Direct rendering is not being used
If Steam starts with the following error: Error: OpenGL GLX context is not using direct rendering, which may cause performance problems.

Confirm if direct rendering is enabled with glxinfo, which is provided by the package:

If direct rendering is not enabled, ensure that the correct OpenGL implementation is selected:

If direct rendering is enabled and the correct OpenGL implementation is selected, then this issue may be caused by 1.3*. . This issue has been fixed for users of the steam-launcher ebuild. Otherwise, run the following for a temporary workaround:

For ATI drivers:

For Nvidia drivers:

Hardened Gentoo
It seems that the Steam binary has  bits set, and needs to be PaX marked in order to work on a hardened system:

The binaries of most games should also be PaX marked:

Failure to perform PaX marking will result in the game failing to run, with little information given. To check if a game needs to be PaX marked, run the game's startup script or binary file (found in or ) under a debugger. This can be accomplished with some of Valve's provided startup scripts by setting the  environment variable to  :

If a binary needs to be PaX marked, gdb should output something similar to: warning: Cannot call inferior functions, Linux kernel PaX protection forbids return to non-executable pages! and/or: Cannot access memory at address 0x80486c6.

After an update in July 2013, Steam also needs a PaX marked when the OpenGL libraries require   markings, otherwise games will fail to run from the Steam client :

However, this results in Bash failing to run. It is also a security issue, and it is strongly recommended to try without PaX marking. If it works when using the proprietary Nvidia drivers, please make a note of it on this page.

Memory corruption
If Steam starts with the following error: Installing the package should fix the issue:
 * glibc detected *** zenity: malloc: memory corruption: 0x00000000016cf020 ***

Missing fonts
If Steam is having issues with missing fonts, installing the and  packages may fix the issue:

If the X server does not recognize the newly installed fonts, run the following:

Reset the installation
To reset (i.e. wipe) the Steam installation, including installed games, and reinstall Steam without losing data:

Reversed X cursor
If an X cursor theme has not been set by the desktop environment or window manager, Steam will override the default X cursor theme. This can result in a reversed X cursor from left to right. The issue can be fixed by setting an X cursor theme, if one is available, or by installing an X cursor theme:

If the X cursor is still reversed, even after exiting Steam, run the following to fix the issue:

Segfault when remember my password is selected
Selecting the  option at the Steam login dialog, when Steam is running without D-Bus, will cause Steam to segfault the next time it is started. This issue can be fixed by running the following:

Taskbar button persists even when closed or minimzed
Depending on the desktop environment being used, the Steam taskbar button may persist even when the Steam window is closed or minimized to the system tray. To correct this behavior, force the Steam window to close instead of minimize:

Update the environment for the user running Steam:

Use system libraries
Steam bundles many libraries which are used instead of the system libraries. To force Steam to use the system libraries, disable the Steam runtime:

Update the environment for the user running Steam:

Video drivers

 * nvidia-drivers: You will need to unmask latest.
 * Starting some games (TF, CS:S) on legacy ATI drivers will give this error: "Required OpenGL extension "GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode" is not supported. Please update your OpenGL driver." Workaround is here.

Texture compression
Many games, especially those that use the Source engine, require S3 Texture Compression (S3TC) support. Without S3TC support, these games will usually have black or missing textures, or fail to start.

The following USE flags are required for :
 * Enable S3TC support

Install the package:

Next, confirm if S3TC support is enabled with glxinfo, which is provided by the package:

If S3TC support is not enabled, ensure that the  variable in  is set to the correct value, and update the video driver to most recent version.

If S3TC support is enabled, but games fail to start with the following error: This system does not support the OpenGL extension GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc Run the following before starting Steam:

If nouveau drivers are being used, installing may be required to fix the above error:

Dota 2

 * If black textures are visible and an older (<9.1.6) is installed, update  to a recent version.


 * If black textures are visible and a recent is installed, building  with the   USE flag may fix the issue.


 * If a red screen is visible during startup and textures are missing in-game, refer to texture compression for details.

Left 4 Dead 2

 * If black textures are visible, refer to texture compression for details.

Rust (legacy)

 * If the launcher fails to start, adding  to the launch options in , may fix the issue.

Sid Meier's Civilization V

 * If a black screen is visible and the introduction music is audible during startup, changing the value of  may fix this issue:

The correct value for  appears to be system dependent, and may require setting different values before working.

Starbound
This application failed to start because it could not find or load the Qt platform plugin "xcb".
 * If the launcher fails to start with the following error:

Available platform plugins are: xcb.

Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. Adding  to the launch options in , may fix the issue.

Stealth Bastard Deluxe

 * If the package is not installed, Stealth Bastard Deluxe will segfault :

Stealth Bastard Deluxe specifically requests the fonts /, which can be checked for availability with. Otherwise, add the fonts to the font path, or create a font alias:

Team Fortress 2

 * If a black screen is visible for 1-2 seconds, adding  to the launch options in , may fix the issue.

X3: Terran Conflict and X3: Albion Prelude

 * If red, green and blue stripes are visible, or the launcher fails to start, refer to texture compression for details.

Asking for help
The best place to ask for help is the Steam thread on the Gentoo Forums. If a solution to an issue is confirmed by others, add it to this page. Please do not remove content without discussion, unless it is obviously wrong.

External resources

 * Gentoo Forums
 * Gentoo Bugzilla
 * Steam for Linux
 * Steam for Linux Community
 * Valve Linux Blog
 * ArchLinux Wiki