# Steam for Linux (Closed Beta)



## ManaHime (Nov 6, 2012)

It's been a while since I first heard about this... Actually a few years ago...

Well there it is.
http://store.steampowered.com/news/9289/

I hope this helps peoples to get out of Windows. I guess I can dream haha



Now, I wonder if there's any way to make it work on linuxulator even though the installer is a .deb file :e


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## Amzo (Nov 6, 2012)

*Linux Steam Beta*

I was wondering if someone more experienced than me, would be able to make a port for the Linux Steam Beta.

For those who want the link. The link is here:


http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb

Of course it'll need to use the Linux comparability layer.


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## SirDice (Nov 7, 2012)

Threads merged.


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## ColdfireMC (Nov 7, 2012)

a steam port would be great, but game installation and authenticaton will be seriously tricky. Why don't you talk with valve about this idea?


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## nekoexmachina (Nov 8, 2012)

> I hope this helps peoples to get out of Windows.


I guess this leads to even more linuxisms and chaos. Linux as Unix is not ready for average desktop. Not enough mature developers. (I'm not a mature one, in fact, I have a very few code written by myself. My point is, in first place, from users viewpoint seeing all that hals, dbuses, waylands and shitstemd's)
Linux as Linux is ready. Which is different thing, and which is not so good as it could be.


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## zspider (Nov 17, 2012)

A steam port would be great, but outside of having an functional Nvidia card in your laptop. From what I understand, direct rendering just does not work on Linux emulation with anything else. Politely correct me if I'm wrong on that.


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## ManaHime (Nov 18, 2012)

nekoexmachina said:
			
		

> I guess this leads to even more linuxisms and chaos. Linux as Unix is not ready for average desktop. Not enough mature developers. (I'm not a mature one, in fact, I have a very few code written by myself. My point is, in first place, from users viewpoint seeing all that hals, dbuses, waylands and shitstemd's)
> Linux as Linux is ready. Which is different thing, and which is not so good as it could be.


I'm not really sure that Linux is trying to be "Linux as Unix"
Sure hals and systemd are not really good... (reading pure crap), and Wayland being linux specific... but I personally don't have all that much against dbus




			
				zspider said:
			
		

> A steam port would be great, but outside of having an functional Nvidia card in your laptop. From what I understand, direct rendering just does not work on Linux emulation with anything else. Politely correct me if I'm wrong on that.


I can't really see why you would want to do anything a little bit graphic related on FreeBSD without nVidia since anything else is at best merely working.


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## zspider (Nov 18, 2012)

D4rkSilver said:
			
		

> I can't really see why you would want to do anything a little bit graphic related on FreeBSD without nVidia since anything else is at best merely working.



I only really play old games anymore, but there are some 3D accelerated games in Steam and the ports tree that will run reasonably well on the lowly Intel chipset. I did try very hard to find a new laptop with Nvidia and not Optimus, but it seems only high end $2000+ gaming machines let you have the single GPU, like my old Thinkpad did.


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## freesbies (Nov 18, 2012)

And SteamÂ® on Freebsd ?
It would be nice guys


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## ColdfireMC (Nov 18, 2012)

zspider said:
			
		

> A steam port would be great, but outside of having an functional Nvidia card in your laptop. From what I understand, direct rendering just does not work on Linux emulation with anything else. *Politely correct me if I'm wrong on that.*



you're wrong

nvidia driver has a special module to use direct rendering over linux. a proof of this is games/quake4 (runs faster than a real linux  x() intel uses native capabilities on both systems and runs 3d graphics very well too. so a steam port won't be useless


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## ManaHime (Nov 18, 2012)

freesbies said:
			
		

> And SteamÂ® on Freebsd ?
> It would be nice guys



Sure a native Steam for FreeBSD would be great but like I said on IRC, I really don't see video games makers ALSO building their game for FreeBSD. Which makes me sad...


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## ColdfireMC (Nov 18, 2012)

D4rkSilver said:
			
		

> Sure a native Steam for FreeBSD would be great but like I said on IRC, I really don't see video games makers ALSO building their game for FreeBSD. Which makes me sad...



don't worry, you can use linuxulator


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## zspider (Nov 18, 2012)

ColdfireMC said:
			
		

> you're wrong
> 
> nvidia driver has a special module to use direct rendering over linux. a proof of this is games/quake4 (runs faster than a real linux  x() intel uses native capabilities on both systems and runs 3d graphics very well too. so a steam port won't be useless



Ok, so why does RTCW only want to run in software rendering on the Linuxulator, with Intel HD3000 and HD4000 chipsets?. I've tried it on both AMD64 and I386. Is it because the Linux Mesa libraries are not current enough?. Or is just because I'm using 9.1-RC3 and things are not finished?


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## ColdfireMC (Nov 18, 2012)

zspider said:
			
		

> Ok, so why does RTCW only want to run in software rendering on the Linuxulator, with Intel HD3000 and HD4000 chipsets?. I've tried it on both AMD64 and I386. Is it because the Linux Mesa libraries are not current enough?. Or is just because I'm using 9.1-RC3 and things are not finished?



bad luck :e ?

miscofigured X?


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## adamk (Nov 18, 2012)

zspider said:
			
		

> Ok, so why does RTCW only want to run in software rendering on the Linuxulator, with Intel HD3000 and HD4000 chipsets?. I've tried it on both AMD64 and I386. Is it because the Linux Mesa libraries are not current enough?. Or is just because I'm using 9.1-RC3 and things are not finished?



With i386, it's most likely the linux DRI drivers from ports are not current enough.  With FreeBSD/amd64, the DRI kernel modules just don't support acceleration of 32-bit apps, though I know there was some work being done on that recently.

Adam


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## zspider (Nov 18, 2012)

ColdfireMC said:
			
		

> bad luck :e ?
> 
> miscofigured X?



I don't think so, on anything that is native FreeBSD, the acceleration is phenomenal and works, like FooBilliard or Neverball for instance, both games run smooth as silk.





			
				adamk said:
			
		

> With i386, it's most likely the linux DRI drivers from ports are not current enough.  With FreeBSD/amd64, the DRI kernel modules just don't support acceleration of 32-bit apps, though I know there was some work being done on that recently.
> 
> Adam



Ok, thanks for that information, guess it's just a matter of waiting patiently.


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## SirDice (Dec 20, 2012)

It's now open beta. So we can try it :e

http://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements/detail/1747660173332716773


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## roddierod (Dec 20, 2012)

Will all this do is allow me to access my steam account information? I mean if I download this I'm still not going to be able to play Skyrim on FreeBSD, correct?


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## SirDice (Dec 20, 2012)

It'll be the same Steam as on Windows or OS-X. But obviously you can only play games that have a Linux version available.


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## roddierod (Dec 20, 2012)

Thanks.  That is what I thought, just wanted to make sure I was not missing something.  The only reason I have steam installed on windows is because Skyrim required it, which pissed me off but that is another thread somewhere else.


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## nekoexmachina (Dec 20, 2012)

deleted


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## bart (Dec 21, 2012)

Has anyone already tried to port steam on FreeBSD ?


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## jtsn (Dec 22, 2012)

bart said:
			
		

> Has anyone already tried to port steam on FreeBSD ?


The binary requires at least glibc 2.15, so it won't run with linux_base-f10. And there are further dependencies like Pulseaudio 2.0, so good look with porting.


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## hedgehog (Jan 7, 2013)

jtsn said:
			
		

> The binary requires at least glibc 2.15, so it won't run with linux_base-f10. And there are further dependencies like Pulseaudio 2.0, so good look with porting.



I've experienced the same issue. Has anybody tried linux_base-c6 yet?


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## alie (Feb 15, 2013)

They got around 57 games for Linux now: http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/

Hope they have interest to port the games to FreeBSD.


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## caesius (Feb 15, 2013)

alie said:
			
		

> Hope they have interest to port the games to FreeBSD.



I would be happy to put money on their having zero interest in doing that.


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## bsduser35325 (Feb 15, 2013)

I don't see what is the point of porting games on Linux when windows is the mainstream and will always be for a long time. I saw Half-Life on that page, seriously? The game is already ancient what is the point? it'll never get any new games or forgein ones.  Most of the games are either clones or so obscure you don't even care. I don't want it even if it cost nothing.

Do these developers really think they can compete with windows as a gaming platform?


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## kpedersen (Feb 15, 2013)

Well it is a good start.

Not to mention that the Linux market, though smaller is a lot less saturated with game development companies (competition).

Perhaps software developers would rather appeal to 90% of the Linux market than the 0.001% of the Windows market. I know that is my aim.

It also has something to do with the Windows Store that Microsoft is bringing in. Valve obviously knows something that we dont. It sounds like it is going to be pretty damn restrictive. Probably in a similar way to the iPleb stores.


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## Amzo (Feb 17, 2013)

From what I hear, valve is making it's own console which will use GNU/Linux operating system, and most games would more than likely be opengl, which means write a game for that console, and have it work on Linux as well. These were just rumors though.

http://linuxgamenews.com/post/19204693689/speculation-valves-new-game-console-to-be-based-on-linux


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## bsduser35325 (Feb 17, 2013)

kpedersen said:
			
		

> Well it is a good start.
> 
> Not to mention that the Linux market, though smaller is a lot less saturated with game development companies (competition).
> 
> ...



Enlighten me how it is a good start when Linux gaming is like 20 years behind. If the Linux market(safe to say non-existent) was any lucrative you would see some big names behind it. Regardless of how restrictive the Windows Store is, IMO I think people will still use it.


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## kpedersen (Feb 17, 2013)

bsduser35325 said:
			
		

> Enlighten me how it is a good start when Linux gaming is like 20 years behind.



It is a good start for gaming on Linux. It means the games industry on Linux has jumped forward by at least 10 years.

Unfortunately this also brings about DRM so can go to hell quite frankly.

Now Linux users have the *freedom of choice* to boycott Steam due to the DRM lol.


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## BlueCoder (Feb 18, 2013)

*I more surprised they don't use FreeBSD*

Anything they come up with will be DRM'd. It would be better for them I believe to avoid the GPL and fork from FreeBSD. Then require it to run from it's own drive/partition/setup like for a dedicated device or in a virtual machine XEN session. It could then run alongside Linux and Freebsd.

It would be much easier for them to maintain as a separate system. And they could then choose what code to share or not. But we could ALL play games on whatever system we choose, be it Windows, Linux, BSD, or Apple.

It might also be beneficial to FreeBSD as they might advance DOM0 in the FreeBSD kernel in the short term and improve the video drivers in the long term if not invent a completely separate GUI system in place of X. More or less do a smaller scale version of what apple did except keep the FreeBSD kernel.


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## Crivens (Feb 18, 2013)

bsduser35325 said:
			
		

> Enlighten me how it is a good start when Linux gaming is like 20 years behind. If the Linux market(safe to say non-existent) was any lucrative you would see some big names behind it. Regardless of how restrictive the Windows Store is, IMO I think people will still use it.



This is IMHO not so much about what was, but about what is going to be.
Valve et al are watching very closely what Microsoft is doing to their game loader^h^h the Windows OS. With Win8, Microsoft has done the step of UEFI and secure boot and is now about to pull an Apple in making a market place and rumbling about that no app will be allowed to be installed from somewhere else. With them in control of what is "appropriate" for you.

The question is not if this really is going to happen, but if the game companies are going to survive this in case it _does_ happen. Can they take that risk? I do not think so, and I would be not suprides at all should suddenly some tools/apps find their way to steam which run foul of some MS policy. For the end user there is no big difference between being spied on by valve or being spied on by someone else, the user normally preferes not to be spied on. But if is has to be, he will then go where the things are he wants, and that may well be steam.

So in preparation of such a scenario, they invest some time/money into being the first choice should it happen. Because then it does not matter if the games are 20 years behind (hey, nethack is how much 'behind'? Still a ton of fun to play), but it is going to be a matter of being some month up ahead then.


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## ManaHime (Feb 18, 2013)

bsduser35325 said:
			
		

> Enlighten me how it is a good start when Linux gaming is like 20 years behind. If the Linux market(safe to say non-existent) was any lucrative you would see some big names behind it. Regardless of how restrictive the Windows Store is, IMO I think people will still use it.



Well you can't really expect Linux gaming to start as big as Windows now can you?

At least with the Steam coming to Linux now there is some Open Source system advertisement for gamers. Sure I believe they did not chose the best OS but at least it's something.

Peoples might disagree with Steam's DRM but at least it's generally a permissive one, it does not requires you to be connected to internet 24/7 just to play your single player game.

Valve being a company I am not 100% sure that they would spend any kind of money on a Linux version of Steam if it did not have a chance to either make money or grow...


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## bsduser35325 (Feb 18, 2013)

> hey, nethack is how much 'behind'?



The casual gamer don't care about games that are aim at a specific audience. IF they want to succeed they need to target at the general pop IMO.



> Valve being a company I am not 100% sure that they would spend any kind of money on a Linux version of Steam if it did not have a chance to either make money or grow...



They probably know something the public doesn't. Yeah, probably.


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## kpedersen (Feb 18, 2013)

D4rkSilver said:
			
		

> Peoples might disagree with Steam's DRM but at least it's generally a permissive one



Well I am maintaining a port of devel/radare2 for a reason. If Steam is ever released for FreeBSD, I am gonna try cracking the fsck out of it.


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## drhowarddrfine (Feb 19, 2013)

bsduser35325 said:
			
		

> Do these developers really think they can compete with windows as a gaming platform?


It seems more so today to me that Windows is only used to play games on. Big corporations just use XP. Normal people just use their phones.


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## BlueCoder (Feb 19, 2013)

Steam has no reason to release a million different platforms. Right now it's beta so they are looking at all the angles and to get people excited. They can choose to support a few distros in the beginning.  Mainly Ubuntu because it's the most windows like. And a few other distros that that other distros derive from.

I see little chance of them supporting FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or NetBSD along with Linux.  For support purposes their only choice is a dedicated platform which is why I think XEN or any other virtual server would be the best bet. With hardware PCI passthough you'll get near native performance. On systems without it you'll still be able to run the less demanding games.


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## jtsn (Feb 19, 2013)

Now that Steam is out of beta, the issue is mainly getting FreeBSD's Linux ABI up to speed for the steam runtime. This Ubuntu-based environment works much like the /compat/linux directory tree, but it's maintained and updated by Steam itself.

Once the runtime works, Steam itself and almost all games delivered by it should work also.


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## BlueCoder (Feb 19, 2013)

What DRM mechanism does steam use? Seems that method would leave itself open to widespread cracking. Not that there wouldn't be cracking anyway but that just seems way too open for attack.


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## kpedersen (Feb 20, 2013)

Steam on Windows is pretty much 100% cracked. Anyone can download and play almost any game offline now.

The DRM system requires the average user to log into Valve's servers and download a specially packed (though fully extractable using 3rd party tools) game cache file (.gcf). This is basically a compressed zip file using a certain format.

The game once extracted comes with a .exe which is wrapped to check in with the Steam service (which must be running) so that it can use the API and confirm that the logged in user has the correct access level. This is where the DRM from the .exe can be patched away in a generic manner.

Nowadays Steam is one of the best mediums to obtain pirated games. Valve only seems interested in preventing the average (legitimate) user from accessing their software in an acceptable manner.


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## BlueCoder (Feb 20, 2013)

Pretty simple; especially if it's the same DRM on everything.

The thought that they are using a /compat hierarchy is interesting. It also makes me think of what PCBSD does. It takes care of library issues and software but it will require Steam to support various versions of the Linux kernel and different distributions handling hardware, daemons, startup routines, and IPC differently. Maybe they will require a systemd Linux. That means they will probably use a library to abstract calls for different systems services, their own version of HAL or should I call it OS Abstraction Layer, which would be a good thing for FreeBSD.

I can see it's possible now. But I still think a XEN appliance approach would be the simplest and more elegant approach.


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## kpedersen (Feb 20, 2013)

BlueCoder said:
			
		

> But I still think a XEN appliance approach would be the simplest and more elegant approach.



Unfortunately this wont work. The virtualized hardware will change in the future and Steam will require re-activation (which will of course be impossible when the servers are retired when Valve is no longer around.) due to a change in the hardware hash.

Qemu and VirtualBox also change their hardware profile a couple of times every major version which will also break Steam's (and also Windows's) DRM.

Trust me.. these greedy fsckers have thought of everything to prevent you from playing your purchased games in the future.


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## BlueCoder (Feb 20, 2013)

Two separate issues. If you pay money for Steam it's with the understanding that it can go belly up. Personally I think consumer advocacy groups need to step up on this and demand an insurance policy for a support program when this inevitably happens for all digital stores to protect consumer purchases. That's a consumer choice and legal issue. But I don't see Valve going out of business anytime soon; I don't see alternative trustable alternative competitors for game makers. Game makers will trust Valve more than the megacorps.

I can easily see using a transparent proxy and virtual servers to get around defunct servers should the company go belly up.

I don't see why virtual machines necessarily need to change their hardware. Paravirtualized drivers only need to be written once. For passthough PCI devices it will just work if you have the hardware. You will have a choice to use paravirtualized drivers or a PCI passthough device per game. Once you create a virtual appliance it should be able to run the same in a thousand years as today. But you can rest assured that Valve will keep their virtual appliances updated just to update their own software and the OS with the latest features. Think of a virtual appliance as a console within your computer. A virtual XBOX will still need to update it's firmware periodically. But it would be a single platform to support and not multiple.


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## Crivens (Feb 21, 2013)

kpedersen said:
			
		

> Unfortunately this wont work. The virtualized hardware will change in the future and Steam will require re-activation (which will of course be impossible when the servers are retired when Valve is no longer around.) due to a change in the hardware hash.



And with Valve being then part of the t*tsup.com set, does anyone really think they will give a flying fsck? After your 'purchase', which is none at all, they have your money. What stops such companies from giving you the binary-4 right then is that this would impact future 'sales'.

One may learn from the examples of others.


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## bsduser35325 (Feb 21, 2013)

> One may learn from the examples of others.



Wow, that is just outrageous.


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## kpedersen (Feb 21, 2013)

Another example is where Adobe gave out unrestricted CS2 products for free because they were taking down the activation servers for these proucts.

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

On initial inspection, this seems like a really good outcome and that Adobe has the right idea.

However, what it really shows is a complete lack of organisation or after-thought from Adobe when the product was originally sold ~4 years ago. It shows that they didn't really care what they were going to do once supporting the activation servers was no longer feasible. Short sighted idiots...

If Adobe was going bankrupt rather than EOL'ing CS2, then this would be an extremely different situation.

Likewise, on the Microsoft Norwary page, it said something like "Once Windows XP reaches end of life, it *is likely* an update will be released to bypass the activation steps". This page was only up for about 3 months and was the only mention of this statement I could find. Again, Microsoft has absolutely no care or thought on what they are going to do with their current DRM. Whatever "solution" they come up with in 2015 will not have been well thought out at all.

edit: I kept the proof  (But the link is now invalid.)

http://www.microsoft.com/norge/piracy/activation_faq.mspx


> Will Microsoft use activation to force me to upgrade? In other words, will Microsoft ever stop giving out activation codes for any of the products that require activation?
> 
> No, Microsoft will not use activation as a tool to force people to upgrade. Activation is merely an anti-piracy tool, nothing else.
> 
> Microsoft will also support the activation of Windows XP throughout its life and will likely provide an update that turns activation off at the end of the product's lifecycle so users would no longer be required to activate the product.



edit 2: But it is immortalized in the wayback machine...
http://web.archive.org/web/20120222115712/http://www.microsoft.com/norge/piracy/activation_faq.mspx


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## Amzo (Jul 6, 2013)

I know this thread is old, but I did some work getting Steam to run, just a few library issues to fix.

Setting _L_inux version to 2.6.32 and using glibc 2.12 (which works with that kernel." Steam will run in the _L_inux binary compaitability. I created a Linux jail using Arch Linux packages from 2012:

Anyways, here's it running on FreeBSD 9.1

http://i.imgur.com/hc2pjyZ.png

I will possibly need to write a wrapper, to `brandelf -t linux` for all the binaries Steam downloads.


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## ManaHime (Jul 7, 2013)

That is interesting news. I hope you can tell us how games actually work for you, and that you can tell us exactly what you did to make this work if it happens. :e


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## hedgehog (Jul 7, 2013)

Amzo said:
			
		

> I know this thread is old, but I did some work getting Steam to run, just a few library issues to fix.


I wouldn't say it's old unless it is completely solved 



			
				Amzo said:
			
		

> Setting _L_inux version to 2.6.32 and using glibc 2.12 (which works with that kernel." Steam will run in the _L_inux binary compaitability. *I created a Linux jail using Arch Linux packages from 2012*:


May I please ask you to describe how did you do that? Does that mean that you just replaced _the_ /compat/linux contents with _the_ Arch distribution under a FreeBSD jail?


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## Amzo (Jul 7, 2013)

hedgehog said:
			
		

> I wouldn't say it's old unless it is completely solved
> 
> May I please ask you to describe how did you do that? Does that mean that you just replaced /compat/linux contents with Arch distribution under a FreeBSD jail?



Well since I'm working on ArchBSD our Linux base is ArchLinux for binary compatibility.

You could convert the PKGBUILD to a Makefile to be used on FreeBSD: here is my PKGBUILD for it. ArchLinux PKGBUILD I'm still working on stuff though, but all the stuff I've done so far is there, as well as the Steam PKGBUILD. Which is far from complete.

Also here is my already created ArchLinux package for binary compatibility. ArchLinux base package for FreeBSD

Also after solving all dependencies, the last issue I have is that it hangs and complains about a system call. as I've stated in the following thread. There is a patch available to implement these calls, but after applying and rebuilding _the_ kernel. I get ELF errors on Linux.ko. So this is as far as I have got at the minute: Steam on FreeBSD

But it seems promising that if I can get the calls to work, that it will most definitely work.


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## Amzo (Jul 10, 2013)

I updated the linux_epoll.patch to work with 9-STABLE, but I'm still getting:


```
Exec format Errors
```

So I'm at a dead end. I can't proceed any further unfortunately. 

Here is the updated patch: linux-epoll.patch


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## ManaHime (Jul 10, 2013)

Did you post your work on the mailing list? Maybe they could have ideas.


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## ColdfireMC (Jul 17, 2013)

Amzo said:
			
		

> I updated the linux_epoll.patch to work with 9-STABLE, but I'm still getting:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...




Try to get support on a developer mail list or from the FreeBSD Foundation. linuxulator and fc10 are quite old, and need an upgrade to support newer Linux applications.


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## jtsn (Jul 19, 2013)

Before you can do anything useful with Steam, the _Steam Runtime_ has to work with the Linuxulator. The Steam Runtime is a stripped-down Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. So having Arch Linux in /compat/linux doesn't get you anywhere.


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## Carpetsmoker (Mar 22, 2014)

Let's just hijack this, and mention that gog.com will also start supporting Linux:
http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_soon_on_more_platforms

GOG.com is a lot cooler than steam.


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## protocelt (Mar 24, 2014)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> GOG.com is a lot cooler than steam.



How so?


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## Carpetsmoker (Mar 24, 2014)

protocelt said:
			
		

> Carpetsmoker said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



- No DRM
- No regional pricing
- No need to install desktop bloatware
- It's easy to backup your purchase; just download and save it.
- No crappy repackaging of (older) games preventing mods and stuff (to be fair, I think steam stopped doing that? But some games like Jagged Alliance 2 & Fallout still suffer from it I believe. For the record: Mods are almost *mandatory* for these games to fix a plethora of problems)


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## kpedersen (Mar 24, 2014)

I honestly wish Steam would get the fsck(8) off the internet. I do not respect anyone who bends over for that kind of DRM.

The worst thing is that people are saying "but it works offline", like they are making the incorrect assumption that they are never ever going to need to reformat / replace their computer in the future (and thus needing to ask Steam's servers if they can play their games again).

It really does anger me how people are slowly accepting this kind of corporate control as the norm.

"Always online activation" is the next step and frankly I am going to chuckle as I watch the idiots justify it


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## pkubaj (Mar 24, 2014)

Well, at least they said that should they be forced to close doors somewhen, they would make it possible to download all owned games.


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## kpedersen (Mar 24, 2014)

pkubaj said:
			
		

> Well, at least they said that should they be forced to close doors somewhen, they would make it possible to download all owned games.



This is another daft belief that people seem to hold.

If Valve closes doors, it means they are probably bankrupt.

1) Bankrupt companies do not have funds to employ programmers to modify code (to remove DRM).
2) Bankrupt companies fo not have the funds to host servers whilst users can download all their owned games.
3) Many companies behind the games on Steam will not allow Valve to release their game DRM-free anyway.


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## protocelt (Mar 24, 2014)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> - No DRM
> - No regional pricing
> - No need to install desktop bloatware
> - It's easy to backup your purchase; just download and save it.
> - No crappy repackaging of (older) games preventing mods and stuff (to be fair, I think steam stopped doing that? But some games like Jagged Alliance 2 & Fallout still suffer from it I believe. For the record: Mods are almost *mandatory* for these games to fix a plethora of problems)



Thanks, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear. I was too lazy at the time to look for myself. Up until now, I have been buying games in physical format. Unfortunately due to "*business decisions*" game companies have been releasing games virtually unfinished most of the time and the then releasing patches later on. This is why I am now considering just giving in and buying in digital format. You'll have to rip my audio cds out of my cold dead hands however.



			
				kpedersen said:
			
		

> I honestly wish Steam would get the fsck(8) off the internet. I do not respect anyone who bends over for that kind of DRM.
> 
> The worst thing is that people are saying "but it works offline", like they are making the incorrect assumption that they are never ever going to need to reformat / replace their computer in the future (and thus needing to ask Steam's servers if they can play their games again).
> 
> ...



While I am in agreement that DRM is evil and should be sent on a permanent vacation to Mars, I'm sure you realize Steam would not be what it is today had it not opted to support DRM. Blame the industry not Steam for the DRM IMHO. Better yet, blame the U.S. government for being an asshat and allowing it to get this far.


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## kpedersen (Mar 24, 2014)

protocelt said:
			
		

> I'm sure you realize Steam would not be what it is today had it not opted to support DRM. Blame the industry not Steam for the DRM IMHO.



I honestly don't know. I think Steam took off because it took over from WON, Gamespy and all those other matchmaking services (I think Valve actually bought WON just after its success for Half-Life / Counter-strike). The DRM has not actually been any more effective than securom (The cracked games are still on torrents and there are many steam server emulators).

I believe if the same amount of advertising was done but without the broken DRM, Valve would be more successful. I know I would have actually purchased a game or two rather than torrenting them  :beer


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## protocelt (Mar 25, 2014)

kpedersen said:
			
		

> I believe if the same amount of advertising was done but without the broken DRM, Valve would be more successful. I know I would have actually purchased a game or two rather than torrenting them  :beer



I'm not sure I agree with that assertion but I will say there has been more than one game I have passed up on purchasing due to the lackluster experience created because of the included DRM. I'm going to give GOG.com a try based on the previously mentioned points and see how the experience turns out.


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## zspider (Mar 25, 2014)

I've always considered Steam to be the least annoying in terms of DRM, it's not even effective against a determined individual. I don't like the having to connect to their servers to play, but it's still far less annoying than safe disk, securom, starforce and fade.


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## protocelt (Mar 25, 2014)

zspider said:
			
		

> I've always considered Steam to be the least annoying in terms of DRM, it's not even effective against a determined individual. I don't like the having to connect to their servers to play, but it's still far less annoying than safe disk, securom, starforce and fade.



Agreed. The thing that upsets me about the DRM though is not that it exists, but that it prevents me from having the playing experience intended by the game developers and could prevent me from playing the game in the future should the DRM server be shut down. With that in mind I will always go where there is the least DRM when possible where digital downloads are concerned from here on in.


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## xdevelnet (May 16, 2014)

*Re:*



			
				hedgehog said:
			
		

> jtsn said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


yes, i wat tried to use external port tree (https://github.com/xmj/linux-ports/) with a lot of linux_base-c6 ports and updated centos version

After long hours and solving every problem and dependencies, i got this:

```
~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32 $ ./steam
/home/buildbot/buildslave_steam/steam_rel_client_ubuntu12_linux/build/src/common/completionportmanager_posix.cpp (53) : Assertion Failed: m_nPollFd >= 0
/home/buildbot/buildslave_steam/steam_rel_client_ubuntu12_linux/build/src/common/completionportmanager_posix.cpp (56) : Assertion Failed: m_nPostFd >= 0
/home/buildbot/buildslave_steam/steam_rel_client_ubuntu12_linux/build/src/common/completionportmanager_posix.cpp (141) : Assertion Failed: epoll_ctl failed with error 38
[2014-05-16 20:38:09] Startup - updater built Apr 23 2014 13:46:58
*** glibc detected *** ./steam: free(): invalid pointer: 0xffffa17c ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/libc.so.6(+0x70e31)[0x2156ae31]
/usr/lib/libX11.so.6(XFree+0x1e)[0x212bd06e]
./steam(+0x436a9)[0x10446a9]
./steam(+0x43e84)[0x1044e84]
./steam(+0x14b74)[0x1015b74]
/lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6)[0x21510d26]
./steam(+0x18105)[0x1019105]
======= Memory map: ========
01001000-0125c000 r-xp 002cd000 00:00 5380283     /usr/home/xnet/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam
0125c000-01264000 r-xp 002cd000 00:00 5380283     /usr/home/xnet/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam
01264000-01269000 rw-p 002cd000 00:00 5380283     /usr/home/xnet/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam
01269000-01398000 rw-p 0012f000 00:00 0
2125c000-2126b000 r-xp 00023000 00:00 160934     /compat/linux/lib/ld-2.12.so
2126b000-2126c000 r-xp 00023000 00:00 160934     /compat/linux/lib/ld-2.12.so
2126c000-2127a000 r-xp 00023000 00:00 160934     /compat/linux/lib/ld-2.12.so
2127a000-2127b000 r-xp 00023000 00:00 160934     /compat/linux/lib/ld-2.12.so
2127b000-2127c000 rw-p 00005000 00:00 0
2127c000-21280000 rwxp 00005000 00:00 0
21282000-213b7000 r-xp 00138000 00:00 161914     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libX11.so.6.3.0
213b7000-213bb000 rwxp 00138000 00:00 161914     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libX11.so.6.3.0
213bb000-213c2000 r-xp 0000a000 00:00 161025     /compat/linux/lib/librt-2.12.so
213c2000-213c3000 r-xp 0000a000 00:00 161025     /compat/linux/lib/librt-2.12.so
213c3000-213c4000 rwxp 0000a000 00:00 161025     /compat/linux/lib/librt-2.12.so
213c4000-213ec000 r-xp 00031000 00:00 160993     /compat/linux/lib/libm-2.12.so
213ec000-213ed000 r-xp 00031000 00:00 160993     /compat/linux/lib/libm-2.12.so
213ed000-213ee000 rwxp 00031000 00:00 160993     /compat/linux/lib/libm-2.12.so
213ee000-213f1000 r-xp 00005000 00:00 160961     /compat/linux/lib/libdl-2.12.so
213f1000-213f2000 r-xp 00005000 00:00 160961     /compat/linux/lib/libdl-2.12.so
213f2000-213f3000 rwxp 00005000 00:00 160961     /compat/linux/lib/libdl-2.12.so
213f3000-214d2000 r-xp 000e4000 00:00 161576     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13
214d2000-214d6000 r-xp 000e4000 00:00 161576     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13
214d6000-214d7000 rwxp 000e4000 00:00 161576     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13
214d7000-214de000 rwxp 00007000 00:00 0
214de000-214f5000 r-xp 00021000 00:00 161019     /compat/linux/lib/libpthread-2.12.so
214f5000-214f6000 r-xp 00021000 00:00 161019     /compat/linux/lib/libpthread-2.12.so
214f6000-214f7000 rwxp 00021000 00:00 161019     /compat/linux/lib/libpthread-2.12.so
214f7000-214fa000 rwxp 00003000 00:00 0
214fa000-2168b000 r-xp 001d2000 00:00 160948     /compat/linux/lib/libc-2.12.so
2168b000-2168d000 r-xp 001d2000 00:00 160948     /compat/linux/lib/libc-2.12.so
2168d000-2168e000 rwxp 001d2000 00:00 160948     /compat/linux/lib/libc-2.12.so
2168e000-21691000 rwxp 00003000 00:00 0
21691000-216b0000 r-xp 00020000 00:00 162133     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.1.0
216b0000-216b1000 rwxp 00020000 00:00 162133     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.1.0
216b1000-216ce000 r-xp 0001e000 00:00 160967     /compat/linux/lib/libgcc_s-4.4.7-20120601.so.1
216ce000-216cf000 rwxp 0001e000 00:00 160967     /compat/linux/lib/libgcc_s-4.4.7-20120601.so.1
216cf000-216d1000 r-xp 00003000 00:00 161924     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0
216d1000-216d2000 rwxp 00003000 00:00 161924     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0
216d2000-21aa6000 rwxp 003d4000 00:00 0
21aab000-21b7f000 r-xp 000f5000 00:00 161913     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libGL.so.331.67
21b7f000-21ba0000 rwxp 000f5000 00:00 161913     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libGL.so.331.67
21ba0000-21baf000 rwxp 0000f000 00:00 0
21baf000-21bb2000 r-xp 00004000 00:00 161915     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libnvidia-tls.so.331.67
21bb2000-21bb3000 rwxp 00004000 00:00 161915     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libnvidia-tls.so.331.67
21bb3000-21bc4000 r-xp 00012000 00:00 161987     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libXext.so.6.4.0
21bc4000-21bc5000 rwxp 00012000 00:00 161987     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libXext.so.6.4.0
21cfb000-23ecc000 r-xp 0222f000 00:00 161916     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libnvidia-glcore.so.331.67
23ecc000-23f2b000 rwxp 0222f000 00:00 161916     /compat/linux/usr/lib/libnvidia-glcore.so.331.67
23f2b000-23f40000 rwxp 00015000 00:00 0
fffde000-ffffe000 rw-p 00020000 00:00 0
ffffe000-fffff000 r-xp 00001000 00:00 0
Abort trap (core dumped)
```
it seems like we need guy who can make correct port with correct depends and analyze steam binary/dumps OR we guy who works in the Valve and can explain, that porting 2 freebsd is 1-day task.


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