Dear Mark,
Mark Allums wrote:
Is there any (un)official Debian Steam client? Has anyone (but me) gotten
the native Steam client running well in Debian?
I am running it in an Ubuntu 12.04 schroot (set up with debootstrap),
which has the nice side-effect that I can use whatever X drivers I
want without fiddling with my otherwise Wheezy system.
Since I usually use a self-compiled kernel, I'm currently running
3.7. Granted, the startup process is a little tricky:
- start the chroot:
schroot -c ubuntu-1204
- start X inside the chroot:
startxfce4 -- :1 vt08
- plug keyboard and mouse back in so that they are recognised by
"Ubuntus" X.org
- start Steam
So far, this works nicely.
Pros:
- use the latest version of X & fully supported Ubuntu
- be able to separate Steam from the rest of the system: When I first
tried to install it, it left a rather messy mud of libraries and
configuration files all over my $HOME.
- Switch easily between a full-screen game and my other X server
(CM-{7,8}).
Cons:
- Setup was not exactly straightforward, though that might have been
due to me learning how to use debootstrap, Ubuntu and schroot
on-the-fly.
- Needs a full Ubuntu installation:
4,3G /datapub/ubuntu_1204
- As noted above, I didn't get the second X to recognise my input
devices on startup.
If you are interested in specific details, feel free to ask, but I'd
rather not type down a complete guide now.