Talk:Steam

Killing compsitors (Compton)

Instead of

killall compton && %command%; nohup compton &

wouldn't

killall compton; %command%; nohup compton &

be better as it does not rely on compton running when you start up a game? I've been frustrated more than a few times when I'd start a game, forgetting that compton wasn't running and the steam game would hang. —This unsigned comment is by Wartz (talk) 15:38, 9 March 2015‎. Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

I think both are terrible. The proper way would be to to read the compton manual and adjust the configuration accordingly (i.e unredir-if-possible = true). But if you did use a command like this, know that compton has a -b switch to daemonize, making nohup redundant. -- Alad (talk) 14:58, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing me in that direction. unredir-if-possible seems to work fine with fullscreen games instead of outright killing the compositor. I'm not sure how much of an effect the compositor has on windowed games though. Wartz (talk) 17:30, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Hardware decoding for In-Home Streaming

For Intel Graphics

See https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=187922

For NVIDIA Graphics

First, make sure that lib32-libva-vdpau-driver is installed from the AUR. Then, move the old steam vdpau folder out of the way:

mv ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/vdpau/ ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/vdpau.bak

Then, link in the vdpau folder from your system:

ln -s /usr/lib32/vdpau ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/.

To prove to yourself that it's working properly, make sure you have "Display performance information" ticked in your steam settings on the client under In-Home Streaming/Advanced Client Options. Now when you start streaming, press F6 on the client. The "Decoder:" line should show "VDPAU hardware decoding"

An update of the steam-runtime will likely overwrite these changes. Greyltc (talk) 12:29, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

How to read Minidumps?

Set up Steam and have been playing around with a runtimeless install. It seems to work okay sometimes, other times it seems to randomly crash, giving minidumps that sit in /tmp. I'm familiar with using gdb to backtrace coredumps but these minidumps are something else, and I'm having a hard time finding out how to actually use them to figure out what's going on. Anyone have any clues? If so, that's perhaps something to add to this page. Insidious611 (talk) 16:10, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Running games with bumblebee

Hello,

it took me some time to find out why my games wouldn't run on the nvidia graphic card. I found out, that I needed Bumblebee and primus installed with 32-bit support. Also this page by steam was very helpful. Maybe somebody more experienced can add this to the article or I'll do that when I find the time.

Nomalag (talk) 14:55, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the case for all GPU rendering and not just a Steam issue? Or do other GPU-intensive programs run on your NVIDIA card without Bumblebee and only Steam requires it? If it's the former, then we don't need to change the article.

Silverhammermba (talk) 21:36, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

The emphasis lies on the 32-bit support. At the time that I installed Bumblebee I didn't have any 32-bit programs. When installing Steam I did not go through the installation guide of Bumblebee again. Also it might be helpful to mention that some games are 32-bit and that you actually need to install 32-bit support.

Nomalag (talk) 08:42, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Proton Arch Pkg vs Proton from within Steam

The section about proton does not discuss the possibility to use the system installed proton (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/proton/) as an archlinux package instead of the steam downloaded binary. people might end up having two different proton setups without knowing.

Dp (talk) 20:37, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Remove/move flatpak instructions

Instructions for adding repositories with the flatpak framework shouldnt be the immediate focus on a wiki page about Steam on Arch Linux:

• remove the instructions for Flatpak and add links to the official flatpak site.
• remove the instructions for Flatpak and add links to the flatpak wiki page (related articles or see also section)
• remove the flatpak instructions entirely.

Imagine all the Arch wiki pages to edit if flathub change their flathub url etc.

X3rMD&X1 (talk) 23:50, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

If it's really a problem then yeah it can be moved to Flatpak, or maybe a subpage of it (e.g. Flatpak/Application-specific troubleshooting). That's what we did with Flatpak#"File not found" error when Open local HTML pages in Firefox recently.

With this said, I don't think that the existence of this section here is the slippery slope you make it out to be. Steam is kinda different from other applications in how it uses its own runtime for games, and I believe in the client too. With or without Flatpak, by default Steam won't be using your system shared libraries. The fact that you are going to have some indirection no matter what, in combination with the fact that going the Flatpak route can immediately fix some issues with the client, makes me think that this section is different than a Flatpak section in other pages. -- CodingKoopa (talk) 06:15, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

For the hypothetical Flatpak/Application-specific troubleshooting page, a good analogue is Bubblewrap/Examples. -- CodingKoopa (talk) 03:57, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Its problematic as the arch wiki is opinionated. Steam on the Arch wiki should not be Steam from flathub and their runtime specific first.

You literally have to scroll to the bottom of the section of fonts and themes on their runtime to get to Steam on Arch.

There is a dedicated wiki page for anything related to the flathub marketplace and their runtime. Yet, the entire wiki is making room for sections entirely dedicated to that one third party on loads of wiki pages. Its almost like the Arch wiki is promoting flatpak, like ubuntu did snap.

Just to be clear, the issue is not flatpak or the info existing on the wiki. The issue is setting arch first and everyone playing by the same rules. Not a single third party flooding like this. X3rMD&X1 (talk) 22:01, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

-and the issue of having steam from flathub entirely as the priority in the first section is that most dont get to the part about Steam on Arch and there being a native runtime and a steam runtime. This default steam is not one of them and lego flatpak.

This is the issue of having arch at the bottom on the arch wiki. X3rMD&X1 (talk) 00:49, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

BTFS

BTFS with WinBtrfs could be done, though it does come with a few small caveats.

• Make sure you set the registry keys for user mapping otherwise file ownership will be set to something other than your user.
• Windows will sometimes touch Proton's compatdata and break games. Probably a permission issue, but in most cases deleting the folder will suffice, though keep in mind if the game is saving information in, say, AppData.
• Steam VR does not seem to like running on it and will fail immediately in Windows.
• (Very) few games will have an issue with it such as Stationeers with it's translation strings appearing instead of the intended text or not work entirely such as VRChat.
• There is some light instability in Windows since I've had BeamNG.Drive I/O hang the OS from the driver crashing, but that's in long play sessions.

Overall it is a functioning solution for many games as-is, though keep an eye out.

It'll be mostly "Try to see if your game works. If it doesn't then either install it separately on each OS or use another solution."

JarrodSFarrell (talk) 22:20, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Proton / Wine / Gaming pages overlap on Talk:Gaming

Hi, while updating the Gaming article I noticed we now have **three places** explaining almost the same compatibility-layer stack:

• Gaming#Game_environments
• Steam#Proton_Steam-Play
• Wine (and half-a-dozen scattered AUR lists)

This forces readers to jump between pages to find out:

• Which Proton variant (Valve, GE, CachyOS, TKG) to install
• How it relates to Wine, DXVK, VKD3D, umu-launcher, …
• Where the package links are maintained

Proposed fix

• Keep **one** concise “compatibility layer” section inside **Gaming** (or **Wine**) – move all duplicated package tables and “how-to-install-GE” notes there.
• Replace the other pages with a 1-sentence summary + `Template:Main`.
• Maintain a single, sortable table of every Proton/Wine build and helper tool; link to it from Steam, Gaming, List of games, etc.

This removes duplication and gives new users a single, up-to-date entry point. Objections / better ideas? Mr.Smith1974 (talk) 14:18, 28 October 2025 (UTC)

Recommend Microsoft fonts over ttf-liberation

ttf-liberation meets Steam's font needs, but some games require additional fonts from the Microsoft fonts package, causing issues otherwise. Though outside the Steam package's scope, this is a key distinction.

A few suggestions either inline or a note:

• Since the GUI heavily uses the Arial font, you should either:
  • Install the free alternative ttf-liberation, which covers required fonts for Steam and most games.
  • Follow Microsoft fonts to install the original fonts, which covers all font dependencies.

Note ttf-liberation acts as a replacement for Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New. This suffices for most cases; however, games using uncovered Microsoft fonts will fail to render them.

--LurkAndLoiter (talk) 19:13, 30 October 2025 (UTC)