aLaserShark's guide to installing steam on crunchbang. [OUTDATED]

In this guide, I show how to install steam on Crunchbang, a distro not officialy supported by steam but, since it's based off debian, easily installed with a few tricks.

Step 0: Acknowledgments

THIS GUIDE IS NOW OUTDATED.

I have found using steam-debian works better and breaks a lot less things. This guide is no longer valid and I have no plans to update it. You can access the steam installer for debian at https://github.com/GhostSquad57/Steam-Installer-for-Wheezy. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading aLaserShark's guide to installing steam on crunchbang! While the whole guide is reproduced here for your viewing pleasure, it would be great if you could visit my website, http://alasershark.com/ , on which the guide was originally posted.[alasershark.com] (It would help my self-esteem, if nothing else.) These links are now 404s.

Without further ado: The guide.

Step 1: Warnings

In order to install steam, there are a few packages that need to be installed. These packages WILL break a few other packages. The only package that I have noticed broken is G++ (the c++ compiler), which is a part of build-essential. If g++ is required for your work, install a version that is newer than the one in the debian archives before continuing!

If you want portal to run without acting weird, you should probably install mesa 9. Maybe I'll include a guide for that, too. Later.

I cannot vouch for the games – they may not run (but I have not yet encountered one that cannot). I cannot guarantee your safety, nor will I be responsible for your fate.

Step 2: Download the debs we need.

We're going to need quite a few .debs. I'll get downloading those out of the way first, before installing them in the correct order.

You of course need the steam .deb. Download it here.

You'll need jockey-common. Download that here.[mirrors.us.kernel.org]

You'll need python-xkit, which jockey-common depends on. Download here.[mirrors.us.kernel.org]

You'll need libc, version 2.15. (Crunchbang has 2.13, steam needs 2.15.) Download here.[mirrors.us.kernel.org]

Some people need libc-bin. Some don't. If you do need it, you should Download it here.[mirrors.us.kernel.org]

That's all! Proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Install the debs

First thing first: We'll get jockey-common installed. Crunchbang comes with a built in .deb installer that's very easy to use called GDebi. If GDebi doesn't automagically open when you double click the deb, try right clicking and use "Open with GDebi Package Installer."

jockey-common depends on python-xkit. Install python-xkit, then install jockey-common. All you have to do is open them up and "Install Package". (Also, provide your sudo password. If you don't know the sudo password you shouldn't be installing steam on that machine.)

Once that's done, we install the somewhat messier libc. I would reccomend restarting your computer after you install libc. Do NOT install libc with the GDebi package installer! Use the terminal! Right click some blank space in the folder where the libc package was downloaded (probably /home/yourusername/downloads). Choose the option "open terminal here". Then, type in the following:

sudo dpkg -i name_of_libc_file.deb

It might depend on libc-bin. You downloaded that earlier. Install libc-bin in the same way you would install libc, using sudo dpkg -i.

Now we can install steam! Open up steam.deb using GDebi package installer and install it. You're done!

Step 4: Running steam

Running steam is very easy. Press Alt+F2 and type "steam" in the dialog that appears. Steam will appear! You've installed steam!

I hope you've found this guide useful. Thanks for reading!

[beloved by all]

This guide is now oudated! I would have updated it sooner, but real life and stuff. Please use https://github.com/GhostSquad57/Steam-Installer-for-Wheezy .

[D. Mouse]

Krossmaskinen, I still couldn't run any games after doing that. I got it working like this [crunchbang.org] instead, which was much easier!

[D. Mouse]

Krossmaskinen, see here or here [unix.stackexchange.com].

Having got it working that way this time, next time I'm going to try this [github.com] instead.

[Krossmaskinen]

I'm on amd64 as well, and the libc 2.15 won't install because it conflicts with 2.13. I've tried forcing it but that didn't do the trick either. Any clues on how to solve/work around this?

Preparing to replace libc6:i386 2.15-0ubuntu20 (using libc6_2.15-0ubuntu20_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libc6:i386 ...
dpkg: error processing libc6:i386 (--install):
package libc6:i386 2.15-0ubuntu20 cannot be configured because libc6:amd64 is at a different version (2.13-38)
Errors were encountered while processing:
libc6:i386
bill@dekai-chikara:~/downloads$

This might not be the place to ask but hey, gotta try!
Awesome tutorial otherwise :D

[KernelCrackhead]

i'm on an amd64 so the .deb files did not all work. i did find all the .deb files but it could not install them without an error.. so not apt-get is broken because of missing dependencies. do you know what i have to do to get this back to default?

[DeathMinister]

This was excellent! Steam works perfect now. Everywhere else made the installation of the new libc6 packages seem impossible.

I'll be waiting with anticipation for that guide on how to get build-essential and locale installed again.

[checor]

Is libc 2.15 or newer available in newer repos of Debian? If so, we can use apt-pinning to update it without "breaking" the system. I can't check since I'm on Windows right now.

[Behmo]

big thanks! but can you tell me why I need a newer g++? how did the install break it?