Linux Easy Install Guide: Steam Works Well

[Spork Nazi]

Introduction:

Most of my Windows games work well with GNU/Linux (a.k.a. Linux) on Steam now. The games were the last real hurdle for me. I no longer have a reason to use Windows. If you are tired of Windows too with all of the malware, updates making you reboot, and slowness, I thought I would type up this guide to install Kubuntu Linux for the absolute beginner. This takes about 45 minutes. However many Steam games you plan to install will take longer of course.

You might want to look here and see if your Steam games are supported in Linux:

https://www.protondb.com/

Preparation:

Now before I start, YOU ARE SOLELY & ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, & DATA! Backups are your friends!

If you want to use the hard drive you have Windows installed on now, BACK UP YOUR DATA! You will want to back up your Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, etc. to an external hard drive.

OR

If you have a spare hard drive or want to go buy a new SSD hard drive, simply remove your Windows hard drive and use the new one. This is probably the best option.

In either case, UNPLUG hard drives you don't want to use so you don't accidentally destroy the data on them.

So there are a few things to do in Windows.

Go to C:\Windows and copy the FONTS folder to a spare USB stick.

The simplest to use Linux to install which looks a lot like Windows is Kubuntu. You will need to download the ISO using the link below. There are two versions. You only need to pick one.

https://kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/

You can get either the latest non-LTS version which makes you update within Linux every 6 months (April ".04" and October ".10") giving you the latest things, or the LTS version which updates every 2 years on April of even-numbered years (20.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, etc.). Both get maintenance and security updates while they are supported. I prefer the non-LTS version so I can use the latest things. Save whichever ISO file you choose to a place easy for you to remember.

Now you will need to make a bootable USB stick that is at least 4 GBs in size. Use Rufus for that:

https://rufus.ie/en/

Open Rufus. Under DEVICE, make sure it is using the correct USB stick. Click the SELECT button and select the Kubuntu .ISO you downloaded. Click START.

Installing Kubuntu GNU/Linux:

Now it gets a little harder, but if you have ever done a Windows reinstall, it is somewhat easy. You need to restart your computer and boot off of the Kubuntu USB drive you made with Rufus. Be sure to use the TRY KUBUNTU option. Once the desktop loads, you can give it a try without hurting anything if you change your mind. Make sure you are connected to your network for Internet access.

If you play around in Kubuntu as you try it out, open Dolphin which is the File Explorer. As you can see, there are no C:\ D:\ E:\ drives. Linux doesn't use drive letters. The hard drive you plan to use to install Kubuntu to is called something like sda and everything is stored in folders. The main one for all your stuff is the /home/USERNAME folder.

When you are ready to install, double-click the desktop shortcut to INSTALL. Make sure it does the minimal install, downloads updates, and gets third party stuff. Mostly, it involves clicking NEXT and making sure it uses the whole hard drive (use GUIDED - USE ENTIRE DISK and don't use the LVM options). MAKE SURE IT HAS THE HARD DRIVE PROPERLY SELECTED YOU WANT TO INSTALL TO!!! As it installs, you set your timezone and create a username, password, and name your computer. After it installs, it will ask you to reboot. Go ahead. Remove the USB drive when instructed. Once rebooted, you are now in Kubuntu running off your hard drive.

Make sure you are connected to your network again.

You may get a message about installing proprietary drivers for certain hardware your computer might have especially if you have a NVIDIA video card. Go ahead and install these proprietary drivers.

Open Dolphin. Click the icon at the top right with the 3 horizontal lines on it and click on SHOW HIDDEN FILES. Go to /home/USERNAME/.local/share and create a new folder by right-clicking out in the open and selecting CREATE NEW > FOLDER. Call it fonts (in lowercase letters). Open the folder you created. Nothing should be in it. Open the FONTS folder you copied from Windows and copy/paste everything in it into the fonts folder you made. This will make webpages and other programs using Windows fonts look normal. If you have access to Apple fonts, you can copy/paste them here, too. If you download custom fonts in the future, you need to put them here as well. You can close this window when you are done.

Right-click once on the clock at the bottom right then left-click on "Configure Digital Clock". Check the box in front of "Seconds" and change the "Date format:" to CUSTOM. Leave the other options as they are. Click APPLY. Now click on CALENDAR on the left and check the boxes in front of "Astronomical Events" and "Holidays". Click APPLY. Click on HOLIDAYS on the left and check the box in front of whatever region(s) you want to see holidays from (us_en-us for the USA). Click APPLY then OK. Now your clock looks a lot better doesn't it?

Now you need to do a few things. You need to set the computer and Kubuntu clocks so both are using your local timezone, get updates, and install a few programs you will find useful in the future. You will need to open Konsole. This is the Terminal. Enter these commands one at a time (READ THE NOTE PARAGRAPH BELOW THE FOLLOWING 6 COMMANDS BEFORE RUNNING THEM ABOUT POSTFIX & FONTS):

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt install clamtk dxvk elisa gimp hexchat htop inkscape jami kbackup kdenlive krdc krfb ktorrent libreoffice lutris notepadqq obs-studio pinta plasma-firewall playonlinux rkhunter shotwell steam thunderbird timeshift ubuntu-restricted-extras variety -y

kbuildsycoca5

NOTE: When asked about Postfix, hit ENTER for OK. For Postfix Configuration, use the up arrow to highlight "No configuration". Press the TAB key to highlight OK. Press ENTER again. For the ttf-mscorefonts-installer, use the TAB key again to select OK and press the ENTER key. Press the TAB key to highlight NO if you copied/pasted your Windows Fonts earlier or YES if you did not copy your Windows Fonts. Press ENTER again.

After doing the above, click the START button (Application Launcher) at the bottom left and restart your computer. If you are using 20.04 LTS, you will need to move your mouse pointer to LEAVE to restart your computer.

Steam Installation:

Click the Application Launcher button and go to GAMES. Open Steam which will update itself and ask for your Steam username and password. Once the main Steam window is open, click on Steam > Settings > Steam Play. Make sure both boxes are checked, and that Proton is on Proton Experimental. Click OK and restart Steam when asked. Start installing your games.

If you launch your game and it doesn't work right, look up the game at:

https://www.protondb.com/

You may need to right-click on the game in your Steam Library, left-click on PROPERTIES, and edit the Launch Options at the bottom of the GENERAL section. You may also need to use a different version of Proton in the COMPATIBILITY section by checking the box in front of "Force the use of..." and selecting a different version of Proton from the list that appears below.

Conclusion:

If you unplugged hard drives before the Kubuntu install, shut down Kubuntu, plug them back in, and turn your computer back on. If you open Dolphin, you should see them on the left side under DEVICES.

That's pretty much it. As you become use to Kubuntu, you can do more advanced things and customizations. Use Timeshift before doing stuff so you can restore Kubuntu if you mess up easily. You might also want to turn the firewall on. Open Discover and search for apps. Just have fun!

Now you can tell people, "I use Kubuntu, BTW!"

[[GNU/LINUX] Norbert]

gj

[Bloo Alien]

That's a nice detailed guide there. Thanks for putting the time and effort into it.

[Cat on Linux]

why do you need to use full drive and why do you need to restart after installing notepad and whatnot? you're not installing kernel or xorg. you don't need to reboot after each mundane installation.
installing steam from valve's site also bad idea. do you have multiarch enabled by default on Kubuntu? haven't seen you adding i386 libs before installing steam.

[Spork Nazi]

@Cat You missed the points because you are looking at this as an experienced Linux user instead of as a complete beginner. The points being to get away from Windows, make the install of Linux easy for a beginner, and get up and going. The Steam directly from Value works fine. In fact, it works perfectly with Kubuntu. And why reboot? Because the kernel gets updated.

[Ormgryd]

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

The Steam directly from Value works fine. In fact, it works perfectly with Kubuntu.

I would skip this step since 'apt install steam' works so you can add steam to you massive blob of installs. So you don't need to navigate to steampowered and find the installer and whatnot. "Sometimes less is more".

[Zyro]

Originally posted by Ormgryd:

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

The Steam directly from Value works fine. In fact, it works perfectly with Kubuntu.

I would skip this step since 'apt install steam' works so you can add steam to you massive blob of installs. So you don't need to navigate to steampowered and find the installer and whatnot. "Sometimes less is more".

I agree with that. Your distribution makers have the same package - but know more about the distribution than you or Valve and can improve it.

[Spork Nazi]

I am not sure why some have found this so troubling. It is easy and painless. And, once again, it works perfectly with Kubuntu.

By getting Steam from Valve directly and installing as instructed, you wind up adding the Steam repo for future updates directly from Valve.

If the user prefers, they can either 'sudo apt install steam-installer' through terminal or get it on Discover.

The "massive blob of installs" is for the beginner to easily get up and going with Linux and to see that it can completely replace Windows while offering a better experience.

The whole point of the guide is to get the beginner going, not to argue technique.

[Zyro]

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

I am not sure why some have found this so troubling. It is easy and painless. And, once again, it works perfectly with Kubuntu.

By getting Steam from Valve directly and installing as instructed, you wind up adding the Steam repo for future updates directly from Valve.

If the user prefers, they can either 'sudo apt install steam-installer' through terminal or get it on Discover.

The "massive blob of installs" is for the beginner to easily get up and going with Linux and to see that it can completely replace Windows while offering a better experience.

The whole point of the guide is to get the beginner going, not to argue technique.

It's the wrong thing to do, also and especially for beginners. It might work on one distribution at one time, but the other way should work on all distributions all times. We've told you why. I'm here for a long time (since the beta of Steam for Linux), and installing Valve's own deb has caused troubles for many people.

Updating is done by Steam itself, it doesn't need any repo.

[Spork Nazi]

My guide isn't for all distributions. It is for Kubuntu. Installing the .deb works perfectly fine.

[Zyro]

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

My guide isn't for all distributions. It is for Kubuntu. Installing the .deb works perfectly fine.

I appreciate that you took the effort to write your guide. I really do.

You should take the next step and take advice from experienced users.

Steam should be already in the repositories of Kubuntu (I'm not a Ubuntu user, but it would be a great shame if not.) Thus it would not only be better - which is enough to recommend it - but also easier to use "sudo apt install steam" instead of downloading stuff. (Downloading installers is the inferior way to install software.)

Take a break, think about it.

[Spork Nazi]

On second thought, I can see it being easier for the beginner to get everything at once. Making it easy for the beginner is the whole purpose of this guide so I'll update it.

[Ormgryd]

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

On second thought, I can see it being easier for the beginner to get everything at once. Making it easy for the beginner is the whole purpose of this guide so I'll update it.

I'm sorry for being a me...But i would rekommend using 'steam' instead of 'steam-installer'. that way you get both steam-installer and steam-devices.

[Si]

I was a complete Linux beginner a few months ago and I got it through the software center.

While I think PopOS is a better choice for Linux beginners who want to do a lot of gaming, I do think a KDE desktop is better for complete beginners. It felt more familiar for me coming from Windows, it took a little while for me to warm up to Gnome.

[Marlock]

Originally posted by Ormgryd:

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

On second thought, I can see it being easier for the beginner to get everything at once. Making it easy for the beginner is the whole purpose of this guide so I'll update it.

I'm sorry for being a me...But i would rekommend using 'steam' instead of 'steam-installer'. that way you get both steam-installer and steam-devices.

yes!

I can also vouch for installing "steam" instead of "steam-installer" in any Ubuntu variation or derivate distro

among other things, it's what linux mint places in the list of featured apps, so there is a distro dev vouching for it too ;)

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by Spork Nazi:

@Cat You missed the points because you are looking at this as an experienced Linux user instead of as a complete beginner.

that's my point as well. I advocate for KISS approach, do less actions, get more done. even if it works it will have issues later (using site version)
btw you might want to add vlc winbind pmidi winetricks to the list (vlc will pull all available codecs you might need, and other 2 for correct work of wine, pmidi to have usable midi output in dosbox games)