Officially supported distros? Recommended ways to install?

[bringmemyaxe]

I've heard that only Ubuntu is officially supported by Valve. I don't know if it's true. Where to find that information? Are Arch Linux / Manjaro officially supported?
Also... How is it recommended by Valve to install Steam on Ubuntu? By downloading steam_latest.deb from Steam website? I've recently found out there's 'steam' package in Ubuntu official repositories. Also... there's flatpak option. And perhaps other ones... Do you know anything about this? Speaking of Arch/Manjaro, what is "better", to download 'steam' package or 'flatpak'? What's better, 'native' or 'runtime'? I feel like craving for information :)

[phillippi2]

I think that Debian is officially supported, now. SteamOS is now based on it.

[WarnerCK]

Ubuntu was and is the most popular distro on Steam, so that's the one that Valve and game devs make sure to test against, and formed the basis of the Steam Linux Runtime. No other distro is specifically excluded from support, though, it's just that more niche distros won't get explicitly tested.

On Ubuntu just install the package from the repositories. Downloading random things from random websites is a bad habit.

The Steam flatpak has issues that are steadily being worked on, but it isn't currently the best choice unless you're specifically intending to work on those issues. The Steam snap is explicitly experimental.

Don't use Arch's -native package. That uses the system's libraries rather than the ones that both Steam and the games are expecting, which leads to breakage. The Steam Linux Runtime is specifically to avoid that kind of distro-specific breakage.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by phillippi2:

I think that Debian is officially supported, now. SteamOS is now based on it.

SteamOS 1 & 2, for the Steam Machines, were based on Debian. SteamOS 3, for the Steam Deck, is based on Arch. The earlier versions they were most interested in having a stable base, and now that they're doing a lot of the upstream work themselves they're more interested in having less delay in shipping out the fruits of that work.

[bringmemyaxe]

You know, I finally found out where that info was written.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1114-3F74-0B8A-B784

Important:
Currently, Steam for Linux is only supported on the most recent version of Ubuntu LTS with the Unity, Gnome, or KDE desktops.

Unity... Haha, it seems this info is kind of obsolete. But still I don't see anything newer.
If this is true... I wonder, what would the support team say if I contact them and say "Hey, I have arch linux and Steam doesn't work as flawlessly as it supposed to. Tell me what can I do or what can you do if you please." I wonder what would they say... They would say something "please install latest LTS Ubuntu for we don't support using Steam on Arch" or will they help?

[bringmemyaxe]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Downloading random things from random websites is a bad habit.

I know, but the website I mentioned is store.steampowered.com. I meant the package that can be downloaded after selecting the green button saying "Install Steam"

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by bringmemyaxe:

If this is true... I wonder, what would the support team say if I contact them and say "Hey, I have arch linux and Steam doesn't work as flawlessly as it supposed to. Tell me what can I do or what can you do if you please." I wonder what would they say... They would say something "please install latest LTS Ubuntu for we don't support using Steam on Arch" or will they help?

They'll try to fix it if it's a problem their end. They aren't a troubleshooting service, but they don't view any distro as unsupported. Have a look at, say, the Proton github. Lotsa reports from lotsa people on lotsa distros.

[bringmemyaxe]

Oh, that's a good point, I've never thought of that

[Der tüddelige Fußgänger]

Iirc Steam only officially supports Ubuntu LTS with the Unity, kde and Gnome desktop.
But I'm not quite sure about Unity, since Ubuntu unity 22.04 is not officially supported and only gets added as an official Ubuntu spin for Ubuntu 22.10.

[Zyro]

Do not use the downloadable package. The distribution makers got the same, plus they can add whatever your distribution needs. Do not care for "officially supported", it doesn't matter. I'd prefer the native client over the Flatpak one, as the latter might not "see" some stuff on your system without help.

Originally posted by bringmemyaxe:

Tell me what can I do or what can you do if you please." I wonder what would they say... They would say something "please install latest LTS Ubuntu for we don't support using Steam on Arch" or will they help?

They might send you here (to the forums) either way...

[ajgringo619]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Ubuntu was and is the most popular distro on
Don't use Arch's -native package. That uses the system's libraries rather than the ones that both Steam and the games are expecting, which leads to breakage. The Steam Linux Runtime is specifically to avoid that kind of distro-specific breakage.

No problems here, been using Arch-based distros for over a year. What kinds of breakages have you seen?

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by ajgringo619:

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Ubuntu was and is the most popular distro on
Don't use Arch's -native package. That uses the system's libraries rather than the ones that both Steam and the games are expecting, which leads to breakage. The Steam Linux Runtime is specifically to avoid that kind of distro-specific breakage.

No problems here, been using Arch-based distros for over a year. What kinds of breakages have you seen?

I'm sure you'll see on a more careful rereading that I said nothing about Arch or Arch-based distros.

[Zyro]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by ajgringo619:

No problems here, been using Arch-based distros for over a year. What kinds of breakages have you seen?

I'm sure you'll see on a more careful rereading that I said nothing about Arch or Arch-based distros.

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Don't use Arch's -native package.

[BezaoBuilder]

Don't download the official package from Steam. Get the one from your distro's repos instead (or Flatpak, but then you might need some commands for it to access other hard drives and such).

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by Zyro:

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

I'm sure you'll see on a more careful rereading that I said nothing about Arch or Arch-based distros.

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Don't use Arch's -native package.

Yes. The package. Arch is fine; the steam-native package is a bad plan. I can't remember if the not-bad package is called steam-runtime or simply steam.

[ajgringo619]

I found this package - multilib/steam-native-runtime - which is not installed by the steam package, unless you also install steam's optional dependencies.