Gamer Rewrites Valve's Steam Installer For Debian

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Gamer Rewrites Valve's Steam Installer For Debian

Posted by samzenpus on Monday March 4, 2013 @06:22AM from the check-it-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Gaming on Linux is growing fast right now, and most of that is thanks to Steam. Initially, Steam committed only to the most popular desktop distribution, Ubuntu, but more recently has opened the door to others. So what do you do when you want to game in Linux and you're using something a little less popular — at least, on the desktop? If you're a programmer called GhostSquad57, you rewrite the installer for Debian. GhostSquad57 uploaded his efforts to Github yesterday, and has since reached out to the Linux community."

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big deal by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-04 06:27 · Score: 4, Insightful

Seeing as Ubuntu is debian for those scared of terms.
1. Re:big deal by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-04 06:37 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Seeing as Ubuntu is debian for those scared of terms.
  Even less of a big deal when you check out NEW.
2. Re:big deal by loufoque · 2013-03-04 06:42 · Score: 2
  
  Isn't it the other way around?
  Debian is what you use when you want to actually use the system, since, unlike Ubuntu, it actually has up-to-date and reliable packages.
  The only advantage of Ubuntu is packaging restricted drivers better. Ubuntu also packages some weird desktop experiences (such as Unity), if you're into that sort of thing.
3. Re:big deal by Minwee · 2013-03-04 06:45 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Try mixing Debian and Ubuntu repositories some time and see how big of a deal that is.
4. Re:big deal by larry+bagina · 2013-03-04 06:54 · Score: 2
  
  "up to date" isn't an apt description for debian stable. Unless you're a time traveller from 3 years ago. Reliable, I'll give that one to you, if you ignore how they fucked up ssh.
  
  --
  Do you even lift?
  These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
5. Re:big deal by phorm · 2013-03-04 07:11 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  And Mint is for people who want more packages but dislike the direction that Canonical has been taking with Gnome3 etc...
  (it also works with the stock Steam installer)
6. Re:big deal by Narcocide · 2013-03-04 07:41 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Well, actually they do. Debian, Mozilla and Apache are the ones run by shadowy not-for-profit legal foundations (aka "charities"), but Canonical, on the other hand is a a for-profit corporation is actually selling your demographic info to advertisers just like Facebook and Apple.
7. Re:big deal by jgtg32a · 2013-03-04 08:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Ubuntu is an African word that means "I can't configure Debian"
8. Re:big deal by TheDarkener · 2013-03-04 08:05 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I've been using Debian 'testing' as a desktop (and a netbook for that matter) for many years now. I used Ubuntu for about 4 years at home and with my business clients (I'm a network engineer), roughly from v6.10 -> 10.04 but switched back because of the "will not fix" developer mentality to those who wanted functional packages from an LTS release. There was always something major that was broken, always with the carrot-on-a-stick, "Just upgrade to the latest release and use PPA from JoeSchmoe" answer when you just wanted to use your computer. It kept me for a while, but it got reeeeal tiring.
  Debian has always "just worked" on my desktop. It's also a great LTSP sever, serving my kitchen and livingroom thin clients. With all of the good stuff that the Ubuntu/Canonical folks do getting backported to Debian, I feel like Debian testing is "Ubuntu Stable".
  
  --
  It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
9. Re:big deal by loufoque · 2013-03-04 08:17 · Score: 2
  
  You should always use testing on your desktop, laptop or workstation, especially if you work in IT.
  stable is for production environments.
10. Re:big deal by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-04 08:25 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Debian is a Klingon word that means "I'm scared of Slackware"
11. Re:big deal by marcello_dl · 2013-03-04 09:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You should remember that there is also debian testing, which currently is debian wheezy. As stable becomes too old, testing become more of a viable alternative. I ran into more problems with kubuntu than sid, and testing is way better than sid for normal users, because upgrades are less radical.
  I also had a smooth experience with debian stable, if you want to run newer software too you could make a chroot with sid or testing, or consider the LD_LIBRARY_PATH option: at home I am running wheezy, plus the fglrx-legacy driver from experimental, using a closed source client with libraries gotten from ubuntu, and the resulting frankenstein has not had one hiccup.
  
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  ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
12. Re:big deal by UltraZelda64 · 2013-03-04 09:43 · Score: 2
  
  Too bad the phrase doesn't hold up to time, because Debian has been getting incredibly easy to install, with pretty much everything except "non-free" drivers working at first boot... but yeah, it is a good phrase that historically has some truth to it.
13. Re:big deal by dcollins117 · 2013-03-04 09:49 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Ubuntu is an African word that means "I can't configure Debian"
  It's funny because it's true. As a windows user who wanted to learn how to use linux (15 years ago or so) I had the catch-22 issue of installing and configuring system I knew very little about. So it was crucial for me that the installation "just worked" to get a working machine to learn on. I tried Debian first and got no where, then tried Ubuntu and it "just worked".
  Ubunutu is far from perfect, but it works good enough for new users that they can learn what they need to in order to abandon it once they tire of Canonical's shenanigans.
14. Re:big deal by Narcocide · 2013-03-04 10:07 · Score: 2
  
  How about your search history?
15. Re:big deal by moronoxyd · 2013-03-04 20:18 · Score: 2
  
  As a windows user who wanted to learn how to use linux (15 years ago or so) I had the catch-22 issue of installing and configuring system I knew very little about. [...] I tried Debian first and got no where, then tried Ubuntu and it "just worked".
  Soooo.. you installed Ubuntu, which came out first in 2004, '15 years ago or so'?
  Can I have access to your time machine?
16. Re:big deal by Lotana · 2013-03-04 23:18 · Score: 2
  
  Of course we do. The problem is that this "feature" is forced down on us by default requiring effort (Even if fairly small) to get rid of. Especially since there are so many other great distributions to choose from where you don't have to worry about someone data mining for your usage information.
  This breaks good will of the distribution to the open source community. And that is why we are bitching.
Not GNU/Steam by ButchDeLoria · 2013-03-04 06:27 · Score: 5, Funny

Not free enough, 2/10 would not install.
Ubuntu is NOT the most popular Linux OS. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-04 06:30 · Score: 2, Insightful

Really. It's not. It hasn't been in a year or more, so can we stop this "Ubuntu it the big best Linux" crap already?
Ubuntu started to tank shortly after Shuttleworth sold his soul to the devil. The most popular distros are now Mint (by far), and probably also Mageia by now.
I personally don't see why Valve doesn't just aim for Debian support. If that works, Ubuntu, Mint and many more should be minimal effort.
1. Re:Ubuntu is NOT the most popular Linux OS. by SJHillman · 2013-03-04 06:52 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  It depends on how you determine popularity. Because Linux distros typically don't phone home at any point during installation or operation, it's impossible to know how many installs of a given distro are out there. Mint may have the most pageviews or the most downloads in the last X months, but it doesn't mean it's the most widely installed.
  If a company with 1000 seats downloads Ubuntu once and uses that single download to install it on all 1000 PCs, while the business next door has all ten of its users download Mint to install on their own desktops then Mint appears to be ten times as popular as Ubuntu.
  I'm not saying this is the case, just that it's almost impossible to figure out the most popular Linux distro. It's also important to point out that Mint is to Ubuntu what Ubuntu is to Debian... if Debian stopped, Ubuntu would die and if Ubuntu stopped then Mint would die.
2. Re:Ubuntu is NOT the most popular Linux OS. by Arashi256 · 2013-03-04 06:53 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  That's a donation page, numbnuts.
3. Re:Ubuntu is NOT the most popular Linux OS. by BitZtream · 2013-03-04 07:15 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Because Linux distros typically don't phone home at any point during installation or operation,
  Bullshit excuse. They do request updates, don't they? Its not hard to tell who's using your Linux distro when they come to you for patches.
  
  If a company with 1000 seats downloads Ubuntu once and uses that single download to install it on all 1000 PCs, while the business next door has all ten of its users download Mint to install on their own desktops then Mint appears to be ten times as popular as Ubuntu.
  Yes, if you picked a particular 5 millisecond period and just used that as a basis for all of your extrapolation, but when you look at it on average, that sort of thing doesn't matter.
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
4. Re:Ubuntu is NOT the most popular Linux OS. by crazyjj · 2013-03-04 07:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Hate to break it to you, but most downloads on Steam are going to ask you to pay for them too.
  
  --
  What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Wow Slashdot! by bennyp · 2013-03-04 06:31 · Score: 5, Insightful

Check out this headline: Linux guy edits script to better suit his setup. Let's get this to the front page NOW!

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could it be?
1. Re:Wow Slashdot! by zigfreed · 2013-03-04 06:37 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  It's worse than that. This is a Slashdot discussion about a Reddit thread, with a third site intermediary.
2. Re:Wow Slashdot! by GigaBurglar · 2013-03-04 07:15 · Score: 2
  
  I was thinking the same thing. It's no more impressive than the build script in the Arch User Repository.
3. Re:Wow Slashdot! by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-04 07:37 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  But how else can "anonymous reader" engage Dice Holdings' genius marketing team to promote thepowerbase.com's awesome news aggregator?
  I think you are missing the point of these slashdot stories. They are pure SEO spam, designed to uprank whatever shitty site is giving us a synopsis of what is happening at another site.
  It's really too bad the internet took off and was noticed by business and advertising types. We need a modern day digital Jesus to upset the money changers' tables.
4. Re:Wow Slashdot! by Ambiguous+Coward · 2013-03-04 07:49 · Score: 2
  
  I don't even know what that means! We need laws outlawing this sort of thing, NOW.
  
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  Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
5. Re:Wow Slashdot! by Hal_Porter · 2013-03-04 12:14 · Score: 2
  
  To be fair to him the editor he was using was probably really hard to use. So he's lucky he didn't end up with an script file that was all fubar with ^H^H^H characters all over it.
  
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  echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Whoop-dee-do for Debian by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-04 06:36 · Score: 4, Insightful

# layman -a gamerlay # layman -S # emerge steam-meta
Done. Been working since the middle of the beta for Gentoo users, and that distro doesn't even use .deb files natively. So... um... congrats, Debian? Nice to see you're still old and slow to react? I guess?
Re:bah by jedidiah · 2013-03-04 07:06 · Score: 2

> with the multitude of installers, and having to play around with antiquated X, and a retarded sound system.
The only thing antiquated and retarded her is your argument.
> Fresh install of Linux Mint, installed Steam, installed TF 2...bam.... software rendering
Perhaps Steam doesn't like your video driver. It tends to be really vocal about this sort of thing. Tends to pester you to get current.

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A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:What's the chance of a slackpkg installer? by StarTuxia · 2013-03-04 07:08 · Score: 3, Informative

It has been out for awhile, courtesy of Alien Bob: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/survey-results-for-linux-gaming-on-steam/#comments
Typical Linux geek by sl4shd0rk · 2013-03-04 07:12 · Score: 5, Funny

would rather be hacking the game than playing it.

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Playing on Fedora since public beta... no problem by PartyBoy!911 · 2013-03-04 09:06 · Score: 2

Valve put it out ther on their developer site since day one... https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux
1 Native Steam on Linux
1.1 Unpackaged
1.2 Arch Linux
1.3 Fedora
1.4 Gentoo
1.5 openSUSE / SUSE
1.6 Ubuntu
So big deal, it only took you 3 months more time then the other distro's
15:56, 16 December 2012 Hanno (Talk | contribs) (9,101 bytes) (Native Steam on Linux Beta Client)