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Steam Closed Beta Now Live!

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Thanks to the Steam group chat it has been revealed that Steam will go live today when someone pointed this out, the news comes thanks to Nvidia's news here dated today with the release of an improved graphics driver.
QuoteAvailable for download at www.geforce.com, the new R310 drivers were also thoroughly tested with Steam for Linux, the extension of Valve's phenomenally popular Steam gaming platform that officially opened to gamers starting today.


Linux is also now available as a filter for finding games on the official website: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=#os=linux&advanced=0&sort_order=ASC&page=1

Steam also has some planned Downtime today at 11PM GMT (16:00 PDT) so it could well be a late night release for me.

UPDATE: media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
Update 2: It's officially on - and i didn't get in :( http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/882965118606625844/
Update 3: Over 60,000 people wanted in on the beta! http://store.steampowered.com/news/9289/

So people, are you ready? What will be your first purchase on the Steam Linux client?

Ps. Add me to your Steam - "liamdawe" Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by . You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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Anon 6 Nov 2012
Ups, I mean want to, anyway, sorry to hear, try removing the steam folders and maybe it'll work?
Anon 6 Nov 2012
@Kame: Doesn't work, doesn't do anything yet, just opens Steam which then turns off.

Also, no beta for me... come on Valve, you need more than 1000 people! At least 1001!
Liam Dawe 6 Nov 2012
Over 60,000 people wanted the beta, that's a lot of customers on Linux!
Anon 6 Nov 2012
Three times the Humble regulars. I wonder what will be the numbers once it's completely out.

Some ugly things - doesn't adhere to XDG specs, so instead of being under ~/.local/share/. it's right under ~/. Well, that's a small one. Another is the directory to which all Steam games are installed is ~/Steam, which is something I'd rather stay invisible (perhaps again under XDG_DATA_HOME).
Bumadar 6 Nov 2012
.deb means you need to install as root, never used ubuntu so correct me if I am wrong ? so not like desura where its a local/user install ?
Liam Dawe 6 Nov 2012
.deb means you need to usually install as root, but it can then do what it wants from there remember.
Bumadar 6 Nov 2012
.deb means you need to usually install as root, but it can then do what it wants from there remember.


yup, why I like installing games and such as user :) was just wondering.
Anon 6 Nov 2012
You install the deb and then it pulls the rest from the servers into your home directory.
Anon 6 Nov 2012
Apparently, there's a badge for this.

Also: http://i.imgur.com/sjoDC.jpg, http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/12qs6z/steam_for_linux_its_here_deb_in_the_link/c6xdfd6
They already got it. Apparently, there's also a badge for this, so it's easy to tell if you know someone in there.

And someone in the thread is claiming it's easy to bypass the check. Anyone care to share? ;)
Anon 6 Nov 2012
Kame, you were right!
Anon 6 Nov 2012
I'm not in the beta, but...
http://minus.com/lhgbQciO34n1C
Kame 6 Nov 2012
Kame, you were right!


I usually am! :p

Can't wait to get home and start downloading TF2!
Anon 6 Nov 2012
That doesn't work though, I tried and I can't get it to download. I'll have KF down in a couple of minutes and World of Goo is working fine, along with the overlay!

I'm disappointed with the lack of Team Fortress right now, I hoped it'd work.
Bumadar 6 Nov 2012
for us none .deb users:

open .deb with ark
open data.tar.gz
extract the bootstraplinux_ubuntu12_32 file to directory named Steam (where you please)
execute ./steam.sh
it will update and you will end up with the inlog screen
enter login, it will see your on a new pc, get code from your email, enter it and your in :)

no other dependencies or root needed, there are some gtk errors, but that is why its beta

by the look of the directory structure they seem to go for builds per distro_version, but as long as your close enough with the libraries there should be little problem.
Liam Dawe 6 Nov 2012
Hah fixed my error, i needed to use optirun (bumblebee user here).
Anon 6 Nov 2012
Well then, get on with it and download some games!

I still have 13 minutes left for KF and the speed sometimes dips really low.
Anon 6 Nov 2012
Btw., anyone able to install TF2? It's supposed to be part of the beta, but I can't get it to download either via browser or anything else.
Liam Dawe 6 Nov 2012
So any easy ways to skip past the your not in beta popup anyone?
Anon 6 Nov 2012
So any easy ways to skip past the your not in beta popup anyone?


As I said, Kame was right, use his idea from page 2 :D

You'll need to everytime you start Steam.
Liam Dawe 6 Nov 2012
Can't do it that way as i need to run a custom command to even get it to run - dual graphics chip :/
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