While most people will be using a normal package for Steam on Linux or the Flatpak, Canonical continue pushing their own Snap packages and one that's needed a lot of work is Steam. Giving an overview on some of the work done Canonical's Ashton N wrote a post on the official Discourse Forum to go over some of it.
Since Snap packages aren't like normal packages, like Flatpak they run in a more contained environment which places various limits on what they can do. The idea is to keep your main filesystem safe and untouched but that comes with many problems that need special solutions.
For the Steam Snap, Canonical had to ensure things like Proton would work properly and they say they've "made huge strides in improving the Snap's compatibility in this respect" including allowing external drive mounts, improved NVIDIA driver support, network compatibility, /usr files, and /lib/libexec files. If you have games on other drives this is now supported across /mnt, /media, /run/media, /opt, /src or /home so pretty much anywhere you set up a Steam Library should now work!
The popular MangoHUD is now bundled directly with the Steam Snap too, so you can easily use mangohud %command% as a launch option on games to get it. GameMode from Feral Interactive has also been bundled too so you can use gamemoderun %command% just like above which required changes to GameMode itself which has been merged into the project.
Lots more work was done like a significant improvement to controller support, debugging tools and various smaller issues being solved.
Eventually it should work just like the normal Steam package, but have everything it needs in one Snap package that would run across various versions of Ubuntu (and other distros) while having better security for the host system.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
hardpenguin Nov 1, 2023
QuoteCanonical continue pushing their own Snap packages
dziadulewicz Nov 1, 2023
This improvement makes it even better (from Ubuntu forum):
"Many gamers store their games on external drives, so it was an important issue to us to get external libraries up to par with the Steam deb. Now, any game libraries located in /mnt, /media/, or /run/media, /opt, /src, or /home can be used in the Steam Snap with no issues."
Great!
Quoting: BrokattLooks great but I would like an update on mesa-git that was said to be bundled before I switch to the snap. Is it there? Is it working?
QuoteIf you're using the edge channel of Steam, the Snap relies on the gaming-graphics-core22 Snap for graphics packages (see snap connections steam). You may switch gaming-graphics-core22 to a different channel to use different versions of mesa and other graphics libraries.https://github.com/canonical/steam-snap/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-use-a-different-mesagraphics-version
Currently, the channels are oibaf-latest (bleeding edge), kisak-fresh (new, but stable), and kisak-turtle (most stable). Switch between them with the following:
snap refresh gaming-graphics-core22 --channel <channel>
ElectricPrism Nov 1, 2023
This is peak Irony. Mount Ironicus. It's actually so bad, it's so good -- somebody should write a comedy book about Canonical, except instead of jokes it's just the history of the things that they have done the last decade. It would be a comedy gold thriller hands down.
Quoting: ElectricPrismImagine (being Canonical and) having Valve in the bag, (which could have greatly strengthened their position) only to destroy their functional relationship when they dropped 32-bit libraries, and then later to trying to backup and try to win some points by bundling their store inside your cancer package system that nobody wants to uses outside your walled/gated garden.
This is peak Irony. Mount Ironicus. It's actually so bad, it's so good -- somebody should write a comedy book about Canonical, except instead of jokes it's just the history of the things that they have done the last decade. It would be a comedy gold thriller hands down.
That's a very skewed view but you are entitled to it. While I agree that Canonical could have handled the situation MUCH better, the fact is Ubuntu is still the recommended OS by Steam 4 years later and Ubuntu is still among the most popular distros for Steam users.
I do find it hilarious that you talk about snaps as "cancer package system that nobody wants to use". Like you actually think package systems is something most users care about. I dare you to find a normal Windows user that is trying Linux out and tell them about the differences between snap, flatpak, appimage, deb, etc. without them falling asleep. I cannot stress how little I care about package systems. I cared nothing for package systems when I used Windows nor Mac, and that has not changed when I switched to Linux. Snap, Flatpak, Appimage, deb - I don't care what I use as long as it works and I have minimal issues. I do realize this is a very unpopular opinion in the community but I firmly believe to be in the majority on this one.
I do apologize in advance for any offense I may have caused.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me