Canonical announced some time ago their Steam Snap which was promoted as stable with Ubuntu 23.04, as they continue to push their own packaging format with Snap but it seems this has been causing problems for Valve.
Writing on Mastodon, developer Timothee "TTimo" Besset, who works on various things for Valve posted asking people to consider using the official Valve .deb package or at least consider using the Flatpak:
Valve is seeing an increasing number of bug reports for issues caused by Canonical's repackaging of the Steam client through snap.
The best way to install Steam on Debian and derivative operating systems is to follow the instructions at http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ and use the official .deb
We are not involved with the snap repackaging. It has a lot of issues.
If you don't want the .deb, please at least consider the flatpak version.
Timothee "TTimo" Besset
So if you've been having various problems with Steam on Ubuntu (or a derivative like Kubuntu), it may be because you've installed it as a Snap. Worth trying out the official .deb or Flatpak to see if it runs better for you. You can also give Canonical feedback in your issues on their Discourse Forum and report issues to Valve on GitHub (if you're using their official packages).
Hopefully Canonical can look into any issues.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: EikeQuoteValve posted asking people to consider using the official Valve .deb package
Please, please, please, please not!
I'm reading nearly every thread in the Steam for Linux forum, and we hear problems from people having used the downloadable deb for over a decade now! People should use what their distribution made of it, adding their dependencies and such. I cannot believe Valve proposes to actually use that!
and if their distribution made is shit?
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Quoting: VillianThen try using a good distro?Quoting: EikeQuoteValve posted asking people to consider using the official Valve .deb package
Please, please, please, please not!
I'm reading nearly every thread in the Steam for Linux forum, and we hear problems from people having used the downloadable deb for over a decade now! People should use what their distribution made of it, adding their dependencies and such. I cannot believe Valve proposes to actually use that!
and if their distribution made is shit?
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: slaapliedjeSource?
QuoteSteam only officially supports Ubuntu running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or newer and SteamOS, but the Steam for Linux community is extremely resourceful and has managed to run Steam on a large variety of distros. Valve approves of these efforts but does not officially endorse or provide support for them.https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/platforms
QuoteSteam has been packaged as a Flatpak app by the Flathub community, but this Flatpak app is not officially supported by Valve...https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-runtime/blob/master/doc/steamlinuxruntime-known-issues.md
Steam has been packaged as a Snap app by Canonical, but this Snap app is not officially supported by Valve.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: BrokattValve officially only supports one distro and that is the latest Ubuntu LTS - with either Gnome or KDE desktop.They don't support Gnome any more - well, specifically Wayland Gnome; X11 Gnome is OK - because it breaks SteamVR. I can't remember which widget it is that Gnome doesn't provide (I don't use VR and I don't use Gnome) but ISTR that the Gnome devs specifically refuse to support that widget. Someone with more familiarity with the details can fill in the gaps.
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mattaraxia 
Jan 19
Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: BrokattValve officially only supports one distro and that is the latest Ubuntu LTS - with either Gnome or KDE desktop.They don't support Gnome any more - well, specifically Wayland Gnome; X11 Gnome is OK - because it breaks SteamVR. I can't remember which widget it is that Gnome doesn't provide (I don't use VR and I don't use Gnome) but ISTR that the Gnome devs specifically refuse to support that widget. Someone with more familiarity with the details can fill in the gaps.
I would be really interested to know that too. I was kind of surprised the deck doesn't at least support GNOME. I get KDE is more accommodating to Windows users and being friendly to them is obviously a high priority for the deck, but GNOME is so good on a hybrid/tablet style device like that. VR being a priority makes a lot of sense.
Edit: it appears to be this: DRM leasing. They don't refuse, it's just never been complete enough to be merged:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/2759
Last edited by mattaraxia on 19 January 2024 at 5:59 am UTC
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fenglengshun Jan 19
Quoting: slaapliedjeI've lost confidence in PopOS, unfortunately. It looked like a great alternative to Ubuntu until they decided to make their own DE.It really depends on how their 24.04 release goes. Part of the issue had been their mixing of their own repo and Ubuntu's repo. That's not an issue now, and I'd imagine their move towards yearly releases should further help make sure there's more testing.
In addition, the main motivator for Cosmic has been how their Cosmic-Gnome was such a mess of extensions and modifications. So far, the only people who really can maintain customized Gnome with minimum issues has been Ubuntu, and that's only "minimum issues" because the past year's releases has been much better than the year before that.
With them having Factory Reset in GUI and systemd-boot entry (and updated with new ISOs all the time), I think it's a sensible first distro as people play around with it and factory reset it when needed. Time will tell, but I'm pretty optimistic on it.
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Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: BrokattValve officially only supports one distro and that is the latest Ubuntu LTS - with either Gnome or KDE desktop.They don't support Gnome any more - well, specifically Wayland Gnome; X11 Gnome is OK - because it breaks SteamVR. I can't remember which widget it is that Gnome doesn't provide (I don't use VR and I don't use Gnome) but ISTR that the Gnome devs specifically refuse to support that widget. Someone with more familiarity with the details can fill in the gaps.
Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: BrokattValve officially only supports one distro and that is the latest Ubuntu LTS - with either Gnome or KDE desktop.Source? Their initial run of SteamOS was debian based, and not Ubuntu based. They include some ubuntu name libraries, and that's about it.
I've literally been installing steam on all my debian systems since it was first added to the repos... about 14 years ago. Never had any issues with it at all. Ubuntu LTS itself only supports their modified gnome install, so there is that.
By the way, Debian's package is now called 'steam-installer' and you can install it with three commands.
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install steam-installer steam-devices
And guess what? The /usr/games/steam file is a script that downloads the very official debian Steam package and installs it.
Funny enough, the Arch version likely does the exact same thing. Which basically means it doesn't really matter what Valve officially supports, people will get it installed, and currently the correct way to get the right dependencies, etc is to NOT use the .deb from their website, but to use your package manager on whichever distribution you choose.
Neither SteamOS 2.0 nor 3.0 was/is meant as a desktop replacement. If you look at the recommended specs on the Steam page for any Valve game they only ever recommend an Ubuntu LTS release.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1114-3F74-0B8A-B784
Quoting: mattaraxiaQuoting: CatKillerQuoting: BrokattValve officially only supports one distro and that is the latest Ubuntu LTS - with either Gnome or KDE desktop.They don't support Gnome any more - well, specifically Wayland Gnome; X11 Gnome is OK - because it breaks SteamVR. I can't remember which widget it is that Gnome doesn't provide (I don't use VR and I don't use Gnome) but ISTR that the Gnome devs specifically refuse to support that widget. Someone with more familiarity with the details can fill in the gaps.
I would be really interested to know that too. I was kind of surprised the deck doesn't at least support GNOME. I get KDE is more accommodating to Windows users and being friendly to them is obviously a high priority for the deck, but GNOME is so good on a hybrid/tablet style device like that. VR being a priority makes a lot of sense.
Edit: it appears to be this: DRM leasing. They don't refuse, it's just never been complete enough to be merged:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/2759
As far as I can see Gnome is supported on Steam for Linux. Why would they put resources into supporting Gnome on Steam Deck? I would guess a majority of the Steam Deck users don't ever use Desktop Mode. Other features like HDR support have higher priority than adding another DE to Desktop Mode.
Last edited by Brokatt on 19 January 2024 at 8:21 am UTC
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Quoting: VillianQuoting: EikeQuoteValve posted asking people to consider using the official Valve .deb package
Please, please, please, please not!
I'm reading nearly every thread in the Steam for Linux forum, and we hear problems from people having used the downloadable deb for over a decade now! People should use what their distribution made of it, adding their dependencies and such. I cannot believe Valve proposes to actually use that!
and if their distribution made is shit?
Then you should not use their distribution. At all.
For Debian, this works all fine though, I tested this several times.
2 Likes, Who?
I don't like this move to put everything in a container and I try to stay as far from it as possible.
But I understand this is based on my personal experience where I have only seen disadvantages with it.
So far, I have Steam installed from official Debian repository.
But I understand this is based on my personal experience where I have only seen disadvantages with it.
So far, I have Steam installed from official Debian repository.
2 Likes, Who?
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