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Starting Minecraft from Steam with Flatpack Launcher
Chaos99 Aug 15
Can somebody help me with the following:

I'm trying to run Minecraft from Steam on Linux (Mint), so I can make use of Steam Input to use my Gamepad instead of Mouse/Keyboard.

For this I need to add Minecraft as a non-Steam game to the library first and I need to point Steam to the game's executable .... which I can't.

Minecraft was installed via Flatpack (and so was Prism as an alternative launcher). So instead of an executable, there is a flatpack-command to start. But Steam presents me with a file-picker and not a text-entry to place a command into.

I tried to create a shell-script as a .sh file with the command to start the launcher, which I can add to Steam, but it won't start. It just does nothing when I select 'Play'.

Has anybody some helpful experience with this kind of scenario?

I haven't got much experience with Flatpack to be honest and only chose it because the apt-packages are much older.
From what I read it's a virtual container with executable + dependencies (like docker containers?) and I can only extract the start command from the start menu entry for the game.
dvd Aug 16
Quoting: Chaos99Can somebody help me with the following:

I'm trying to run Minecraft from Steam on Linux (Mint), so I can make use of Steam Input to use my Gamepad instead of Mouse/Keyboard.

For this I need to add Minecraft as a non-Steam game to the library first and I need to point Steam to the game's executable .... which I can't.

Minecraft was installed via Flatpack (and so was Prism as an alternative launcher). So instead of an executable, there is a flatpack-command to start. But Steam presents me with a file-picker and not a text-entry to place a command into.

I tried to create a shell-script as a .sh file with the command to start the launcher, which I can add to Steam, but it won't start. It just does nothing when I select 'Play'.

Has anybody some helpful experience with this kind of scenario?

I haven't got much experience with Flatpack to be honest and only chose it because the apt-packages are much older.
From what I read it's a virtual container with executable + dependencies (like docker containers?) and I can only extract the start command from the start menu entry for the game.

I'm not sure if it would help but it's simpler to download the launcher/any 3rd party launchers straight from the vendors page, minecraft et al. does not and need not touch your system folders.Doesn't minecraft have gamepad support though?

Last edited by dvd on 16 August 2024 at 4:47 am UTC
Chaos99 Aug 16
Found at least part of the problem:

It wasn't that Minecraft or Prism was installed via Flatpack, but Steam was too and seemingly it couldn't directly interact with the base system correctly and wasn't allowed to start anything out in the general filesystem.

Removed the Steam Flatpack install and re-installed from apt.

Now I don't even need the .sh file, but am presented with a list of installed applications in the Linux base system to chose from. I can select Minecraft (or Prism) there and the Launcher is now started from Steam.

But I still can't use the Gamepad in neither the launcher nor the actual game although it's activated in Steam.
Unfortunately, Minecraft Java Edition does not directly support Gamepads (although Mods exist).
LoudTechie Aug 17
Quoting: Chaos99Can somebody help me with the following:

I'm trying to run Minecraft from Steam on Linux (Mint), so I can make use of Steam Input to use my Gamepad instead of Mouse/Keyboard.

For this I need to add Minecraft as a non-Steam game to the library first and I need to point Steam to the game's executable .... which I can't.

Minecraft was installed via Flatpack (and so was Prism as an alternative launcher). So instead of an executable, there is a flatpack-command to start. But Steam presents me with a file-picker and not a text-entry to place a command into.

I tried to create a shell-script as a .sh file with the command to start the launcher, which I can add to Steam, but it won't start. It just does nothing when I select 'Play'.

Has anybody some helpful experience with this kind of scenario?

I haven't got much experience with Flatpack to be honest and only chose it because the apt-packages are much older.
From what I read it's a virtual container with executable + dependencies (like docker containers?) and I can only extract the start command from the start menu entry for the game.

Symbolic links are designed for this purpose.
They're also symbolic links and thus horrible.



also I think you've yet to make your sh script executable, which is why it doesn't work.
sudo chmod "sh script" 711

and/or you should include the following line at the top of your sh script
#!/bin/bash
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