linux-steam-integration

A helper shim to enable better Steam* integration on Linux systems. This is part of an effort by Solus to enhance Steam for everyone.

This project, and by extension Solus, is not officially endorsed by, or affiliated with, Steam*, or its parent company, Valve*.

Linux Steam Integration (LSI) is a Solus Project

Integrating LSI

To correctly integrate LSI, your Steam package will require modification. LSI must provide the /usr/bin/steam binary, so your Steam package must move the main launcher to a shadow location.

Configuring LSI build

There are a number of configure options you should be aware of when integrating LSI correctly. The prominent ones are explained here.

--with-real-steam-binary=$NAME

Set the absolute path for the shadowed Steam binary. LSI will execv Steam after it has initialised the environment. Note that execv, not execvp, is used, to mask programs that may be in the $PATH, hence requiring an absolute path.

The default value for this option is:

/usr/lib/steam/steam

--with-preload-libs=$LIBS

A colon separated list of libraries that are required to launch Steam when using its own runtime. LSI enables users to switch back to the Steam runtime, and in this instance we manage the LD_PRELOAD environmental variable. Ensure this is correct, and escape $LIB for correct Linux usage.

The default value for this option is:

/usr/\$LIB/libX11.so.6:/usr/\$LIB/libstdc++.so.6

--enable-frontend

A small UI application is shipped to enable configuration of LSI, which presents a simple GTK3 Dialog to the user. It is not enabled by default, it is up to the integrator to decide if they wish to employ lsi-settings, or implement an alternative.

The lsi-settings application will only ever write new configurations to the user settings file, and requires no special permissions.

The default value for this option is:

disabled

How LSI Works

LSI provides a /usr/bin/steam binary to be used in place of the existing Steam script, which will then correctly set up the environment before swapping the process for the Steam process.

Configuration options can be placed in an INI-style configuration file in a series of locations, which are ordered by priority in a cascade:

~/.config/linux-steam-integration.conf
/etc/linux-steam-integration.conf
/usr/share/defaults/linux-steam-integration/linux-steam-integration.conf

The user configuration takes immediate priority. Secondly we have the system-wide configuration for affecting all accounts, and lastly the vendor configuration, which may be provided by the integrator.

Currently this INI file supports two options. The root section in this INI file must be [Steam].

use-native-runtime = $boolean

If set to a true boolean value, (yes/true/on), the host OS's native runtime will be used instead of the Steam provided runtime. If this is set to a false boolean value (no/false/off), then the startup will be modified to export the relevant LD_PRELOAD and STEAM_RUNTIME settings.

The default value of this variable is true.

force-32bit = $boolean

If set to a true boolean value (yes/true/on), the shadowed Steam binary will be run via the linux32 command. This will force the steam process and all children to believe they are running on a 32-bit system. This may be useful for 64-bit games that are buggy only on 64-bit.

If this is set to a false boolean value (no/false/off), then the shadowed Steam binary will be directly executed. Note that on 32-bit OSs this setting is ignored.

The default value of this variable is false.

Common issues

Missing tray icon for Steam client using native OS runtime

Ensure you have the 32-bit version of libappindicator installed. This is required for the tray icon. libappindicator falls back to a standard X11 tray icon in the absence of desktop appindicator support.

Related issue: Steam tray icon missing #2

License

src/nica:

Partial import of libnica, Copyright © Intel Corporation.


Used within the shim component to ensure it is leak free
and as lightweight as possible, due to needing to exec the
main Steam* launcher.
libnica is available under the terms of the `LGPL-2.1` license.

src/shim src/frontend:

Copyright © 2016 Ikey Doherty


linux-steam-integration is available under the terms of the `LGPL-2.1`

See LICENSE.LGPL2.1 for more details

• Some names may be claimed as the property of others.