We are talking about now days Steam beta version of Ubuntu and we also
learned to bypass the limits imposed by the beta program. You may notice
that Steam, , however, is 32-bit version and Valve is recommended for
use only on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Personally I also tried Steam beta of
Ubuntu 12.10 32-bit and found no major problems, but it seems my luck
has been : I have heard several complaints from users <strong >
Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit , as Steam refuses to work on that operating system
(probably because of multiarch support that seems to still some
problems).
Running Steam in a virtual environment complete (which
could be VirtualBox or VMWare ) be a real blow for your operating system
and your brain , as you would be required to configure the virtual
machine to the smallest detail, so not have problems to access the 3D
rendering direct host and to enjoy your favorite games, audio direct.
Why, then, do not use a so-called “container”, a virtual environment
(rather complex to use) that uses few system resources and can be
accessed without any problem at all system devices?
Stéphane Graber has done by writing a program in Python,
this Steam-LXC that allows you to automatically configure a container –
to run Steam on Ubuntu – using a virtual Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit capable to
access hardware acceleration and direct audio system. The container is
chosen by Steph LXC , virtual environment that uses hardly any system
resources, used mainly in mechanisms of testing (I LXC used quite often
too), especially during the development of kernel / modules /
applications in general that need testing on multiple architectures. LXC
turns out to be, in fact, one of the containers more scalable and
reconfigurable on the existing scene, earning the alter-ego of “chroot
on steroids.”
Before continuing I want to let you know that Steam-LXC has been tested only
of <strong > Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit Raring using a video card Intel ,
and there is a possibility of have some problems of video hardware that
are used proprietary drivers ( the nVidia or Catalyst, so to speak),
there should be no problems, however, with the open drivers Nouveau or
Radeon. In all cases .. any feedback is welcome!
Ubuntu – Installation of Steam-LXC
Install the preconfigured container is absolutely simple!
Stéph provides us with a convenient PPA (for Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and
13.04) to proceed. All you have to do is open a terminal, and type
sudo add-apt-repository ppa: ubuntu-lxc/stable
sudo apt-get sudo update
apt-get install steam-LXC
Into Then, it is the first time we use LXC , we need to create the directory dedicated to the container, with the command
sudo mkdir -p / var / lib / LXC / var / cache / LXC
After that we prepare the environment and download
everything you need (including Steam) to test it, do not worry, things
will be done automatically! Also from the terminal, type
sudo steam-LXC create
and wait for the completion of the process (the time will
vary depending on the speed of your internet connection, it may take up
to an hour). Without this there is nothing left to run Steam virtual
environment just created with the command
sudo steam-LXC run
Into Enjoy!
[geeks] as you can see doing so you will not be able to
run Steam bypassing the limitations of the beta. I gave a fleeting look
at the code of the script and I concluded that, in order to be able to
bypass the limitations of the beta, you should change the boot command
Steam inside the python script. To do this, from the terminal, type
sudo gedit / usr / bin / steam-LXC
located this piece of code
self.run_command ("DISPLAY =% s =% s PULSE_SERVER steam"%
and turn it into
self.run_command ("DISPLAY =% s =% s PULSE_SERVER steam steam :/ / open / games"%
Then start Steam in LXC with the command
sudo steam-LXC run
should work perfectly!
NB: you can also use the
container to run Steam on the official Ubuntu variants (X / K / L /
Edubuntu) – making sure that the dependencies are installed inside the
container and not on your operating system .
