I installed Steam on Debian 13 and it wouldn’t run from the desktop shortcut. I had to edit the config for it to start. I installed and tried two games at random and neither worked. So I uninstalled it. Even completely removing Steam needed several shell commands. I’ve been using Linux on and off since its early days so this was very disappointing.
Back in the yonder days of lore, I too ended up on Debian, or at least Debian based distros…
I was actually able to get RDR2 running on Debian via Steam/Proton in like… 2020/21?
That required a good deal of bullshit though, felt like I practically had my own lite custom distro at that point.
Worked online too! Untill Rockstar decided linux users are all dirty hackers/no longer supported.
… they still owe me money as far as I’m concerned.
But good lord, getting a Steam Deck has made me lazy.
Bazzite is just so much easier for 99% of the shit I actually do.
You can use the prepackaged DistroShelf to fairly quickly just set up a Debian or w/e environment, to do things like compiling and such, as Bazzite is Atomic, which means it tends to get mad or break if you directly futz with its core packages.
TBH that sounds more like a Debian issue than a Steam issue … though I guess the difference doesn’t matter for an end user. Did you install Steam through the .deb or the flathub flatpak? Might want to try the other one.
Debian has ancient packages. Frankly, it’s not the best suited for gaming, given how late performance optimisations come. Personally I’d like to have driver updates quite promptly.
If you’re going to use Debian for gaming, you should probably use the Steam Flatpak.
I installed Steam on Debian 13 and it wouldn’t run from the desktop shortcut. I had to edit the config for it to start. I installed and tried two games at random and neither worked. So I uninstalled it. Even completely removing Steam needed several shell commands. I’ve been using Linux on and off since its early days so this was very disappointing.
May I suggest Bazzite?
Absolutely. I may give it a go because it looks interesting. I need to learn more about it before I install it.
Back in the yonder days of lore, I too ended up on Debian, or at least Debian based distros…
I was actually able to get RDR2 running on Debian via Steam/Proton in like… 2020/21?
That required a good deal of bullshit though, felt like I practically had my own lite custom distro at that point.
Worked online too! Untill Rockstar decided linux users are all dirty hackers/no longer supported.
… they still owe me money as far as I’m concerned.
But good lord, getting a Steam Deck has made me lazy.
Bazzite is just so much easier for 99% of the shit I actually do.
You can use the prepackaged DistroShelf to fairly quickly just set up a Debian or w/e environment, to do things like compiling and such, as Bazzite is Atomic, which means it tends to get mad or break if you directly futz with its core packages.
Gaming on it? Literally works out of the box.
TBH that sounds more like a Debian issue than a Steam issue … though I guess the difference doesn’t matter for an end user. Did you install Steam through the .deb or the flathub flatpak? Might want to try the other one.
As a nearly 100% Debian user, I’d recommend trying a distro with more up to date packages/kernel like Fedora or even Bazzite before giving up.
Debian has ancient packages. Frankly, it’s not the best suited for gaming, given how late performance optimisations come. Personally I’d like to have driver updates quite promptly.
If you’re going to use Debian for gaming, you should probably use the Steam Flatpak.