Linux Steam Integration, the initiative from the Solus distribution developers has a fresh release showing how far their project to improve Steam on Linux has come.
For those not clued up on it: Linux Steam Integration is a project to make Steam games and Linux play together a bit nicer. It comes with various optimizations and workarounds designed to fix issues in Steam and games, resulting in what should be a smoother gaming experience on Linux.
This latest release adds initial snapd support, a workaround for Unity games that give a black screen (solved in later releases of Unity), a massively enhanced "shim" system, enhanced vendoring rules and more. Since they have snapd support, you can now actually install it using Snap packages too (in the edge channel), however you do need a recent very recent version (likely git/unstable/ppa - they don't say specifically) of snapd to install them.
They aren't stopping with improving Steam, they're also looking to work with GOG games in future too, going by what they said in the latest update. Although, if they do that, they're going to need a new name for it…
It's a very ambitious project, one I plan to keep an eye on. Anything that can help improve the gaming experience on Linux has my vote, especially since it should eventually work across all distributions.
See the full release notes here. It's available on GitHub for those who want to dive into the technical side of it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Zlopez 20 Dec 2017
Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?
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lucifertdark 20 Dec 2017
Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?
2 Likes
riusma 20 Dec 2017
Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?
[Answer from Ikey Doherty (ufee1dead)](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7c1ii0/the_work_from_the_solus_developers_to_get_their/dpmnal7/). :)
Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?
The point isn't to bring Steam through snap or flatpak (Steam is already available as a flatpak package), but to bring Steam Linux Integration (SLI) more easily to its potential users outside of Solus (SLI snap works with a Solus base snap, not the Ubuntu core one). :)
4 Likes
Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?
There are good reasons for sandboxing Steam. At one point it had a bug which caused Steam to do 'rm -rf ~/' which caused some peoples entire home folders to be removed. It's proprietary software, so can you really trust that it doesn't do anything it's not supposed to? Also, there's the good old issue with the ever changing ABI/API on GNU/Linux. Flatpak and Snaps can provide the necessary runtime in a controlled fashion separate from the rest of your system which should ensure better reliability for Steam and games installed through Steam, while also making sure Steam or games cannot mess up your system.
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lucifertdark 20 Dec 2017
There are good reasons for sandboxing Steam. At one point it had a bug which caused Steam to do 'rm -rf ~/' which caused some peoples entire home folders to be removed. It's proprietary software, so can you really trust that it doesn't do anything it's not supposed to? Also, there's the good old issue with the ever changing ABI/API on GNU/Linux. Flatpak and Snaps can provide the necessary runtime in a controlled fashion separate from the rest of your system which should ensure better reliability for Steam and games installed through Steam, while also making sure Steam or games cannot mess up your system.I'd forgotten about that little bug, of course installing steam & the games on it's own partition or drive would help a great deal too.
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kalin 20 Dec 2017
Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?
Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?Why not stop asking stupid questions. It's matter of choice. If you don't like it, just don't use it. Simple as that
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no_information_here 20 Dec 2017
That is a bit harsh. People are trying to understand the motivations behind the project. That should be encouraged.Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?Why not stop asking stupid questions. It's matter of choice. If you don't like it, just don't use it. Simple as that
1 Likes
Zlopez 20 Dec 2017
Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?
[Answer from Ikey Doherty (ufee1dead)](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7c1ii0/the_work_from_the_solus_developers_to_get_their/dpmnal7/). :)
Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?
The point isn't to bring Steam through snap or flatpak (Steam is already available as a flatpak package), but to bring Steam Linux Integration (SLI) more easily to its potential users outside of Solus (SLI snap works with a Solus base snap, not the Ubuntu core one). :)
This is a good reason, I can take this. I saw, that the Flatpak Steam has still some issues.
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kalin 20 Dec 2017
No. Linux people are awful. Someone decide to make something useful or just hobby project and share it with the community and what he take in return is finger pointing, blaming and complaining. I participate in this community from 5 years and I read only negative opinions in forums. Luckily developers are not so easily discouraged .That is a bit harsh. People are trying to understand the motivations behind the project. That should be encouraged.Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?Why not stop asking stupid questions. It's matter of choice. If you don't like it, just don't use it. Simple as that
1 Likes
Liam Dawe 20 Dec 2017
I wouldn't go that far. We have to keep in mind that to question something, isn't necessarily a negative thing. We also have to remember the language barrier, English isn't everyone's first (or even remotely good) language, so people often phrase it in what looks like a rather blunt and direct way.No. Linux people are awful. Someone decide to make something useful or just hobby project and share it with the community and what he take in return is finger pointing, blaming and complaining. I participate in this community from 5 years and I read only negative opinions in forums. Luckily developers are not so easily discouraged .That is a bit harsh. People are trying to understand the motivations behind the project. That should be encouraged.Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?Why not stop asking stupid questions. It's matter of choice. If you don't like it, just don't use it. Simple as that
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 20 Dec 2017 at 8:40 pm UTC
3 Likes
Joeyboots80 20 Dec 2017
Just stopping through to say that Ikey is the man! That is all.............
3 Likes
kalin 20 Dec 2017
I wouldn't go that far. We have to keep in mind that to question something, isn't necessarily a negative thing. We also have to remember the language barrier, English isn't everyone's first (or even remotely good) language, so people often phrase it in what looks like a rather blunt and direct way.No. Linux people are awful. Someone decide to make something useful or just hobby project and share it with the community and what he take in return is finger pointing, blaming and complaining. I participate in this community from 5 years and I read only negative opinions in forums. Luckily developers are not so easily discouraged .That is a bit harsh. People are trying to understand the motivations behind the project. That should be encouraged.Why not using Flatpak instead of snap?Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?Why not stop asking stupid questions. It's matter of choice. If you don't like it, just don't use it. Simple as that
Ok I give my apologies for making quick conclusions
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jens 20 Dec 2017
At one point it had a bug which caused Steam to do 'rm -rf ~/' which caused some peoples entire home folders to be removed. It's proprietary software, so can you really trust that it doesn't do anything it's not supposed to?Do you scan the source code of every software you run on your machine for this kind of mistakes before executing something? ;)
Don't get me wrong, this is a bad and serious error that should not happen, but please don't assume that open source software does not contain any not yet known serious mistakes just because it is open source.
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Do you scan the source code of every software you run on your machine for this kind of mistakes before executing something? ;)
Don't get me wrong, this is a bad and serious error that should not happen, but please don't assume that open source software does not contain any not yet known serious mistakes just because it is open source.
Sorry for being unclear, but I meant those as two separate issues. Of course open source software can contain mistakes. Just look at what happened with Ubuntu 17.10 recently which apparently corrupted the UEFI on certain laptop models. Still, I'll take open source before proprietary any day, and if I have the option to sandbox software which I cannot trust 100% then I will take that option.
1 Likes
STiAT 22 Dec 2017
Why not use it as it was intended by Valve & stop messing about with Snap & Flatpack?
It's pretty simple:
Solus ships a newer stack, which newer games require. Especially on LTS or similar, that can help a lot (and ye, that is shipped in the snap).
LSI drops out some libraries known to make issues replacing them with certain other versions of libraries which are known to work.
LSI works around known game bugs (as ark: survival evolved water bug, unity blacks screen bug and more).
I personally think LSI should not be required. It shows, it is, because either game devs don't care or Valve is reluctant to update their software stack which would fix known issues.
It is nice that the guys of Solus, or in this case Ikey is putting a lot of effort in making the gaming experience better and easier Linux, creating a stack/snap which game devs could rely on. We'll see if it's picked up or not, meanwhile we're left with the workarounds LSI can do for us.
Last edited by STiAT on 22 Dec 2017 at 1:11 am UTC
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tuubi 22 Dec 2017
Linux people are awful.Well that's an awful thing to say, don't you think?
I participate in this community from 5 years and I read only negative opinions in forums.See, there's your problem. You should read the positive ones as well.
You might only remember the doomsayers and reactionaries, but to me they seem like the loud minority.
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