14 DAY TRIAL // Steam for Linux Beta may have been launched for everyone, but it's not that easy to get into the application. Here is a complete tutorial on how to install and run Steam for Linux official Beta.
Valve has explained that users will need to meet a few requirements in order to start the application, such as a Steam key (the process to obtain a key will be explained in this article), a computer that meets these minimum requirements 1 GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP1500+ with 512 megabytes of RAM, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS fully updated (it will work on Ubuntu 12.10 also), a recent graphics card (at least NVIDIA series 6, Intel HD 3000, AMD series 5), and 5GB of free space.
The installation is simple and can be done in two ways. First of all, you will need to download the Steam Client, which is available on Softpedia. The package is provided as a .deb file.
You can either double click on the file and wait for Ubuntu Software Center to take care of the installation, or you can run a simple command from the terminal, for which you will need root access. Navigate to the folder of the .deb file and enter the following command.
sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
If the process stops at any point due to some unmet dependencies, enter the following command in terminal:
sudo apt-get install -f
To get the Steam key via email, you will obviously need a Steam account. Valve provides a simple bullet-point explanation on how to get the key as fast as possible.
• Install wine and winetricks; • Launch winetricks: Applications > Wine > Winetricks; • Select 'Install an app'; • Select 'steam' as the package to install (you can uncheck everything else), and follow the prompts; • When you get to the Valve Steam login dialog, either log in to your existing account or create a new one; • Click the Games Menu; • Choose Activate a Product on Steam... You'll be prompted for the key that you received in email; • Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process. (The games-to-install bits can be skipped, since you won't be using this client for playing the games.)
You will also need to update the graphics drivers to their last available version. User of the Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit version will have to install an additional library.
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
That's it. It may seem difficult, but in fact it's quite simple and straight forward. Install Steam and start enjoying their games on Linux.