Steam: Difference between revisions

[https://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] is a digital distribution platform for video games, offering a vast library for purchase, download, and management. On NixOS, Steam is generally easy to install and use, often working "out-of-the-box". It supports running many Windows games on Linux through its compatibility layer, [[#Proton|Proton]].<ref>https://store.steampowered.com/</ref>

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This provides the tools in your current shell without adding them to your system configuration. For <code>steamcmd</code> to work correctly for some tasks (like initializing for steam-tui), you might need to run it once to generate necessary files, as shown in the [[#steam-tui| steam-tui section]].

To install the [[Steam]] package and enable all the system options necessary to allow it to run, add the following to your system configuration:

 

{{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|

<nowiki>

# boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_lts; # Example for LTS

</nowiki>

}}

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41549030 Anecdata on kernel 6.10 issues]

{{note|<translate>Enabling [[steam]] installs several [[unfree software|unfree packages]]. If you are using <code>allowUnfreePredicate</code> you will need to ensure that your configurations permit all of them.</translate>

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Basic Steam features can be enabled directly within the {{nixos:option|programs.steam}} attribute set:

{{file|/etc/nixos/configuration.nix|nix|

<nowiki>

# Tip: For improved gaming performance, you can also enable GameMode:

# programs.gamemode.enable = true;

</nowiki>

}}

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{{note|If you are using a Steam Controller or a Valve Index, Steam hardware support is implicitly enabled by <code>programs.steam.enable {{=}} true;</code> which sets {{nixos:option|hardware.steam-hardware.enable}} to true.}}

== Tips and tricks == <!--T:12-->

=== Gamescope HDR ===

In order for HDR to work within gamescope, you need to separately install the <code>gamescope-wsi</code> package alongside enabling the <code>gamescope</code> program.

<syntaxhighlight lang="nix">

programs.gamescope = {

};

</syntaxhighlight>

Then install and run `steam-tui`. You may need to log in within `steamcmd` first if `steam-tui` has issues:

For games running through Proton, the value should be <code>steam_app_<game_id></code> (where <code><game_id></code> matches the value after steam://rungameid/ on the <code>Exec</code> line).

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When you restart [[Steam]] after an update, it starts the old version. ([https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/181904 #181904])

==== Changing the driver on AMD GPUs <!-- this is not recommended due radv drivers performing better and generally more stable than amdvlk. My suggestion remove this section. source: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/the-mesa-radv-amdvlk-thread.449774/ -->==== <!--T:40-->

{{note|<translate>This is not recommended because radv drivers tend to perform better and are generally more stable than amdvlk.</translate>}}

In the presence of both drivers, [[Steam]] will default to amdvlk. The amdvlk driver can be considered more correct regarding Vulkan specification implementation, but less performant than radv. However, this tradeoff between correctness and performance can sometimes make or break the gaming experience.

To "reset" your driver to radv when both radv and amdvlk are installed, set either <code>AMD_VULKAN_ICD = "RADV"</code> or <code>VK_ICD_FILENAMES = "/run/opengl-driver/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json"</code> environment variable. For example, if you start [[Steam]] from the shell, you can enable radv for the current session by running <code>AMD_VULKAN_ICD="RADV" steam</code>. If you are unsure which driver you currently use, you can launch a game with [https://github.com/flightlessmango/MangoHud MangoHud] enabled, which has the capability to show what driver is currently in use.

Gamescope may fail to start due to missing Xorg libraries. ([https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/214275 #214275]) To resolve this override the steam package to add them:

To find the vendor and product ID of a device [https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=usbutils&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=usbutils usbutils] might be useful

Resetting your password through the [[Steam]] app may fail at the CAPTCHA step repeatedly, with [[Steam]] itself reporting that the CAPTCHA was not correct, even though the CAPTCHA UI shows success. Resetting password through the [[Steam]] website should work around that.