|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| {{outdated}}
| | |
| This page is intended to describe the current state of Steam under Nixos and to discuss what the problems are in packaging it and how we can approach solving them. | | This page is intended to describe the current state of Steam under NixOS. |
|
| |
|
| == I want to play == | | == I want to play == |
| For 64-bit systems it's important to have <syntaxhighlight lang="nix" inline>hardware.opengl.driSupport32Bit = true</syntaxhighlight> in your NixOS configuration. You'll also need <syntaxhighlight lang="nix" inline>hardware.pulseaudio.support32Bit = true</syntaxhighlight> if you are using PulseAudio - this will enable 32bit ALSA apps integration. | | For 64-bit systems it's important to have <syntaxhighlight lang="nix" inline>hardware.opengl.driSupport32Bit = true</syntaxhighlight> in your NixOS configuration. You'll also need <syntaxhighlight lang="nix" inline>hardware.pulseaudio.support32Bit = true</syntaxhighlight> if you are using PulseAudio - this will enable 32bit ALSA apps integration. |
|
| |
|
| Install "steam" package. Run "steam". Many of the games will just work. | | {{tip|text=Install "steam" package. Run "steam". Many of the games will just work.}} |
| | |
| == Description of the package ==
| |
| Steam is distributed as a .deb file, for now only as an i686 package (the amd64 package only has documentation). When unpacked, it has a script called steam that in ubuntu (their target distro) would go to /usr/bin. When run for the first time, this script copies some files to the user's home, which include another script that is the ultimate responsible for launching the steam binary, which is also in $HOME.
| |
| | |
| == Nix problems and constraints ==
| |
| * We don't have /bin/bash and many scripts point there. Similarly for /usr/bin/python, for some functionality.
| |
| * We don't have the dynamic loader in /lib
| |
| * The steam.sh script in $HOME could not be patched last I tried, as it is checked and rewritten by steam
| |
| * The steam binary cannot be patched, it's also checked
| |
| | |
| == Approaches ==
| |
| === chroot ===
| |
| This is the current approach, documented here: http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.nl/2013/09/composing-fhs-compatible-chroot.html
| |
| * Pros:
| |
| ** it would allow us to have binaries in the expected paths without disrupting the system
| |
| ** Steam itself, as well as Valve games and perhaps others like to checksum their executables, so patching does not work
| |
| * Cons: performance?
| |
| | |
| === Link bash to /bin and glibc/lib to /lib and be happy ===
| |
| * Pros: easy, works
| |
| * Cons: not very nix-compliant
| |
| | |
| === Workaround the scripts and launch steam directly ===
| |
| * Pros: not so hard
| |
| * Cons: this only solves the part concerned with running steam. What about the games? We can patch some of them, but at least Team Fortress is checked and rewritten if modified
| |
| | |
| This is the approach that I (page) took in my github branch: https://github.com/cpages/nixpkgs/tree/steam
| |
| | |
| === Intercept Steam's calls with LD_PRELOAD or the like ===
| |
| * Pros: more robust
| |
| * Cons: difficult to achieve and may be broken by changes in the binary
| |
| | |
| aszlig started working in this in his branch: https://github.com/aszlig/nixpkgs/tree/steam
| |
| | |
| === But what about the games? ===
| |
| You can install any of the games normally, but they will fail to start. From this step on, you're in the unsupported realm. Some games can be patchelfed:
| |
| <syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
| |
| patchelf --set-interpreter /path/to/ld.so game_binary (you can get the path to an x86 ld.so looking at the steam script in the store, for me /nix/store/xh0q23rgqbjfrh3zfv4jyxvcvjnxqh64-glibc-2.15.0/lib/ld-linux.so.2)
| |
| </syntaxhighlight>
| |
| You might also need patching some scripts. That all depends on each one. You can then press play from steam and if you're lucky that'll be it!
| |
| | |
|
| |
|
| == Troubleshooting == | | == Troubleshooting == |