Talk:Steam

"Steam fails to start. What do I do?" Paragraph needs improvements.

This paragraph is lacking useful information. For instance, where can one obtain the package strace? As for bug reporting, where might one create a bug report?

The comment under me lacks a section

Elaborating on the incomplete flag (expansion template): Tried to install steam the way it is described here, and even with nix-shell, but no joy. Read a lot about steam-run but have no clue what it is, or how to use it, and the package description is completely devoid of any info. --Toraritte (talk) 19:05, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Thank you!

Finally I can run GOG on NixOS without patching or repatching any executable. Figured it out, hope it helps others. Big kudo's to maintainers of steam and steam-run for the wonderful expression!! Cx405 (talk) 03:51, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

if you get "error: lib not defined"

The config code that includes lib.getName will error if simply included in configuration.nix unless "lib" is included in the list of args at the top; example: `{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:`

Failed to create SDL window

You may have `SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland` set in your environment, which seems to bother some older titles (e.g. original Half-Life). Set the launch options in the steam UI to 'SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 %command%' and it should work.

Alternative fixes shown here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues/3455

Shouldn't `package = pkgs.gamescope-wsi` be used instead?

When setting up gamescope HDR, wouldn't it be more appropriate to use the gamescope-wsi package directly instead of adding it as a separate package? RedbeardyMcGee (talk) 20:21, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

`gamescope-wsi` cannot be used in this position. I misunderstood the package derivation. RedbeardyMcGee (talk) 22:14, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

Error related to steam under gamescope session

apparently steam and related now crashes if gamescope runs it with "capSysNice = true;" set. Sirdonot (talk) 20:12, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

bwrap: Unexpected capabilities but not setuid, old file caps config?

[gamescope] [�[0;34mInfo�[0m]  �[0;37mlaunch:�[0m Primary child shut down!

(EE) failed to read Wayland events: Broken pipe

[gamescopereaper] [�[0;34mInfo�[0m]  �[0;37mreaper:�[0m Parent of gamescopereaper was killed. Killing children.

- this was fixed after removing "capSysNice = true;". Sirdonot (talk) 20:15, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Download rates are very slow

see:

https://gist.github.com/FikriRNurhidayat/ce18426ad94fff2140538c0adf0e06ec?permalink_comment_id=4806133

Why is it slow?

I don't know, perhaps the Steam application doesn't cache the dns locally or something hence your computer will always lookup for the domain everytime you download it on each chunks. CMIIW.

https://gist.github.com/FikriRNurhidayat/ce18426ad94fff2140538c0adf0e06ec?permalink_comment_id=6186482#gistcomment-6186482

Still a thing in 2026, I fixed it with this nixos option: services.dnsmasq.enable = true;

=======

Worked also for me. Download rate increased from ~100 MBit to ~950 Mbit. Maybe it's worth mentioning. To add services.dnsmasq.enable = true;

It seems Windows does cache DNS, so Windows Steam users are not affected, when Steam does a DNS requests for every chunk to download. Maybe the reason, it's not fixed yet, or never will get fixed.

cheers

Tom Tom Hutter (talk) 11:31, 17 July 2026 (UTC)