Steam client on Ubuntu 18.04

Problem
Steam stopped working. At the end of an update process it complained that “steamui.so” was missing.

Solution
I found the solution here. In short:

First, delete steam:

sudo apt remove steam

Execute this:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Restart the machine. Then, install these packages:

sudo apt-get install wget gdebi libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libc6:i386

Download the steam package:

wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb

And install it:

sudo gdebi steam.deb

After this, steam started normally for me.

Hero of the Kingdom 2 patch
The game “Hero of the Kingdom 2” didn’t want to start. I got the error “access violation”. I found the remedy here.

It seems this problem is related to the Intel driver. I have an integrated Intel video card.

The solution in short: download the driver http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/m/mesa/libgl1-mesa-dri_11.2.0-1ubuntu2_i386.deb , extract it, and replace the file /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/dri/i965_dri.so with the one from the archive. Of course, don’t forget to make a backup of the original file.

[steam] get a game for a cheaper price

Problem
You want to buy a game on Steam for a cheaper price. There are sales on Steam but you don’t want to check it every day.

Solution
There is a very simple way to get notified when the desired game becomes cheaper. Log in to Steam and add the game to your wishlist. I thought that the wishlist was just a simple list and never clicked on it but it’s more than that! When a game on your wishlist becomes cheaper, you get an e-mail notification. It’s that simple.

I wanted to build a web app. for this purpose :) Then I talked about it with a friend and he told me that the Steam wishlist can do that…

Steam API

Question
Let’s take this game: Fallout: New Vegas. How to get data about it using the Steam API?

Answer
http://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails/?appids=22490

Unfortunately it doesn’t contain the overall review of the game (“very positive”, “overwhelmingly positive”, etc.).

Links

• known API methods

[manjaro] xbox 360 controller

Question
For Xmas I bought an Xbox 360 (wired) controller for me. It’s really good :) It works well under Windows but how to use it under Manjaro?

Answer
When I started Manjaro, the led on the central button (“ring of light”) was blinking and the controller didn’t work. I tried it with some games on Steam but nothing happened. Then I noticed that if I unplug and reconnect the controller, then it starts working :) Actually, the cord has an inline release and it’s simpler to disconnect and reconnect this inline release. After this the led stopped blinking and its second quadrant started to glow.

Now the controller worked with the games but I could also move the mouse pointer with the controller. It was disturbing in the games so I had to create the following file:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf :

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "joystick catchall"
        MatchIsJoystick "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "joystick"
        Option "StartKeysEnabled" "False"       #Disable mouse
        Option "StartMouseEnabled" "False"      #support
EndSection

Restart the machine and you are done. Some tutorials suggest the “xboxdrv” package but I didn’t need that. The kernel in Manjaro includes the “xpad” kernel module and it worked well for me.

There was another problem: while I was playing, after some time the screensaver kicked in. The “caffeine-ng” package solved this issue (see also this post).

Links

• Gamepad @ ArchWiki

[manjaro] Steam crashes upon start

Problem
Steam is about to start but it crashes after a few seconds.

Solution
Launch “steam” in command line, thus you can see its output. One line said “STEAM_RUNTIME is disabled by the user“. Here is the cure:

export STEAM_RUNTIME=1; steam

Here is a launcher script (steam.sh):

#!/usr/bin/env bash

export STEAM_RUNTIME=1
/usr/bin/steam &

Linux games on Steam

For an unofficial list, visit http://steamdb.info/linux/.

Update (20130404)
To install Steam, visit http://store.steampowered.com/about/. The page will offer you to download a .deb installer.