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To ensure games run well on Linux either via Native Linux builds or Windows games with Proton, part of the magic is in the Steam Linux Runtime. A new version of it, the Steam Linux Runtime 4.0 was recently put up with some pretty big changes.

What's the point of it? It ensures Steam and games run through Steam on Linux work properly across all the many different Linux distributions. Another secret Valve sauce for Linux. Well, not secret at all but you get my meaning I'm sure.

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[-] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 98 points 10 months ago

That's a good sign, that Valve is moving at least the runtimes to 64bit only. Maybe that means the client is under similar scrutiny internally. Recently when Fedora was discussing dropping more 32bit libraries Steam came up as a big issue.

[-] Maestro@fedia.io 26 points 10 months ago

Yeah, 32bit is why I removed Steam from my Debian desktop daily driver again. I got conflicting 32bit and 64bit versions of some libraries that broke my system. I'm going to try a gaming focussed distro like Bazzite next time.

[-] Quazatron@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

I just run Steam as a flatpak. Works fine.

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 23 points 10 months ago

Not sure why the downvotes. Flatpak is a great thing.

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[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 4 points 10 months ago

It doesn't work fine out of the box. I tried it on Opensuse MicroOS a year and a bit ago and had to search 3-5 pretty undocumented solutions to big problems before being able to play the same games that non-flatpak could.

Out of the box, proton didn't work at all.

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[-] ApertureUA@lemmy.today 13 points 10 months ago

???

Debian separates out stuff with :[arch] suffixes, and is really flexible in the sense that it even lets you install stuff from completely different architectures for, for example, use with qemu userspace. An i386 package is going to only request i386 dependencies, unless it explicitly specifies an architecture, and vice versa. Arch Linux uses the "lib32-" prefix and I don't really remember how it worked on Fedora but I would imagine something similar. All "gaming focused distros" are merely just their mainstream counterparts with an extra repo for a few packages, it's not going to change fundamentals.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

OpenSUSE is the same, the 32-bit stuff is completely separate from the 64-bit stuff, so you won't get conflicts between them.

[-] Mwa@thelemmy.club 10 points 10 months ago

Give Steam Flatpak a try on Debian instead.

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[-] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

Your better off using cachy if you want a gaming focused distro that doesn't break. Unless you use mostly flatpaks. Then bazzite is good

[-] GottaHaveFaith@fedia.io 7 points 10 months ago

Didn't they already announce they're going to drop 32 bit?

[-] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

For windows at least, but I assume they'd do it across the board at once

[-] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

Hey mild necro after a week, but it seems to be happening already. The new beta is 64bit! https://lemmy.ca/post/55858408

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[-] communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 49 points 10 months ago

please god let the client have a 64 bit wayland edition coming

[-] newcockroach@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

They have to do it for steamos ig

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[-] flemtone@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

Proton-GE has had the Wow64 feature for a while now that can play older 32-bit titles under 64-bit, so it shouldn't be long before a truly 64-bit steam experience is available.

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[-] victorz@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Funny this shows up when all of a sudden Steam won't launch anymore on my Arch install. It's installed via flatpak.

How do I even check which version of the Steam runtime I am running? The flatpak version of Steam is just 1.0.something.other.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 40 points 10 months ago

The runtime is not Steam itself. That's more or less independent from the runtime. The runtimes are a collection of libraries that developers can develop against without having to include them themselves.

Kind of similar to the Visual C++ Runtime on Windows.

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

I know what a runtime is, but I'd like to check which version of it I'm running. πŸ™‚ Wouldn't be very difficult but I'm this instance I don't know how.

[-] Alxe@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

The runtime is for launching games, not Steam itself. You can check the runtime selection in Compatibility tab of Steam and of each game. If your Steam Flatpak install doesn't work, the issue is likely somewhere else.

I'd suggest trying to launch the flatpak from the terminal and seeing if there's any strange logging.

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'd suggest trying to launch the flatpak from the terminal and seeing if there's any strange logging.

Already did that but I couldn't see anything that I could recognize as abnormal. The "Connecting" window shows up, actually. But it just stops loading for a second and then it just says "Reaping pid" in the console and it closes the process.

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[-] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

So you can use those to develop on a platform and be sure that it work on the other too? Is this runtime steam-indipendent?

[-] derek@infosec.pub 8 points 10 months ago
[-] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 3 points 10 months ago

Oh that's cool, thank your for the link too

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[-] zewm@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Install warehouse. It gives you all the details of which runtime is in a Flatpak and even lets you change the version.

[-] n4sdaq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago

I did not know about Warehouse. Thank you.

[-] mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz 5 points 10 months ago

i usually avoid flatpaks, especially with steam. but every now and then my non-flatpak steam borks too and won't launch on mint. 9 times out of 10 simple reboot helps, but sometimes it requires a reinstall...

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[-] Eggymatrix@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

Why would you use flatpack for stuff natively available on pacman? Search no further, flatpack is a good way to introduce problems where there are none

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Flatpak

πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ Seemed like a good way to install it. I had used the native package before but I think I tried flatpak because of some issue or another with the native version.

It's been working great for years now so, no issues until now.

I usually install big corporate software with flatpak if I can help it, to keep them as isolated as possible. Slack, Discord, Steam, etc. Stuff like that. πŸ‘

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[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

Usually when steam refuses to launch, it's because there's some Steam process that's borked but still running. Most of the time, a simple pkill steam fixes it (yes, that includes for flstpak`).

As mentioned down thread, the runtime isn't your problem. The runtime is what's needed for native Linux games and I think is also used by proton (not used by Steam itself), so it's kind of like proton for native games. Steam doesn't use the runtime at all to launch.

If killing Steam doesn't work, try rebooting. If that doesn't work, try updating the flatpak. If that doesn't work, I suppose reinstall Steam.

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[-] DifficultCobblestone@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

does it say which team fortress 2 class it's named after?

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[-] bufalo1973@piefed.social 5 points 10 months ago

Any news about an aarch64 version?

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

The new VR headset runs ARM, so presumably it'll launch with that.

[-] Cricket@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago

Did you see this story a couple days ago? It seems like they're working on it? https://lemmy.zip/post/53357230

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this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
553 points (99.3% liked)

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