SteamOS users club

Technology and Gaming
#1

A thread for people using SteamOS or people interested in using SteamOS to talk about the experience/seek help.

So yeah, installed SteamOS using this tutorial. It was actually extremely painless. I’m actually primarily using it because I’m taking a CS class and terminal seem a lot more convenient to use than all of WIndow’s alternatives.

Using the gnome desktop environment right now. I’m on a laptop and my built in speakers and keyboard backlight don’t work, but everything else is operating fine. Having one bitch of a time figuring out how to install stuff in Gnome, if anyone wants to talk ons team to help me through it it’d be vastly appreciated, otheriwse, I’ll keep working with my good friend google.

Installing a bunch of games right now to try out. Already installed TF2. Noticed one or two stutters, but otherwise the game ran smoothly. In Big Picture mode, or in SteamOS mode, or whatever the hell I should call it, it recognizes my Video card (Nvidia 560m) and seems to have the proper drivers installed, but Gnome doesn’t and I can’t seem to figure out how to get the .run driver I got off Nvidia to work. Why can’t I just double click and have it work like in other OSes?

#2

you actually can, except if you forgot to grant the .run file execution rights.
Anyway it’s best done with a terminal anyway or just use the drivers from the repos, they definitelly work.
Also what’s the issue with installing stuff in Gnome?

#3

Tryin to install some .deb packages like adobe flash and chrome. Command line returns an error, tried sudo, tried su root. I install using the DPKG command, and get some dependencies errors. So I use “apt-get -f install” to fix the dependencies, it says it fixes them, but then asks me y/n for uninstalling all the programs I just tried to install, says something like they’re partially installed. If I enter n, I can find the apps in my gnome applications menu, but none of them launch. Tried installing synaptic to work around command line, but I need to install synaptic via command line, which still isn’t working.

Also, at the risk of sounding like a complete scrub, what’s the easiest way to make Gnome’s window management system feel like windows? I’m getting the hang of its organization, but it just doesn’t seem as efficient as windows with its taskbar that gives you instant access and knowledge of every single window you have open as well as shorcuts to pinned programs.

Note: I was in fact able to install sublime via command line and a local .deb without issue.

#4

the repos should have flash and chrome so it’s really not necessary and also not recommended to install the debs. Also if you post “returns an error” without posting said error helps little. It’s also not really a Gnome issue then.

Anyway, I don’t know about gnome, I stopped using gnome after version 3.
Happily using XFCE with one bar at the top and one bottom, the top with task and info bar, bottom with menu and hardware monitoring.

#5

Flash itself doesn’t appear to be available in the repos, only alternatives for playing flash based videos on sites like youtube, which seems to work only sometimes. I found google chrome, synaptic, and google music manager in the repos using the default software center, and selected them all, but clicking apply doesn’t seem to do anything. What’s going on there?

Also, here’s the terminal when I try to install shit (I didn’t post the error earlier because I was in a hurry):

root@steamos:/home/desktop/Downloads# dpkg -i chrome.deb
Selecting previously unselected package google-chrome-stable.
(Reading database … 83664 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking google-chrome-stable (from chrome.deb) …
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of google-chrome-stable:
google-chrome-stable depends on libxss1; however:
Package libxss1 is not installed.
google-chrome-stable depends on ca-certificates; however:
Package ca-certificates is not installed.
google-chrome-stable depends on xdg-utils (>= 1.0.2); however:
Package xdg-utils is not installed.

dpkg: error processing google-chrome-stable (–install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db …
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils …
Processing triggers for gnome-menus …
Processing triggers for menu …
Errors were encountered while processing:
google-chrome-stable
root@steamos:/home/desktop/Downloads# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Correcting dependencies… Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
google-chrome-stable
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 180 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database … 83769 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing google-chrome-stable …
Processing triggers for menu …
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils …
Processing triggers for gnome-menus …
Processing triggers for man-db …
root@steamos:/home/desktop/Downloads#

here’s the error I get from double clicking a .deb:
GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._pk_5ftransaction_5ferror.Code4: SimulateInstallFiles not supported by backend

#6

flash is in the repos: https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/flashplugin-nonfree
and instead of chrome there is chromium, so yeah.
anyway maybe install the dependencies of chrome first, they should definitelly be in the debian repos, just use apt-get install
and replace with the names of the missing packages.

also maybe the proper repos aren’t added yet, in that case add the nonfree deb repos, like that: https://linuxappfinder.com/addrepo
don’t forget the non-free debian repo, that’s where most closed source stuff ends up.

#7

Yeah steamOS doesn’t seem to have the Debian repos by default. But I got it running via command line. Synaptic won’t work, so I’m just using command line for everything. Thanks for the help.

#8

Sorry for double posting, bumping.

Trying to install skype via this tutorial, but apt-get -f install isn’t fixing the dependencies, it’s just deleting skype every time I run it, same as earlier. Here’s an error I get while running the apt-get upgrade command:

Here’s what the apt-get install -f command gives me:

Skype shows up in my applications if I hit n, but it won’t launch when I click on it.

#9

-snip-

#10

have you tried installing the dependencies manually?

#11

Depending on how I try to install it I get a different dependencies error. By trying to install it off one of my repositories and then manually fixing the dependencies I get this:

Installed lib32z1 from the first dependencies error and then tried reinstalling skype but it gave me the same error.

#12

-snip-

#13

Steam OS users club. 2 people chatting back and forth. Lonely club you have here.

#14

haha, yeah and I don’t even have SteamOS, I use Arch.

@Garth: yeah well can’t really help you there, haven’t used a Debian based distri in ages.

#15

Thigns have gotten better sarcasm. I was fucking around with my graphical login manager, accidentally fucked things up. It kept booting directly into gnome instead of steam. So I got rid of the download manager I had installed and returned it to the default one, and then realized that i had set the desktop environment to auto login. I switched it to Steam autologin, and now it boots into the steam user and the big picture interface, but the return to desktop option doesn’t do anything anymore, and I have no idea how to troubleshoot because I’m stuck in big picture.

Edit: Fucked around in my log in manager settings and got it to work.

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