Running Steam on the Pi 5

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2kadmin
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Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

All with a big thanks to :https://www.xda-developers.com/install-steam-on-raspberry-pi/

First install Ubuntu 64 for Pi 5 it's version 23.10 for me atm.

I tried it on the normal Pi OS and got the steam client running but would never fully work because of the webhelper...
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

Next run these commands to install box64

sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf -y
sudo apt-get install git -y
sudo apt install cmake -y

git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64
cd box64
mkdir build; cd build; cmake .. -D RPI5ARM64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

Then these to install more bits


cd ~
git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86
cd box86
mkdir build; cd build; cmake .. -D RPI4ARM64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt
sudo apt install libgdm1:armhf libudev1:armhf libgl1-mesa-dri:armhf libglapi-mesa:armhf libglu1-mesa:armhf libglx-mesa0:armhf mesa-va-drivers:armhf mesa-vdpau-drivers:armhf mesa-vulkan-drivers:armhf libsdl1.2debian:armhf libegl-mesa0:armhf
sudo apt-get install libc6:armhf -y
sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers -y
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

cd into box86 in your home dir and right click install_steam.sh and run.

Which got it running but like a pig. Upping the swap file to 8Gb helped get it running better

How to do that...

swapon --show
sudo swapoff /swapfile
sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

OK so had a bit of fun playing with Steam on the Pi for a few hours.

Few surprises like SuperTux the platform one did not run at all via steam but I bet it runs just fine as a stand alone app.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/269270/LOVE/

This game works out of the box and I'm sure there will be a few others.

Got Half-Life the non source version running but only just. Was quite jaggery even when the resolution was turned down and the frame rates were quite highish. Maybe can get it a bit smoother with a few console commands, did some playing with them to get it a bit better.

There will be some games that will run with Steam but most won't. I did find turning on big picture mode and making my games the default start page stopped it getting bogged down on starting Steam.
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEHNb18Ij0

Video 1 up, doing some more testing today.

Games so far...

SuperTux - no run
Love - works fine
Colorblind - no run
ZombiAdmin - worked on the 4G Pi but not the 8G version. Must investigate that one...
Half-Life - got running better now see next video.
Another World - works fine

Really this is a test of what works in steam more than running at full belt.

To start with looking at games with 8G or less mem rec and not too demanding on the gpu.
2kadmin
Site Admin
Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEHNb18Ij0

Video 1 up, doing some more testing today.

Games so far...

SuperTux - no run
Love - works fine
Colorblind - no run
ZombiAdmin - worked on the 4G Pi but not the 8G version. Must investigate that one...
Half-Life - got running better now see next video.
Another World - works fine

Really this is a test of what works in steam more than running at full belt.

To start with looking at games with 8G or less mem rec and not too demanding on the gpu.
2kadmin
Site Admin
Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

https://youtu.be/zspFc-VDgOw

Part 2

25 more games tested on Steam running on a 8GB Pi 5 this time.
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/pi5gaming

I've set up a steam group for more on my seamed pi testing
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

In Steam

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

Paste that into the launch options if you get a DirectX or similar error,got some of the games working a bit.
2kadmin
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Posts: 40
Joined: 11 Apr 2023 20:06

Re: Running Steam on the Pi 5

Post by 2kadmin »

Got a few more games running under Steam now including
Blackout 2
Desktop Dungeons
Floating Point

And tried a few Linux friendly demos but only got this strange gem running.
Tux and Fanny

So far I've got 11 quite different games running via Steam on the Pi 5 that could keep me gaming on it for a good few weeks. And I'm willing to bet there are quite a few more games out there that either work now or could quite possibly work once Valve support the ARM64 hardware and / or release a Pi version of Steam.
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