There Is No Doubt, Steam Is Coming To Linux!

[phoronix]

Phoronix: There Is No Doubt, Steam Is Coming To Linux!

Yesterday we showed proof of Steam's Linux client existence via its Mac OS X launcher that is currently in closed beta, then this morning we showed further signs of Linux support. Since 2008 we have known that Steam and the Source Engine would come to Linux. As an update, we even pointed out the download link for the Steam Linux binary from their store...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODE3Mw

[Hans]

I don't think even the most skeptical one can deny it anymore.

[zhark]

Finally I'm actually beginning to believe in a Steam for Linux release. Could it really be true?

[xir_]

what would this mean really though? just some games on linux. If the unwashed mases start to use linux where can a geek go.

[Hans]

Running the native steam client brings the following output:

$ ./steam.sh 
./steam.sh: line 49: ulimit: open files: cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted
[  0%] !!! Fatal Error: Failed to determine download location for universe 0
[----] Verifying installation...
[  0%] Downloading Update...
[  0%] !!! Fatal Error: Failed to determine download location for universe 0
unlinked 0 orphaned pipes
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4431 with name 0eBlobRegistryMutex_47A21F31FD1EF390D9CC42474DAF102D
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4431 with name 0eBlobRegistrySignal_47A21F31FD1EF390D9CC42474DAF102D
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4431 with name 0emSteamEngineInstance
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4431 with name 0eSteamEngineLock
CellID: Fetching server list from CSDS. . .
CellID: CSDS returned 167 servers.
CellID: Connecting to 203.66.135.195:27031. . .
CellID: Connect to 203.66.135.195:27031 took 338 MS
CellID: New Best!
CellID: Connecting to 203.66.135.197:27031. . .
CellID: Connect to 203.66.135.197:27031 took 338 MS
Shutting down. . .
CellID: Connecting to 193.34.51.2:27031. . .
CellID: Connect to 193.34.51.2:27031 took 100 MS
CellID: New Best!
CellID: Connecting to 68.142.83.179:27031. . .
CellID: Connect to 68.142.83.179:27031 took 133 MS
CellID: Connecting to 150.101.135.1:27031. . .
CellID: Connect to 150.101.135.1:27031 took 396 MS
unlinked 2 orphaned pipes
CAsyncIOManager: 0 threads terminating.  0 reads, 0 writes, 0 deferrals.
CAsyncIOManager: 1415 single object sleeps, 0 multi object sleeps
CAsyncIOManager: 0 single object alertable sleeps, 1 multi object alertable sleeps

It even creates several directories in my home directory.
One of them containing:
~/steam/SteamApps
like in windows.

I guess this is where it someday will but the native linux games ;-)

[whizse]

<Keanu>Whoa!</Keanu>

Interesting times indeed!

[BlackStar]

what would this mean really though? just some games on linux. If the unwashed mases start to use linux where can a geek go.

Nowhere. Elitist snobs will drown among the noob wave.

I'm starting to like the picture, actually. Maybe this will bring some sanity to distro development.

[d2kx]

This is serious news.

[Hans]

And in the debug dump I get this:

DebugAssert, Name: ?, Line: 1008, Expr: "open for read/write failed in CreateFile" && !pchErr, File: /home/VALVE/dberger/P4Clients/steam2_main/Projects/GazelleProto/Client/Engine/../../../Common/Misc/PosixWin32.cpp

They certainly have steam running on dberger's linux box.

[monraaf]

what would this mean really though? just some games on linux. If the unwashed mases start to use linux where can a geek go.

Well if you're using Linux to make you feel special/superior/whatever, there's always Gentoo, you know