I am inclined to think that Ubuntu Mate is the best I’ve seen but seems like there is always one thing that doesn’t want to cooperate. After installing UM three times Steam will not open to the screen whereupon one agrees to the Steam conditions. In fact when I click on the Steam Icon nothing at all happens. I know what should happen from using Steam via other Linux flavors.
I don’t care too much as I do not like to mix business with games. I use this computer for business and another computer for games but I wonder what the problem might be.
The same thing on my Ubuntu MATE 17.10 PC when installing the Steam client from the Steam web site.
I’ve removed it and performed the installation of the Steam client via the Software Boutique and this one works. I was able to connect to my Steam account. Hide proprietary software must be unchecked in Software Boutique for Steam to be listed in the Games category.
As is to the exact cause, I do not know. However, I experience this about every time I install Steam. So far, what has worked for me, is to run rm $HOME/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 and rm $HOME/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 after running Steam for the first time after install.
This should get you going on your way, and if it gives you any more trouble with not showing up, just run these commands each time it does it, and you should be good to go.
Thanks but I installed Steam from the Mate Boutique. Possibly I didn’t wait long enough for the program to contact the Steam website. I’ll try a few more times.
Start Steam from a terminal with the following command and give the output:
steam
Tell us also about you hardware, especially the GPU used and if you’re using proprietary of free driver. And your Ubuntu version, it can be important in that case.
Basically, for those interested in explanations, Steam uses a set of bundled libraries (the Steam Runtime) which conflicts with Mesa, the FOSS graphic driver. You have to disable the runtime to launch the Steam client as in @Flamestar’s message −though the list of libs depends on the Ubuntu version−, which is done by the package installed from the Ubuntu repos but not by the one from Valve’s package (they have a different startup script), thus the difference seen between the two installation methods that @radax05 noticed.
Since then, Valve has updated Steam to disable the runtime by default (which can lead to issues in specific games but that’s another matter) but the old installation packages still install a version that uses it, so the initial startup (before the client updates itself locally) has issues on Ubuntu 16.04 but should (in theory) be fine from 17.04 on.
You can check this Reddit message (the “final update” part) for troubleshooting but to sum it up:
on Ubuntu, always install Steam from the repos and not Valve’s package;
if you’re on 16.04 (or older, not sure of the situation on 14.04), you’ll have to fix the startup script.
It’s possible that @jpsimm’s issue is different (there are other known issues with Steam on Ubuntu) but this is the most common one.
Thanks I think this is a good answer. I am using Ubuntu Mate which is 16.04 and Steam found in the Mate specific software “Boutique” and it doesn’t want to start. However I have Ubuntu 17.10 on another HD. I swap them out and Steam from Ubuntu repository works normally. So… I haven’t time to investigate now as work calls but perhaps this weekend. Maybe Ubuntu Mate will be updating in the near future??
The softwares aren’t updated (except a few specific ones) during the lifetime of a version of Ubuntu, which means that the Steam package for Ubuntu 16.04 will never be fixed and the issue will solve itself only by upgrading to a newer Ubuntu version (e.g. 18.04 when it’s available in three monthes), as it’ll have a newer Steam package.
In the meantime, to fix your Steam installation on Ubuntu MATE 16.04, just edit the startup script:
sudo pluma /usr/games/steam
and add the following line before the comment starting with “#launch steam…”:
Or you can replace the whole content by the fixed script that is on PasteBin.
After it’s done, start Steam in a terminal and it should work as expected. (I say in a terminal just to get the output if something’s wrong but if it launches fine, you can then use the icon as usual.)
Note that if you happen to have a nVidia GPU, you can install the proprietary driver: it’ll be far better for games and it doesn’t have the issue with the runtime. But if you’re on AMD/Intel, the only solution is to fix the script as you don’t really have an alternative to Mesa.
Thanks for the help. I can do as you suggest, and will.
I was under the impression that Ubuntu MATE was only available as 16.04. Hopefully I’m wrong. I like it much better than regular Ubuntu because of the window manager. I much prefer drop down menus in the style of early Gnome. I dislike very much anything like Gnome three. And I hated Unity with a purple passion. Especially the terrible rusty colored theme which, unforunately, persists.
As you can tell I am extremely fussy about computers. But… that’s part of the fun. If I didn’t care I’d use Widows. Software works but the down sides are unbearable.
Every Ubuntu flavor is available for each version. So, Ubuntu MATE si currently available as 16.04 and 17.10 (there were other versions but they're now unsupported). The next one will be 18.04, in april, and will be a LTS.
Thanks for the info but on the MATE download page there is no indication
regarding which “edition” is being offered. One can select 32 or 64 but
are they 16.04 or 17.10 or ??? Where can I download Ubuntu MATE 17.10?
Thanks.