Steam won't launch 16.04 64-bit

[redwoodmists]

Hello! I’m very new to linux, so I apologize if I haven’t taken steps yet that you’d normally do (such as a command line or something). So, here’s my problem - I recently installed Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 on my aging laptop (fantastic!), and Steam won’t launch. Back in its day, this was a gaming laptop, and has a GeForce 9600M GT graphics card and Intel Core Duo 64-bit processor (and came with Windows Vista, shudder). I can’t figure out how to get Steam to launch at all, literally nothing appears to happen when I click the icon (desktop or menu). I’ve tried reinstalling it, but got no different result. I went to uninstall it, and I was warned in a popup that said I was trying to remove essential system files (“Package zlib1g:i386 cannot be removed”). So I can’t do a clean install of Steam. Could this launching trouble have something to do with the graphics card? Do I need to download special drivers for it?

Thank you SO much for any help!

[wolfman]

Hi @redwoodmists,

take a look here about graphics card driver install:

How to install graphics card drivers in Ubuntu

ATTENTION ATI/AMD GRAPHICS CARD OWNERS, IF YOU INTEND TO USE UBUNTU (MATE) 16.04, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING FIRST!. EDIT: POSSIBLE SOLUTION FOR SOME WHO HAVE AN AMD CARD ON THE LIST HERE: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Radeon-GPU-PRO-Linux-Beta-Driver–Release-Notes.aspx See also: https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/linux First and foremost, Intel drivers are auto installed and there is no reason to start to try installing any drivers for Intel graphics cards as the …

Take a look here about updating which also may solve the problems you are having!:

Ubuntu Mate Update Guide

These are my own setting preferences, use at your own risk!. AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR LINUX BEGINNERS. WHEN YOU ARE IN RECOVERY MODE, THE KEYBOARD DEFAULTS TO US ENGLISH, IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER LANGUAGE KEYBOARD OTHER THAN US ENGLISH, WHEN YOU TYPE "Y" (FOR "YES"), IT MIGHT SHOW UP AS A DIFFERENT LETTER, ON MY KEYBOARD I MUST PRESS THE "Z" KEY WHICH EQUATES TO "Y" AS I HAVE A GERMAN KEYBOARD, JUST PRESS "BACKSPACE" AND HIT A DIFFERENT KEY UNTIL YOU SEE THE "Y" SHOW UP!. Click on "Subscribe…

I hope it helps!.

[redwoodmists]

Oh @wolfman ! I changed to a different Nvidia driver and… STEAM IS RUNNING! It did spit out a few error messages at me:

You are missing the following 32-bit libraries, and Steam may not run:
libXtst.so.6
libXrandr.so.2
libgobject-2.0.so.0
libglib-2.0.so.0
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0
libpulse.so.0
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0

and something about my Steam package being out of date (despite my having installed the latest package from their website).

I just tested it with one of my favorite games (which I am so stoked runs on this OS, “Super Hexagon”), and I am noticing some visual tearing. The graphics aren’t as smooth as they normally are on my Windows 7 PC. Is this normal with Steam on an Ubuntu system, or should I try a different graphics driver?

Thank you SO SO much for your help! I greatly appreciate it! Looking forward to making lots of excuses to fiddle around on this laptop… =)

[ouroumov]

For the screen tearing issue, you should be able to fix that by going into MATE Tweak and setting your Window manager preference to Marco+Compton
Cheers

[wolfman]

Hi @redwoodmists,

to check what Nvidia drivers you are using, open Control Centre > Hardware > Additional Drivers and see what's showing, you should have the highest number and the one with "proprietary, tested" ticked!.

To fix missing dependencies; open Welcome > Software > Fixes > Resolve Broken Packages and restart if anything updates!:

If that doesn't do anything, open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) and paste thie following command and restart if anything updates!:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

If that doesn't work, try the following set of commands:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

The above command may not be necessary!.

sudo apt-get --fix-missing install

The above command downloads and installs any missing packages on your system.

sudo apt-get --fix-broken install

The above command downloads and installs any broken dependencies on your system.

Let us know how you get on!.

[redwoodmists]

Hello, and thanks again!

So, I have the correct driver installed, and I changed my window manager preference to Marco Compton. While I think it’s a bit better, I’m still having some (relatively minor) graphical issues. The game is playable, just not smooth. I’m wondering if this is just how the game plays on Ubuntu? I probably should test with another game to see if it renders properly. Any suggestions on games? =)

Thank you all so, so much, for all of your help! I’m rather enjoying learning about Ubuntu, even if I’m not completely resolving my issue.

EDIT: I tried running Minecraft and it ran like butter, so the graphical issues I’m having with Super Hexagon must be limited to it. I’ll come back if I have any further issues, but for now I think we can call this case solved. =)