Steam on Debian(Testing) with nvidia

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Hi,

I recently bought a pc and initially wanted to install ubuntu, but I have to run the linux kernel version 3.2 because of my wifi pcie(asus pce-n15) card. Since I have no wired internet connection I am very limited in respect to what I can actually do and ubuntu would not let me install or compile anything because of missing packages. So I switched to Debian jessy(testing). I installed debian wheezy and upgraded to debian testing. I then installed the linux kernel headers and set the gcc to gcc-4.6 to match the kernel.

So now I can install the whole system and get a wifi-connection, but when I add the i386 architecture and install the libgl1-nvidia-glx:i386 package as described here(https://wiki.debian.org/Steam),I can only boot into command line. So then I tried to install nvidia driver for my gtx750 (http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/03/install-nvidia-driver-334-21-ubuntu-linux/).

But the installer told me that there already was an attempt to install the driver and I should use the debian package. The installer did not specify which package. So I tried to uninstall the nvidia driver which resulted in a message that told me that there was no nvidia driver.

So then I tried to remove the i386 architecture (dpkg --remove-architecture i386). This returned an error that said that it could not be removed because it was being used at the time.(architecture 'i386' currently in use by the database'

And now I am really confused and well do not know how to fix this.

----------------------

Another question: Is it normal that I am having so many problems getting it to run. The live-cd installer would not install the grub bootloader. The stable cd iso would install but only run after installing libmtp-runtime in rescue mode from a cd. 

Which linux os would you suggest that can run steam without too many problems?

Thanks for reading,

oldman

2

steam on debian jessie works for me with nvidia drivers from debian repositories and i think libgl1-nvidia-glx:i386 packages is included if you install the nvidia-driver package in jessie pls correct me if i have wrong

3

and i usually dont have any problems with debian installs have happend a few time cause of diffrent things but otherwise it usually just works

 

4

Ok I solved it. For anyone who is interested or has the same problems:

My situation:running Debian Jessy with an gtx750 and Asus Pce-N15 wifi card without internet access during installation.

My Problems: Without internet access, Debian would not install correctly, wifi card only works with kernel 3.2, Steam gave me weird erros.

The solution:

Install Debian wheezy from cd and put these packages on an usb drive: libmtp-common ,libmtp9, libmtp-runtime and firmware-realtek_0.36

Reboot Debian from cd and go into recovery mode, then start command line mode in recovery, put your usb-drive in and mount the usb-drive(type: mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt), change the directory to /mnt (cd /mnt).

Check if all the packages are in this folder (type: ls)and Install the packages in this order libmtp-common lipmtp9 libmtp-runtime and firmware-realtek_0.36 (type: dpkg -i [package_name])

Reboot without the CD and when grub is loaded press 'e' to change the bootloader. One line ends with the word 'quiet'. Add 'nouveau.modeset=0' to the end of this line and press 'Ctrl X'. This changes should be made permanent in the file '/boot/grub/grub.cfg'.

Now the wifi should work and you should do a dist-upgrade to jessy(http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/90389/how-to-upgrade-debian-stable-wheezy-to-testing-jessie). After this you will have 2 kernels installed - you can go ahead and remove the newer one and only keep the 3.2 version(pce-n15 does not work with any newer kernel)

Before installing the nvidia driver you need to install gcc-4.6 and set gcc-4.6 as the compiler. (type: ln -s /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6) and add the i386 architecture (type: dpkg --add-architecture i386) and install the linux-headers  for your kernel version 3.2 (you can find gcc-4.6 and the headers in the synaptic package manager).

Now reboot your pc, Download the nvidia 334.21 driver(http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/73666/en-us) and press Alt+Crtl+F1 to switch to command line, log in and then type 'su' and type in your password.

Stop X by typing 'service lightdm stop'(If you are running gnome the 'lightdm' should be replaced by 'gdm' or whatever you are using)

Then go to the directory where the nvidia driver is (type: cd [/path/to/driver/]), make it executable(type:chmod +x [Nvidia_install.run-file]) and run it(type: sh [Nvidia_install.run-file]). Now it should hopefully install the nvidia driver and everything should work.

Now you can install steam by following these instructions.(https://wiki.debian.org/Steam)

Worked for me. If you think this post is a waste of time feel free to ignore.

kind regard,

oldman

5

I tried installing Steam on Debian Wheezy yesterday. Today I had to reinstall Debian.


Protip: Don't install proprietary software from root 

6

lol what did you do hehe...