Windows Steam Runtime

Windows Steam Runtime: Setup Guide

Aurelia can host a self-contained Windows Steam client inside Wine (a "master prefix") purely to satisfy the Steamworks/DRM handshake that some Windows games need, without a host Steam client. The game itself is still launched directly by Aurelia (never through a steam://run handoff).

This guide is the exact, tested setup. For the command reference, see the Windows Steam runtime page of the Usage reference.

Have host Steam already? You probably don't need this. Set aurelia config steam-runtime-policy off and use aurelia play <APPID> --steam. It bridges to your host Steam client and needs none of the setup below. The in-Wine runtime is for machines without a host Steam client.

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The recipe

# 1. One-time: a Wine/Proton runner that bundles DXVK + vkd3d (GE-Proton does).
aurelia proton install GE-Proton9-20          # skip if already installed
aurelia config steam-runtime-runner GE-Proton9-20

# 2. Install the Windows Steam into the master prefix.
aurelia steam-runtime install

# 3. Sign in to the in-Wine Steam (a window appears — sign in, incl. Steam Guard).
aurelia steam-runtime login
aurelia steam-runtime stop                    # optional: close it once signed in

# 4. Route games through the runtime.
aurelia config steam-runtime-policy on        # global default …
#   … or per game:  aurelia config game <APPID> --steam-runtime on

# 5. Launch a WINDOWS game (native-Linux games bypass the runtime entirely).
aurelia play <WINDOWS_APPID>

Steps 1–3 are one-time. After that, launching is just step 5. The in-Wine Steam keeps its own login in the master prefix and is started silently in the background for each launch that needs it (re-run steam-runtime login if that session ever expires).

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What the machine actually needs

1. Working Vulkan. The whole thing hinges on it: Steam's CEF UI (the login window and client) renders through DXVK → Vulkan. Confirm with:

   vulkaninfo --summary        # must list your GPU

   A bare-Wine prefix on wined3d alone crashes Chromium's GPU process. Aurelia works around this by giving the prefix DXVK (see below), which requires Vulkan.

2. A DXVK + vkd3d-bundling runner as steam_runtime_runner: GE-Proton, or any Proton / wine-tkg tree containing files/…/dxvk and files/…/vkd3d. Aurelia copies those DLLs into the master prefix automatically on install/login/launch (ensure_steam_runtime_prefix_libs). A plain upstream Wine without them will not render the Steam UI.

3. A display: X11, or Wayland with XWayland. Both are fine.

Everything else that used to break the in-Wine Steam is handled automatically now:

Handled for you	Why it mattered
DXVK/vkd3d copied into the prefix	dxgi → wined3d → libvkd3d was missing under bare Wine → Chromium GPU process crash-loop → "please reinstall".
lsteamclient disabled for the client	GE-Proton's game-bridge lsteamclient hijacked the client's CLIENTENGINE interface → InternalAPI_Init assert.
GUI commands run locally, not via the daemon	A daemon-spawned Steam had a stale session env and the window never appeared.
XAUTHORITY forwarded to the Wine launch	Cookie-auth X servers otherwise rejected Wine's window → invisible client.
Startup log redirected off the terminal	Wine fixme: / Steam bootstrapper spam. Capture it with AURELIA_DIAGNOSE_INSTALL=1.

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Caveats that will bite people

• Native-Linux games never use the in-Wine runtime. The policy has no effect on them. They run natively regardless. Test the runtime with a Windows-only title.
• The account you sign the in-Wine Steam into must own / have access to the game, or the DRM handshake fails.
• First install/login self-updates Steam and takes a couple of minutes, which is normal.
• The in-Wine login is separate from aurelia login (which is Aurelia's own session for the library/downloads). See Runtime authentication.

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Games installed through the in-Wine Steam (incl. Family-Shared)

Some titles can only be installed by a real Steam client, most notably Family-Shared games, which Aurelia can't download itself (they need the owner's authorisation). For those, sign in to the in-Wine Steam (aurelia steam-runtime login) and install the game from its window, into the in-Wine Steam's own library inside the master prefix.

Aurelia discovers those installs and flags them in list with a [wine] tag:

  2874130  installed   family-shared  -   Berserk or Die [wine]

aurelia play <APPID> handles them automatically: instead of the Proton pipeline, it hands the game to the in-Wine Steam (steam.exe -applaunch), exactly as launching it from that Steam's own library would, which is the only way its Steamworks/DRM handshake succeeds. A one-line warning notes this, because:

• Aurelia's Proton/DXVK per-game settings don't apply. The in-Wine Steam runs it in the master prefix with that prefix's DXVK.
• Aurelia doesn't own the process, so session tracking is best-effort (it waits for the game to exit, then reports "Finished playing").

Games you install with aurelia install <APPID> land in Aurelia's own library instead, run through the normal Proton pipeline, and carry no [wine] tag. The in-Wine runtime is then only their DRM backend.

Choosing where Steam comes from (steam-runtime-policy)

A launch that asks for Steam (play --steam, or forced for Family-Shared games) resolves its Steam client from a policy (per-game first, then the global default):

Policy	Behavior
auto (default)	Host Steam if installed, else fall back to the in-Wine runtime.
on	Always the in-Wine runtime, even if host Steam exists.
off	Host Steam only, never the in-Wine runtime.

aurelia config steam-runtime-policy on            # global default
aurelia config game <APPID> --steam-runtime on    # per-game override (wins)

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Troubleshooting

Almost every failure is Vulkan or the runner. Triage:

vulkaninfo --summary                              # GPU present & Vulkan OK?

# Capture the in-Wine Steam's real output to a log instead of /dev/null:
AURELIA_DIAGNOSE_INSTALL=1 aurelia steam-runtime login

# Steam's own logs live in the master prefix:
SL="$HOME/.config/Aurelia/master_steam_prefix/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Steam/logs"
grep -i "GPU process exited"  "$SL/cef_log.txt"       # GPU crash-loop?  → Vulkan/runner
grep -i "InternalAPI_Init"    "$SL"/../dumps/*.dmp     # client init assert
tail -n 20 "$SL/connection_log.txt"                   # is it reaching Steam?

• GPU process exited unexpectedly repeatedly: the prefix isn't getting DXVK, or Vulkan doesn't work. Confirm vulkaninfo, and that your runner bundles dxvk/vkd3d.
• Client corrupt / "please reinstall": start clean.

  aurelia steam-runtime install --reinstall     # wipes the prefix, installs fresh

• Steam won't render at all despite working Vulkan: that machine's Wine can't run Chromium. Use host Steam instead (config steam-runtime-policy off).

Useful commands

aurelia steam-runtime status                  # resolved prefix, steam.exe present, runner
aurelia steam-runtime stop                    # kill the in-Wine Steam session
aurelia steam-runtime login                   # re-open to sign in / switch accounts
aurelia steam-runtime uninstall               # remove the master prefix entirely