RPM or TAR.GZ installer

[ufa]

Please, provide other types of packages, like rpm or tar.gz..

[STrRedWolf]

Seconded, especially the TAR.GZ archived installer for all distros to pick up and make their own RPM/PAC/etc. With Gentoo it'll pull it raw; folks have been writing up an Ebuild for it.

[glenkim]

RPMs for steam are available at http://spot.fedorapeople.org/steam/steam.repo

[gtmanfred]

They are already working on a self extracting tarball

[boombatower]

RPM++ Also note the open build service which can build packages for lots of distros https://build.opensuse.org/. I'd be happy to help setup an rpm package.

[niutech]

There is an RPM package for openSUSE, but is it the latest and official one? If not, please create an official openSUSE repo.

[draeath]

You can extract RPMs and DEBs to the filesystem. For RPM, use "rpm2cpio" to convert to a CPIO archive. Then use CPIO to extract it. For DEB, use "ar" - you will notice a few metadata files. Look in data.tar.XX (where XX is gz, bz2, xz etc) for the files themselves.

[winterheart]

Gentoo already have ebuilds for steam on gamerlay overlay, there no problem to extract deb packages.

[Mailaender]

https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?project=games&package=steam has been updated to 1.0.0.17 based on the Fedora RPM with Ubuntu specific command line calls removed. Maybe you should add the steam.sh bash script to this GitHub repository, so we can help you create a nice cross-distro Steam installer. Currently every distributions patches it on their own.

[monreal]

Steam downloads updates to the user home anyway so why not just provide a tar archive which contains the initial ~/Steam/ files? This would be easier and cleaner then messing with system files

[Mailaender]

Because this won't automatically install the required dependencies and update the .desktop file database.

[tomjenkinson]

+1 to an rpm in yum, this doesn't seem to exist to me: http://spot.fedorapeople.org/steam/steam.repo

[Mailaender]

Try the repos from http://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=games&package=steam for Fedora.

[tomjenkinson]

Doesn't seem to work for me on F16:

[tom@localhost ~]$ fedora-version
Fedora release 16 (Verne)
[tom@localhost ~]$ sudo yum update
Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
No Packages marked for Update
[tom@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install steam
Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package steam.x86_64 0:1.0.0.18-1.1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libX11(x86-32) >= 1.4.99.1 for package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: openal-soft >= 1.13 for package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: pulseaudio-libs(x86-32) >= 0.99.1 for package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: glibc(x86-32) >= 2.15 for package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64 (games)
Requires: glibc(x86-32) >= 2.15
Installed: glibc-2.14.90-24.fc16.9.i686 (@updates)
glibc(x86-32) = 2.14.90-24.fc16.9
Available: glibc-2.14.90-14.i686 (fedora)
glibc(x86-32) = 2.14.90-14
Error: Package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64 (games)
Requires: openal-soft >= 1.13
Installed: openal-soft-1.12.854-2.fc15.i686 (@fedora)
openal-soft = 1.12.854-2.fc15
Error: Package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64 (games)
Requires: libX11(x86-32) >= 1.4.99.1
Installed: libX11-1.4.3-1.fc16.i686 (@fedora)
libX11(x86-32) = 1.4.3-1.fc16
Error: Package: steam-1.0.0.18-1.1.x86_64 (games)
Requires: pulseaudio-libs(x86-32) >= 0.99.1
Installed: pulseaudio-libs-0.9.23-1.fc16.i686 (@fedora)
pulseaudio-libs(x86-32) = 0.9.23-1.fc16
You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

[Mailaender]

Try the latest Fedora 17. I disabled the build for older distributions now on https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=steam&project=games so people don't stumple upon the RPM when their system probably can't satisfy the dependencies.

[tomjenkinson]

Thanks, I will give it a try when I upgrade my Fedora box, hopefully 17 is quite stable

[sstelfox]

Steam seems to have been removed from the OpenSUSE repositories. With the spot repository gone it doesn't seem like there are any RPMs available anywhere. It seems like there is a large community willing to help with the RPMs if there was a way, and an official repository that could be relied on.

[Mailaender]

I still have a backup of the steam RPM and just uploaded it again in my home directory, but I am curious: Has there been any legal action by Valve to get the package removed?

[RichiH]

No matter if there's legal action or not, it should be quite obvious that you can not redistribute the binaries legally.

What Debian does in such cases is to provide an installer package which downloads from upstream and repackages so it will install cleanly. This has the added benefit of making the repackaging code readily available in an obvious location for others to re-use.

[hoxu]

👍 for Debian. Tarball installer would probably be best, not distro-specific debs, unless Valve plans on having apt mirrors that are up-to-date for distro releases.

I just skipped buying a linux-compatible game from Steam Store, because I can't run a Linux client.

[Mailaender]

Okay then RPM support is currently rather complicated https://github.com/xvitaly/steamrpm if we are not allowed to distribute it or we automatize this with rpm post scripts.

[Mailaender]

I removed the package from my home directory on OBS as I was requested to do so by a community member. There is also a discussion at http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-buildservice/2013-01/msg00023.html Looks like they are awaiting clarification by the SUSE/Valve legal departments. See issue #66.

[niutech]

How could it be illegal when there are even links to RPM repositories on the official Valve Developer Community???

[Mailaender]

I guess the Valve Wiki is a community resource and Linux distributors care a lot about proper licensing, so gray zones are not enough to put it on a world-wide mirror system. We definitely need an answer on #66.

[gtmanfred]

I have been in contact with the steam engineers and lawyers ever since I originally put steam in the repositories for Arch Linux.

The license allow packages to re distribute should be finished in the next week or too.

[Tele42]

So, to summarize, we need a distro-agnostic vanilla-flavored tarball. A self-extracting tarball is optional, since any sensible package manager frowns upon self-extracting tarballs extracting themselves.
If we are adding files to go along with the tarball, is that considered modification and are we allowed to add distro-specific files on install? If that is true, then we need a tarball with no ubuntu-specific files. we do not need /usr/bin/steam in the distro-agnostic tarball because the ubuntu package can be used as a template.
We do need a common dependency resolution interface between steam and the package managers.
We also need a license that legally protects valve, but is flexible enough to allow reasonable adjustment in order to integrate steam into other distributions.

Bonus points for removing all ubuntu specific content from the core of the steam client and moving it to the ubuntu package.

Double bonus points for getting the ubuntu community to take care of it's own package.

[ObiWahn]

It is really cool to have this link here!

http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/pool/steam/s/steam

it would be awesome to have it directly on the steam webpage.
I would not mind some disclaimer that only the deb. is officially supported!

[Mailaender]

You can already get it from the @openSUSE games:tools repository via http://software.opensuse.org/package/steam as RPM.

[ObiWahn]

Sorry,

You got me wrong! I do not care a bit about rpms as i am on Debian. Just the tar.gz should be easier to find.

[Mailaender]

I was answering to the other people subscribed to this asking for an RPM.

[boombatower]

Better link to opensuse package (more direct): http://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=games%3Atools&package=steam.

[Mailaender]

True, there are several needless forks of the official games:tools package.

[ufa]

I don't think this issue makes sense anymore, I am closing it.
PS for Fedora: http://negativo17.org/steam-is-now-in-rpmfusion/