Steam on arm linux
8 апр. 2019 в 10:59
1
My favourite Steam Machine is Shield TV where I am currently using a cloud gaming vm running Steam for windows with Quadro P5000. This has completely replaced my more than VR ready pc.
Recent news about changes to Linux kernel 5.1 helps bring Linux desktops to ARM devices and after finding older videos showing pc games running through Steam on ARM devices has me interested in setting up multi OS Shield TV and interested in Steam for Linux again. Ref: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3072289/raspberry-pis-3a-will-get-linux-51-kernel-support
This video shows a Valve pc game running through Steam client but does not show how Steam was launched so Steam and game are unlikely to be running natively on ARM. Counter Strike 1.6 was possibly Linux version being streamed from an x86_64 machine using a third party streaming app. We can see at begining of video armv7 CPU and Tegra K1 GPU are listed so the tablet itself is running a Linux for ARM OS, likely being Linux4Tegra. The video is not high enough res or high enough quality to see icon and text in tab when Steam client is brought into focus for to see what streaming app was used.
Can anybody explain the steps needed to recompile Steam for Linux so it works on an ARM device running Linux4Tegra?
Are we more likely to see the arrival of Steam Link App for ARM app rather than a Steam for Linux on ARM client?
The way one would be able to do this is one of two ways:
1. SteamLink: The base SteamLink client is available for ARM Linux. It is what the prepackaged SteamLink devices use. Just fetch it from Valve’s github page. This of course means running the main steam client on an x86 Machine, be it Windows, Mac or Linux.
2. JIT or Hybrid JIT/AOT x86 under ARM Multilib. This can be done using a combination of Bridged Linux Containers and KQEMU.
Number 2 is the only case where Steam is actually truly running ON the ARM processor.
Option 1, i.e. «cloud gaming» has one major flaw: Latency.
This isn’t an issue with streaming over a LAN as much, and is completely a non-issue on games that don’t require low-latency control response due to their nature.
However, don’t expect having a decent game of Doom or CS:GO on an Internet cloud gaming rig any time soon. On the other hand, playing any number of other games will be downright simple.
8 апр. 2019 в 11:32
subscribing to post, this seems interesting.
— inquirer article seems misleading for some reason
— video does’t really show how its done, AFAIK it could be streaming the game or using x86 emulation to run Steam, hence it can only afford to run CS 1.6 (you lose a lot of performance from emulation)
8 апр. 2019 в 11:50
I agree about the Inquirer article it should never refer to full Linux desktop distros or x86 apps running natively on ARM devices.
It misled me and is why I am now asking what I am!
Linux4Tegra runs Ubuntu desktop but is not full Linux desktop or has full Ubuntu repos you find on x86 or x64 devices.
Finding that video showing Counter Strike and Steam client running on a five year old tablet does sort of show major sauce going on. How on earth did Steam for Linux get recompiled for Linux4Tegra? And how did Counter Strike get recompiled for Linux4Tegra?
There is a common denominator there — Valve. 😎
If you pause the video at beginning showing system specs you can see it is running Linux4Tegra or some other Linux on ARM variant because armv7 CPU and Tegra GPU are listed showing Ubuntu and everything running in Ubuntu is running natively on ARM.
Here is another video showing what system specs in Ubuntu show when we know for sure it is running Linux4Tegra on Jetson Nano for comparison.
All this has me wanting to check out Linux4Tegra on Shield TV which has much stronger GPU compared to Jetson Nano or Shield Tablet.
There is old Dolphin guide describing how to install Linux4Tegra on Shield TV
That Inquirer article does at least indicate it is going to get much easier to install Linux on ARM desktop distros on ARM devices very soon.
Linux4Tegra is highly focused on development work, not really a daily desktop environment or gaming environment.
So because it is possible to run Steam client on ARM I would like to understand how better as my favourite cloud gaming service provides a Linux client but no web client to use on Jetson Nano so I could make Jetson Nano into a Steam Machine using steam for windows in cloud gaming vm with Quadro P5000. Ultimately I would like to learn or understand what is needed to recompile a Linux app for Linux on ARM when no ARM64 source code is available — just like Steam for Linux.
Why Linux gamers are not all over cloud gaming on non x86_64 devices already has me confused!
Pc gaming without owning a gaming spec PC! Come on, why they so slow to catch on? prejudices based on misinformation and myths
During my adventures with all the hype for Steam Machines I was fully onboard and enjoyed beta testing SteamOS on a potato pc and was watching YouTube videos about Valve and their partners showing off OEM Steam Machines at CES 2014 and stumbled across Nvidias keynote. Let’s just say that is how I found out about Shield devices and to be honest I nearly fell off my couch laughing at Jensen Huang when was making claims like «gaming on android is now on par with latest pc gaming graphical features» and «ARM is coming to disrupt pc gaming space» when announcing Tegra K1, Shield Tablet and UE4.
I bought a Shield TV and Shield Tablet in 2016 when I ordered all the parts for building my own VR ready Steam Machine.
Today my gaming rig is most expensive waste of space and hasn’t been used for gaming for just over a year.
Now I no longer laughing at Jensen and think he is greatest teacher on planet earth right now. I go out of my way to watch every single keynote he presents in its entirety. Several times .
When announcing RTX GRID Servers, RTX GRID Server Pods and GeForce Now Alliance Jensen dropped some clues about GRID virtualization platform at GTC 2019 indicating new types of GRID licenses are incoming adding to the vApp, vPC and vDWS options currently available, which he will share more info on «in the future».
What hardware is inside that puppy? Jetson TX2 SoC like Magic Leap?
Does it support cloud gaming, Hybrid Cloud Rendering and RTX ootb?
These are some of things which has me very excited about the future of gaming computer science and is why I am extremely interested in getting Steam running in Linux4Tegra on Shield TV.
Steam Universe has expanded way beyond what most of us can comprehend, I am sure of that.
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8 апр. 2019 в 16:00
The way one would be able to do this is one of two ways:
1. SteamLink: The base SteamLink client is available for ARM Linux. It is what the prepackaged SteamLink devices use. Just fetch it from Valve’s github page. This of course means running the main steam client on an x86 Machine, be it Windows, Mac or Linux.
2. JIT or Hybrid JIT/AOT x86 under ARM Multilib. This can be done using a combination of Bridged Linux Containers and KQEMU.
Number 2 is the only case where Steam is actually truly running ON the ARM processor.
Option 1, i.e. «cloud gaming» has one major flaw: Latency.
This isn’t an issue with streaming over a LAN as much, and is completely a non-issue on games that don’t require low-latency control response due to their nature.
However, don’t expect having a decent game of Doom or CS:GO on an Internet cloud gaming rig any time soon. On the other hand, playing any number of other games will be downright simple.
You can now Run Steam Games with Proton on an ARM PC Thanks to Progress Made on Box86!
I am big fan of Box86 and Box64 (as well as pretty much everything PtitSeb does) and a few months ago he made it possible to run some Linux Games on Steam (using the mini-mode, the full client is not yet supported). And the latest development, and that’s a major one, is that Box86 can now run some Windows games on Steam by using Proton! Here’s a video of two of such games: Geometry Dash and Among Us on a ARM mini PC (Pythium D2000 + AMD Rx550):
You can also see some compatibility reports that are now available at the following repository:
Especially relevant are the ones tagged with “SteamPlay” since they are using Proton (and therefore Vulkan and DXVK). Here’s another example with Garfield Kart reported working just fine:
Not only do several games work on Phythium D2000 equipped with a regular GPU (RX550), some reports showcase some games working on a Raspberry Pi 4 with its own Vulkan driver!
This being said, the Raspberry Pi 4 is going to have major limitations, because its Vulkan driver is still experimental as far as I know, and it has too little video memory to actually handle any demanding game. But evne if it were limited to older games, that would open up a huge gaming library on the small ARM SBC.
On the other hand, Box86 is a revolution in the making. People are now excited by the possibility of X86 gaming on handhelds with the Steam Deck and the Aya Neo, but with such technology x86 gaming is now going to be possible on ARM portable machines (whether phones or specific gaming handhelds) which are not limited by two vendors (AMD or Intel) anymore.