Steam is easily the most popular PC gaming client, and with hundreds of titles available for Linux, it is no wonder why Linux gamers would want to install Steam on Ubuntu. Valve, the company behind Steam, officially targets Ubuntu and Debian with their Linux support, which is great news for Ubuntu users.
In this tutorial, we will guide you through the instructions to install Steam for Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux using the standard Ubuntu repository as well as to perform a manual installation using the official Steam package.
Recent developments on Valve’s Proton compatibility layer are allowing many new (and old) gaming titles to run flawlessly on Linux. If you tried running games on Linux in the past and were not successful, we recommend trying again. With Proton (provided by default in the Steam client), games are intended to run without any tweaking from end users.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install Steam from Ubuntu package repository
- How to install Steam manually by using the official Steam package
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Installed Ubuntu 20.04 or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa |
| Software | N/A |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. Furthermore, appropriate nvidia driver or AMD radeon driver must also be installed and configured before proceeding with the Steam installation. |
| Conventions | # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to install Steam on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step instructions
Install Steam from Ubuntu package repository
- Confirm that the
multiverseUbuntu repository is enabled:$ sudo add-apt-repository multiverse $ sudo apt update
- Install Steam package:
$ sudo apt install steam
- Use your desktop menu to start Steam or alternatively execute the following command:
$ steam
Install Steam manually by using the official Steam package
- Enable the
i386architecture repository:$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 $ sudo apt update
- Next, install all Steam prerequistes:
$ sudo apt install wget gdebi-core libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
- Download the official Steam package:
$ wget -O ~/steam.deb http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
- Install the downloaded Steam package using the
gdebicommand:$ sudo gdebi ~/steam.deb
- Use your desktop menu to start Steam or alternatively execute the following command:
$ steam
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to install Steam for Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux. This included installation through the Ubuntu repository, and manually installing Steam from the website, in case you don’t want to use the command line or want to instantly have the most up to date version.