Which steam do I download?

Picnic · 2025-09-13 19:57:28

23Hello 1,5 year long Linux user, first time question asker.

Which Steam should I download? It must be my fault that I can't find a definite answer, so please tell me how to find the information I need.

[nu@nocu ~]$ sudo pacman -S steam
resolving dependencies...
:: There are 11 providers available for lib32-vulkan-driver:
:: Repository multilib
   1) lib32-amdvlk  2) lib32-nvidia-utils  3) lib32-vulkan-asahi  4) lib32-vulkan-dzn
   2) lib32-vulkan-freedreno  6) lib32-vulkan-gfxstream  7) lib32-vulkan-intel  8) lib32-vulkan-nouveau
   3) lib32-vulkan-radeon  10) lib32-vulkan-swrast  11) lib32-vulkan-virtio

Enter a number (default=1):

System specs:

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: 20MXS0BG00 (ThinkPad A285)
Kernel: Linux 6.16.7-arch1-1
Uptime: 40 mins
Packages: 745 (pacman)
Shell: bash 5.3.3
Display (LEN40E6): 1920x1080 @ 1.3x in 12", 60 Hz [Built-in]
DE: KDE Plasma 6.4.5
WM: KWin (Wayland)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 2300U (4) @ 2.00 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon Vega 6 Graphics [Integrated]
Memory: 2.61 GiB / 6.67 GiB (39%)
Swap: 0 B / 3.34 GiB (0%)
Disk (/): 7.67 GiB / 31.20 GiB (25%) - ext4
Disk (/home): 636.96 MiB / 201.19 GiB (0%) - ext4
Locale: en_US.UTF-8

Tried to cut out most things I thought were irrelevant.

WorMzy · 2025-09-13 20:28:53

Have you read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Installation? It covers this exact topic.

Succulent of your garden · 2025-09-13 21:21:21

Also if you want a quick installation method the flatpak verison of steam just works out of the box. But is working through flatpak.

Picnic · 2025-09-14 19:26:57

WorMzy wrote:

Have you read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Installation? It covers this exact topic.

I don't feel like it does, Maybe I'm missing something but I couldn't figure out what's up with lib32-vulkan-dzn and lib32-vulkan-gfxstream

not listed in wiki but could figure out with a quick google search: lib32-vulkan-asahi (apple stuff) ; lib32-vulkan-freedreno (snapdragon stuff) ; lib32-vulkan-virtio (idk but it's clearly new and experimental)

I guess I could've googled all that to begin with but the wikis "vulkan" and "steam pages" didn't help as much as they should. It feels like it hasn't been updated in a while or something.

It made me think there were things the wiki was missing and maybe vulkan-radeon isn't the clear option anymore since the number of choices has gone from 4 to 11.

For now I just went with vulkan-radeon.

Succulent of your garden · 2025-09-14 20:02:06

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Vulkan#Installation

Arch Wiki wrote:

AMD: there are three implementations, which could be installed simultaneously:
Note
Test with only vulkan-radeon first: although not appearing as the first provider of vulkan-driver (due to its alphabetical order), it avoids some issues with amdvlk, such as #AMDGPU - Crashes with DirectX Vulkan games.

You probably will be fine.

ugjka · 2025-09-15 03:12:55

I use Flatpak steam to avoid multilib repo

Nikolai5 · 2025-09-15 10:07:43

See this page as well: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU

I wouldn't recommend flatpak, it defeats the point of using Arch (an up to date repo and using makepkg/PKGBUILD to create anything else). It also comes with its own issues.

So read through the steam installation page and assuming you have an AMD GPU, that page I linked above. On that page you'll see it note some points specific to 32 bit packages, you'll want those as that's what Steam wants.
So if you're using "vulkan-radeon" you'll want "lib32-vulkan-radeon", as an example.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-09-13 19:57:28

Which steam do I download?

#2 2025-09-13 20:28:53

Re: Which steam do I download?

#3 2025-09-13 21:21:21

Re: Which steam do I download?

#4 2025-09-14 19:26:57

Re: Which steam do I download?

#5 2025-09-14 20:02:06

Re: Which steam do I download?

#6 2025-09-15 03:12:55

Re: Which steam do I download?

#7 2025-09-15 10:07:43

Re: Which steam do I download?

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