[own3r]

Originally Posted by ekiM

How easy is it to get Steam working on Ubuntu?

This assumes you have 3d support setup already

But if don't...
If you have a nvidia card you can install "restricted drivers" from the system -> administration menu. If you have ATI then try the same as for nvidia with "restricted drivers" if that doesn't work try finding a tutorial on google I have an nvidia card so I can't test it.

Well I followed this guide http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb then went into synaptic (a package manager in the system -> administration menu) and searched for and installed wine.

run wine config

winecfg

Setup drive locations if you want to enable shaders on your hardware

I downloaded steam and then went into console into the directory I downloaded it to.
In my case:

cd downloads

Then execute the file using wine's msiexec

wine msiexec /i "SteamInstall.msi"

At this point steam's install would have appeared and it is as normal for windows.

To run steam go to the drive you setup earlier (by default its ~/.wine/drive_c) then search for the steam folder

ls

When you see it use the cd command to enter

cd Steam

remember linux is case sensitive

Then type

wine steam

Note: "Wine" which is the program used to run these programs is upgraded frequently (every 2 weeks) and is still in active development so things will break upon upgrades or start working currently HL2 does not work though HL1 does, the HL2 issues are being worked on however.