Working with non Steam games
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- About
- Creating desktop files
- Workaround for games with several exec options
- Examples
- How-To List
- Reference issues tickets
- Troubleshooting
Table of Contents
This page contains useful information for running non-Steam games on SteamOS. Please try to keep this to Linux-native applications and games.
On SteamOS, the "Add Library Shortcut" function should discover .desktop files in these directories:
/home/steam/.local/share/applications
/usr/share/applications
/home/steam/Desktop
Also it needs to be an appropriate .desktop file. Please take special note of the below:
- Exec does not support relative paths, only absolute/full paths or commands in $PATH.
- The Exec= line cannot have spaces
-
Cannot have a configuration line of
NoDisplay=true -
Cannot have a configuration line of
Categories=Settings -
Requires the configuration file to have
Type=Application
If you must have multiple options to the Exec= line, consider creating a bash script as a "launcher."
Example: "dragonslayerz-launch.sh"
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/dragonslayerz --u2 --kazoo --elephant-mode
Mark the script executable. You may also want to move the script to a common $PATH location for ease of use (e.g. /usr/bin/). If you choose to use a common location that is owned by root (e.g. /usr/bin/), be sure to prepend sudo to the below command.
chmod +x dragonslayerz-launch.sh
You would then replace the Exec= line with `Exec=/path/to/dragzonslayerz-launch.sh"
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Retroarch-Src
GenericName=Retroarch-Src
Comment=Retroarch-Src launcher
Exec=retroarch-launch.sh
Icon=/home/steam/Pictures/retro-arch-src-logo.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Game
Actions=Fullscreen;Standalone;
As another example, here is the "Return to Steam" desktop-mode shortcut:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Return to Steam
Comment=Exit desktop mode
Exec=/usr/bin/returntosteam.sh
Icon=steam
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;Game;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/steam;
In this case, if you are certain you have everything you need, and all dependencies installed, check the following:
- Via SSH, or on another TTY (CTRL+ALT+F1, for instance), run
tail -f /tmp/dumps/steam_stdout.txtbefore launching the game and review the output - Check the permissions on the files you are attempting to access
