What Can You Do With A “Hacked” Steam Linux Beta Client? Play Some Humble Games!

By Venn Stone Nov 6, 2012 / 15 Comments

Update: A complete guide for installing on Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora and Slackware is located in our forums.

First off; I refuse to believe Valve didn’t know that launching “steam steam://open/games” would bypass the authentication check. Yeah, now you have access to the Steam Linux beta but no games. Serves you right, you filthy hacker! That said, you can still add a few games from your Humble Indie Bundle purchases.

Install Steam:
Ubuntu: From terminal run

  1. wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
  2. sudo dpkg -i steam.deb && sudo apt-get install -f
  3. run “steam steam://open/games”
Arch: Download the PackageFedora:

  1. Download http://spot.fedorapeople.org/steam/
  2. Put the steam.repo file in your /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory (as root)
  3. yum install steam

With everything installed follow our guide for retrieving your HIB keys. After that open the Steam client and visit Games> Activate a product on Steam> Next> I Agree> enter HIB key. Keep in mind that some keys will not work.

UPDATE: Check out the list of what works on our favourite Sub Reddit Linux_Gaming.

Unofficial first cut bug reports for those cheating their way past the beta subscription check:

Game Works? Tester Notes Updated
Amnesia: The Dark Descent ✔ /u/directhex missing dependency on libxmu6:i386 2012-11-06
And Yet It Moves ✔ /u/directhex missing dependency on libjpeg62:i386, screwed launcher script (trivially fixed by changing ayim_dir=) 2012-11-16
Aquaria ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
Braid ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Cave Story+ ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Cogs ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
Crusader Kings II ✘ /u/sm222 missing executable 2012-11-06
Cubemen ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
Darwinia ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
DEFCON ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Dungeons of Dredmor ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
Dynamite Jack ✔ /u/ronjouch 2012-11-06
Eversion ✔ /u/flibitijibibo 2012-11-07
Frozen Synapse ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
Galcon Fusion ✔ /u/ronjouch 2012-11-06
Killing Floor ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
LIMBO ✘ /u/directhex invalid app config 2012-11-07
Multiwinia ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Osmos ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Penumbra: Black Plague ✘ /u/ronjouch no files 2012-11-06
Penumbra: Overture ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Penumbra: Requiem ✘ /u/ronjouch no files 2012-11-06
Psychonauts ✘ /u/directhex invalid app config 2012-11-07
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 ✘ /u/WienerWuerstel missing executable 2012-11-06
Rochard ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Serious Sam 3: BFE ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
Space Pirates and Zombies ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
SpaceChem ✘ /u/directhex packaging error, only runs on 32-bit Ubuntu (technically 64-bit if mono in $PATH is 32-bit) 2012-11-07
Steel Storm: Burning Retribution ✔ /u/directhex 64-bit binary, but crashed Compiz for me on quit 2012-11-06
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP ✔ /u/directhex missing dependency on libcurl3:i386 2012-11-06
Trine 2 ✔ /u/nothingbutcontempt 2012-11-06
Uplink ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06
VVVVVV ✘ /u/directhex missing executable 2012-11-07
World of Goo ✔ /u/directhex 2012-11-06

Screen:

Related:

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15 Comments

  7. No access to games? :) What do you call it, when I’m playing Amnesia – The Dark Descent, World of Goo, Superbrother: Sword & Sworcery EP and Uplink among others. :)

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