HOW TO: Steam BPM XSession

[Pedro Mateus]

So you want to have your own HTPC with Steam. Thankfully, you’re a sane person and you don’t want to use Ubuntu or even wait for Valve Time SteamOS in order to do it.

Fair is fair and if you’re using Fedora/Korora/etc. this one’s for you.

This tutorial was adapted from Thor27’s “steam-login” (https://github.com/thor27/steam-login).

1. Fire up your terminal of choice and run:

Quote:

sudo leafpad /usr/bin/steam-de

(Feel free to replace leafpad with whichever text editor you prefer)

2. Copy Thor27’s script into the new file:

Quote:

#!/bin/bash
#STEAM DE – Script for starting Steam at login
#Copyright (C) 2012 Thomaz de Oliveira dos Reis function stop(){
#Stop all running steam process
killall steam.sh
killall steam
killall MainThrd
#If it doesn’t stop, force it
killall -9 steam
killall -9 steam.sh
killall -9 MainThrd

}

function check_steam_window(){
wmctrl -l | tr -s ” ” | cut -f4- -d” ” | grep ‘^Steam$’
}

function disable_joysticks() {
for dev in `find /dev/input -name js*`; do
# Get the name of the joystick model
name=”`udevadm info –query=property –name=$dev | grep ID_VENDOR_ENC | cut -c15- -` `udevadm info –query=property –name=$dev | grep ID_MODEL_ENC | cut -c14- -`”
# Escape sequences
name=”`echo -e “$name”`”
# Disable the joystick
xinput –list | grep “$name” | grep -Pwo “id=[0-9]*” | grep -Pwo “[0-9]*” | xargs xinput –disable
done
}

stop

# Start basic window manager and video settings
xfwm4 –replace –daemon –compositor=off
which nvidia-settings && nvidia-settings -l
which gnome-settings-daemon && gnome-settings-daemon &

# Disable xinput for joysticks
if [ -x /usr/bin/xinput ]; then
disable_joysticks
fi

#Reset variables
unset prefix
unset parameters
unset program

# -bigpicture does not work anymore
#parameters=’-bigpicture’
parameters=’-tenfoot’

#Set optirun as prefix if available
which optirun && prefix=optirun

#Set primusrun as prefix if available
which primusrun && prefix=vblank_mode=0 optirun -b primus
#Get full path of steam executable
program=`which steam`

#Execute STEAM
$prefix $program $parameters &
PID=$!
while ! check_steam_window
do
sleep 0.5
if ! ps -p $PID
then
zenity –error –text “You done goofed! That can be a problem with either Steam itself or your configuration.”
exit 1
fi
done

while check_steam_window
do
sleep 10
done

#Exit steam nicely…
steam [url=steam://ExitSteam]steam://ExitSteam[/url]

3. Save, exit and make it executable:

Quote:

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/steam-de

4. Make a new text file to use as a launcher for the above script:

Quote:

sudo leafpad /usr/share/xsessions/steam-bigpicture.desktop

5. Paste this into it:

Quote:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam
Comment=Steam Big Picture Mode Session
Exec=steam-de
Icon=steam
Type=Application

6. Save, exit and chmod this one as well:

Quote:

sudo chomd +x /usr/share/xsessions/steam-bigpicture.desktop

(This step is Fedora/Derivative specific) 7. Install the dependencies:

Quote:

sudo yum install xfwm4 wmctrl joystick

8. If you’re using an up-to-date DM, it should pick up the .desktop file automatically. If not, Google it!

9. Log out of your DE and choose the Steam session on your DM’s options.

10. Enjoy!

P.S.: I don’t know how well this will work with WiFi, probably won’t. Wired Internet works perfectly.

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