Can I run Steam as its own standalone session?

Perhaps this story might be sufficient which uses steam-login which uses xfwm4 under the covers to provide a lightweight desktop with Steam on top.

Here's the information from the README:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thor27-gmail/steam-desktop 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install steam-login

Then logout and back in to get a Steam session. See also:

  • What are PPAs and how do I use them?
  • Are PPA's safe to add to my system and what are some "red flags" to watch out for?

  • Just copy the steam.desktop file from /usr/share/applications/steam.desktop to /usr/share/xsessions.

  • Then edit it and change the Exec option to 

    Exec=steam steam://open/bigpicture

    or just create you own:

    [Desktop Entry]
X-SuSE-translate=true
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=XSession
Exec=steam steam://open/bigpicture
TryExec=steam steam://open/bigpicture
Name=Steam
Comment=Steam

I have actually created a project to do exactly what you're describing here:

https://github.com/ShadowApex/steamos-ubuntu

It is just a small bash script that will do the following things:

  • Create the steam user account if it does not exist.
  • Install steam, if it is not installed.
  • Install the Steam Compositor, Steam Mode Switch, and boot splash themes.
  • Configure autologin for the steam user account.
  • Configure the default session to the Steam Compositor.
  • Create reboot-to-[steamos,desktop]-mode scripts to switch between sessions.

I've only tested it on a cleanly installed version of Ubuntu 18.04.

Tags:

Steam

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