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Installation
There are a number of ways to install SteamTinkerLaunch. Please remember to restart Steam after any of these installation methods, as Steam will not refresh the list of available Compatibility Tools until it has been restarted.
The preferred method is to use the package provided by your package manager, though they may not always be available or up-to-date. Some distributions offer either official or community maintained SteamTinkerLaunch packages. Several are listed below, but you might find other community packages in the wild as well.
Don't forget to add SteamTinkerLaunch as a Compatibility Tool, as this is the preferred way of using SteamTinkerLaunch with Proton.
It is possible to install SteamTinkerLaunch for desktop and Steam Deck via ProtonUp-Qt, a frontend for installing and managing Steam compatibility tools. You can install the latest stable release of SteamTinkerLaunch out of the box, but for the latest Git release you will need click the "About" button and enable the "Advanced Mode" option.
On Steam Deck, SteamTinkerLaunch will automatically update to the latest Git, but you are free to enable this option and install SteamTinkerLaunch Git anyway.
See the dedicated ProtonUp-Qt wiki page for a list of features and how to use SteamTinkerLaunch as a launch option for native games when installed via ProtonUp-Qt.
Please ensure before attempting to install that you have met all of SteamTinkerLaunch's hard dependencies (listed below). ProtonUp-Qt can warn you if you are running the AppImage or running a build from source, but it cannot warn you if you are using the ProtonUp-Qt Flaptak. The most common missing or outdated dependency is Yad, please ensure it is installed and that you are using version 7.2 or higher. To check your Yad version you can run yad --version
from the command line. If you get an error, Yad is most likely not installed. If you are a more advanced user and would like a way to use a custom Yad install, please see SteamTinkerLaunch's Yad wiki page further guidance.
If SteamTinkerLaunch is not available via your package manager yet, you can install it manually. However, please check if there are any documented installation steps specific to your distribution before going ahead and installing manually. There may be an easier method to get SteamTinkerLaunch installed on your distribution or more steps than mentioned here.
There are several Hard Dependencies which are required to use SteamTinkerLaunch. When installing manually you will need to manage and install these yourself. There are some Optional Dependencies (e.g., Feral GameMode) which are needed for extra functionality, but not required for SteamTinkerLaunch to build and install.
The following packages are required to build and install SteamTinkerLaunch:
Package | Notes |
---|---|
awk |
gawk fully tested, mawk should work as well. |
bash |
Only shell tested. |
git |
|
pgrep |
|
unzip |
|
wget |
|
xdotool |
|
xprop |
|
xrandr |
|
xxd |
Part of vim . |
xwininfo |
|
yad |
GUI toolkit. Version 7.2 or higher required (see #98). As well as system-wide installs, SteamTinkerLaunch also supports Custom Yad installs and the Yad AppImage. |
Most distributions should have the required hard dependencies, however not all distributions package an up-to-date Yad version. Check the Yad wiki page for information on resolving this.
As SteamTinkerLaunch offers a lot of third-party functionality, there are a number of optional dependencies which may be installed. These are not strictly needed for SteamTinkerLaunch to run but may be needed to use various functionality. Flatpak variations of these dependencies may be available but may not work with SteamTinkerLaunch.
NOTE: SteamTinkerLaunch does not require all of these dependencies, but if there is any functionality of SteamTinkerLaunch you would like you will need to install any required dependencies before it will be available. These can be installed after SteamTinkerLaunch is installed, so you can expand/remove SteamTinkerLaunch dependencies as you desire them.
Package/Program | Description | SteamTinkerLaunch Wiki Page |
---|---|---|
Boxtron | Steam Compatibility Tool for running DOSBox games natively. | Available. |
GameConqueror/scanmem | Cheat/Debugging Utility (scanmem) with optional frontend (GameConqueror). | Available. |
GameMode | Configurable game optimization tool from Feral Interactive. | Available. |
GameScope | Tool from Valve for running games in an isolated Xwayland instance. | Available. |
GDB | Debugging utility for programs from GNU. | N/A |
ImageMagick | Command line image editing suite. Used for Game Icons for Game Desktop Files. |
N/A |
innoextract | Extracts setup executables. Currently only required for SteamTinkerLaunch to install Cheat Engine. |
N/A |
jq | JSON Parser utility. Used to extract game names from the Steam API. |
N/A |
libnotify | Used to send desktop notifications. A custom notifier may be defined. See Notifier wiki page. |
N/A |
MangoHud (including MangoApp) | Vulkan and OpenGL overlay for monitoring performance metrics such as FPS, temperatures, CPU/GPU load and more. | Available. |
net-tools | Allows for game network activity monitoring. | Available. |
Nyrna | Utility for putting games and applications to sleep to free up resources. | Available. |
p7zip | Command line port of 7-Zip to Unix-like systems. Required for extracting SpecialK archives. |
N/A |
pev | Extracts data from game executables. | Available. |
ReplaySorcery | Low-overhead instant-replay solution for Linux, similar to AMD ReLive/Nvidia ShadowPlay/OBS Replay Buffer. | Available |
rsync | Versatile file copying and backup utility. Used for backing up and restoring the steamuser folder of a Proton prefix. |
Available. |
ScummVM | Runs classic graphical adventure games and RPGs. Required for starting ScummVM games natively via Roberta. |
Available. |
strace | Diagnostic and debugging utility used for writing game logs. | Available. |
usbutils | USB utilities library (including lsusb ).Used for checking if a VR headset is present. |
N/A |
vkBasalt | Vulkan post-processing (shader) layer similar to and mostly compatible with ReShade shaders. | Available. |
vr-video-player | Virtual reality video player for playing stereoscopic videos, regular videos and games. | N/A |
Wine | Runs Windows applications on Unix systems. Used for running applications with system Wine and performing associated Wine configurations. |
Available. |
Winetricks | Provides workarounds for various problems with Wine. Used for installing Winetricks workarounds/verbs on Wine/Proton prefixes. |
Available. |
xdg-utils | Desktop environment application integration, such as for opening default browsers or text editors. | N/A |
If you want to use the latest stable release of SteamTinkerLaunch, download to the Releases page.
Optionally, you can download the latest bleeding-edge development release of SteamTinkerLaunch from the main repository page by clicking the green "Code" button and selecting "Download ZIP."
Keep in mind that this will install a version of SteamTinkerLaunch with the very latest changes, including the latest features and bug fixes. The cost of this is that there may be regressions or broken functionality from the last stable build. Choose whichever version you think best fits your needs.
Once all of the Hard Dependencies and all of the desired Optional Dependencies are satisfied, and you have downloaded SteamTinkerLaunch, you can install SteamTinkerLaunch either system-wide or locally.
Extract SteamTinkerLaunch to a folder of your choice, and navigate into that folder from the command line. For example, if you have downloaded SteamTinkerLaunch to your Downloads folder, you might run cd ~/Downloads/steamtinkerlaunch
.
To install SteamTinkerLaunch system-wide, simply run the following command:
$ sudo make install
This will usually install SteamTinkerLaunch to /usr/bin/steamtinkerlaunch
. To find out where it is on your system, you can run which steamtinkerlaunch
to find the exact path.
After installation, make sure to add SteamTinkerLaunch as a Compatibility Tool by running steamtinkerlaunch compat add
, then restart steam.
It is possibe SteamTinkerLaunch locally, without having to install it system-wide (initially proposed by #548.) One of the benefits of installing locally is simple uninstallation compared to system-wide manual installation.
Below are the steps to install SteamTinkerLaunch locally:
- Navigate to your downloaded SteamTinkerLaunch folder from the command line, and make SteamTinkerLaunch executable if it is not already with
chmod +x steamtinkerlaunch
. - Set the language for SteamTinkerLaunch by running
steamtinkerlaunch lang=lang/langfile.txt
, replacinglangfile.txt
with the name of a language file from thelang
folder.- For example, if you wanted to set your language to Dutch, you would run
steamtinkerlaunch lang=lang/dutch.txt
. - SteamTinkerLaunch's languages are mostly community-maintained and may be incomplete. If you want to update existing translations or translate SteamTinkerLaunch into your language, PRs are welcome!
- For example, if you wanted to set your language to Dutch, you would run
- Now that SteamTinkerLaunch has been initially ran, you should copy your desired language file to the
lang
folder in the SteamTinkerLaunch config directory- This folder is usually
~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch
- Using the example of Dutch again, you would copy the
dutch.txt
file to~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch/lang
.
- This folder is usually
- Run
steamtinkerlaunch compat add
to add SteamTinkerLaunch as a Steam Compatibility Tool. - Add the path to the
steamtinkerlaunch
script to yourPATH
variable so that you can run SteamTinkerLaunch commands from anywhere. Refer to your distribution/shell documentation for specific steps on how to do this, but some general steps are listed below.- The specific steps to do this vary between shells/distributions, but the
PATH
variable is usually defined in your shell profile (such as~/.zshrc
or~/.bash_profile
). - If you downloaded SteamTinkerLaunch to your Downloads folder, on a regular distribution your path might be something like
/home/gaben/Downloads/steamtinkerlaunch/steamtinkerlaunch
. - You'll want to add a line that resembles
export PATH=
, and add the path to thesteamtinkerlaunch
script to the end of it, with a colon separating it from the rest of the path. - The path variable should end up looking something like
export PATH=/usr/bin/:/usr/local/bin:/home/gaben/Downloads/steamtinkerlaunch/steamtinkerlaunch
. This is not an exact path and shouldn't be copied, but should give you a general idea of how to add SteamTinkerLaunch to yourPATH
.
- The specific steps to do this vary between shells/distributions, but the
- Restart Steam so that SteamTinkerLaunch shows up as an available compatibility tool.
To use SteamTinkerLaunch as a command for native Linux games, you have to enter the absolute path to the SteamTinkerLaunch script. For example if you have SteamTinkerLaunch n your downloads folder, your launch option might be /home/gaben/Downloads/steamtinkerlaunch-master/steamtinkerlaunch %command$
.
Please report any issues you have using SteamTinkerLaunch locally, including in your report that you followed the manual non-root installation method documented here.
Please note that SteamTinkerLaunch can also be installed via ProtonUp-Qt on Steam Deck. The instructions below do pretty much exactly what ProtonUp-Qt does when installing SteamTinkerLaunch, so choose whichever method you prefer.
As of v10.0, SteamTinkerLaunch is compatible with the Steam Deck, with a few caveats and missing external functionality due to how SteamOS is set up. See the Steam Deck wiki page for more information, and please report any bugs you encounter on the issue tracker.
Download the latest release from the GitHub Releases page.
Each time SteamTinkerLaunch is ran on Steam Deck, it will fetch the latest bleeding-edge Git release to ensure it has the latest bug fixes. So as long as you download v10.0 or newer, SteamTinkerLaunch will always update to the absolute latest version available on your Steam Deck.
Installing SteamTinkerLaunch on Steam Deck is different than on a regular Linux desktop, as you do not need to install it system wide.
- Open the folder where you installed SteamTinkerLaunch
- Right click on the file
steamtinkerlaunch
and go to Properties (Alt+Enter with the file highlighted if you have a keyboard attached) - Go to the "Permissions" tab and check the "Is Executable" checkbox, then press "Ok"
- On an empty part of the folder, right click and select "Open Terminal" (Shift+F4 if you have a keyboard attached).
- From here, you can run
./steamtinkerlaunch
. You can simply type./steamt
and press "Tab" to autocomplete (either with a physical keyboard or your on-screen keyboard) - Wait for the script to finish, and then run
steamtinkerlaunch compat add
to ensure SteamTinkerLaunch is added as a compatibility tool in Steam.
Once again, remember to restart Steam and/or your Steam Deck after installing SteamTinkerLaunch to ensure the list of Compatibility Tools in Steam is updated.
SteamTinkerLaunch supports being launched from with games from Steam in Desktop Mode and in Game Mode. SteamTinkerLaunch may behave differently if launched from the command line.
Also, by default, using SteamTinkerLaunch as a Steam Launch Option is not enabled. See the wiki page for steps on how to set this up.
(Credit to the SteamTinkerLaunch Flatpak authors for the installation documentation!)
SteamTinkerLaunch can be installed as a Flatpak only for Steam Flatpak. See the Steam Flatpak wiki page for more information.
Although the SteamTinkerLaunch Flatpak is hosted on Flathub, currently Flathub doesn't list addons/extensions of runtimes on their website. Therefore you will either have to install the SteamTinkerLaunch Flatpak through the command line, or through a software center such as KDE Discover.
To install SteamTinkerLaunch for Flatpak Steam from the command line:
- Set up Flatpak on your system as directed in the Flathub setup guide.
- Install Flatpak Steam if it isn't already installed.
- Install SteamTinkerLaunch Flatpak as a Compatibility Tool for Flatpak Steam with
flatpak install com.valvesoftware.Steam.Utility.steamtinkerlaunch
. - Launch Steam and select "Steam Tinker Launch" as a Compatibility Tool from the dropdown list.
Some Software Center GUI frontends that allow you to search Flathub, such as KDE Discover or GNOME Software, may allow you to find and install SteamTinkerLaunch for Flatpak Steam even though it is not yet listed on the Flathub website. You can install it from these frontends, but do keep in mind that regardless of how you install it, Flatpak SteamTinkerLaunch is only for Flatpak Steam!
Note: ProtonUp-Qt installation should work on any distro as long as you meet the SteamTinkerLaunch Hard Dependencies. Only follow the guidance in this section if you have a specific reason to avoid using ProtonUp-Qt.
(Credit to apacelus and /u/RandoMcGuvins for the original Ubuntu wiki page information)
Note: SteamTinkerLaunch requires Ubuntu 21.04 or later. If you a using an Ubuntu-based distribution please ensure it is using Ubuntu 21.04 or later. See the Ubuntu wiki page.
SteamTinkerLaunch can be installed on Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros either via the Pacstall package manager, or it can be installed manually. You may still need to run steamtinkerlaunch compat add
after installing with either of these methods.
SteamTinkerLaunch can be installed via the Pacstall package manager with the following command:
$ pacstall -I steamtinkerlaunch-git
This will install SteamTinkerLaunch with its dependencies, including an up-to-date version of Yad. This packages a Git release of SteamTinkerLaunch, meaning it should be a bleeding-edge release and may have some bugs. Please report any bugs you encounter on the issue tracker, noting that you are using Ubuntu and Pacstall.
SteamTinkerLaunch can be installed on Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions manually with the following steps. Please make sure you have met all of SteamTinkerLaunch's Hard Dependencies.
- Install some missing core dependencies with
sudo apt install -y git make gawk xdotool
. - Install Yad in one of the following ways:
- Yad from source systemwide.
- Install the Yad AppImage.
- Use a custom Yad binary, if you have one.
- Download SteamTinkerLaunch either by:
- Using the latest stable from the GitHub releases page.
- Using latest bleeding-edge Git release from the main repository page by pressing the green "Code" button and clicking "Download ZIP".
- Open a Terminal and navigate to the folder where you downloaded SteamTinkerLaunch. For example, if you downloaded it to your home folder, you would type
cd steamtinkerlaunch
.- You can verity that you are in the correct folder by typing
pwd
. If the path you see ends withsteamtinkerlaunch
, then you are likely in the correct folder.
- You can verity that you are in the correct folder by typing
- Compile and install SteamTinkerLaunch by running
sudo make install
. - Run
mkdir ~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch ~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch/lang
- From inside the
steamtinkerlaunch
directory in the command line, runcd lang
- From here, run
ls -l
to list all the files in this directory. This will list all the languages that SteamTinkerLaunch is available in. - Look for the name of the language you want to use SteamTinkerLaunch in, or English if your language is not available.
- Run
cp your_lang_file.txt ~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch/lang
, replacingyour_lang_file.txt
with the name of the actual file. - Run
./steamtinkerlaunch
to configure SteamTinkerLaunch for the first time. This will properly create all of the configuration files at~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch
. - Update GTK Icons with
gtk-update-icon-cache
. - Run
steamtinkerlaunch compat add
. - Restart Steam to refresh the list of Compatibility Tools.
SteamTinkerLaunch comes preinstalled on Nobara. If you wish to use a more up-to-date version, you may want to uninstall SteamTinkerLaunch and install with something like ProtonUp-Qt.
SteamTinkerLaunch is very straightforward to uninstall. The first step is to run steamtinkerlaunch compat del
, which will remove SteamTinkerLaunch as a compatability tool from Steam.
Next, remove the /dev/shm/steamtinkerlaunch
folder. This stores some temporary files which are fairly small but removing it will give you a clean uninstall. If there are other similarly named folders in /dev/shm
, feel free to remove them too.
If you don't think you'll ever use SteamTinkerLaunch again in future, you'll want to remove SteamTinkerLaunch's configuration folder. Please note that this folder may contain third party executable tools such as CheatEngine or ModOrganizer 2 (including ModOrganizer 2 mods by default), and community Proton flavours downloaded via SteamTinkerLaunch such as GE-Proton. You may want to remove this folder as it can be quite large and if you won't need it anymore, it can save on disk space to remove it. On most installations this folder is ~/.config/steamtinkerlaunch
. For Flatpak, refer to the Flatpak steps.
Please remember to remove SteamTinkerLaunch as a launch option for native Linux games, if you have this set for any of your games.
Finally, you will need to follow the relevant steps below to remove SteamTinkerLaunch itself depending on how you did your installation.
Refer to your package manager's documentation for how to remove a package.
Select SteamTinkerLaunch from the list compatibility tools and click "Remove selected". If any games are currently using SteamTinkerLaunch as a compatibility tool, it will prompt you.
ProtonUp-Qt also lets you remove the SteamTinkerLaunch configuration folder. If you would like to do this, enable the checkbox when prompted for uninstallation.
If you're using an up-to-date release of SteamTinkerLaunch, you can uninstall with sudo make uninstall
. This will remove SteamTinkerLaunch entirely from your system files.
For local installations you only have to remove the folder you are running SteamTinkerLaunch from. If you manually added SteamTinkerLaunch to your shell path, remember to remove it as well.
Simply delete the ~/stl
folder to remove SteamTinkerLaunch from your Steam Deck.
You can uninstall SteamTinkerLaunch from any Software Center that has support for managing Flatpaks, such as KDE Discover, even if you did not install it through this frontend.
Newer releases of some Software Centers will give you the option to remove any lingering configuration files for your Flatpaks. You can use this option to remove the remaining SteamTinkerLaunch Flatpak files automatically.
You can uninstall Flatpak SteamTinkerLaunch with flatpak uninstall com.valvesoftware.Steam.Utility.steamtinkerlaunch
.
You can then remove the folder ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.config/steamtinkerlaunch/
if it still exists. This will remove any lingering SteamTinkerLaunch configuration files.
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