this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
9 points (80.0% liked)

Linux

13744 readers
201 users here now

A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)

Also, check out:

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/30198502

System:

Debian 13 KDE (actually MX Linux, but doesn't seem to matter)  
Wayland (xwayland installed as well)  
Docker 29.5.2

Dockerfile:

FROM debian:trixie

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
ENV LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ENV LANGUAGE=en_US:en
ENV LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

# Set locale
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        locales && \
    apt-get clean && \
    sed -i '/en_US.UTF-8/s/^# //g' /etc/locale.gen && \
    locale-gen

# Install Wayland-specific packages
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        dbus \
        libwayland-client0 \
        libwayland-egl1 && \
    apt-get clean

# Install X-specific packages
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        dbus-x11 && \
    apt-get clean

# Add contrib, default is only main
RUN sed -i 's/^Components:.*/Components: main contrib/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources

# Add 32-bit arch for Steam libraries
RUN dpkg --add-architecture i386

# Install Steam
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        steam-installer \
        pciutils && \
    apt-get clean

# Additional
# TODO: What is really needed?
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        vulkan-tools \
        mesa-utils \
        x11-xserver-utils \
        libvulkan1 \
        mesa-vulkan-drivers && \
    apt-get clean

# TODO: Does `-storebeta` even work?
# https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Command_line_options_(Steam)
CMD ["/usr/games/steam", "-storebeta"]

To run the container:

xhost +
sudo docker run -it --name steam \
    -e XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR \
    -e WAYLAND_DISPLAY=$WAYLAND_DISPLAY \
    -v $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/$WAYLAND_DISPLAY:$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/$WAYLAND_DISPLAY \
    -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
    --privileged steam:trixie

(The --privileged part is only temporary until I found out which capabilities are actually needed. Please don't run your containers with --privileged.)

I get the GUI dialogs to download Steam just fine, so at least some display forwarding is working:

The installation works fine, but when starting Steam it seems like it's not able to find Vulkan devices and then doesn't open any Steam window. (The container is not stopping and I'm seeing repeated ./steamwebhelper output after this.)

[...]
Running query: 1 - GpuTopology
CVulkanTopology: failed create vulkan instance: -9
CVulkanTopology: failed to create vulkan instanceFailed to query vulkan gpu topology

Failed to query vulkan gpu topology
Response: 
Exit code: -2
[...]
Vulkan missing requested extension 'VK_KHR_surface'.
Vulkan missing requested extension 'VK_KHR_xlib_surface'.
BInit - Unable to initialize Vulkan!
[...]

However, Vulkan is clearly working fine in the container, as this commands displays the cube rendering just fine:

$ sudo docker exec -it steam vkcube
Selected WSI platform: xcb
Selected GPU 0: AMD Radeon RX 550 / 550 Series (RADV POLARIS12), type: DiscreteGpu

(I've also tried it on another (pure) Debian machine with a 2080Ti, but I've got the same issue.)

I've created other GUI containers in the past (Firefox for example) and didn't have these problems.

Does anybody have an idea and can point me in the right direction?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Trying to use an immutable docker container to host a program that notoriously self-installs and requires self-updates is, I'm pretty sure, something that comprises one of Dante's circles of hell.

Wrong tool for the job. Don't do this. I consider docker harmful at the best of times, but this is truly something horrible to try to do with it. I'll never understand why people (not just OP, but also developers like Valve) insist on defying and sabotaging and actively working around the distro's package manager. Your software is not a special snowflake, it does not need its own magical install method and its own perfectly curated libraries. Just fucking use what's what the system is already providing and if certain libraries don't have a stable enough interface and have conflicts between versions so bad that you can't even have any different major versions you require installed alongside each other concurrently, then start shaming them or replacing them with alternatives, because having a compatible-except-for-bugs-and-edge-cases library interface is not such an unreasonable ask for a modern system and toolchain. And then we can all just peacefully use our distro's package manager like our lord and savior Debian intended.

[โ€“] Lemmchen@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

It's proprietary software and because of that I don't want to run it unisolated. Yes, I know there's a flatpack, unfortunately it is not by Valve themselves. Yes, I know there's a Snap, unfortunately it is by Canonical.
If I am not able to get Docker to work, I'll probably end up using bubblewrap, like this project here: https://git.sr.ht/~whynothugo/steam-container