Unable to install Steam 64bit - Wrong architecture (Lubuntu 12.04)

Question

I'm on a new install of Lubuntu 12.04 on an Acer Aspire 5534 (specifications here, tl;dr: AMD dual-core 64bit) trying to install steam_latest.deb from the Steam website. When I open gdebi to install, it tells me that it's uninstallable because it's for a i386 architecture. I've tried installing ia32-libs (installed, no success), gdebi --add-architecture i386 (with and without --force, command unknown). This is all I've found to fix the problem, but none of it has worked for me. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Some similar questions have already been asked here.

The problem, in short, is trying to force the installation of a 32 bit package on a 64 bit machine.

I would suggest you to have a look at these questions:

• How do I apt-get a 32-bit package on a 64-bit installation?
• How do I install a 32-bit proprietary deb on a 64-bit system without causing dependency problems?

Answer 2

You could do this:

Dowland the package from

http://steampowered.com

and then appgrid

sudo apt-get install appgrid

or

sudo dkms-reconfigure steam
sudo apt-get install --reinstall steam
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get upgrade 
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade 

and it might work fine this way.

Answer 3

To install steam, if you have issues, the best approach is to use the terminal with dpkg + apt. Those utilities will give you the most fine grained control. If you get problems you'll be able to copy/paste the errors to get more help.

This steps also work for Debian.

• Download the steam DEB package
• Enable the 32 bit repository: sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
• Update the package list: apt-get update
• Try to install the package with dpkg, it will fail because of the missing dependencies: sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
• Now, correct the missing dependencies: sudo apt-get install -f
• Verify that steam is properly installed: sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

At this moment steam should be installed.

There have been cases where the libraries in steam created issues, like: https://askubuntu.com/a/706796/430526

In other cases Steam will complain because the packages with the 32 bit 3D libraries are not installed, you may need to install those packages. For example if you use nvidia drivers: install libgl1-nvidia-glx:i386

An useful link regarding missing 32bit 3D drivers: https://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/Diag/MissingLibGL

If it doesn't work, paste the contents of your terminal, it is usually easy to see what the problem is from them.

Answer 4

If you intend to play somewhat modern games on this computer, you need to do at least two things:

1. Download and install a recent 64-bit version of Lubuntu. Currently, this is 16.04 LTS. Anything less than this, and you're asking for trouble. 12.04 was released in April of 2012.
2. Download and install the latest 64-bit version of Steam, either from the Ubuntu repository or steampowered.com.

Of course, install your graphics drivers, as needed, and otherwise do everything necessary to make it go. If this computer is too old to run anything 64-bit, at least get a current version of Lubuntu, and install the latest 32-bit Steam package. There are still some games that don't require a modern processor.