Steam in Docker

Tested in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64bit) with the following GPU's:

• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• Intel HD Graphics 4400
• NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Requirements

• Docker
• (Optional) Docker Compose

Limitations

• Currently, the version of the Nvidia's driver in this container must match the version installed on your host.

  I am going to improve the /launch script so that it will be able to automatically detect the working version of your Nvidia driver and use it. Currently the script detects only the nvidia-340 vs no-proprietary-nvidia-drivers at all.

Building and launching Steam

Create 32bit image

Create 32-bit Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (xenial) image

sudo apt-get -y install debootstrap
sudo debootstrap --arch=i386 xenial /tmp/xenial-chroot http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
sudo tar -C /tmp/xenial-chroot -c . | docker import - xenial32
sudo rm -rf /tmp/xenial-chroot
docker tag xenial32 andrey01/xenial32:latest

Build Steam Docker image

You may want to re-run this command later on in order to keep the image updated.

docker build -t andrey01/steam .

Launch the Steam in Docker

You can drop the following aliases to your ~/.bash_aliases

alias docker="sudo docker"
alias docker-compose="sudo docker-compose"
alias steam="docker-compose -f $HOME/docker/steam/docker-compose.yml run --rm steam"

Then just issue "steam" command to run Steam in docker.

Troubleshooting

You might want to modify the docker-compose.yml in case of problems, the file should be pretty self explanatory, although you may refer to the official Docker Compose file reference

Also keep in mind to uncomment or/and add your devices to the devices: section there.

The best result is when you have a similar to the following output, using the glxgears (part of mesa-utils package):

$ docker-compose -f $HOME/docker/steam/docker-compose.yml run --rm --entrypoint glxgears steam
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
305 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.878 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.011 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.009 FPS
305 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.807 FPS

If you are getting segmentation fault error or Steam does not start, then you could try resetting its config:

$ docker-compose -f $HOME/docker/steam/docker-compose.yml run --rm steam --reset

Links

Below is just bunch of links, someone might find them useful

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Valve

• https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux#Ubuntu

• http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb

• http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/archive/precise/steam_latest.deb

• http://repo.steamstatic.com/steam/