Steam in Docker

Why?

Some people asked me why would someone want to have Steam in a Docker container? Few main points which pushed me making this Docker container:

1. I want to set-up more fences when running the code I don't/can't trust; issue 3671
2. I don't want to spend time on figuring out how to install Steam (what deps) in a non-Debian (or non-SteamOS) based distro;
3. I like cleanliness: I can erase Steam and all its dependencies in a matter of seconds;

And few Pros from my PoV:

• I can have Steam on my Ubuntu/openSUSE/[put any other distro I will want to use] in a short time that Docker takes when downloads this Steam container;
• Since Steam is meant to run in Debian (SteamOS) based distro, it is not a problem anymore, since it is in a container now.

Suggestions / PR's are welcomed!

What's tested?

The following games have been tested:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Alien: Isolation
• PAYDAY 2
• Insurgency
• Half-Life: Counter-Strike 1.6
• Iron Snout
• Toribash
• DeadCore (no sound)

Tested in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64bit) and openSUSE Leap 42.1 with the following GPU's:

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

Requirements

• Docker
• Docker Compose minimum version 1.7.3

Building and launching Steam

Launching Steam in Docker

The simplest way to launch Steam is by running:

git clone https://github.com/arno01/steam.git
cd steam
docker-compose run steam

If Steam does not start, you may need to allow your user making local connections to X server, which can be achieved with this command on host:

xhost +SI:localuser:$(id -un)

You can use the following shortcut function and place it to your ~/.bash_aliases file:

function docker_helper() {
    pushd ~/docker/$1
    docker-compose rm -fa "$1"
    docker-compose run -d --name "$1" "$@"
    popd
}

function steam() {
    docker_helper "$FUNCNAME" "$@"
}

Then just use steam command to run Steam in docker.

Updating Steam Docker image

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

VERSION=$(git rev-parse HEAD | head -c8) make

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):

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

docker-compose run --rm steam --reset

Grsecurity notes

grsec: TPE

Trusted Path Execution (TPE)

This Steam docker image is working with the grsecurity patched kernel. It only needs a /proc/sys/kernel/grsecurity/tpe_gid accessible by root for read.

grsec: PaX

It is also working with PaX part of the grsecurity. I have tested it with Half-Life games like CS 1.6, and CS:GO. Please refer to the launch file if grsecurity is blocking some executable or a library.

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/

• https://grsecurity.net/