Steam update problem.

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SlyPhy
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri 27 Jun 2014, 05:51

Steam update problem.

#1 Post by SlyPhy »

Trying to update the Steam client and it tells me it has no space to do so.

see https://i.imgur.com/V9cr9eZ.jpg for screen shot with error message and other info. Xenialpup 7.5 installed on USB, ext3, folder not savefile.

Any ideas how to proceed?


EDIT:

OK so it gets worse now and incredibly confusing.

1.. PPM is displaying some very confusing behavior.

Basically I decided to uninstall Steam and start again.. bad move it seems because the system seems broken now. In PPM I clicked on the uninstall button in the top left to open up the list of installed applications and selected Steam from the list and hit the uninstall button. Things progressed as expected and it gave me a dialogue informing me that Steam had been uninstalled.

I then closed that, checked the Fun section of the Menu and sure enough Steam had been removed from there - great! (I thought). So I closed the uninstall part of PPM and searched for it again in the install section... only to discover that PPM is still listing it as installed... wtf?

Anyway after a few attempts to install and uninstall this I noticed that there were a few other packages seemingly related to Steam that I think were installed as part of the initial install that were remaining, so I uninstalled them too. This didn't help. Steam still lists itself as being installed when it isn't. It does however let me re-install the package and remove the package. Restarting the system doesn't solve this issue, nor does changing the repository or the install method.

In the console I navigated to /usr/share/applications and notice that when Steam is installed there is a steam.desktop and when it is removed the steam.desktop disappears... so I guess PPM is 'working' in that respect but is not displaying the status of the package correctly.

All this unfortunately is compounded by the second problem.

2.. Steam now won't start at all.

I was only able to get anything out of Steam on the first install, when it refuses to update due to not enough memory. Since then, I sometimes get a request to agree to the EULA and mostly nothing happens at all.

So following the advice of @dancytron I looked at the steam.desktop file with Gearny and saw that the "Exec=" line for the Steam package is Steamalsa. Typing this in at the console I get the following line of text:

usr/bin/steam: line 206: /root/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: Success

And that's it. No error messages or anything else. No clue as to what is happening.

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bigpup
Posts: 13886
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Location: S.C. USA

#2 Post by bigpup »

I think this is what is happening.

Because Xenialpup is installed on and running from a USB flash drive.
Everything is running in memory.
When you install something, add something, uninstall, even delete, it is not going directly to the save folder. It is first in the save ram disc, that is using computer memory.
Stuff is not going into the actual save folder until you click on the desktop save icon or you shutdown.

Steam does need 4GB or more ram to work well. (minimum requirement on steam support)

I tried installing Steam on a computer with 2GB of ram.
I got basically the same memory warnings you got.
I tried constantly saving to the save to make sure memory usage was at the lowest. Helped some, but never did get Steam happy.

Do you have enough memory?
Xenialpup 7.5 is the 32bit version of Xenialpup and it is not PAE.
It can only see and use up to 4GB of RAM.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

SlyPhy
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri 27 Jun 2014, 05:51

#3 Post by SlyPhy »

Do you have enough memory?
2Gb. I thought swap files were supposed to fix this.

It seems odd that steam would be so hungry for resources since it's really just a kind of bloated browser.

Notwithstanding Steam's outlandish requirements, is this kind of behavior from PPM the way it's supposed to work or is something broken there too? Surely if I unuinstall something and get a dialog telling me the uninstall was successful, it shouldn't still be listed as installed.

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Mike Walsh
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Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#4 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ SlyPhy:-

You're merely joining the tail end of a long line of folks who've noticed this kind of occasional behaviour with the PPM. That's all it is, trust me; occasional. Despite its 'foibles', by and large the PPM behaves pretty well.....it's no worse in that respect than the package managers of many mainstream distros.

I've gone to install stuff, to find it says it's already there.....though if you try to start said prog/app from the terminal, it'll tell you it can't find it. So you install again....and now it'll work! :roll:

I guarantee that if you were to perform a frugal install to your hard drive, then you probably wouldn't have the problem. In this scenario, stuff is being saved to the 'save-file/folder' immediately; in the USB install, it works differently, based on the perceived need to try and protect the flash memory from unnecessary write cycles.

The problem appears to be more prevalent with certain apps, though it's unpredictable at best. You learn to live with it; the problem is compounded by the fact that the majority of stuff in the PPM is mostly coming from the repos of the parent distro whose binaries were used in the building of whichever Pup you're running. In your case, from the Canonical repositories for Ubuntu 16.04 'Xenial Xerus'.....but, because Puppy is unique in its construction, there's no guarantee said items will work 100%.

TBH, I install way more software via .pet or SFS packages than I ever do the PPM. I mostly use it for tracking down dependencies; for that, it's very good.

If I can't find a .pet for what I want, I'll track down a .deb package, and try that; more often, I'll convert it to a .pet, after first tracking down any necessary dependencies, and, more often than not, building a .desktop entry for the Menu. But that's just me; at least that way, if it works, I can share it!


Mike. :wink:

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bigpup
Posts: 13886
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#5 Post by bigpup »

The steam you got, probably did not provide all the correct info files, that PPM uses, for the uninstall process.
When a program package is compiled. There are specific info files, that need to be in the package, for PPM to work correctly.

PPM will usually correct itself after you do a reboot.

If it still shows Steam installed.
Use Pfind to search for steam.
Delete what it finds.
NOTE:
Quickpet>Fun offers steam.
Do not delete those files for Quickpet


That was the one I tried on my 2GB computer.
But as I said, I still got the memory error messages with steam trying to update.
2Gb. I thought swap files were supposed to fix this.
It should help, but are you sure the swap is being used?
In a console type

Code: Select all

free
That should tell you if the swap is seen and being used.

Also, the steam update may say it is a specific download size, but it is a compressed file.
When you go to install it and it is uncompressed.
It could be 3 to 5 times that size.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

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bigpup
Posts: 13886
Joined: Sun 11 Oct 2009, 18:15
Location: S.C. USA

#6 Post by bigpup »

Xenialpup 7.5 (32 bit version)

I used Quickpet>Fun>Steam to download and install Steam.
Did this on a 16GB RAM memory computer.
Downloaded, installed, and Updated with no problem.

Started Steam from menu>Fun
Tried to create a new account.
Got error message that Steam browser is disabled.
Gave help page to see what to do.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_art ... -RTKZ-4347
Linux

32-bit Linux distributions are also no longer supported. Please install a 64-bit Linux distribution to make use of the Steam browser.
That was as far as I got.
Xenialpup 7.5 being 32bit Steam does not now work with by this info.
I gues it wants a 64bit Puppy.

There must be something posted in this forum about getting Steam to work in Puppy.
Good search to use.
http://puppylinux.us/psearch.html
This has got me wanting to get Steam working. Never used it in Puppy.
I have a Steam account, but the games I play need Windows to work.

Anyone that can help here?


If I did not know better, Steam is acting like Microsoft.
Constant updates and changing the requirements.
I thought they were all about doing stuff in Linux and dumping Windows!
Oh, they do have that Steam OS :roll:
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

User avatar
bigpup
Posts: 13886
Joined: Sun 11 Oct 2009, 18:15
Location: S.C. USA

#7 Post by bigpup »

Still using the 16 GB RAM computer
Went to using Bionicpup64 7.9.7
Installed Steam from Quickpet>Fun

Loaded the bionicpup 32bit compatibility lib sfs, just in case it needed 32bit stuff.

Menu>Fun>Steam
It would not start.
In console it gave errors about trying to use Nouveau driver.
(I have Nvidia hardware)
So, I changed to using a Nvidia driver for graphics.
Steam now started and went directly into updating.
Did several updates using up about 1.5GB of my 3 GB save file. :shock: :roll:
After all the updates completed Steam now seems to be working OK.
The Steam browser now starts (64bit Puppy being used)
Was able to create a new account.

So, Seems 2GB of memory is not enough.
Need a 64bit version of Puppy.
Need about 1.5GB of free storage space for the Steam install.
Probably need to be using Nvidia graphics hardware and the Nvidia driver to run it.
Radeon hardware may also work.
Not sure about Intel integrated graphics?

And this is suppose to be a better way to run games :!: :roll:
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

SlyPhy
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri 27 Jun 2014, 05:51

#8 Post by SlyPhy »

And this is suppose to be a better way to run games Exclamation Rolling Eyes
Hmm yeah. I was excited to see steam... now.. less so.

Thanks for all your work on this problem bigpup. My job has suddenly gone into overdrive for me so I doubt I'll be able to do much for the next week(s), however if I do manage to get Steam working I'll reply here again with progress and what I did to make it happen.

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