this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Install Steam on an arch-based distro with "picky" nvidia drivers (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 4 days ago by Lisk91@sh.itjust.works to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This isn't a guide, just something i think may help. To install Steam on an Arch-based distro in most of the cases a simple sudo pacman -S steam will do just fine.

The installation will ask you to select a valid vulkan package from a list. And in most of the cases that's just fine... most of them.

Then you have your very "picky" old nvidia GPU which works only with a specific old nvidia driver and if you try to install anything else, there will be a conflict. Now you can try to remove the old (working) drivers and try your luck. But looking online i find a simple way to skip this passage and install Steam.

sudo pacman -S steam --assume-installed lib32-vulkan-driver

all 27 comments
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[–] kinther@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

This is one of the reasons I went with AMD for my latest GPU. Not that NVIDIA sucks, I just didnt want the hassle.

[–] Stupendous@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I get if you're buying 5080 and up hardware, there's no other competitors there. 5070 and lower, buy AMD or Intel. 9070 (xt) are great graphics cards. The 9060xt is great. You can go down to 7600xt, A770, B580, etc and have a graphics card very capable of gaming and they work straight out the box. No proprietary driver frictions. I use a 9070. I'll be good for another 5+ years. GPU upgrade. Maybe a CPU upgrade since I'm AM5 based. No motherboard/memory changes and considering the next consoles are likely to be based on Zen 6, I'll be right with them just with a stronger CPU

[–] Tiral@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

I love my 9600xt. 16gb of ram is more than it will ever need. Also getting the same performance as my 6800xt at about 30-40% of the power, the fans barely turn on.

[–] nothingcorporate@lemmy.today 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Fuck Nvidia and their powering AI systems for Netayahu's genocide. Team Red all the way.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

let's not act like massive multinational corporations care about us, AMD is also ethically miserable, as is intel and everyone else.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

Something something “Nazi Jew-Counting computers were supplied by IBM” I guess.

[–] nothingcorporate@lemmy.today 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There's a big difference between "there's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism," and "these guys are making autonomous killing machines carrying out a genocide."

I'm not pro-corporate anybody (see username), but if we can't stick up a big middle finger to genocide profiteers, to whom can we?

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

that's not what i'm saying though: what i'm saying is that AMD and intel aren't any different from nvidia, they're all the same shitheads that are happy to pretend they're pro-consumer and not evil when they have the excuse of being the underdog.

There are companies that try to not be evil (or at least minimally evil as required by capitalism) but AMD isn't one of them. Go support RISC-V and openpower instead.

[–] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Hate to break it to you, but AMD is also contributing to genocide as much as they possibly can (Nvidia is still beating them in that aspect as well)

[–] Brewchin@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

On my desktop with a 2060 it's zero issue, but on my 940M hybrid video laptop it's been spicy at times.

Usually updates without an issue, and the most I need to do is delay the -settings package update until after the rest. (IIRC, see what I mean 😄).

[–] Bobby@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

Depending how old the GPU is, Nouveau or the other one may lead to better results by now.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Nvidia supports 13 year old hardware and newest kernels with 580. At some point when running your 14 year old GPU one might consider just running the open source nouveau after all I assume that if you are running a 14 year old GPU you probably don't need the utmost possible performance or you might consider getting a 4 year old AMD for $100 to replace your 14 year old nvidia.

Whilst it would be ideal for you not to have to look up anything ever nvidia will tell you which driver to use with your hardware

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

If you are feeling frisky you could synthesize the already available data into a script that tells you the same thing. Linux Mint has a GUI for this which tells you which version is recommended for your hardware and your total commitment is clicking install and rebooting.

[–] InvisibleShoe@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Haha I just spent the last 2 days trying to get nvidia to work on arch. Its my first time using arch but I did end up getting the drivers to work by removing the default one and installing the dkms drivers. Still a pain in the ass though.

[–] Lisk91@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

Been there, done that 👍

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I suppose I'm lucky. Catchy installed the Nvidia driver during the install and works/ updates without issue. I've got an older card, but not ancient. gtx1660

I did have issues when I first switched to Linux, but that was on Debian.

[–] yuman@programming.dev 0 points 3 days ago (2 children)

anyone knows what kinda driver that isn't nouveau works for a GT750M? @mlg@lemmy.world which did you use for your 750ti?

got a Macbook Pro 2013 motherboard (i7-4850, 16 GB DDR3, GT750M 2 GB) that I'm thinking of turning into a desktop. no gaming intended, although welcome if possible (old titles).

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I'm pretty sure it's akmod-nvidia-470xx, would have to try it to see if it works.

750ti actually fell under Maxwell, and RPMFusion just split it off into akmod-nvidia-580xx for GTX 750/800/900/10 cards.

I think I faintly remember running a 600 card on linux back in the day, so no reason it shouldn't work.

[–] nocteb@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

try this one: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nvidia-470xx-dkms

Edit: there is a good link as well on that driver page that should help:

https://github.com/korvahannu/arch-nvidia-drivers-installation-guide

[–] Solaris1220@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The image for the post is amazing lmao

[–] Lisk91@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Thank You 🤗

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 0 points 4 days ago

What’s this meme from? Is it a babadook still?