Canonical has released an ARM64 version of its Steam Snap, making it easier for Ubuntu users with device ARM hardware to game on Steam.
As Steam doesn’t officially provide an ARM version, Canonical has bundled the amd64 Steam client with the FEX emulator. This is the same tech stack Valve is using (and funding) in its upcoming Snapdragon-powered Steam Frame VR headset.
Distro engineer Mitchell Augustin’s call for testing covers both the Steam Snap as well as an ARM64 build of gaming-graphics-core24, which bundles together an architecture-compatible Mesa graphics stack.
Perfection isn’t the purpose yet, with this snap billed as “experimental, comes without warranty or official support, and is provided on a best-effort basis”.
But it offers an easy way to help test the future of gaming on Linux.
ARM Steam Snap: Gaming Performance
A few years back, the suggestion of emulating x86 software on ARM on Linux would’ve elicited an audible wince owing to latency, bottlenecks, etc. Today, ARM hardware is significantly more capable, making translation overhead less of a concern.
Canonical’s been testing the snap on NVIDIA DGX Spark – powerful, but pricey hardware
Canonical’s Mitchell Augustin has been testing this ARM Steam snap package on NVIDIA DGX Spark hardware — which is not modest or cheap at $3,000 for a base model.
Cyberpunk 2077 hits 200+ FPS (with DLSS enabled via Proton); Counter-Strike 2 handles multi-hour sessions smoothly, and some native Linux titles like Portal 2 and DOTA 2 run free of any major issues.
If you have more modest ARM hardware then set expectations south of the findings above. FEX is a solid x86 to ARM emulator, but it can only do so much: good hardware is vital.
Thankfully, powerful ARM laptops are becoming more common now that Windows on ARM is a thing, and not a niche offering. Ubuntu’s been investing engineering time into supporting modern consumer ARM laptops and PCs, as seen with the generic ARM installer using stubble.
No doubt we will hear a lot more about Steam for ARM in general over the coming months, and it’s clear Valve is keen to do for ARM gaming what it did for Linux. In an interview with The Verge the hope is to expand to run Steam OS on ARM handhelds in time.
How to test Steam ARM Snap
If you have a modern, capable ARM system you can try the Steam snap for ARM64 out easily enough.
To get going, open your preferred terminal app and run:
sudo snap install --candidate steam
Then, launch Steam normally and… Start gaming!
A few caveats: Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptops have a known issue that prevents proper functionality (this is being ‘investigated’ right now), and the snap won’t work on Apple Silicon Macs that run Asahi Linux due to 16k page size requirements.
Finally, a reminder that this Snap is not officially supported by Valve. Any issues you encounter should be punted in the direction of Canonical, rather than upstream, where they’ll likely just annoy Steam’s support staff…
If you can test this, be sure to drop back and leave your experience in the comments — and if you can’t test it out, I’m sure you’ve got thoughts on the topic, so don’t be shy…