v14, Dec 16th 2024
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This advanced guide goes over installing Steam and MangoHud on PCLinuxOS, and using it to cap/limit the FPS of Steam games. My graphics card gets quite hot, so this is essential for me.
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First, open a Terminal and type the following commands in the order, which will install some of the dependencies Steam requires:
su
apt install -y sudo
apt install -y wget
apt install -y dpkg
apt install -y alien
apt install -y easyrpmbuilder
apt install -y ia32-libs
apt install -y wine32.32bit
apt install -y bubblewrap
apt install -y lib64kpipewire5
apt install -y lib64kpipewire5-devel
apt install -y lib64pipewire-devel
apt install -y lib64kpipewire-devel
apt install -y php-bz2
Now we need to fetch the Steam Client's installer directly from Valve with the following command:
wget https://cdn.fastly.steamstatic.com/client/installer/steam.deb
Given the installer Valve provides is a Debian .deb, rather than a PCLinuxOS .rpm, we need to convert it using a tool called alien, which we installed just a moment ago, do so with the following command:
alien -r steam.deb
Now we install the Steam package alien has provided us with, the filename of this changes frequently as Valve updates the Steam client, so type something similar to the following, and then use the TAB key to autocomplete the rest of the file name, before hitting Enter:
rpm -ivh steam[TAB KEY]
KEEP READING, WE'RE NOT DONE YET! - Due to a side effect of the method used to install, your package manager will have just broken, don't worry! You just need to make a tiny config file edit to restore its functionality, type the following command:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-stable.list
- then move your cursor in front of the lines that say deb, and type a # in front of them both, to disable them, as demonstrated below:
#deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
#deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
Save-and-quit from this editor, press Ctrl-X (together), then press Y to agree to save, and Enter to agree to save it in the right place. Now, close the Terminal, and then open a new one, the next command will need to be written in this freshly opened non-root Terminal.
As PCLinuxOS is not a distro officially supported by Valve, launching Steam is more difficult here than it normally would be, you MUST launch Steam with the following command, every single time, you may wish to put this command into a shortcut or script of your own, at your own discretion, but for now simply run it in your Terminal:
STEAM_RUNTIME=1 STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=1 steam
Comparatively, installing MangoHud is incredibly easy, all you need to do is navigate to its Releases page on GitHub (https://github.com/flightlessmango/MangoHud/releases), download the latest version (the download at the top, with the file ending with the extension tar.gz), locate that file, extract it, right click the background of that folder and click "Open Terminal Here", and then type the following commands, in order:
# Your user account needs to be in the sudoers file for this to work.
# How to do so is outside the scope of this guide, but is easy to Google
./mangohud-setup.sh install
and MangoHud is installed!
Actually using MangoHud is really straightforward, all you have to do is open the Launch Options for the game you wish to hook into, and copy the following string into them. Simply right click a game in your Steam Library, click Properties, and paste the following into the text box:
MANGOHUD=1 MANGOHUD_CONFIG=fps_limit=60,no_display mangohud %command%
As you can see in the command, there, the FPS cap I've settled on is 60, you can change the number to change the FPS that your game will be limited to.
You can use the key combination of Right Shift + F12 to see MangoHud show up visually, and once more to hide it.
You can e-mail me with thoughts, feedback, etc. at TheNovimatrem@protonmail.ch