Steam Kubuntu 25.04

Support and Help
1

Ubuntu Version:

Kubuntu 25.04

Problem Description:

Hello everyone. After a while, I’ve decided to give Ubuntu another try. A few months ago, I had a lot of problems installing programs and getting the operating system to work, and I didn’t have time to troubleshoot them.
But now I have more time and want to make the jump to Linux once and for all.

I’ll be publishing different posts with the problems that arise, so everything will be more organized.

The first is installing Steam.
I’ve been doing some research, and from what I’ve seen, neither the Snap nor Flathub versions are official Steam versions, so the only method seems to be to install the Steam .deb package.
Is this correct? Could there be any risk involved, or should some measure be taken to ensure greater security?

I’m asking this because I’ve always read that it’s advisable not to install or minimize installations directly with .deb files.

Thank you very much.

2

On Kubuntu the easiest – and safest – way is simply to install the Steam
package that lives in Ubuntu’s own multiverse repository.
It is the same .deb Valve publish on their website, but wrapped in Ubuntu’s
update/signature system, so you stay on the normal apt upgrade path and
don’t have to download anything manually.

# 1. Enable multiverse (if it isn’t already)
sudo add-apt-repository multiverse
sudo apt update

# 2. Install Steam
sudo apt install steam

What that package really does is drop a small launcher script; the first time
you run Steam from the menu it will pull the full 32-bit runtime directly
from Valve’s server, just like on Windows. After that it updates itself
inside your home directory – the same behaviour on every Linux distro.

Snap vs Flatpak vs .deb

Method Signed / updated by Sandboxed Notes
apt install steam Ubuntu archive no Officially recommended; integrates with drivers and desktop.
flatpak install … Flathub (community) yes Works fine, but games need a Flatpak-aware driver stack.
Snap (no longer shipped) community yes Out-of-date, generally avoided.

Unless you have a specific reason to prefer the Flatpak sandbox, the .deb
from Ubuntu’s multiverse repo is the most straightforward choice and carries
no extra risk – it’s covered by the same signatures and security updates as
the rest of your system.

1 Like
3

Aren’t the packages in the Multiverse repository maintained by the community? I’d read that these aren’t official Canonical packages and therefore don’t guarantee security and reliability.

I’m a bit confused about this.

Thank you so much for your help and collaboration.

4

Can anyone else contribute anything? Thank you all so much for your help.

5

I installed Steam as an official Canonical maintained snap.

I have had no issues with it but my “gaming” is very basic.

6

This may be one of the options, although approximately a year ago Valve itself published the following:
"Valve is seeing an increasing number of bug reports for issues caused by Canonical’s repackaging of the Steam client through snap.

The best way to install Steam on Debian and derivative operating systems is to follow the instructions at http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ and use the official .deb

We are not involved with the snap repackaging. It has a lot of issues.

If you don’t want the .deb, please at least consider the flatpak version."

Perhaps these problems have already been solved.

Thank you so much.

7

Does anyone can or want contribute anything further on this topic? Thank you very much.

8

I use the Snap version, I haven’t had any problems with it, and it’s a good option if you care about security.

I’ve used the Flatpak version, but I had problems with it in the game The Last Campfire, it made the game try to access files in the wrong place, and because of that it stopped having sound.

While the Snap and .deb versions didn’t give me this problem.

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