How to Install Steam on Ubuntu 6.10 Using WINE

This tutorial will guide the user through installing Steam on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) using the WINE (Wine is Not an Emulator) Windows Compatibility Layer. I would like to assume that the user knows basic BASH (Bourne Again Shell) commands.

There are a few things we are going to need before we actually install Steam:

1. Latest Video Drivers
2. WINE
3. msttcorefonts
4. Persistance

Make sure you update your video drivers. I have a Nvidia card in this laptop and I got the "Steam freezes at 26%-27% when updating" error before I updated my drivers.

Now, I would like to think that anyone can use Synaptic Package Manager. We are going to use SPM to install WINE and msttcorefonts since that is easiest for everyone. If you know that you can download the WINE source from CVS, then you probably know how to compile it, therefore I will not explain how.

Let's open up Synaptic Package Manager.
Click search and type 'wine'.
Right click on the package named 'wine' and click 'Mark for installation'.
Click 'Apply'.
When it is finished installing open up a terminal window and type 'wine'.
If that doesn't work as intended type 'sudo wine'.
If still doesn't work then you fucked something up and should probably go to google.

Now, slide on back over to SPM.
Click search and type 'msttcorefonts'.
Right click on the package named 'msttcorefonts' and click 'Mark for installation'.
Click 'Apply'.
Creep on back over to the terminal and type:

cp -R /usr/share/fonts/truetype/* ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts

That should have copied the fonts into your virtual windows directory. If it didn't, you know the drill: google. What I wrote worked for me and three other people.

Now we have to do something that is fun but may be scary for some people: Open the windows registry editor.

Open up terminal and type:

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/windows
sudo wine regedit

When regedit finishes loading you want to navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

Add a string value named 'Tahoma' with a value of 'Verdana' or whatever other font you like. This will be the font that Steam uses to render text.

Now that we are through all that bullshit we can surf over to www.steampowered.com and download the Steam installer. Run it.

Two things, first, never try to minimize steam unless you like Gnome better when it is frozen. Second, you can not focus (get into them) on the text fields unless you right click (or left click if you are left handed).

Okay, log-in with your username and password, update CS and you should be ready to go.

This really is a short guide to getting Steam to run on Ubuntu 6.10 using WINE. There are probably more errors than I know about that you could run into. I refer you to Google in that case. These steps worked for me the first time (after I figured it all out).

Don't forget to leave a comment if you have something you think should be added!