80 LXF249 May 2019 http://www.linuxformat.com
TUTORIALS Steam streaming
alve’sSteamLinkwasanoddlittledevice.
Frequentlydiscountedtojusta coupleofquid,
andmuch-malignedforproducinginconsistent
results,thenow-discontinuedblackboxaimedtobeam
yourgamesfromyourdesktopPC– presumably
residingina dirtycornerofyourhome– toyourliving
roomTV.That’snota newconcept,certainly– youcan
doit withanXboxorPlayStation,orwithtechsuchas
GeForceGo,orevenSteamfromPCtoPC– buta
damnconvenientoneif youhavea libraryfullofSteam
gamesandaninsatiableyearningforyoursofa.
Goodnews,then:SteamLinkisdead,butlonglive
SteamLink, nowrebornasa chunkofLinuxcode
suitabletorunona RaspberryPi3.Yes,you’llbe
investingmore– youneeda RaspberryPi3Bor3B+
(£34,plusalltheotherbitsyourequire)– butonce
it’shookedup,you’llgetthesameeffect,andthere’s
nothingtostopyouinstallingotherstuffonyourPito
giveit a secondjob.RetroPi, anyone?PlexorKodi?
It’s up to you.Prepare your Pi
You absolutely need a Raspberry Pi 3B or 3B+. We
didn’t try this on a Pi Zero or a previous version of the
main Raspberry Pi branch, because we weren’t feeling
masochistic enough; it’s unlikely to work at all, but if
that’s all you’ve got, you’re welcome to try it. You also
need an Ethernet connection (we’ll come to this later
on) and, at least initially, a keyboard and mouse, before
you replace them with a controller. A large SD card isn’t
a primary requirement (we installed on an 8GB card we
had lying around), but if you want to do more with yourUse Etcher to
write your SD card.Stream your Steam
games at home
PushyourLinux gaming to your big TV for real
gamingfun,with the help of Alex Cox.
AlexCox
is a tech expert
and writer,
inexorably drawn
to tinkering with,
and inevitably
breaking,
anything put in
front of him.
V
STEAM
OUR
EXPERTA Raspberry Pi 3B or 3B+ can
replacetheoldSteamLink.Steam Link box, you’ll want to give yourself a little more
breathing room. Lastly, don’t skimp on the power
supply: you need something that puts out at least 2.5A,
because if your Pi doesn’t get the relevant juice, it’ll
descend into a mess of glitches. Consider also adding
a heatsink kit to your box to prevent it frying itself.Get carded
Unlike the case with some single-use Raspberry Pi
setups, there’s no special distro needed to be installed
on your SD card: the Steam Link app installs and runs
on top of Raspbian Stretch, the Pi’s default OS.
Download the desktop version http://www.raspberrypi.org
and unzip it, then grab Etcher from http://www.balena.io/
etcher to get the OS image onto your SD card. Insert
the card into your reader, run Etcher, drag and drop the
ISO image onto the window, and proceed with the
writing procedure. Make sure you’ve extracted
everything you need from that SD card, as this is a 100
per cent destructive procedure.
When the write’s done, pop the card into your
Raspberry Pi and boot up – it should drop you straight
to Raspbian’s Pixel desktop.Install Steam Link
Open up a terminal and type sudo apt update to make
sure your OS install is as current as it can be, and to
ensure Raspbian’s knowledge of its repositories is up to
date. Then type sudo apt install steamlink to download
the whole thing and install it automatically. That’s the
installation process done with – you should see a
Steam Link icon appear on your desktop, and the
program’s ready to run. You can now either double-
click that icon, or run steamlink within the terminal
window.
If you have a controller, you can plug it in and
configure it now; Steam Link on the Raspberry Pi