How to stream Steam games to your Linux desktop – Easy Steps

Valve has a separate Steam Link game streaming client for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and mobile devices. With it, you can stream games running on a gaming PC via Steam to the Steam Link app. It is a great option for Linux gamers looking to play desktop PC games on their laptops. Here’s how to set it up.

Note: You must have a Linux gaming PC running Steam, along with another computer running the Steam Link application on Linux for remote play to work.

Installing the Steam Link app on Linux

It is possible to stream Steam games to your Linux desktop with the Steam client. That said, it’s much easier to use Valve’s dedicated Steam link client. Unfortunately, this application does not come pre-installed on any Linux operating system. Instead, it must be installed.

To get the Steam Link app working on your Linux PC, start by opening a terminal window on the Linux desktop. You can open a terminal window on the desktop by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Or search for “Terminal” in the application menu.

Once the terminal window is open and ready to use, you can begin the Steam Link installation. Follow the installation instructions below that correspond to the Linux operating system you are currently using.

Flatpak

The Flatpak version of Steam Link is the best way to make the app work on Linux. Flatpak not only works on most Linux operating systems, it is also easy to install. To get started, you’ll need to configure the Flatpak runtime on your computer.

To configure the Flatpak runtime on your Linux PC, install the “flatpak” package. If you can’t figure out how to set the runtime, follow our guide on the subject. You will go over how to set up Flatpak.

After configuring the Flatpak runtime on your computer, you can begin the Steam Link installation. Using the remote flatpak-add command below. This command will add the Flathub app store to your system.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

With Flathub added, install the Steam Link app using the flatpak installation command.

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.SteamLink

Arch Linux AUR

The standalone Steam Link app is available to Arch Linux users through the AUR. For it to work, you will need to configure the Trizen AUR helper tool. Using the following commands, configure the Trizen tool.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

cd trizen/

makepkg -sri

With the Trizen AUR helper application running, use the trizen -S command to install the latest version of the Steam Link application on your Arch Linux computer.

trizen -S steamlink

How to stream Steam games to your Linux desktop

To stream Steam games to your Linux desktop with Steam Link, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Paso 1: Launch the Steam Link application on the Linux desktop by searching for it in the application menu. Once the application is open, you will see the “Pair Controller” screen. If desired, select ‘Pair a Steam Controller’ or ‘Pair Other Controllers’.

Don’t want to pair a controller to the Steam Link app? Click the “Skip” button to continue.

Paso 2: After configuring your controller, you will see the “Connect to Computer” screen. From here, you will be able to connect to your Linux gaming PC running Steam.

Sit back and allow Steam Link to detect your Linux gaming PC. If it cannot detect your PC, select the “Other Computer” button. Then follow the on-screen instructions provided by the Steam Link app to pair your Link app with the PC.

Paso 3: When pairing is complete, click on your remote PC to access it in the Steam Link app. After that, you will get remote access to the computer in Steam Big Picture. From here, you can search for a video game to install.

Paso 4: With a video game installed on the remote computer, you can start playing. Select your game in the Steam library and click the “PLAY” button to start remote play. When selecting “PLAY”, please note that the remote Linux PC may take some time to load the game as it is via LAN.

Paso 5: When the “PLAY” button is selected, Steam Link will display the “Starting” screen. After the “Launch” screen opens, the game will be displayed in the Steam Link application. Enjoy your game!

If you want to end streaming in the Steam Link app, press and hold the Escape key on keyboard. When you do this, a menu will appear. With this menu, select the “Stop Streaming” button to end your remote gaming session with the network gaming PC.