That's a good sign, that Valve is moving at least the runtimes to 64bit only. Maybe that means the client is under similar scrutiny internally. Recently when Fedora was discussing dropping more 32bit libraries Steam came up as a big issue.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Yeah, 32bit is why I removed Steam from my Debian desktop daily driver again. I got conflicting 32bit and 64bit versions of some libraries that broke my system. I'm going to try a gaming focussed distro like Bazzite next time.
I just run Steam as a flatpak. Works fine.
It doesn't work fine out of the box. I tried it on Opensuse MicroOS a year and a bit ago and had to search 3-5 pretty undocumented solutions to big problems before being able to play the same games that non-flatpak could.
Out of the box, proton didn't work at all.
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???
Debian separates out stuff with :[arch] suffixes, and is really flexible in the sense that it even lets you install stuff from completely different architectures for, for example, use with qemu userspace. An i386 package is going to only request i386 dependencies, unless it explicitly specifies an architecture, and vice versa. Arch Linux uses the "lib32-" prefix and I don't really remember how it worked on Fedora but I would imagine something similar. All "gaming focused distros" are merely just their mainstream counterparts with an extra repo for a few packages, it's not going to change fundamentals.
OpenSUSE is the same, the 32-bit stuff is completely separate from the 64-bit stuff, so you won't get conflicts between them.
Your better off using cachy if you want a gaming focused distro that doesn't break. Unless you use mostly flatpaks. Then bazzite is good
Didn't they already announce they're going to drop 32 bit?
For windows at least, but I assume they'd do it across the board at once
If you're talking about Fedora, no. One of the maintainers just proposed it and the media/commenters in the community went crazy without knowing the facts.
Ah yes it looks like they did say that support for 32bit Windows is stopping soon:
- The Verge - Steam is dropping Windows 32-bit support in 2026
- Tom's Hardware - Valve to drop Steam support for 32-bit Windows versions next year
- Valve FAQ - Windows 32-bit OS Support
Thanks I had missed this completely!
I assume this is the first step for them to move the client itself to being a 64bit executable later.
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please god let the client have a 64 bit wayland edition coming
They have to do it for steamos ig
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Proton-GE has had the Wow64 feature for a while now that can play older 32-bit titles under 64-bit, so it shouldn't be long before a truly 64-bit steam experience is available.
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Funny this shows up when all of a sudden Steam won't launch anymore on my Arch install. It's installed via flatpak.
How do I even check which version of the Steam runtime I am running? The flatpak version of Steam is just 1.0.something.other.
The runtime is not Steam itself. That's more or less independent from the runtime. The runtimes are a collection of libraries that developers can develop against without having to include them themselves.
Kind of similar to the Visual C++ Runtime on Windows.
I know what a runtime is, but I'd like to check which version of it I'm running. 🙂 Wouldn't be very difficult but I'm this instance I don't know how.
The runtime is for launching games, not Steam itself. You can check the runtime selection in Compatibility tab of Steam and of each game. If your Steam Flatpak install doesn't work, the issue is likely somewhere else.
I'd suggest trying to launch the flatpak from the terminal and seeing if there's any strange logging.
I'd suggest trying to launch the flatpak from the terminal and seeing if there's any strange logging.
Already did that but I couldn't see anything that I could recognize as abnormal. The "Connecting" window shows up, actually. But it just stops loading for a second and then it just says "Reaping pid" in the console and it closes the process.
The runtime is for launching games, not Steam itself. You can check the runtime selection in Compatibility tab of Steam and of each game. If your Steam Flatpak install doesn't work, the issue is likely somewhere else.
Hold up, are you talking about the compatibility layer, "Proton"? I'm not sure that's what we're talking about here. Proton is up to version 9 and 10, not 4.0.
You can select Steam Runtime Versions in the Compatibility tab too, separate from Proton versions
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So you can use those to develop on a platform and be sure that it work on the other too? Is this runtime steam-indipendent?
Yes. Exactly.
Older stuff here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-runtime
Newer stuff here: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt
The dev guide within that gitlab repo confirms that it can be used sans Steam: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steam-runtime-tools/-/blob/main/docs/slr-for-game-developers.md
This applies to the new runtime as well: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steamrt4/platform
Oh that's cool, thank your for the link too
Install warehouse. It gives you all the details of which runtime is in a Flatpak and even lets you change the version.
I did not know about Warehouse. Thank you.
i usually avoid flatpaks, especially with steam. but every now and then my non-flatpak steam borks too and won't launch on mint. 9 times out of 10 simple reboot helps, but sometimes it requires a reinstall...
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Usually when steam refuses to launch, it's because there's some Steam process that's borked but still running. Most of the time, a simple pkill steam fixes it (yes, that includes for flstpak`).
As mentioned down thread, the runtime isn't your problem. The runtime is what's needed for native Linux games and I think is also used by proton (not used by Steam itself), so it's kind of like proton for native games. Steam doesn't use the runtime at all to launch.
If killing Steam doesn't work, try rebooting. If that doesn't work, try updating the flatpak. If that doesn't work, I suppose reinstall Steam.
I think it might have been a denial of service type thing as explained in other replies. I didn't reboot or anything and it just worked fine now. All good. 👍 Thanks for all the help though.
Almost every reply is also explaining what the runtime is. 😆 I know what it's for, guys, thanks! ❤️🙏👍
Glad you got it fixed. 🙂
Almost every reply is also explaining what the runtime is.
I boosted it up a bit for other people who come along w/ a similar concern. You seemed mistaken at first until a few threads deep, so there's likely someone else who is just as, if not more, confused.
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You're not alone. I had the same thing on two machines yesterday. (Not flatpack)
Why would you use flatpack for stuff natively available on pacman? Search no further, flatpack is a good way to introduce problems where there are none
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Flatpak
🤷♂️ Seemed like a good way to install it. I had used the native package before but I think I tried flatpak because of some issue or another with the native version.
It's been working great for years now so, no issues until now.
I usually install big corporate software with flatpak if I can help it, to keep them as isolated as possible. Slack, Discord, Steam, etc. Stuff like that. 👍
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How do I even check which version of the Steam runtime I am running? The flatpak version of Steam is just 1.0.something.other.
#justFlatpakThings
does it say which team fortress 2 class it's named after?
From the gitlab repositories it kind of looks like they are dropping that naming scheme wit v4. It was kind of cute, but also confusing if you have no idea about TF2 and use Steam.
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Any news about an aarch64 version?
The new VR headset runs ARM, so presumably it'll launch with that.
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