How to install Steam in 20.04 focal

Tried to install steam-installer with Ubuntu Software, got this very helpful error:

Then I tried the command line:

$ sudo apt install steam-installer
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies: steam-installer : Depends: steam (= 1:1.0.0.61-2ubuntu3)
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

So steam-installer depends on steam, which cannot be resolved! What? Is the Ubuntu Steam package just broken?

Update:

$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 focal InRelease
Hit:2 focal-updates InRelease
Hit:3 focal-security InRelease
Hit:4 focal-backports InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
6 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded: libssl1.1 openssl python3-software-properties software-properties-common software-properties-gtk ubuntu-advantage-tools
6 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2 902 kB of archives.
After this operation, 13.3 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 focal-updates/main amd64 libssl1.1 amd64 1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10 [1 322 kB]
Get:2 focal-updates/main amd64 openssl amd64 1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10 [620 kB]
Get:3 focal-updates/main amd64 ubuntu-advantage-tools amd64 27.4.2~20.04.1 [859 kB]
Get:4 focal-updates/main amd64 software-properties-common all 0.99.9.8 [10.6 kB]
Get:5 focal-updates/main amd64 software-properties-gtk all 0.99.9.8 [66.0 kB]
Get:6 focal-updates/main amd64 python3-software-properties all 0.99.9.8 [24.9 kB]
Fetched 2 902 kB in 4s (661 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 418427 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../0-libssl1.1_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libssl1.1:amd64 (1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10) over (1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.9) ...
Preparing to unpack .../1-openssl_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking openssl (1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10) over (1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.9) ...
Preparing to unpack .../2-ubuntu-advantage-tools_27.4.2~20.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ubuntu-advantage-tools (27.4.2~20.04.1) over (27.4.1~20.04.1) ...
Preparing to unpack .../3-software-properties-common_0.99.9.8_all.deb ...
Unpacking software-properties-common (0.99.9.8) over (0.98.9.5) ...
Preparing to unpack .../4-software-properties-gtk_0.99.9.8_all.deb ...
Unpacking software-properties-gtk (0.99.9.8) over (0.98.9.5) ...
Preparing to unpack .../5-python3-software-properties_0.99.9.8_all.deb ...
Unpacking python3-software-properties (0.99.9.8) over (0.98.9.5) ...
Setting up libssl1.1:amd64 (1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10) ...
Setting up python3-software-properties (0.99.9.8) ...
Setting up ubuntu-advantage-tools (27.4.2~20.04.1) ...
Setting up openssl (1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.10) ...
Setting up software-properties-common (0.99.9.8) ...
Setting up software-properties-gtk (0.99.9.8) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.12.16-2ubuntu2.1) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.15-1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0:amd64 (2.64.6-1~ubuntu20.04.4) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9.3) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...

Update2:

$ sudo apt install steam
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies: steam:i386 : Depends: libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 (>= 17.3) but it is not going to be installed or libtxc-dxtn0:i386 but it is not installable Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 but it is not going to be installed Depends: libgpg-error0:i386 (>= 1.10) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libudev1:i386 but it is not going to be installed Depends: libxcb-dri3-0:i386 (>= 1.11.1) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libxinerama1:i386 (>= 2:1.1.1) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libc6:i386 (>= 2.15) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libstdc++6:i386 (>= 4.8) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libx11-6:i386 but it is not going to be installed Recommends: libxss1:i386 but it is not going to be installed Recommends: mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

sources.list:

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 20.04 LTS _Focal Fossa_ - Release amd64 (20200423)]/ focal main restricted
# See for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb focal main restricted
# deb-src focal main restricted
## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb focal-updates main restricted
# deb-src focal-updates main restricted
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb focal universe
# deb-src focal universe
deb focal-updates universe
# deb-src focal-updates universe
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb focal multiverse
# deb-src focal multiverse
deb focal-updates multiverse
# deb-src focal-updates multiverse
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb focal partner
# deb-src focal partner
deb focal-security main restricted
# deb-src focal-security main restricted
deb focal-security universe
# deb-src focal-security universe
deb focal-security multiverse
# deb-src focal-security multiverse
# This system was installed using small removable media
# (e.g. netinst, live or single CD). The matching "deb cdrom"
# entries were disabled at the end of the installation process.
# For information about how to configure apt package sources,
# see the sources.list(5) manual.

I think I've never fiddled with that.

1 Answer

You are going down a road that will only lead to pain.

Download and install the official package from the Steam website.

When you do that, it will install the package steam-launcher and add the ppa steampowered.org

On first run, a bunch of other packages will be installed:

Steam needs to install these additional packages: libc6:amd64 libc6:i386 libegl1:amd64 libegl1:i386 libgbm1:amd64 libgbm1:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1:amd64 libgl1:i386 steam-libs-amd64:amd64 steam-libs-i386:i386 xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xterm

These packages have a lot of dependencies that also get installed.

Neither steam nor steam-installer gets installed!

Future updates will be handled automatically through the package system.