Steam Tinkering with the Pi 4 (Part 2)
Here we go again, lads and lassies!
After a fresh install of Pi OS (with recommended software) I give it a go again! I had to burn a flash drive using Etcher, but they have various options on the site to easily burn Pi OS to a drive for ya. Using the SD Card Copier tool, under Accessories on the Pi OS top left menu, I overwrote the SSD I was booting the Pi 4 from, so we could start fresh.
After updating and the like, we have a fresh Pi OS install.
Now we must reinstall a bit of software. VIM for editing files, neofetch for getting quick stats, Pi-Apps for easily installing games and box86. I feel that with this fresh install, things should go easier!
Oh wow! It looks like the community working on Pi-Apps has completely automated the installs for box86, Steam, Doom 3 and various other things now! So much has changed in this short time between my attempts. Great job, team! Maybe this means I’ll have better luck this go-around…
After box86 and Steam were finished installing, we can try again! Also, I’ve learned to overclock earlier on, since the stock clocks on this little guy are very slow when it comes to compiling Doom 3 and installing Steam. Hmm, it also seems that gone are the days of having to forcibly run Steam through the box86 terminal command I mentioned in my prior article. That’s good news! I really gotta hand it to the community on making these installs easier.
Again, since box86 allows for compatibility with Linux native 32-bit programs, I decided to go look for 32-bit games I own. I found a good post on Quora where someone was asking about 32-bit steam games.
So next I’ll see if Slay The Spire opens…….as a native program, over box86, with an overclock…..
Nope, that’s a fail. Steam ended up locking up at the above screen.
Hmm, perhaps we can do an intermission from Steam and try Minecraft from the official Minecraft Java launcher? After all, I have an old Realm I can likely try to load. That would really make for a performance test. After all, there’s a Minecraft Pi Edition preinstalled with the larger Pi OS image for a reason.
Oh….well it looks like people trying to get anything running on the Pi 4 won’t be able to play Java Minecraft for much longer….which is fine, considering that it loaded things in incredibly slowly and played at 5fps…when windowed.
Alright, back to Steam! Let’s try Terraria….oof! It looks like trying to install Terraria ends in an “Update Required” loop. Attempts to open the “properties” window for the game were unsuccessful, as well as attempts to uninstall. Hmm. Let’s try Undertale? If this doesn’t work, perhaps the new TwisterOS 1.9.7 (newest at time of writing) release is worth flashing to another drive and taking a look at in my next attempt. Nope on that Undertale as well…
Now I’ll see if, using the PiKISS script, updating the Vulkan drivers natively on the Pi 4 will help open these games that have the Vulkan Shader issue…
That’s a negatory. Still experiencing Steam freezes at the “Processing Vulkan Shaders window”
Well, that’s all for now. Let’s see what changes another few days brings for the Pi 4 tweaking community!
