The LinuxServer.io team brings you another container release featuring:

• regular and timely application updates
• easy user mappings (PGID, PUID)
• custom base image with s6 overlay
• weekly base OS updates with common layers across the entire LinuxServer.io ecosystem to minimise space usage, down time and bandwidth
• regular security updates

Find us at:

• Blog - all the things you can do with our containers including How-To guides, opinions and much more!
• Discord - realtime support / chat with the community and the team.
• Discussions - post on our community forum.
• GitHub - view the source for all of our repositories.
• Open Collective - please consider helping us by either donating or contributing to our budget

linuxserver/steam

Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games.

Supported Architectures

We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here and our announcement here.

Simply pulling lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.

The architectures supported by this image are:

Architecture	Available	Tag
x86-64	✅	amd64-<version tag>
arm64	❌

Application Setup

The application can be accessed at:

• https://yourhost:3001/

Note

This image is for a web accessible version of Steam to be played through a web browser, if you want a fully flushed out Moonlight couch solution please consider Wolf or another non Docker solution. Moonlight clients have major advantages over using a web browser specifically for gaming.

Permissions

Steam runs its browser helper and every game inside bubblewrap, which needs user namespaces. Docker's default seccomp profile (and AppArmor on Debian/Ubuntu hosts) blocks those, so the recommended way to run this container is with --security-opt seccomp=unconfined and --security-opt apparmor=unconfined, which lets Steam use bubblewrap as intended.

These options are not required, but running without them will degrade performance as userspace proot with ptrace or fakechroot will be used to run games. proot-bwrap

Gamepad support

This container leverages a userspace gamepad interposer to provide gamepad support. To use a gamepad always force Proton in "Properties>Compatibility" even for Linux native games, "Proton Hotfix" is a good default selection. You cannot use the "Steam Input" feature on any game as the uinput socket and HID do not exist.

Gaming mode

An absolute must for mouse and keyboard input is sending relative mouse input from the browser, you will need to use the "Gaming Mode" which is a small crosshair in the top right of the sidebar. This runs in fullscreen and traps you in the window, to exit this mode hold down escape for 3 seconds.

Game Launching

Included in this image are tools for managing Proton versions and a command line launcher. This means once a game or application is installed via Steam it can be directly launched on init by creating a config file and modifying /config/.config/labwc/autostart to run umu-run instead of Steam.:

umu-run --config /config/game.toml

[umu]
prefix = "/config/game"
exe = "/config/Desktop/game/game.exe"
proton = "/config/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/GE-Proton-version"
game_id = "0"

This facilitates custom home directories with pre-configured runtimes and gamefiles for baking images outside of using the Steam launcher.

Strict reverse proxies

This image uses a self-signed certificate by default. This naturally means the scheme is https. If you are using a reverse proxy which validates certificates, you need to disable this check for the container.

This container is based on Docker Baseimage Selkies, which streams a desktop or single application to your web browser. Only the essentials are covered below, the full platform documentation lives at docs.linuxserver.io/selkies.

Start Minimal

Most support issues we see stem from large run configurations assembled from years of forum posts. These containers are designed to work with almost nothing. Start with the minimal command below, confirm it works, then add your options (volumes, env vars, GPU flags) one at a time:

docker run --rm -it \
  --shm-size=1gb \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest bash

Open https://localhost:3001 (note the https) and accept the self signed certificate warning. The trailing bash gives you a shell inside the container, ctrl+d exits and cleans everything up. If a bigger setup misbehaves, return to this command to isolate the problem, see the Quickstart and Troubleshooting guides.

GPU Acceleration

A GPU is optional, the CPU pipeline is fast enough for smooth sessions on modest hardware. When a GPU is mounted into the container it is automatically detected and configured for zero copy rendering and encoding, set AUTO_GPU=false to disable this behavior.

Intel / AMD (open source drivers), one flag is all it takes:

docker run --rm -it \
  --shm-size=1gb \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  --device /dev/dri \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest bash

Nvidia (proprietary drivers, not available on Alpine based images):

Requires host driver 580 or newer installed from the .run file downloaded directly from Nvidia. On drivers older than 595.80 you may also need kernel parameters and a dummy plug, see GPU Acceleration before opening an issue.

docker run --rm -it \
  --shm-size=1gb \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  --runtime nvidia \
  --gpus all \
  --device /dev/nvidia-modeset \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest bash

Compose examples, multi GPU selection (DRINODE/DRI_NODE), Unraid notes, and a step by step debugging loop are in the GPU Acceleration guide.

Security

Warning

This container provides privileged access to the host system. Do not expose it to the Internet unless you have secured it properly.

HTTPS is required. Modern browser features used for video and audio (WebCodecs) only work in a secure context. Port 3001 serves HTTPS directly, the HTTP port exists only to sit behind a reverse proxy.

By default there is no authentication. Setting the CUSTOM_USER and PASSWORD environment variables enables HTTP basic auth, which is suitable only for a trusted local network. For internet exposure, place the container behind a reverse proxy with robust authentication, such as SWAG. Keep in mind the web interface includes a terminal with passwordless sudo, anyone who can reach the GUI can gain root inside the container.

Authentication options, sharing link behavior, container isolation, and the lockdown variables for kiosk style deployments are covered in Security and Hardening.

Language Support - Internationalization

To launch the session in a different language, set the LC_ALL environment variable, e.g. -e LC_ALL=zh_CN.UTF-8 (Chinese), ja_JP.UTF-8 (Japanese), ko_KR.UTF-8 (Korean), ar_AE.UTF-8 (Arabic), ru_RU.UTF-8 (Russian), es_MX.UTF-8 (Spanish Latin America), de_DE.UTF-8 (German), fr_FR.UTF-8 (French), nl_NL.UTF-8 (Dutch), it_IT.UTF-8 (Italian).

Beyond Running the App

This image inherits every capability of the Selkies platform, all documented in depth on the docs site:

• Configuration Reference - every environment variable: ports, subfolder reverse proxy, custom dashboards, watermarking, and the full set of SELKIES_* stream, feature, and UI settings with their |locked syntax.
• Using the Web Client - file transfer, clipboard sync, audio and microphone, up to four gamepads, session sharing, and mobile touch support.
• Installing Applications - persistent user installed apps with proot-apps (proot-apps install filezilla) or native packages at boot with Docker mods.
• Docker in Docker and host Docker control - run --privileged for an isolated DinD setup, or mount /var/run/docker.sock to manage the host.
• Reverse Proxy - proxying websockets and subfolders correctly.
• SealSkin - turnkey multi user VDI orchestration with browser extension and mobile apps, this image is fully compatible.
• Pelorus - expose the session to AI agents via a computer use API and accessibility stack.

Usage

To help you get started creating a container from this image you can either use docker-compose or the docker cli.

Note

Unless a parameter is flagged as 'optional', it is mandatory and a value must be provided.

docker-compose (recommended, click here for more info)

---
services:
  steam:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest
    container_name: steam
    security_opt:
      - seccomp:unconfined #optional
      - apparmor:unconfined #optional
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /path/to/config:/config
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
      - 3001:3001
    shm_size: "1gb"
    restart: unless-stopped

docker cli (click here for more info)

docker run -d \
  --name=steam \
  --security-opt seccomp=unconfined `#optional` \
  --security-opt apparmor=unconfined `#optional` \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Etc/UTC \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  -v /path/to/config:/config \
  --shm-size="1gb" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest

Parameters

Containers are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.

Parameter	Function
-p 3000:3000	Steam desktop gui HTTP must be proxied.
-p 3001:3001	Steam desktop gui HTTPS.
-e PUID=1000	for UserID - see below for explanation
-e PGID=1000	for GroupID - see below for explanation
-e TZ=Etc/UTC	specify a timezone to use, see this list.
-v /config	Users home directory in the container, stores all files and games.
--shm-size=	Recommended for all desktop images.
--security-opt seccomp=unconfined	This is needed to allow bwrap to use namespacing for games.
--security-opt apparmor=unconfined	For Debian/Ubuntu hosts Steam needs elevated perms that AppArmor blocks.

Environment variables from files (Docker secrets)

You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.

As an example:

-e FILE__MYVAR=/run/secrets/mysecretvariable

Will set the environment variable MYVAR based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretvariable file.

Umask for running applications

For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.

User / Group Identifiers

When using volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.

Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.

In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id your_user as below:

id your_user

Example output:

uid=1000(your_user) gid=1000(your_user) groups=1000(your_user)

Docker Mods

We publish various Docker Mods to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image (if any) as well as universal mods that can be applied to any one of our images can be accessed via the dynamic badges above.

Support Info

• Shell access whilst the container is running:

  docker exec -it steam /bin/bash

• To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:

  docker logs -f steam

• Container version number:

  docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' steam

• Image version number:

  docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest

Updating Info

Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside. With some exceptions (noted in the relevant readme.md), we do not recommend or support updating apps inside the container. Please consult the Application Setup section above to see if it is recommended for the image.

Below are the instructions for updating containers:

Via Docker Compose

• Update images:

  • All images:

    docker-compose pull

  • Single image:

    docker-compose pull steam

• Update containers:

  • All containers:

    docker-compose up -d

  • Single container:

    docker-compose up -d steam

• You can also remove the old dangling images:

  docker image prune

Via Docker Run

• Update the image:

  docker pull lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest

• Stop the running container:

  docker stop steam

• Delete the container:

  docker rm steam

• Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your /config folder and settings will be preserved)

• You can also remove the old dangling images:

  docker image prune

Image Update Notifications - Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier)

Tip

We recommend Diun for update notifications. Other tools that automatically update containers unattended are not recommended or supported.

Building locally

If you want to make local modifications to these images for development purposes or just to customize the logic:

git clone https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-steam.git
cd docker-steam
docker build \
  --no-cache \
  --pull \
  -t lscr.io/linuxserver/steam:latest .

The ARM variants can be built on x86_64 hardware and vice versa using lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static

docker run --rm --privileged lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static --reset

Once registered you can define the dockerfile to use with -f Dockerfile.aarch64.

Versions

• 12.09.26: - Make seccomp and apparmor unconfined optional with proot-bwrap.
• 04.02.26: - Add ProtonUp Qt for runtime management and umu-run for custom auto game launching.
• 17.01.26: - Document Nvidia support.
• 09.01.26: - Initial Version.