How can I check whether SteamCMD installed successfully?

Enter 'steamcmd'. If it loads successfully, you'll see the 'Steam>' prompt. Enter 'quit' to exit the program.

Why do I need to add the i386 architecture?

SteamCMD is a 32-bit tool, so you need to add the i386 architecture (for example, with 'sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386') to install the appropriate packages.

Dedicated Server: SteamCMD Linux Setup

Learn how to set up SteamCMD on Linux servers to install dedicated game servers efficiently → Find out more

10 November 20262 min read0 Views0 helpful

Introduction

SteamCMD is an essential tool you need to install dedicated game servers for a variety of games, such as Palworld, Enshrouded, and more. In this guide, we'll show you how to set up SteamCMD on your Linux server for the first time. We'll use Ubuntu as an example, but the process is quite similar on other distributions.

Preparation

First, connect to your Dedicated Server via SSH. If you need help, take a look at our SSH Initial Access guide.

Installing SteamCMD

Once you're on your server, you need to set up SteamCMD so you can download the necessary dedicated server files. SteamCMD is the command-line interface (CLI) version of the Steam client and the tool you can use to easily download Steam Workshop and dedicated server files.

As is common with Linux, you should update your system first. The commands vary depending on your distribution:

Code

// Debian
sudo apt-get update

// Ubuntu
sudo apt update

// CentOS
sudo yum update

// OpenSUSE
sudo zypper up

// Fedora
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Now you need to install a few packages. They are as follows:

The software-properties-common package makes it easier to manage your distribution and third-party software sources.
SteamCMD is a 32-bit tool, so you need to add the i386 architecture to install the appropriate packages.
Since SteamCMD is proprietary, depending on your Linux distribution, you need either the multiverse or non-free package, as these are usually not included in the standard repository.

Code

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

// Ubuntu
sudo add-apt-repository multiverse

// Debian & andere Nicht-Debian-Distros
sudo apt-add-repository non-free

Now run the update command again to refresh your package sources and apply the changes:

Code

sudo apt update

Finally, you can install SteamCMD. You may need to accept a license agreement—just accept it and continue.

Code

sudo apt install steamcmd

Tip

You can check whether SteamCMD was installed successfully by simply entering steamcmd. Once it loads, you should see the Steam> prompt. Enter quit to exit the program.

Now that everything is prepared and installed, you can move on to the next step: installing the dedicated server with SteamCMD.

Creating a user

We strongly recommend creating a separate user for SteamCMD. Running SteamCMD as root, like most things, is not a good idea for several reasons.

Create a user named steam with the following command—you can optionally set a password.

Code

sudo useradd -m steam
sudo passwd steam # Optionales Passwort

After creating the user, you need to edit .bashrc to make the path to /usr/games, where SteamCMD is located, available. To do this, add an additional PATH variable.

Open the file with the Nano editor:

Code

sudo nano /home/steam/.bashrc

Scroll to the end of the file and add this line:

Code

export PATH="/usr/games/:$PATH"

Save the file and exit Nano with CTRL + X, confirm with Y, and press ENTER.

Conclusion

You have now successfully set up the basic SteamCMD functionality on your Linux server. You can now install Steam content as the steam user.

We also recommend checking out the other guides in this section, which show you how to install specific games with the SteamCMD setup you just created.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

SteamCMD is the command-line version of the Steam client. It's used to install dedicated game servers for games such as Palworld and Enshrouded, and to download Steam Workshop files.

For security reasons, we strongly recommend creating a separate user for SteamCMD instead of running it as root.

Run 'sudo useradd -m steam' to create a user named 'steam'. You can optionally set a password with 'sudo passwd steam'.

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Dedicated Server: SteamCMD Linux Setup

Introduction

Preparation

Installing SteamCMD

Creating a user

Conclusion

Frequently asked questions

Software

Preparation

Installing SteamCMD

Creating a user

Conclusion

Game Server

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Resources

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