steam won't be available running out of the box in Devuan, but after some persistent efforts it will install and run wonderfully!!

 
Here is my log of how it worked for me:


gdebi steam_latest.deb 


First install....

apt-get install mesa-utils and libgl1-mesa-glx



Then I run steam, and unfortunately it returns:

You are missing the following 32-bit libraries, and Steam may not run:
libc.so.6

apt-get install  libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libc6:i386

returns:
E: Unable to locate package libgl1-mesa-dri
E: Unable to locate package libgl1-mesa-glx
E: Package 'libc6:i386' has no installation candidate

So we run:
dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update


Afterwards, repeat the apt-get install command and
this time libc:i386 installs, but libgl mesa still is missing  

after installing radeon ati crimson drivers mesa will install; run:

apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri:i386

apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx:i386

steam runs but get message:
OpenGL GLX context is not using direct rendering, which may cause 
performance problems.

TROUBLE SHOOTING VIDEO DRIVERS (DIRECT RENDERING)

For more information visit 
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9938-EYZB-7457.

so we
apt-get install mesa-utils:i386 

glxinfo shows that indeed it is not direct rendering and hints to look at 
verbose output

we run on command line 
export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose
glxinfo
glxgears


At this point it was time for some googling....

It turns out that people have been getting the same failure direct rendering in the video drivers and the same problem for some years. What worked for one person who posted in a message board, was that he uninstalled the ATI driver and reinstalled it, and this fixed the lack of direct rendering. https://askubuntu.com/questions/506349/opengl-glx-context-is-not-using-direct-rendering-which-may-cause-performance-pr --beginquote-- That same error has occured to me and the problem was with the amd driver. \ Try doing the following: \ uninstall steam \ uninstall amd driver \ install steam \ start steam setup everything \ install amd driver \ Hope it helps answered Aug 3 '14 at 17:08 mmm3743 --endquote-- Now I gave uninstalling and reinstalling the Radeon drivers a try (but I did not bother uninstalling and reinstalling steam). I did however add some probably perfluous reboots in between uninstalling and reinstalling and then finally testing steam. In the root terminal: aticonfig --uninstall reboot Then rebooting I install the ATI drivers, this time in a text terminal (ctr-alt-F3) just to rule out more possible error. The install went ok. I do a reboot. ctr-alt-Fn into a text terminal and run sudo aticonfig --initial Log into X and open a terminal, running glxinfo, and to my surprise Direct Rendering was WORKING. So I launch steam and test out some simple games that had previously immediately crashed on launch. I was thrilled to see things rock stable and in perfect working order!! ___________

Further Testing and Issues

Update: I encountered one issue some days later; the lagging of the issue was likely due to a steam launcher self update. Steam seemed to hang and not launch, with a command line message of "" Solution: Install ia32-libs: apt-get install ia32-libs which now seems to require packages lib32z1 and lib32ncurses5 instead: --quote-- Package ia32-libs is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source However the following packages replace it: lib32z1 lib32ncurses5 --endquote-- Still fails. More verbose error message is produced by launching steam on command line via command (as suggested by page https://forum.manjaro.org/t/solved-steam-stucks-at-installing-breakpad-exception-handler-for-appid-steam-version-0/4331/2 ): env STEAM_RUNTIME=0 /usr/bin/steam %U This error point to page: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9205-OZVN-0660 The error message is titled " Could not load module 'vgui2_s.so'. ": Assert( Assertion Failed: !"Fatal Error: Could not load module 'bin/vgui2_s.dll'" ):Main.cpp:2616 Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1500335472) Error: Could not load module 'vgui2_s.so'. More GOOGLING finally produces the solution via an arch wiki page: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Steam/Troubleshooting#Missing_vgui2_s.so Solution: install package lib32-openal Yet alas: "# apt-get install lib32-openal [...] Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package lib32-openal" Indeed, the steam page above suggests running ldd which produces a lengthy 2 pages of lines. Buried within these lines is a brief but telling statement: libopenal.so.1 => not found However, browsing synaptic, we were able to locate another candidate, which then is installed by command line: apt-get install libopenal1:i386 This provides the fix for the missing libopenal.so.1 however, the troubled library is still troubled by missing links to libraries. We do further poking around with ldd. Going back to the directory ~/.steam/bin32 in a terminal and running ldd verifies no more more missing links for vgui2_s.so: siriusB:~/.steam/bin32$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ldd vgui2_s.so This time steam with runtime disabled still hangs, but no error messages of missing links appear. Running with runtime enabled: env STEAM_RUNTIME=1 /usr/bin/steam %U steam still hangs and complains of NetworkManager problems; this is an issue that's discussed in: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=174018 with a suggestion: "I'll bet it's 32-bit NetworkManager libs that are missing." These two packages found with Synaptic seem to be a good guess. apt-get install libnm-util2:i386 apt-get install network-manager:i386 Still however, steam continues to hang after startup. Doing a search in Synaptic of "network-manager" unfortunately shows that the 32-bit network manager libs have replaced the 64-bit ones. Checking the install box for network-manager and applying changes undoes the 32-bit nm changes. _______ Footnote: This was with an old R7 (GCN 1.0 card, R7 250) which uses the driver: fglrx-15.302/amd-driver-installer-15.302-x86.x86_64.run Newer radeon cards with leading edge linux kernels should have the AMDGPU module built directly into the kernel; so with such setup you are likely not to hit the video driver snag I hit while getting steam setup in Dev1.