Steam in systemd-nspawn container

Created while learning systemd-nspawn and mkosi.

Requirements

• Install mkosi with sudo pip3 install git+https://github.com/systemd/mkosi.git as packaged versions do not support Environment= correctly.
• Xorg
• debootstrap
• systemd
• systemd-container
• zstd

Config

• mkosi.default holds Password= (default is steam)
• mkosi.default has STEAM_HOSTNAME for container hostname
• mkosi.default has STEAM_USER (default is steam) for running steam

Usage

• Execute sudo mkosi boot in repo root
• Login as STEAM_USER using Password value from mkosi.default
• Run steam

Remarks

When you are happy with image move image.{raw,nspawn} from mkosi.output to better location and use with running: sudo systemd-nspawn --image=image.raw --settings=trusted

You may also want to rename image.raw and image.nspawn to something more meaningful by replacing image in both file names to another string (must be same for both).

Why some options in mkosi.default not used

• Section [Output] seemed to cause ignoring [Files] section in .nspawn when mkosi boot was used.

Todo

• Use bind mount for Steam data makinge easier to replace system.
• Bring in systemd-sysext.