Steam on Selkies NVIDIA GLX Desktop Container

This repository provides a container image that extends the Selkies NVIDIA GLX Desktop environment with full Steam client integration, while maintaining compatibility with modern NVIDIA drivers and accelerated OpenGL rendering pipelines.

The containerised desktop environment supports hardware-accelerated graphics, a fully interactive graphical user interface delivered through the browser via Selkies WebRTC technology, and persistence of all Steam runtime data and game libraries.

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Features

• Selkies GLX Desktop Foundation: Built on the Selkies GLX Desktop stack, which provides a complete remote desktop solution with WebRTC integration, NVIDIA OpenGL support, and session management orchestrated by supervisord.

• Steam Client Support: The image installs the official Steam distribution.

• Persistent Storage: Game data and Steam user configuration are stored externally via bind mounts or named volumes, ensuring persistence across container lifecycle events such as creation, restart, rebuild, or upgrade.

• Hardware Acceleration: Leverages NVIDIA Container Toolkit and Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) devices to expose GPU acceleration into the containerised desktop session, ensuring efficient execution of graphics-intensive workloads.

• Compatibility with Docker and Podman: The container is runtime-agnostic and can be executed seamlessly using either Docker Engine or Podman with NVIDIA GPU hooks configured.

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Directory and Volume Mapping

To persist all Steam runtime files, game libraries, and user configuration, bind mount or map a volume to /home/ubuntu/.steam/ directory.

Note: The default container user is ubuntu.

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Deployment Instructions

Host Preparation

1. Ensure that the NVIDIA GPU drivers are installed and compatible with the NVIDIA Container Toolkit.
2. Confirm that either Docker or Podman is configured with GPU passthrough support.
3. Create persistent storage directories or named volumes for Steam data.

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Deployment

podman run -d \
   --name steam \
   --restart=unless-stopped \
   --security-opt label=disable \
   --tmpfs /dev/shm:rw \
   --gpus 0 \
   -v steam-data:/home/ubuntu/.steam/ \
   -e TZ=Asia/Kolkata \
   -e SELKIES_TURN_PROTOCOL=udp \
   -e SELKIES_TURN_PORT=3478 \
   -e TURN_MIN_PORT=65534 \
   -e TURN_MAX_PORT=65535 \
   -e SELKIES_TURN_HOST=${SELKIES_TURN_HOST} \
   -e NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all \
   -e WEBRTC_ENCODER=nvh264enc \
   -e SIZEW=1920 \
   -e SIZEH=1080 \
   -e REFRESH=60 \
   -e DPI=96 \
   -e CDEPTH=24 \
   -e VIDEO_PORT=DFP \
   -e PASSWD=${PASSWD} \
   -e BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=${BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD} \
   -p 8082:8080 \
   -p 3478:3478 \
   -p 3478:3478/udp \
   -p 49152-65535:49152-65535/udp \
   ninjacongafas/steam-on-nvidia-glx-desktop:24.04-20250819

Environment Variables

Variable	Purpose
TZ=Asia/Kolkata	Sets the container timezone to Asia/Kolkata. Ensures logs, timestamps, and any time-dependent operations within the container use the correct timezone.
SELKIES_TURN_PROTOCOL=udp	Specifies the transport protocol for the TURN server used by Selkies WebRTC. In this case, UDP is preferred for low-latency video streaming.
SELKIES_TURN_PORT=3478	Port number on which the TURN server listens for incoming WebRTC traffic. Standard TURN port is 3478.
TURN_MIN_PORT=65534	Minimum port in the ephemeral range for TURN relay connections. Defines the lower bound of allowed UDP ports for media traffic.
TURN_MAX_PORT=65535	Maximum port in the ephemeral range for TURN relay connections. Defines the upper bound of allowed UDP ports for media traffic.
SELKIES_TURN_HOST=${SELKIES_TURN_HOST}	Hostname or IP address of the TURN server used by the Selkies desktop. Must be set in the host environment or .env file before running.
NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all	Grants the container access to all NVIDIA driver features, including compute, graphics, video encoding/decoding, and display. Required for Steam and GLX desktop acceleration.
WEBRTC_ENCODER=nvh264enc	Selects the hardware-accelerated H.264 video encoder provided by NVIDIA for WebRTC streaming. Ensures efficient real-time video encoding.
SIZEW=1920	Sets the width of the virtual desktop in pixels.
SIZEH=1080	Sets the height of the virtual desktop in pixels.
REFRESH=60	Target refresh rate of the virtual desktop in Hertz.
DPI=96	Sets the dots-per-inch for the virtual desktop display, affecting scaling of GUI elements.
CDEPTH=24	Colour depth (in bits per pixel) of the virtual desktop. 24 corresponds to true colour (8 bits per channel).
VIDEO_PORT=DFP	Specifies the default display output for the virtual desktop session. Typically DFP corresponds to the primary digital flat panel output.
PASSWD=${PASSWD}	Optional password for user authentication in the Selkies desktop session. Must be provided in the host environment or .env file.
BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=${BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD}	Optional password for HTTP basic authentication if the Selkies web interface is protected. Must be provided in the host environment or .env file.

Note: The ${VAR} syntax indicates that the variable is read from the host environment or an .env file. You must define these before running the container.

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Accessing the Environment

1. After deployment, access the Selkies desktop environment via a web browser at http://<host-ip>:8080.
2. Within the graphical desktop, launch the Steam client from the application menu or terminal (/usr/games/steam).
3. Authenticate with your Steam account.
4. Download and manage games as on a conventional desktop system.
5. All data will persist across container restarts via the mounted volumes.

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Licensing

• The project, including all modifications and additions, is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL-3.0).
• The Selkies project components are licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0).
• The base Linux distribution adheres to its upstream licensing terms.
• The Steam client is distributed under proprietary licensing by Valve Corporation.

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