How to play Left 4 Dead 2 on Linux

Left 4 Dead 2 is a co-op zombie survival game developed and published by Valve. It was released on Windows and consoles in 2009. Later it made its way to Linux. Here’s how to play the game on your Linux system.

Getting Left 4 Dead 2 working on Linux

Left 4 Dead 2 was one of the first video games on Steam to support the Linux platform natively. As a result, you cannot play this game on Linux without the official Steam application. To install the Steam app on Linux, you must launch a terminal window.

Unsure of how to launch a terminal window on the Linux desktop? Press Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Or, search for “Terminal” in the app menu and launch it that way.

With the terminal window open, the installation can begin. Using the instructions below, set up the Steam app on your Linux OS.

Ubuntu

Those on Ubuntu can install the Steam application using the apt install command down below.

sudo apt install steam

Debian

Are you using Debian Linux? If so, you’ll need to download and install the official Steam DEB package to your computer. Using the wget download command, grab the latest release of Steam for Debian.

wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb

Once you’ve downloaded the latest release of Steam for Debian, you can install it using the dpkg command down below.

sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

With Steam set up on Debian, you may need to correct dependency issues that occurred during the installation process.

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

If you wish to use Steam on Arch Linux, you must first enable the “multilib” software repository on your computer. You can enable this repo by opening up the /etc/pacman.conf file in a text editor (as root).

Inside of the text file, locate the “multilib” software repository line and remove the # symbol from in front. Then, remove the # symbol from the lines directly below. Finally, save the edits and run the pacman -Syy command to re-sync Arch Linux with the official servers.

sudo pacman -Syy

With the “multilib” software repository set up, install the Steam application by running the pacman -S command below.

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

If you use Fedora or OpenSUSE Linux, you’ll be able to get Steam working through software repositories included within the operating system. However, the Flatpak release of Steam works much better so we suggest installing that version on your computer instead.

Flatpak

Setting up Steam as a Flatpak is an easy process. To start, enable the Flatpak runtime on your computer via our guide. Then, with the runtime set up, install Steam using the two commands below.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

With the Steam application up and running, launch it and log into your account. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get Left 4 Dead 2 working on your Linux system.

Step 1: Find the “Store” button inside of Steam and click on it with the mouse. Selecting the “Store” button will load up the Steam storefront. Once on the Steam storefront, find the search box and click on it with the mouse.

Type into the search box “Left 4 Dead 2” and press the Enter key to view the search results. Once the search results are loaded up, look through the results for “Left 4 Dead 2”. When you’ve found Left 4 Dead 2 in the Steam store search results, select it with the mouse.

Step 2: After selecting Left 4 Dead 2 in the search results, Steam will load up the game’s Steam storefront page. On the Left 4 Dead 2 Steam storefront page, find the green “Add to cart” button and click on it with the mouse.

Once you’ve clicked on the green “Add to cart” button, Left 4 Dead 2 will be in your Steam cart. From here, select the cart icon and click on it to purchase Left 4 Dead 2 on your Steam account.

Step 3: Upon purchasing Left 4 Dead 2, select the “Library” button to load up your Steam games library. Then, once in the Steam games library, search for your copy of “Left 4 Dead 2.”

After locating Left 4 Dead 2 in your Steam library, find the blue “INSTALL” button and click on it with the mouse. Selecting this button will download and install Left 4 Dead 2 onto your computer. The download process shouldn’t take too long. When the process is complete, the blue “INSTALL” button will become a green “PLAY” button.