Steam Bridge for Beeper

using mx-puppet-steam and bbctl

Jason LaGuidice @shadowdrake:beeper.com Last updated 4/17/2024

This guide will get the old mx-puppet-steam bridge running, connected to Beeper's servers, and available for use. This guide is based on a Proxmox LXC using their latest Ubuntu container image at the time of this guide creation. It is not intended to be comprehensive but should provide coverage and documentation of the sticking points which are missing or not described well enough in the instructions for Beeper's bridge manager or the Steam bridge instructions.

Prerequisites

Proxmox 8
Ubuntu LXC image available

This guide will use nano as the text editor but any other feasible text editor can be used in its place

If you decide to use a VM instead of an LXC or are otherwise not connected as root add sudo before basically all commands. This guide was intended to be run-as-root though it's not strictly required. Note other changes regarding permissions may be necessary to the update script and throughout the guide if you are not a root user.

Create a new LXC using ubuntu or debian as the base image
Start the container, update it with apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y, fix that annoying locale bug with the Proxmox Ubuntu LXC template

Install docker. Steps below for convenience

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apt-get update
apt-get install ca-certificates curl
install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

echo  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" |  tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
apt-get update
apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Install go: apt install golang -y
Install git: apt install git -y
Clone the bridge manager repository: git clone https://github.com/beeper/bridge-manager

Create a convenience update script: nano ./update.sh
Paste the following into nano:

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#! /bin/bash

cd /root/bridge-manager
git fetch
git pull
./build.sh
cp ./bbctl /root/bbctl
echo "Complete"

chmod +x ./update.sh
Run ./update.sh which will build the bridge manager from the latest commit of the repository and copy it to your current directory
mkdir docker-config
Log into the bridge manager
1. ./bbctl login
2. Enter your e-mail address
3. Enter the code sent to your e-mail

Register the new bridge: ./bbctl register sh-mx-puppet-steam. Save the generated output file, an example output is shown below. Replace all values with the ones provided to you by the bridge manager
a. First is the registration file:

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id: cec4046d-e1e1-4f10-b549-4483897a9546
url: websocket
as_token: hua_hcc5Z5YBU60w0bHGuf92OHHkuHHo2XGbjZVf3eUhNDHorl61QnE7P_dTVWm2
hs_token: huh_oCaeqjO8XTDJ7qIoNqsRncKNwMYFX9eEsHnKGMy5Pnn27TSCIUTSB_0R1WrX
sender_localpart: sh-mx-puppet-steam
rate_limited: false
namespaces:
    users:
        - regex: '@sh-mx-puppet-steam_.+:beeper\.local'
          exclusive: true
push_ephemeral: true

b. Second is the additional bridge configuration:

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Additional bridge configuration details:
* Homeserver domain: beeper.local
* Homeserver URL: https://user.eu-plucky-sparrow.edge.beeper.com/user
* Your user ID: @user:beeper.com

Create an initial configuration file for the bridge

nano ./docker-config/config.yaml and paste the following after changing the details noted in brackets

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bridge:
    port: 6000
    bindAddress: 0.0.0.0
    domain: [YOUR HOMESERVER DOMAIN]
    homeserverUrl: [YOUR HOMESERVER URL]

provisioning:
    whitelist:
        - "[YOUR BEEPER USERNAME]"
    apiPrefix: /_matrix/provision

presence:
    enabled: true
    interval: 5000

Save and exit nano

nano ./docker-config/steam-registration.yaml and paste the following after changing the details noted in brackets. Please note the homeserver url is constructed of multiple entries

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id: [YOUR ID]
url: http://127.0.0.1:6000?access_token=[YOUR hs_token]
as_token: [YOUR as_token]
hs_token: [YOUR hs_token]
sender_localpart: [YOUR sender_localpart]
rate_limited: false
namespaces:
    users:
        - regex: '@sh-mx-puppet-steam_.*'
          exclusive: true
push_ephemeral: true
de.sorunome.msc2409.push_ephemeral: true

Start the docker container: docker run -d -p 6000:6000 --name mx-puppet-steam --restart=always -v /root/docker-config:/data icewind1991/mx-puppet-steam:latest
Start the bridge manager proxy ./bbctl proxy -r /root/docker-config/steam-registration.yaml
Send a message to your bridge bot: @sh-mx-puppet-steambot:beeper.local. The bot should join the room when it is created, and respond to the help command. If this works, close the proxy and move on to the next step

Automate bridge manager proxy startup with systemd

nano /etc/systemd/system/bbctl.sh-mx-puppet-steam.service

Paste the following into nano

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[Unit]
Description=Beeper Bridge Manager mx-puppet-steam
After=network-online.target docker.service
Wants=network-online.target systemd-networkd-wait-online.service
StartLimitIntervalSec=500
StartLimitBurst=5

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s
User=root
ExecStart=/root/bbctl proxy -r /root/docker-config/steam-registration.yaml

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

systemctl enable bbctl.sh-mx-puppet-steam.service
systemctl start bbctl.sh-mx-puppet-steam.service

Login to the bot by sending it a message with link [steam username] [steam password]. If you have Steam guard enabled it will ask you for a Steam guard code

Double Puppeting

Double puppeting may not work without manually entering a matrix auth token. Without double puppeting, when you are sent a message for the first time a room will be created and you will be invited to it, but not automatically joined. You can use the token which was granted to the copy of the bridge manager running this bridge.

In the LXC running the bridge, run nano ~/.config/bbctl/config.json
Find the access_token tag in the file, and copy it out. It seems to begin with syt_
Send a message to the bridge bot: setmatrixtoken [YOUR access_token] and the bot should respond it was set successfully