[Linux | Debian] Cannot launch dota 2

[judu55]

Your system information

• System information from steam (Steam -> Help -> System Information) in a gist: Debian System Specs
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Are you using the latest stable video driver available for your system? Yes AFAIK
• Have you verified the game files?: Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

This has been happening for about 2-3 weeks now. No matter what Distro I am on, Dota 2 refuses to launch since the new steam client update.
I click the 'Play' button and the state for the button changes to 'Running' and then immediately changes back to 'Play' without ever launching the game.

Crash gist

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Launch Steam
2. Launch Dota 2
3. Dota 2 does not launch

[enjoycowboy]

Try running it from the terminal, with the launch script. check for a segfault (kinda like #2390?). Might be related to #2388? The segfault mentioned in that issue talks about updating the client to the beta version. On my end, the beta version doesnt launch.

[judu55]

Tried launching it with the -vulkan_disable_graphics_pipeline_library option but it didn't change the behavior. Opted into the beta using -vgui launch flag for steam. Still did not launch. Tried in the new gui and still the same behavior, so I think we can rule out #2388

Is DoTA launching for anyone on any linux distro? I'm open to testing other distro's as this is the only game that does not launch in my steam library.

[smcv]

Is DoTA launching for anyone on any linux distro?

I can confirm that it is working for at least some people, on at least some distributions, with at least some GPUs: since the recent switch to the Steam Linux Runtime 3 'sniper' container runtime, I've run it successfully on Arch, Debian 12, Fedora 38 and Ubuntu 22.04.

I see you're using Debian 12. It worked fine for me on Debian 12, but with a different AMD GPU (Vega 56 rather than Polaris 10), so I would expect that either there is some hardware-specific problem, or some aspect of your system configuration is not the same as mine.

A Dota 2 developer might be able to get more insight by analyzing the crash dump that your system uploaded.

[ben-whale]

I had this issue with the same crash gist.

I resolved the issue by:

1. Completely uninstalling steam. This included removing all data associated to all games. Reboot.
2. Switch to ubuntu graphics driver. Reboot. Completely uninstalling all nvidia drivers. Reboot.
3. Resolving all apt issues. In my case apt was failing to upgrade a handful of packages. I suspect this was the case due to a failed upgrade from 525 to 535. Reboot.
4. Install nvidia:353 using "sudo ubuntu-drivers install nvidia:525". Reboot.
5. Install steam using "sudo apt install steam". Reboot.
6. Install Dota2 from steam. Reboot.
7. Run dota successfully.

This is, quite obviously overkill, but it did work. I'm guessing that the crash gist is the result of missing files due to a failed upgrade from nvdia 525 to 535 and apt's refusal to upgrade the packages with broken dependencies.

Good luck.

[judu55]

I can confirm that it is working for at least some people, on at least some distributions, with at least some GPUs: since the recent switch to the Steam Linux Runtime 3 'sniper' container runtime, I've run it successfully on Arch, Debian 12, Fedora 38 and Ubuntu 22.04.

I see you're using Debian 12. It worked fine for me on Debian 12, but with a different AMD GPU (Vega 56 rather than Polaris 10), so I would expect that either there is some hardware-specific problem, or some aspect of your system configuration is not the same as mine.

A Dota 2 developer might be able to get more insight by analyzing the crash dump that your system uploaded.

This is great and helpful insight. The 'Out of Box Experience' should be as you stated above. I've been watching your steam client issue that you put in as well for movement or any update to the client itself. I appreciate the communication here @smcv

I don't think I'm missing any drivers or packages that are needed as @ben-whale stated:

Resolving all apt issues. In my case apt was failing to upgrade a handful of packages. I suspect this was the case due to a failed upgrade from 525 to 535. Reboot.
Install nvidia:353 using "sudo ubuntu-drivers install nvidia:525". Reboot.
Install steam using "sudo apt install steam". Reboot.

As ben's graphical hardware is different, I'm going to rule the fix of "judu55's drivers are the issue" out for now.

[demidenko]

I had same issue until I uninstall Steam from flatpak and install Steam as .deb, additionally now my system has nvidia-535.98 driver

[reevestrife]

After working fine for a long time my dota 2 stopped launching.

here is what I tried:

• Installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu 23.10 and immediately steam and dota and nothing else - no joy, same issue continues
• tried a different version of the mesa kisak driver (AMD does not have gpu driver for ubuntu 23.10) - no joy, same issue continues.
• Installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS immediately installed steam and dota - no joy, same issue continues.
• checked for dump folder after starting - no dump folder exists
• tried to start with -vulkan_disable_pipeline_cache - no joy, same issue continues.
• tried starting dota 2 through terminal with this command: /ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/run.sh /dota.sh - this actually worked!!!! it started right up, but it seems its the running without context to steam, so you can't play online ... But atleast it worked!! :-D
• tried starting dota 2 through through terminal with this command: steam steam://rungameid/373300 - this results in the same original problem of not launching. tries to launch - but then fails to launch with no error. there is some output on the console of it starting up, and the pre launch dota 2 launch window pops up before it just stops abruptly without any error.

a more recent report of this bug (not by me and I did not know this old one also exist and is still open)
#2626

Next I will try to uninstall steam snap package and install steam through .deb package.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @reevestrife, you're most likely seeing ValveSoftware/steam-runtime#640.

[reevestrife]

Hello @reevestrife, you're most likely seeing ValveSoftware/steam-runtime#640.

Thank you! I installed Steam through .deb package instead of snap, and now everything is working again! Thank you so much for the fix. I really appreciate it!

I also first installed a fresh version of Ubuntu 24.2 (I wanted to try it) but I am sure that was not the fix, as I have previously also installed a fresh Ubuntu and the problem persisted.