"Start Minimized on Boot" GUI option is missing

[FaeAlicia]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Oct 1, 2018
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Xubuntu 18.04
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

When booting, Steam starts up in the window, with no option in the Settings to start minimized. I could've sworn Steam used to behave this way at one point in Linux and I know it still behaves that way in Windows, but I can't for the life of me figure out why this functionality was removed.

The only possible explanation I can think of on my end is that I had to remove the Status Notifier Plugin on my panel due to crashes relating to a bug in another app, forcing the other app & Steam to use the legacy Notification Plugin stuff. But Steam minimizes to the Notification tray icon just fine, so I don't see why this option would not be present. Unfortunately, I can't test this without uninstalling the other app, and I can't really do that right now.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Install Steam and set it up via the additional installer.
2. (Maybe remove the Status Notifier Plugin from the panel?)
3. Reboot.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @Yowlen, running steam -silent should give this behavior. Adjusting the Exec= line of ~/.config/autostart/steam.desktop to end with -silent should also give that behavior when Steam starts with the user session.

[FaeAlicia]

Okay, that works, but the functionality should still match the Windows client. The Windows client has this option in the GUI, so the Linux one should too.

[FaeAlicia]

Okay. I take it back. It worked for literally one reboot. Steam actually reset the ~/.config/autostart/steam.desktop launcher when it started up. I'd have to put the option back in every time before shutting down the computer for this to work, so this is not an effective workaround.

[kisak-valve]

Can you try adjusting /usr/share/applications/steam.desktop instead?

[FaeAlicia]

I edited the config one again just to see what would happen and it seems to be sticking now. I think the other one had to do with an issue I was experiencing with a malfunctioning game which prevented me from closing Steam, forcing me to reboot without letting Steam shut down properly. I guess the crash recovery routine resets everything - including the startup thing.

So the first workaround does work, but this still needs to be put as a proper option within the GUI.

[sorsasampo]

@kisak-valve:

Hello @Yowlen, running steam -silent should give this behavior. Adjusting the Exec= line of ~/.config/autostart/steam.desktop to end with -silent should also give that behavior when Steam starts with the user session.

This is what I do, and I have the file in version control. But Steam keeps overwriting it:

-Exec=/usr/games/steam -silent %U                                       
+Exec=/usr/games/steam %U

/usr/share/applications/steam.desktop is not the right place to modify for user-specific configuration, either.

@kisak-valve:

1. Steam should stop messing with the Exec line of ~/.config/autostart/Steam.desktop
2. ... with the exception of adding/removing -silent, which should have an option in the GUI as @Yowlen pointed out.

[FaeAlicia]

Just to be clear, I figured out why it resets. Whenever a client update is released, the ~/.config/autostart/Steam.desktop file gets reset. And with me being in the beta program now, it updates every day, sometimes more than once. (I wasn't in the beta program 2 months ago when I wrote those other replies.)

This makes it impossible to use this workaround anymore unless I were to back out of the beta program and essentially forfeit my ability to test other issues I'm currently vested in getting fixed.

[sorsasampo]

Yeah, either Steam or the user modifies that ~/.config/autostart/Steam.desktop, but clearly not both.

@kisak-valve: another angle for this:

1. Install /usr/share/applications/steam.desktop pristine as usual.
2. Allow people to manually copy this to ~/.local/share/applications/steam.desktop to override the system-wide configuration (to add -silent for example). This is the de facto way to overriding .desktop files, and I think for example update-desktop-database considers it.
3. Make ~/.config/autostart/Steam.desktop just a wrapper that starts steam.desktop, using the overridden file if it exists. I imagine there ought to be an existing command for this, but can't remember one.

Additionally maybe just add a toggleable GUI option that is used as default when no -silent is passed (for completeness, add -no-silent too).

[FaeAlicia]

There's no reason a user should have to do any of that, though. Any startup options should be toggleable in the GUI, barring an emergency debug command line option or whatever. No hacky workarounds, no command line unless absolutely necessary. We need to start holding Linux's user-friendliness to the same standards as Windows if we ever hope to have Linux not be an outlier in the desktop/laptop OS market. Steam is pushing their Linux-based SteamOS, so I would hope that they understand this necessity.

The Windows version has this option in the GUI, so the Linux version should have it too. That's all there is to it.

[cminnoy]

This still seems to be an open issue, a very much appreciated one! Please add it soon.

[viggy96]

There should be a GUI option to start Steam minimised on startup, just like the Windows client.

[FaeAlicia]

Which is why this issue is still open. It's not that hard to add, either. They would only need to add logic to the autostart shortcut creation subroutine to add the -silent switch to it if the GUI option is checked, or remove it if it's not.

I have no idea how to do GUI stuff, but even with my own limited skillset, I can make a bash script that can toggle this at will, so unless the GUI change is really that hard, or there's another piece of Steam's code that's getting in the way somewhere, it's no more than a 5 minute fix.