Cannot connect to Friends Network

[SethDusek]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 4 Jan 2019
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 18.10
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

System info gist

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Ever since yesterday, I have been unable to connect to the friends network, which means I'm permanently marked offline. I've tried the following things to try and fix this

• Reinstalled Steam
• Opted in to the beta version in hopes of a fix but then opted out
• Installed flatpak version of steam
• Changed DNS settings
• Changed internet connections from my home wifi to a 3g hotspot from my phone
• Reset steam using steam --reset
• Launched steam using -nofriendsui

Here is my connection_log.txt

In big picture I can see which of my friends are online, but I can't message them or see messages from them, but I could strangely enough broadcast their game.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. I don't know, since I'm not sure this issue affects anyone else

edit: I should also mention, the game coordinator works inside of Dota 2, and Dota 2 also doesn't give any error like "Lost connection to steam" so this looks like a friends network only thing. However I can't really party with anyone unless they share their party status in a chat channel, because all my friends see me as offline and vice versa

[SethDusek]

Hi, I seem to have found a solution to my problem. Apparently steam cannot handle binary $TZ formats. Changing the TZ enviroment variable to my timezone and launching steam made it work. I think the following solutions could be added:

• Add an error message when this error occurs. Chrome and Firefox also have similar error messages for when your system clock is messed up.

• Add support for whatever this binary timezone format is

[h1z1]

Curious what made you look at timezone?

[kisak-valve]

Closing as a duplicate of #5612.

[Israphel]

Hi, I seem to have found a solution to my problem. Apparently steam cannot handle binary $TZ formats. Changing the TZ enviroment variable to my timezone and launching steam made it work. I think the following solutions could be added:

* Add an error message when this error occurs. Chrome and Firefox also have similar error messages for when your system clock is messed up.

* Add support for whatever this binary timezone format is

So what do I have to do to get the chat working? I still don't get it

[SethDusek]

Hi, I seem to have found a solution to my problem. Apparently steam cannot handle binary $TZ formats. Changing the TZ enviroment variable to my timezone and launching steam made it work. I think the following solutions could be added:

* Add an error message when this error occurs. Chrome and Firefox also have similar error messages for when your system clock is messed up.

* Add support for whatever this binary timezone format is

So what do I have to do to get the chat working? I still don't get it

You can edit your /usr/bin/steam file and change the TZ variable to something else. For example for me I added

TZ="Asia/Karachi" to my /usr/bin/steam file.