Steam sometimes prevents system from going to sleep

[buu342]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Wed, May 17 9:36 PM UTC -08:00. I installed Steam through the deb on Steam's website.
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Kubuntu 23.04, running Kernel 6.2 and mesa graphics driver. Hardware is: Ryzen 7 5800X, Radeon 6700XT, 16GB of RAM.
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Yes and No (issue happens in both).
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes, I always install updates when they are provided to my system.

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

I've been having this issue ever since I've had this desktop (so almost a year now). I've always run Kubuntu (Ubuntu using KDE Plasma as my DE) on it, starting originally with 22.04 LTS, and then I moved to 22.04 rolling release, and I've basically been keeping the system up to date up until 23.04. Same goes for the kernel, originally starting on 5.26 and I'm currently on 6.2.

When I try to suspend my system, it will fail to do so every now and then. Typically when suspending, the desktop fades to black, leaving only the mouse cursor visible, and then eventually the cursor disappears too and the system goes to sleep. But every now and then, the cursor will not disappear, and eventually the black will fade into my lock screen. I assumed this was a random Kubuntu bug for a while, but I one day got annoyed with the issue and decided to try to figure out why it was happening. I used journalctl -b, and the only information I could find was this:

https://gist.github.com/buu342/822bfa2e433281f288206cb25d893ef6

For reference, here is a successful suspend:

https://gist.github.com/buu342/8e8da5f40158da2ec309fe420dce9960

I doesn't seem to tell me anything interesting. I then tried killing different applications and suspending each time. The key was killing Steam. The past two months, whenever my system randomly decides to not sleep, I exit Steam (I have to wait until the Steam process is completely dead) and then suspend will work without flaw. I haven't been able to figure out why it happens specifically. Steam has managed to suspend without problems during updates or shader precaches, but will fail to suspend when it seems to be completely idle. It seems utterly random, which sucks because it makes harder for me to provide a minimal reproducible example.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Try to suspend the system
2. It does not
3. Login and kill the Steam process
4. System suspends without issues

[buu342]

If there are any other logs worth sharing besides journalctl, let me know and I'll post them as soon as the system fails to suspend again.

[buu342]

Ok, minor update. I have confirmation that it really is Steam that is blocking sleep, straight from KDE's power manager:

It might be possible this is a duplicate of #5607

[A-UNDERSCORE-D]

Seeing this as well, its stopping my (KDE, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed) machine from auto-locking. Even when steam is minimised to the tray

@kisak-valve Appears this covers more than just Ubuntu. Maybe a KDE thing?

[buu342]

Updated title to reflect that 🙂

[Nitrousoxide]

This seems to be happening for me too on Fedora in Gnome. Killing steam will let the computer sleep.

[buu342]

Ok, so it's not just KDE then? It's just straight up: Steam prevents Linux from going to sleep.

[DarSin1]

Confirmed here as well. EndeavourOS-KDE.

[Nitrousoxide]

My computer seems to be able to sleep again after I untoggled "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views (requires restart) under Settings -> Interface.

I have an amd gpu so drivers shouldn't be an issue in Linux.

[buu342]

That's interesting. I have noticed that if I open steam and browse the community tab, in around a minute, KDE will report that Steam is inhibiting sleep. So I always had an inkling it was related to the web browser somewhat. However, I have gotten this inhibition without using the browser, so I didn't put it in the OP. I'll try toggling the GPU acceleration and see if that helps.

[buu342]

Unfortunately, no dice on my end.

[Nitrousoxide]

yeah it's not fixed it for me now either so who knows. Closing steam still seems to let the system sleep though so I'm still pretty sure that's it.

[Nitrousoxide]

It seems to have fixed itself now? Perhaps it was something to do with the animation running for the summer sale? With that gone in the store page it now seems like the computer can correctly sleep even with steam open.

[buu342]

It seems to have fixed itself now? Perhaps it was something to do with the animation running for the summer sale? With that gone in the store page it now seems like the computer can correctly sleep even with steam open.

No dice here, unfortunately. Still buggered.

[DataCpt]

I tried launching steam and leaving it alone. Still prevents sleep.

[JohnMcLear]

Ubuntu too

jose@ryzin:~$ dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.GetInhibitors
method return time=1692784843.604859 sender=:1.43 -> destination=:1.1420 serial=37596 reply_serial=2
   array [
      object path "/org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor4941"
      object path "/org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor169"
   ]
jose@ryzin:~$ dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor169 org.gnome.SessionManager.Inhibitor.GetAppId
method return time=1692784857.675175 sender=:1.43 -> destination=:1.1422 serial=37605 reply_serial=2
   string "Steam"
jose@ryzin:~$ dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor4941 org.gnome.SessionManager.Inhibitor.GetAppId
Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Object does not exist at path “/org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor4941”
jose@ryzin:~$ dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.GetInhibitors
method return time=1692784871.083863 sender=:1.43 -> destination=:1.1424 serial=37607 reply_serial=2
   array [
      object path "/org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor169"
      object path "/org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor4942"
   ]
jose@ryzin:~$ dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager/Inhibitor4942 org.gnome.SessionManager.Inhibitor.GetAppId
method return time=1692784875.939375 sender=:1.43 -> destination=:1.1425 serial=37608 reply_serial=2
   string "Steam"
jose@ryzin:~$ 

And for some reason it's creating new AppId's periodically.

[JohnMcLear]

My computer seems to be able to sleep again after I untoggled "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views (requires restart) under Settings -> Interface.

I have an amd gpu so drivers shouldn't be an issue in Linux.

Mine is untoggled and I have this issue so I'm sceptical that's the cause or solution.

[gwaewion]

Arch+KDE. The same issue.

[gabevenberg]

not just a kde thing, seeing on arch+i3 as well.

[credomane]

In the past I could just make sure that Steam client was on the library tab and this was a "non-issue", if you will. However either my update to KDE6 or one of steam's march updates (or perhaps a mixture of both?) this "trick" of staying on the library tab work around to no longer solve the issue. Now my computer will refuse to go to sleep unless I completely exit steam.

EndeavourOS w/ KDE6.

[stardude900]

Fedora39 + Cinnamon with Kernel 6.8, same problem.

[samwcoulter]

Ubuntu 22.04 and i3wm, same issue.

[aaannestad]

Been experiencing the same bug for many months on Manjaro and Arch. Running systemctl suspend manually works just fine, but as long as Steam is running, the system will never automatically suspend itself.

I don't suppose anyone knows any workarounds? (beyond 'manually shut down Steam whenever you're not playing a game')

[materemias]

for arch based systems there is a workaround in the AUR: steam-screensaver-fix