Exiting steam crashes X server - nvidia

[af7567]

sysinfo: https://gist.github.com/af7567/efcb1eb16cd7b58ad2f4c24487b34866

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1686278536
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Slackware64-current
• Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes

Since the latest or maybe previous update, the X server is crashing sometimes when I exit the steam client. I saw in a recent changelog that nvidia hardware acceleration was enabled by default so could be related, but my steam settings show hardware acceleration is turned off:

The X server logs show:

[  4840.966] (EE) Backtrace:
[  4840.967] (EE) 0: /usr/libexec/Xorg (OsLookupColor+0x139) [0x5a3679]
[  4840.968] (EE) 1: /lib64/libc.so.6 (__sigaction+0x40) [0x7fa5709f5e20]
[  4840.968] (EE) unw_get_proc_name failed: no unwind info found [-10]
[  4840.968] (EE) 2: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/libglxserver_nvidia.so (?+0x0) [0x7fa56f0cb6c0]
[  4840.968] (EE) 
[  4840.968] (EE) Segmentation fault at address 0x10
[  4840.968] (EE) 
Fatal server error:
[  4840.968] (EE) Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting
[  4840.968] (EE) 
[  4840.968] (EE) 

So it looks like something to do with the nvidia drivers, but it only happens when exiting the current steam beta.

If I start up steam and then exit straight away it won't crash, but if I start steam and click around to look at the store and community tabs before exiting then it will crash X.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @af7567, in general, no OpenGL application including Steam should be capable of taking down the user session. This issue should also be mentioned to your video driver vendor.

[af7567]

@kisak-valve Yes, that is what I thought. I have only had the crash when exiting from recent steam beta though so I opened the issue here to see if anyone else had the same problem. Also wondering if hardware acceleration is getting enabled now even when disabled in the settings.

It could be the 2 settings I am looking at are nothing to do with the nvidia hardware acceleration that was mentioned in recent patch notes.

Big picture mode does work very smoothly now for me though :)

[af7567]

I have also reported this on the nvidia forums at https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/x-server-nvidia-driver-crash-when-steam-beta-client-1686278536-exits-slackware64-current-nvidia-535-43-02/256252

Since steam beta 1686379854 it hasn't been as easy to reproduce the problem so I thought it might be related to "Fixed visual artifacts in the menus on Nvidia GPUs.". But it does still happen sometimes.

[lostgoat]

Yeah, we recently shipped a workaround for these crashes. It is possible the workaround isn't triggering for all cases.

If you get repro steps for this crash let me know. Or any info on what you were doing before the crash happened.

[af7567]

@lostgoat I'm afraid I can't find any way to reproduce it reliably. It used to happen all the time before the workarounds though so much better now.

I have done some clicking around in different places before exiting and the quickest way to a crash is to start steam, wait for the friends list to show, then exit steam. This only crashes about 10% of the time or less though.

I have never been able to get it to crash when the friends list was closed so could be related to that, but also could just be a coincidence.

Here is a little video of what I did to get it to crash, the video stops when the X server dies. Running steam beta 1686630523

wait_friends_exit_crash2.mp4

[awused]

I've run into this twice now. While it might be coincidence, both of the times it crashed were unusually long sessions. My Steam sessions on Linux tend to be short because you still have never fixed the idle inhibit issues on X from half a decade ago. #5607

[amrit1711]

Thanks for reporting issue, we have filed a bug 4158370 for tracking purpose.
We have local repro as well which will help team to debug issue.
Shall keep updated with the progress.

[af7567]

I have been unable to get it to crash since the 1686880776 release. The patch notes show "Fixed a rare crash when rendering an invalid texture", so maybe that is what the problem was?

[af7567]

Unfortunately I had the crash again today when exiting steam. I don't think I did anything different to trigger it, but I did just update the beta to 1687306661 and the crash occurred the first time exiting since then.

edit:
Just tested starting and exiting steam 10 times with the friends list open and closed
Friends list open: 4/10 crashed
Friends list closed: 0/10 crashed

So it feels like something in 1687306661 brought the problem back again.

[awused]

Yeah I ran into the crash again today as well after an update. Friends list was open. I'm on Fedora, not Slackware.

[Qubitium]

Ubuntu 22.04 with Nvidia 4090 + Driver: 535.86.10 + Steam Client (Beta Latest) and Steam Stream Exit still crashes the host stream client x-session.