steamwebhelper crashing on NVIDIA with GPU-accelerated web rendering (workaround in beta)

[onegen-dev]

Since yesterday (1. July 2023), Steam hangs on start, unable to create a window for itself (new GUI problem?). It appears that start.sh is repeatedly trying to create a steamwebhelper that just crashes soon after spawning.

---

Update: Identified as a CEF (libcef.so) issue, it’s currently tracked by NVIDIA and looks like a workaround is out in Steam Beta (see changelog). Should be fixed by disabling "GPU-accelerated web rendering" and wiping GLCache, see #9780 (comment).

---

System Information

• Steam client version: 1.0.0.78 (1687386907)
• Distribution: Fedora 38 (Workstation)
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (RPMFusion driver v535.54.03)
• DE: GNOME 44, X.Org 1.20.14 (no wayland)

$ dnf list installed "*steam*"

Installed Packages
steam.i686                                     1.0.0.78-1.fc38           @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
steam-devices.i686                             1.0.0.78-1.fc38           @rpmfusion-nonfree-steam

$ dnf list installed "*nvidia*"

Installed Packages
akmod-nvidia.x86_64                            3:535.54.03-1.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
kmod-nvidia-6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64.x86_64       3:535.54.03-1.fc38        @@commandline
nvidia-persistenced.x86_64                     3:535.54.03-1.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
nvidia-settings.x86_64                         3:535.54.03-1.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
nvidia-vaapi-driver.x86_64                     0.0.10-1.fc38             @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64                     3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda.x86_64                3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.x86_64           3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.i686             3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc.x86_64             3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686                  3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.x86_64                3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power.x86_64               3:535.54.03-2.fc38        @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver

$ inxi -F

System:
  Host: ongn-zetaxi270 Kernel: 6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: GNOME v: 44.2 Distro: Fedora release 38 (Thirty Eight)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: Z270X-Ultra Gaming v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z270X-Ultra Gaming-CF v: x.x
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: F8
    date: 10/27/2017
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-6700 bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3724 min/max: 800/4000 cores: 1: 3870 2: 3400 3: 3400
    4: 3885 5: 3820 6: 3801 7: 3737 8: 3884
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050] driver: nvidia v: 535.54.03
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.54.03 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX
    1050/PCIe/SSE2
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-3: Trust GXT 258 Microphone
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB
  API: ALSA v: k6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.72 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V driver: e1000e
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: 1c:1b:0d:97:f8:f7
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) driver: btusb
    type: USB
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.69 TiB used: 1.61 TiB (59.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 QVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD1003FZEX-00K3CA0
    size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: SanDisk model: EMTEC X150 960GB size: 894.25 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 145.01 GiB used: 72.64 GiB (50.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 96 MiB used: 46.6 MiB (48.5%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-3: /home size: 191.45 GiB used: 122.63 GiB (64.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda8
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
  ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 4.66 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    dev: /dev/sda7
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 36 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 35%
Info:
  Processes: 367 Uptime: 13m Memory: available: 15.56 GiB
  used: 4.28 GiB (27.5%) Shell: Zsh inxi: 3.3.27

Description

When I try to start Steam either from the terminal or from the application launcher, the process just hangs and doesn't open the Steam client (has to be killed using kill or just killall steam).

The issue started appeared one day ago–Steam was working perfectly fine before that. I made no changes to the system, settings or anything in that time (auto-update might have happened though).

Executing steam in the terminal didn't print any errors or any lines that would differ from a successful launch. After "RegisterForAppOverview", it appears that steamwebhelper was repeatedly executed:

steamwebhelper.sh[330664]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[330664]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()

The longer I let it run, the more steamwebhelpers were spawned (seen in htop and ps aux | grep 'steam', no window ever appeared. At this point, the program didn't respond to even SIGINTs and had to be forcibly killed.

By some miracle, I was able to start Steam in offline mode (steam -offline) once after running steam --reset. Games, incl. online ones, ran as expected. But sadly, after I restarted the computer again, not even the offline option helped (I tried resetting again, no change).

Addendum: Running steam -bigpicture fails in a…peculiar way (video)

Screencast.from.2023-07-03.00-08-47.webm

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Run Steam

What I tried so far:

• steam -offline
• steam --reset
• steam --flushconfig
• steam -cef-disable-gpu
• steam -bigpicture
• DRI_PRIME=0 steam
• Resetting the network & wiping the DNS cache
• Reinstalling CUDA
• Reinstalling VDPAU/VAAPI
• dnf downgrade steam
• dnf reinstall steam
• dnf remove steam && dnf install steam
• rm -rf ~/.cache/nvidia/GLCache
• rm -rf ~/.steam/ ~/.steampath ~/.steampid
• rm -rf ~/.local/share/Steam/ (worked for a time, see #9780 (comment))
• steam -vgui (works to a limited extent, see #9780 (comment))

[LuNeder]

This problem also happens on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.

Steam opens and the tray icon appears and all, but no UI. This started to happen the day a mesa downgrade happened on Tumbleweed, 7 days ago. Back then running zypper dup with --allow-vendor-change used to fix it, but now it's broken again and that does not fix it anymore. Systemd journal also seems to briefly mention a problem with libcef.so:

  jul 02 19:22:19│script[3096]          │-> checking /home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime                                                                                                                            │
 │jul 02 19:22:22│dbus-daemon[2514]     │[session uid=1000 pid=2514] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.135' (uid=1000 pid=4073 comm="/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam -")                 │
 │jul 02 19:22:22│script[3096]          │waiting for steam to start...done                                                                                                                                                               │
 │jul 02 19:22:24│dbus-daemon[2514]     │[session uid=1000 pid=2514] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.140' (uid=1000 pid=4252 comm="/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/../ubun")                 │
 │jul 02 19:22:24│dbus-daemon[2514]     │[session uid=1000 pid=2514] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.140' (uid=1000 pid=4252 comm="/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/../ubun")                 ┬
 │jul 02 19:22:25│dbus-daemon[2514]     │[session uid=1000 pid=2514] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.144' (uid=1000 pid=4341 comm="/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/../ubun")                 │
 │jul 02 19:22:25│dbus-daemon[2514]     │[session uid=1000 pid=2514] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.144' (uid=1000 pid=4341 comm="/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/../ubun")                 │
 │jul 02 19:22:28│kernel                │traps: steamwebhelper[4138] trap invalid opcode ip:7f86113db794 sp:7fff9f5686a0 error:0 in libcef.so[7f860eaef000+7770000]                                                                      ┴
 │jul 02 19:22:29│systemd-coredum[4435] │Process 4138 (steamwebhelper) of user 1000 dumped core.                                                                                                                                         │
 │jul 02 19:22:29│drkonqi-coredum[4436] │"/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper" 4138 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.steamwebhelper.1000.73defe08011544b8a54fa9222e25b4df.4138.1688336548000000.zst"                │
 │jul 02 19:22:39│systemd-coredum[4807] │Process 4482 (steamwebhelper) of user 1000 dumped core.                                                                                                                                         │
 │jul 02 19:22:39│drkonqi-coredum[4808] │"/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper" 4482 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.steamwebhelper.1000.73defe08011544b8a54fa9222e25b4df.4482.1688336559000000.zst"                │
 │jul 02 19:22:49│systemd-coredum[4955] │Process 4820 (steamwebhelper) of user 1000 dumped core.                                                                                                                                         │
 │jul 02 19:22:50│drkonqi-coredum[4957] │"/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper" 4820 "/var/lib/systemd/coredump/core.steamwebhelper.1000.73defe08011544b8a54fa9222e25b4df.4820.1688336569000000.zst"

Trying to run the steamwebhelper also errors on libcef.so:
/home/luana/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper: error while loading shared libraries: libcef.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Running with -bigpicture I get the same result as you do too.

However, one thing seems to work: if I open Steam's old UI instead of the new one with steam -vgui, it launches fine and the UI works! Can you try that? (Tho I'm sure the old UI won't stay forever so we do need a fix lol)

[onegen-dev]

(( More possibly related issues: #9383 (diff: Flatpak, opt) and #9706 (diff: KDE) ))

However, one thing seems to work: if I open Steam's old UI instead of the new one with steam -vgui, it launches fine and the UI works! Can you try that? (Tho I'm sure the old UI won't stay forever so we do need a fix lol) – @LuNeder

Thanks, running steam -vgui got at least the old GUI to open!

However, it felt slow and attempting to change "Steam Library Folders" setting crashed the entire GUI (reloading it). As my games are installed in a non-default location and my settings were reset, I cannot run anything. I was able to get Steam to recognise my games folder by editing ~/.steam/root/steamapps/libraryfolders.vdf by hand. It recognised most of the apps there – Steam wanted to re-download a few games like "Warframe", but by clicking "Cancel" it [slowly] verified its presence.

Additionally, the "Friends Network" (chat) didn't work, and opening "Big Picture Mode" with -vgui had the same outcome as without it (the glitching screen from original post). Odd…

Playing with libraryfolders.vdf

I am leaving this here for anyone who has a similar problem.
Or myself if I need it again. :)

Before anything, make sure Steam is turned off and remember to make a backup:

killall steam
cp ~/.steam/root/steamapps/libraryfolders.vdf ~/.steam/root/steamapps/libraryfolders.vdf.bak

Open libraryfolders.vdf in your editor of choice (gedit, nano, vim,…).
It should look something like this:

"libraryfolders"
{
	"0"
	{
		"path"		"/home/username/.local/share/Steam"
		"label"		""
		"contentid"		"999999999999999"
		"totalsize"		"0"
		"update_clean_bytes_tally"		"0"
		"time_last_update_corruption"		"0"
		"apps"
		{
		}
	}
}

Steam luckily can fill most information by itself on startup. All we really have to do it give it the "path" and a random "contentid" integer.

• path is usually called "SteamLibrary". You want the folder that contains steamapps, but not steamapps itself.
• contentid is just a random unique integer. Make up something, as long as it is different from the "0" (just touch the numpad a bit and you're done).

Then insert it like so:

"libraryfolders"
{
	"0"
	{
		"path"		"/home/username/.local/share/Steam"
		"label"		""
		"contentid"		"999999999999999"
		"totalsize"		"0"
		"update_clean_bytes_tally"		"0"
		"time_last_update_corruption"		"0"
		"apps"
		{
		}
	}
	"1"
	{
		"path"		"/run/media/username/GAMEHDD/SteamLibrary"
		"label"		""
		"contentid"		"1234567890000"
		"totalsize"		"0"
		"update_clean_bytes_tally"		"0"
		"time_last_update_corruption"		"0"
		"apps"
		{
		}
	}
}

On next startup, Steam should automatically detect "apps" and everything, even the ID was regenerated.

Of course, no guarantees this workaround works for everyone. If you try this and it doesn't work, feel free to reply here.

---

Tho I'm sure the old UI won't stay forever so we do need a fix lol

Yeah, here's hoping that Valve fixes this issue soon. 🙏🏽

For now I'm just glad I'm not an isolated incident. 😄

Systemd journal also seems to briefly mention a problem with libcef.so

So I ventured to the endless pits of journalctl and I was able to get a similar core dump note:

systemd-coredump[66477]: [🡕] Process 66315 (steamwebhelper) of user 1000 dumped core.

Indeed there was the same line about libcef:

kernel: traps: steamwebhelper[66315] trap invalid opcode ip:7fe8823db794 sp:7fff18da8e00 error:0 in libcef.so[7fe87>

Here is the entire relevant part of the journal:

$ journalctl

Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-dump-journal-oops[1874]: abrt-dump-journal-oops: Found oopses: 1
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-dump-journal-oops[1874]: abrt-dump-journal-oops: Creating problem directories
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66298]: Executable '/home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper' doesn't belong >
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66298]: 'post-create' on '/var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2023-07-03-00:01:41.284470-66131' exited with 1
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66298]: Deleting problem directory '/var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2023-07-03-00:01:41.284470-66131'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: Can't find a meaningful backtrace for hashing in '.'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: Deleting non-reportable oops '.' because DropNotReportableOopses is set to 'yes'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: 'post-create' on '/var/spool/abrt/oops-2023-07-03-00:01:41-1874-0' exited with 1
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66298]: Deleting problem directory '/var/spool/abrt/ccpp-2023-07-03-00:01:41.284470-66131'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: Can't find a meaningful backtrace for hashing in '.'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: Deleting non-reportable oops '.' because DropNotReportableOopses is set to 'yes'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: 'post-create' on '/var/spool/abrt/oops-2023-07-03-00:01:41-1874-0' exited with 1
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: Deleting problem directory '/var/spool/abrt/oops-2023-07-03-00:01:41-1874-0'
Jul 03 00:01:41 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-server[66300]: Lock file '.lock' was locked by process 66313, but it crashed?
Jul 03 00:01:42 ongn-zetaxi270 abrt-dump-journal-oops[1874]: Reported 1 kernel oopses to Abrt
Jul 03 00:01:43 ongn-zetaxi270 guake.desktop[3561]: Showing the terminal
Jul 03 00:01:47 ongn-zetaxi270 guake.desktop[3561]: Hiding the terminal
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 audit[66315]: ANOM_ABEND auid=1000 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=3 subj=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c10>
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 kernel: traps: steamwebhelper[66315] trap invalid opcode ip:7fe8823db794 sp:7fff18da8e00 error:0 in libcef.so[7fe87>
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 audit: BPF prog-id=292 op=LOAD
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 audit: BPF prog-id=293 op=LOAD
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 audit: BPF prog-id=294 op=LOAD
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 systemd[1]: Started systemd-coredump@65-66476-0.service - Process Core Dump (PID 66476/UID 0).
Jul 03 00:01:50 ongn-zetaxi270 audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=syste>
Jul 03 00:01:51 ongn-zetaxi270 systemd-coredump[66477]: [🡕] Process 66315 (steamwebhelper) of user 1000 dumped core.

                                                        Module /home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper from rpm libxcb->
                                                        Module /home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libminigbm.so from rpm libxcb-1>
                                                        Module /home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libSDL3.so.0 from rpm libxcb-1.>
                                                        Module /home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so from rpm libxcb-1.13.>
                                                        Module libxcb-glx.so.0 from rpm libxcb-1.13.1-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXss.so.1 from rpm libXScrnSaver-1.2.3-12.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libudev.so.1 from rpm systemd-253.5-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libdconfsettings.so from rpm dconf-0.40.0-8.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libbrotlicommon.so.1 from rpm brotli-1.0.9-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libbrotlidec.so.1 from rpm brotli-1.0.9-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libbz2.so.1 from rpm bzip2-1.0.8-13.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgmp.so.10 from rpm gmp-6.2.1-4.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libhogweed.so.6 from rpm nettle-3.8-3.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libnettle.so.8 from rpm nettle-3.8-3.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libtasn1.so.6 from rpm libtasn1-4.19.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libunistring.so.5 from rpm libunistring-1.1-3.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libidn2.so.0 from rpm libidn2-2.3.4-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libp11-kit.so.0 from rpm p11-kit-0.24.1-6.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libcrypto.so.3 from rpm openssl-3.0.9-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libkeyutils.so.1 from rpm keyutils-1.6.1-6.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libkrb5support.so.0 from rpm krb5-1.20.1-8.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libcom_err.so.2 from rpm e2fsprogs-1.46.5-4.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libk5crypto.so.3 from rpm krb5-1.20.1-8.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libkrb5.so.3 from rpm krb5-1.20.1-8.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libdatrie.so.1 from rpm libdatrie-0.2.13-5.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libpixman-1.so.0 from rpm pixman-0.42.2-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libxcb-shm.so.0 from rpm libxcb-1.13.1-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libxcb-render.so.0 from rpm libxcb-1.13.1-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libpng16.so.16 from rpm libpng-1.6.37-14.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libxml2.so.2 from rpm libxml2-2.10.4-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgraphite2.so.3 from rpm graphite2-1.3.14-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libfreetype.so.6 from rpm freetype-2.13.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module liblz4.so.1 from rpm lz4-1.9.4-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libzstd.so.1 from rpm zstd-1.5.5-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module liblzma.so.5 from rpm xz-5.4.1-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libcap.so.2 from rpm libcap-2.48-6.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libblkid.so.1 from rpm util-linux-2.38.1-4.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgnutls.so.30 from rpm gnutls-3.8.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libavahi-client.so.3 from rpm avahi-0.8-22.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libavahi-common.so.3 from rpm avahi-0.8-22.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgssapi_krb5.so.2 from rpm krb5-1.20.1-8.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libthai.so.0 from rpm libthai-0.1.29-4.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libfribidi.so.0 from rpm fribidi-1.0.12-3.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libcairo.so.2 from rpm cairo-1.17.8-4.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libfontconfig.so.1 from rpm fontconfig-2.14.2-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libharfbuzz.so.0 from rpm harfbuzz-7.1.0-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 from rpm pango-1.50.14-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libsystemd.so.0 from rpm systemd-253.5-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXau.so.6 from rpm libXau-1.0.11-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libplds4.so from rpm nss-3.90.0-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libplc4.so from rpm nss-3.90.0-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libdrm.so.2 from rpm libdrm-2.4.114-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libGLdispatch.so.0 from rpm libglvnd-1.6.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libGLX.so.0 from rpm libglvnd-1.6.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libselinux.so.1 from rpm libselinux-3.5-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libmount.so.1 from rpm util-linux-2.38.1-4.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libz.so.1 from rpm zlib-1.2.13-3.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgmodule-2.0.so.0 from rpm glib2-2.76.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libpcre2-8.so.0 from rpm pcre2-10.42-1.fc38.1.x86_64
                                                        Module libffi.so.8 from rpm libffi-3.4.4-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libatspi.so.0 from rpm at-spi2-core-2.48.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libcups.so.2 from rpm cups-2.4.6-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libpango-1.0.so.0 from rpm pango-1.50.14-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libpangocairo-1.0.so.0 from rpm pango-1.50.14-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libasound.so.2 from rpm alsa-lib-1.2.9-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libdbus-1.so.3 from rpm dbus-1.14.8-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libexpat.so.1 from rpm expat-2.5.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXfixes.so.3 from rpm libXfixes-6.0.0-5.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXcursor.so.1 from rpm libXcursor-1.2.1-3.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libxcb-dri3.so.0 from rpm libxcb-1.13.1-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libxcb.so.1 from rpm libxcb-1.13.1-11.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libX11-xcb.so.1 from rpm libX11-1.8.6-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libatk-bridge-2.0.so.0 from rpm at-spi2-core-2.48.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libatk-1.0.so.0 from rpm at-spi2-core-2.48.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libnspr4.so from rpm nss-3.90.0-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libibus-1.0.so.5 from rpm ibus-1.5.28-6.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libGL.so.1 from rpm libglvnd-1.6.0-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXdamage.so.1 from rpm libXdamage-1.1.5-9.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXcomposite.so.1 from rpm libXcomposite-0.4.5-9.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXrandr.so.2 from rpm libXrandr-1.5.2-10.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXtst.so.6 from rpm libXtst-1.2.4-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXrender.so.1 from rpm libXrender-0.9.11-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXext.so.6 from rpm libXext-1.3.5-2.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libXi.so.6 from rpm libXi-1.8.1-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libX11.so.6 from rpm libX11-1.8.6-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgio-2.0.so.0 from rpm glib2-2.76.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libglib-2.0.so.0 from rpm glib2-2.76.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Module libgobject-2.0.so.0 from rpm glib2-2.76.3-1.fc38.x86_64
                                                        Stack trace of thread 66315:
                                                        #0  0x00007fe8823db794 n/a (/home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so >
                                                        #1  0x00007fe882467522 n/a (/home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so >
                                                        #2  0x00007fe88246a764 n/a (/home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so >
                                                        #3  0x00007fe85a8f77f2 n/a (libnvidia-glcore.so.535.54.03 + 0x14f77f2)
                                                        #4  0x00007fe85a3fcf45 n/a (libnvidia-glcore.so.535.54.03 + 0xffcf45)
                                                        #5  0x00007fe85a40844a n/a (libnvidia-glcore.so.535.54.03 + 0x100844a)
                                                        #6  0x00007fe85a746182 n/a (libnvidia-glcore.so.535.54.03 + 0x1346182)
                                                        #7  0x00007fe85a749cb5 n/a (libnvidia-glcore.so.535.54.03 + 0x1349cb5)
                                                        #8  0x00007fe87deb9695 n/a (/home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libSDL3.so>
                                                        #9  0x00007fe87deb9a1e n/a (/home/onegen/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/libSDL3.so>
                                                        ELF object binary architecture: AMD x86-64
Jul 03 00:01:51 ongn-zetaxi270 systemd[1]: systemd-coredump@65-66476-0.service: Deactivated successfully.
Jul 03 00:01:51 ongn-zetaxi270 audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=system>
Jul 03 00:01:51 ongn-zetaxi270 audit: BPF prog-id=294 op=UNLOAD
Jul 03 00:01:51 ongn-zetaxi270 audit: BPF prog-id=293 op=UNLOAD
Jul 03 00:01:51 ongn-zetaxi270 audit: BPF prog-id=292 op=UNLOAD

[LuNeder]

Okay yeah we surely have the same problem then!

For me, the friends window on -vgui tells me I'm offline (I'm clearly not, even updating games in Steam itself work witgh -vgui). Tho I did not try to actually launch any games yet lol.

Leaving my logs here too since we do have the same problem: logs.tar.gz

I'm on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, XFCE and NVidia 1070Ti

[grillo-delmal]

I'm having the same issues as @nickonegen , I think we only differ in our hardware

inxi -F

System:
  Host: rivaia Kernel: 6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: GNOME v: 44.2 Distro: Fedora release 38 (Thirty Eight)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: Z97 GAMING 7 (MS-7916) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI-[Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.12
    date: 02/16/2016
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-4790K bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1666 min/max: 800/4400 cores: 1: 4399 2: 800 3: 800
    4: 861 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 4068
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] driver: nvidia v: 535.54.03
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.54.03 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX
    2060/PCIe/SSE2
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 9 Series Family HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU106 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-3: Jieli USBAudio2.0
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usb-storage,usbhid type: USB
  Device-4: Razer USA Seiren Mini driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
    type: USB
  API: ALSA v: k6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.72 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet driver: alx
  IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 44:8a:5b:d5:f1:a2
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.17 TiB used: 203.74 GiB (6.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD Green 2.5 480GB
    size: 447.13 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-08M2NA0
    size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EZAZ-00L9GB0
    size: 1.82 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 446.11 GiB used: 12.52 GiB (2.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 668 MiB (68.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-3: /home size: 1.82 TiB used: 190.57 GiB (10.2%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-1
  ID-4: /opt size: 1.82 TiB used: 190.57 GiB (10.2%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-1
  ID-5: /var size: 1.82 TiB used: 190.57 GiB (10.2%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 43.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 54 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Info:
  Processes: 362 Uptime: 48m Memory: available: 31.27 GiB
  used: 4.07 GiB (13.0%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.27

[fr33zing]

I was able to get Steam to launch normally without -vgui by deleting ~/.local/share/Steam

[onegen-dev]

@grillo-delmal: I'm having the same issues as nickonegen, I think we only differ in our hardware

Right, so far this (or similar) issue was see on various DEs (GNOME^{1 3}, KDE^{4 6}, XFCE²) and distros, (Fedora^{1 3 4}, Ubuntu⁵, openSUSE², Arch⁷), even on the Flatpak⁸ release – but all affected systems have a NVIDIA GPU in the GeForce 900 generation or younger. I haven't seen a report of someone with older GPU or a non-NVIDIA GPU have this problem.

Can't speak for all distros (GPU driver version isn't shown in most issues) but at least for Fedora, I can safely say that all these GPUs use the same akmod-nvidia driver from RPMFusion (v535.54.03). I looked for an alike Fedora issue that would have a different version, but found none. Maybe I'll meddle with that as well, but I'd very much prefer not doing that… 😓

Perhaps the label:NVIDIA drivers could be applied to this issue?

Now, I am by no means an expert in this field, but if they [can] use the same driver, their interface can't be all that different, and might be possibly the same in eyes of apps like Steam?

[onegen-dev]

@fr33zing: I was able to get Steam to launch normally without -vgui by deleting ~/.local/share/Steam

While I tried this, I decided to give it another shot, and I found something.

Removing ~/.local/share/Steam (further referred to as the Steam directory) worked sometimes to get it running. Removed it, tried running steam via terminal, and it worked without the performance and crashing issues as -vgui. Then I tried opening it using the icon (.desktop) and everything was as normal – no window, live-die loop of steamwebhelper. Wiping the Steam directory again allowed steam to be ran from the terminal once more.

However after a few attempts, not even rm -Rf ~/.local/share/Steam got it running again. It re-downloaded everything but hung at the same spot once more. Can't say I have made any other changes, I only tried experimenting with removing individual subfolders. Not even a full reinstall with sudo dnf remove steam helped.

Given how many symlinks are in that directory, I can't say I am surprised. 😅 I saved copies of the Steam directory while it worked and after it stopped working and ran it through diff -sr – aside from minor differences, cache and logs, there were no changes. Attempting to restore the functioning copy didn't get it running either.

I will continue experimenting with it, but so far, only steam -vgui works.

Addendum: I've seen some people report that they at least get to the login screen – I wasn't so lucky. DRI_PRIME=0 has no impact, nor did PrefersNonDefaultGPU=true or X-KDE-RunOnDiscreteGpu=true in the steam.desktop, regardless of -vgui or new GUI. Changing any settings in old GUI like "GPU-accelerated rendering" or "Hardware video decoding" had no effect on anything either.

[cyrasil]

@grillo-delmal: I'm having the same issues as nickonegen, I think we only differ in our hardware

Right, so far this (or similar) issue was see on various DEs (GNOME1 3, KDE4 6, XFCE2) and distros, (Fedora1 3 4, Ubuntu5, openSUSE2, Arch7), even on the Flatpak8 release – but all affected systems have a NVIDIA GPU in the GeForce 900 generation or younger. I haven't seen a report of someone with older GPU or a non-NVIDIA GPU have this problem.

I have similar (Don't want to say "same" yet, because I have not read through all the posts carefully), issue with Arch+i3wm+amd RX6600 GPU. Ussually some variation of the following sequence gets the steam running, but it requires several tries: steam-native, steam-runtime, steam -vgui -bigpicture.

Edit: I've removed cinnamon and openbox DE that i had installed from the past + the dependencies installed by those packages and steam now starts normally even without the -vgui option.

Edit2: From the pacman log xdg-desktop-portal, xdg-desktop-portal-xapp were one of the dependencies removed. But i still have the -gnome and -gtk versions installed. Mentioning this, because these were mentioned in some of the other related issues.

[LuNeder]

Quoting someone from NVidia in some discord group: “from what I could see it looks like it might be a race condition in CEF”

So it makes sense that -vgui launches, since it didn’t use CEF while the new UI is apparently made in HTML and uses CEF for everything.

[grillo-delmal]

I opened my steam client again with the -vgui flag and was able to download an update (from the beta branch) that fixed the problem for me.

[LuNeder]

I opened my steam client again with the -vgui flag and was able to download an update (from the beta branch) that fixed the problem for me.

I’ve opened with -vgui and joined the beta, but the problem persists when not using -vgui for me.