protonscr

wineserver creates few thousand processes over a few minutes

protonopen
ValveSoftware/Proton#8248 · opened 2024-11-15 by thegame4craft · updated 2025-10-04 · 5 comments · github
3 matching comments, n / p to jump
Tthegame4craft 2024-11-15 github

Your system information

Steam-Betabranch: Client (stabil)
Steam-Version: 1731433018
Steam-Client: Build-Datum: Di., 12. Nov. 18:10 UTC -08:00
Steam: Webbuild-Datum: Di., 12. Nov. 3:03 UTC -08:00
Steam-API-Version: SteamClient021

  • Steam client version (build number or date):
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch Linux (With KDE)
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes, already at the latest version
  • Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
  • GPU: Amd Radeon RX 570

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Steam creates a few thounds threads/processes of C:\windows\system32\explorer.exe /desktop when i try to run a game. This causes error in to may inotify handles. On top it spawns even more, even when i hit exit steam (which pops up a error message and then crashes after 3-5 seconds resolving in closing steam. AND it slows down my computer and eats up my memory

journalctl -b: https://gist.github.com/thegame4craft/8486468ef23ef63de6443313003c56e5

(I searched for duplicate posts, but i didnt found any recent post matching this topic)

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Open a terminal and enter "htop" and press enter
  2. Start Steam. Make sure you installed the correct versions of steam and wine/proton
  3. Start any game. You need to wait a few minutes until you relize that your game will never start.
  4. click cancle. In the terminal with htop you might see that your ram will start filling up, depending on how much you have installed in your PC. Additionally you should see the tasks values all going up, if you let this run for a couple of minutes it should go beyond 5000 processes, and many entries with "c:\windows\system32\explorer.exe /desktop"
  5. To solve all this mess simply reboot your computer or enter a few commands in the terminal:
pkill wineserver
pkill explorer.exe
pkill conhost.exe
pkill services.exe
pkill winedevice.exe
pkill plugplay.exe
pkill svchost.exe
pkill winedbg

after that you should have you obstacle from that. if you do have try to exit steam and retry these few commands again

Tthegame4craft 2024-11-16 github

WIth Proton 8.0-5 it works. So i think this issue applies to version 9.0-3

Aamerkestijn 2024-11-16 github

Experiencing the same issue here.
I'm adding my comment just in case it's useful.
Also on Arch Linux with KDE Plasma.

Hardware:

  • CPU: AMD 7950X
  • GPU: AMD 7900XTX
  • MB: Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX Rev 1.0

And just like you said, Proton 8.0-5 works, 9.0-3 doesn't.

Tthegame4craft 2024-11-23 github

Over a week and still no answer?

Tthegame4craft 2024-12-05 github

now this bug is in Proton 8.0-5

Tthegame4craft 2025-10-04 github

over 11 months and still no awnser?

Proton versions