Experiencing the same problem here, both on KDE (Arch) and Gnome (Nobara)

System Information

• Distribution: Nobara Project
• Desktop Environment: Gnome 43.2-1.fc37 (X11)
• SteamVR version: Beta 1.26.1
• Steam client version: Mar 24 2023 17:20:43
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Graphics driver version: Mesa 23.0.1-2.fc37
• Gist for Steam System Information
• Gist for SteamVR system report

A possible workaround:
xdotool selectwindow windowunmap ; xdotool selectwindow windowunmap
click on the window. it will become a grey square. click on it again. It will disappear.

Yeh, I've just been doing Ctl+Alt+Esc and click on it to get rid of it

Same thing here with gnome 43.6

System Information:

• Distribution: Debian testing
• SteamVR version: 1.26.5
• Steam client version: 1688685284
• Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
• Graphics driver version: Mesa 22.3.6
• Gist for SteamVR System Information: https://gist.github.com/ClearlyClaire/4140a24c026a9655db87e01814210f44

xdotool selectwindow windowunmap made it look like I minimized the window, but I couldn't open it again.
I eventually killed all of them by doing xwininfo and xkill -id $whateverID at one of them.
This doesn't happen every time I open steamvr, just 4/5 times.

System Information:

• Distribution: Debian bookworm
• SteamVR version: 1.26.5
• Steam client version: 1687386907
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Graphics driver version: nvidia 525.105.17
• Gist for SteamVR System Information: https://gist.github.com/mtfurlan/7825f4e4d17652863a22788cb20931f4

Same here with Gnome 42.9 but it used to work fine. I also get bug #595, but I'm not sure if this is related.

System Information:

• Distribution: Ubuntu LTS 22.04.2
• SteamVR version: 1.26.6
• Steam client version: 1689034492
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Graphics driver version: NVidia 535.54.03
• Gist for SteamVR System Information: https://gist.github.com/SentineI/3077ef8858ef018cbab04b5199bfa5d1

In ~.steam/steam/config/steamvr.vrsettings, remove the entry with no title in the DesktopUI section to get rid of it.

In ~.steam/steam/config/steamvr.vrsettings, remove the entry with no title in the DesktopUI section to get rid of it.

What if there's no entry with no title? My DesktopUI section is like that:

    2    "DesktopUI" : {                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
    3       "controllerbinding_desktop" : "737,130,1915,1075,0",
    4       "pairing" : "1320,420,799,599,0",
    5       "settings_desktop" : "1995,481,799,599,0"
    6    },

And I got the dreaded unkillable blank window.

Disregard, it came back for me too. Thought i had it.

Okay i got it this time. ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/resources/webhelperoverlays.json set "preload": false in the settings_desktop section.

That does get rid of the settings window starting up, though the blank unkillable window still comes up.

Okay, tried it several times last night and it was gone. It came back this morning! DesktopUI in the steamvr.vrsettings is a saved list of windows to reopen. Clear this array. The blank one is pairing. The preload options in the webhelperoverlays.json files appear to mean always open on launch. Idk why anyone would want this ever!

The pairing window comes from:
~.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/lighthouse/resources/webhelperoverlays.json
and settings_desktop:
.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/resources/webhelperoverlays.json
vrlink_pairing:
.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/vrlink/resources/webhelperoverlays.json

Set preload false for all just be sure. I launched several times and it still did not come back today! @kisak-valve

I can confirm that setting preload to false in all the aforementioned files. Opening the settings opens two windows: one without title but showing the settings, and a blank window with “SteamVR Settings”. Both can be closed, and are closed when SteamVR exits.

Hi
me too
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/646#issuecomment-1837144139

Confirmed. Clearing the DesktopUI-section of stuff in steamv.vrsettings and setting preload to false on the three files got rid of the black window.

Why it got there in the first place is strange though. I distinctly remember not having the problem on first runs/new installs. Perhaps the settings window needs to be accessed manually from the desktop first --> something bugs out --> now you can't get rid of it because the window is never closed properly so SteamVR effectively remembers it in perpetuity.

I suppose if it was working as intended, Steamvr would remember your open settings-window and respawn it on next run, but stop spawning it on new runs if you manage to close it correctly.

Thanks! Setting preload false in those three files did the trick for me. It looks like changes to those files get wiped out if you eg switch to the steamvr beta branch, so maybe they will also get wiped when steamvr updates. I've been running this:

sed -ri 's/"preload"(.*)true/"preload"\1false/g' $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/lighthouse/resources/webhelperoverlays.json
sed -ri 's/"preload"(.*)true/"preload"\1false/g' $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/resources/webhelperoverlays.json
sed -ri 's/"_preload"(.*)true/"_preload"\1false/g' $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/vrlink/resources/webhelperoverlays.json

Great, thanks for the fix! For what it's worth, I'm using this slightly shortened script:

sed -ri 's/("preload".*)true/\1false/g' ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/lighthouse/resources/webhelperoverlays.json
sed -ri 's/("preload".*)true/\1false/g' ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/resources/webhelperoverlays.json
#sed -ri 's/("_preload".*)true/\1false/g' ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/vrlink/resources/webhelperoverlays.json

The last line is commented-out, as currently it doesn't seem to be necessary (but YMMV).

Changing the preload setting prevented the settings window from coming up when I start SteamVR, but now when I go to settings via the hamburger menu in the small window on the desktop, it still creates both windows AND I can't make the blank one go away. Seems like something is preventing the two windows from being one fully functional window.

Same issue for me on Linux Mint 21.3. Followed the same instructions to get rid of the blank window, but now the settings one has to be manually opened, which makes the ghost window appear too.

I have the same issue when I try to go to SteamVR settings. I get two windows and it eventually crashes.

This may not be much help since I can't isolate what the relevant change is, but my symptoms are now that the dead window only sticks around the second or third time I start up SteamVR. After a clean reboot the window closes correctly. Renaming my settings file kept the window from opening up in the first place, but once I invoked the settings menu to bring the window back manually the problem was back.

Other changes I've made should be unrelated, but who knows: updated to all the latest packages again, installed mldonkey-server from oldoldstable, poked around to get my headphones to work with bluetooth, poked around to get sound working in the HMD.

I'll keep watching this thread so I can help verify a work-around if someone comes up with something that sticks and is repeatable.

I was getting this same issue on NixOS unstable/dwm but after a SteamVR update my Steam library window disappears as well!

I've posted a community ticket here but I guess I should create a separate issue on GitHub.

I'm seeing the same issue, running PopOS, with Nvidia GPU.

I am seeing this on Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS, It happens mostly when the SteamVR fails to start, or is crashes and is restarted, It leaves a dead window that can not be used or killed:

If I run the following command, I can see a BadWindow indicated that I am confident is the dead window:

$ xprop -root _NET_CLIENT_LIST | pcregrep -o1 '# (.*)' | sed 's/, /\n/g' | xargs -I{} -n1 xprop -id {} _NET_WM_NAME
X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  20 (X_GetProperty)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x6200004
  Serial number of failed request:  13
  Current serial number in output stream:  13
  ...
  

So far, nothing short of restarting the xserver or rebooting will kill the window. I tried the work-around shown in this thread (setting preload to false) which seems to help somewhat, but I'll need to see an error condition occur to be sure.

Comment: This dead window issue ought to be fixed. Getting Linux SteamVR to start and run most games, is already fiddly, having additional hurdles such as this is not going to endear Linux SteamVR to anyone that is not extremely persistent and/or proficient. Most people (even Linux Support Techs), conclude after one failed attempt with Linux SteamVR that it either doesn't work or isn't worth the effort. While that's not my view at all (I use VR on Linux much more often than Windows) that is what I hear when I try to evangelize the platform to my fundamentally tech compatriot gamers.

This also occurs to me with Linux Mint 21.3. It also creates a new black window if i open the settings menu. Doing this opens 2 windows, first the settings windows(which works fine), and then one of these blank unkillable windows alongside it. Closing the settings window has no effect on the second blank window.

Try this workaround, it has worked for me:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/577#issuecomment-1872245424
or this one which is equivalent (somewhat shorter).
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/577#issuecomment-1872400869
No more dead/black windows from SteamVR on Ubuntu 22.04 (I tried a few days ago). I haven't yet updated to latest LTS version.

Still have the issue, but less often than in the past

This script has has been helpful to me for the past year, just be very careful to click on the window you want to kill and not something else

#!/bin/bash
# https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/577#issuecomment-1627614326
read -r -p "gonna kill something, cool [y/N] " response
case "$response" in
  [yY][eE][sS]|[yY]|'')
      xkill -id "$(xwininfo | sed -n 's/xwininfo: Window id: \([^ ]*\).*/\1/p')"
    ;;
esac

I get the same. It just doesn't go away unless I do a reboot.

Same here! Pressing Alt + F2, typing r, and hitting Enter did the trick for me. It restarts the GNOME Shell (window manager) without needing to log out, and the issue was resolved instantly on Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS.

Pressing Alt + F2, typing r, and hitting Enter did the trick for me. It restarts the GNOME Shell (window manager) without needing to log out

This is DE-dependant

This is DE-dependant

This could work, but it's not guaranteed to work across all desktop environments (DEs)
pkill -HUP -f 'gnome-shell|kwin|xfwm4|metacity|openbox|i3|sway'

I have the problem as well...

My DesktopUI section in steamvr.vrsettings
looks like this:

 "DesktopUI" : {
      "" : "880,607,799,599,0",
      "T�\u0005��3" : "596,466,593,793,0",
      "debugcommands_desktop" : "260,615,920,788,1",
      "pairing" : "880,420,799,599,0",
      "settings_desktop" : "803,614,799,599,0",
      "t��E\u001C7" : "354,268,599,799,0"
   },

i removed it, and steam re-created the file with only a "pairing" and "settings_desktop" window?

The only thing that changed: The "ghost windows" created now have an "Arma: Cold War Assault Mac/Linux" title as well as the games logo..
Before it alway was "Firewall" and had the KDE Firewall settings logo

I have this game in my library, but it´s not the first in the list actually "Aerofly FS 1 Flight Simulator" ist the first. And it´s not even installed / i never had it installed..

Sounds really wierd to me.. The window seems to have some random app logo and matching title, but as "Firewall" + the Logo is from my OS and not even from steam, i guess that´s just random?

"Firewall" window

"Arma" window

b.t.w. would be really cool if SteamVR and the Steamclient itself uses Wayland instead of X in the future. One can dream :)

we can soon celebrate this issue being 2 years old, yay!

we can soon celebrate this issue being 2 years old, yay!

Yeah, but it´s probably a pain in the B... to fix it, as it´s probably caused by libcef (the embeeded chromium browser engine), which does not use Wayland but rather X11 under the hood.. That´s emulated in XWayland in a Wayland session.

As they probably redirect the Framebuffer(s) of the Browser Window(s) to show them in their VM compositor the "X11" window is left.
As the Xwayland process is the one connected to Wayland, the window just stays, even if SteamVR is closed.
doing a killall Xwayland removes the window, but that closes all applications using the emulated X11 server as well (not much nowerdays).

B.t.w. that´s the reason why "Desktop" in VR doesn´t work as well if you are in a Wayland based Session, SteamVR talks X11 and the backward compability X Server does not see the Desktop or any other Windows than X11 Windows.

Given that this happens on systems without wayland installed, I don't think it's caused by xwayland

I never had this issue, setup a newerish machine with Mint / Cinnamon and it it happening for me. Mint comes with some System Report / Crash Reports thing with entries for two programs (vrwebhlper and vrmonitor).. I poked LDD at the binaries and they are missing some:

~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/vrwebhelper/linux64$ ldd vrwebhelper |grep "not found"
libopenvr_api.so => not found
libcef.so => not found
libsteam_api.so => not found

~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/linux64$ ldd vrmonitor |grep "not found"
libsteam_api.so => not found
libopenvr_api.so => not found
libnrfserlib.so => not found
libQt5OpenGL.so.5 => not found
libQt5Multimedia.so.5 => not found
libQt5PrintSupport.so.5 => not found

I think finding the libs for these MIGHT solve it, but not sure. Will poke around. Not sure where to find all of them tho.

Getting closer.. Firstly, understanding how /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ helps.. created an entry for steam64:

/etc/ld.so.conf.d$ cat steam64.conf 
# Manually Installed steam libs
/usr/local/lib/steam64

Then I copied the everything from /home/[home]/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/ into it and reran ldconfig

~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/vrwebhelper/linux64$ ldd vrwebhelper | grep "not found"
	libsteam_api.so => not found

Think that the linux installer could put all the libs they create and make it global via same method that would work WELL across any modern distro. I am still putting files into it (libsteam_api.so) for vrwebhelper

also vrmonitor: (after installing some apt install libqt5

sudo apt install libqt5printsupport5 libqt5printsupport5t64 
sudo apt install libqt5multimedia*
sudo apt install libqt5opengl5
...
:~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/linux64$ ldd vrmonitor | grep "not found"
	libsteam_api.so => not found
	libnrfserlib.so => not found

libsteam_api.so and nrfserlib.so are also someplace under ~/.steam I think and will manually copy over to /usr/local/lib/steam64

(writing this up while poking around so this MIGHT help, not sure ultimately)

Didn't solve the window issue, and crash logs thing still catching vrwebhelper even after creating a local lib for steam64

Latest beta version of SteamVR (2.10.2) seems to fix the unkillable windows, at least on Fedora 41.

Seems to have fixed itself on my machine too. SteamVR is now version 2.9.6 (1738793859), Steam client 1743554648, Ubuntu 22.04.

edit: I don't know what to tell you, I'm definitely not using the beta.

Seems to have fixed itself on my machine too. SteamVR is now version 2.9.6, Steam client 1743554648, Ubuntu 22.04.

I still experience it on 2.9.6 :)

Seems to have fixed itself on my machine too. SteamVR is now version 2.9.6, Steam client 1743554648, Ubuntu 22.04.

I still experience it on 2.9.6 :)

Yes, because it is fixed in 2.10.2, not 2.9.6: https://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/505073176264311093

edit: I don't know what to tell you, I'm definitely not using the beta.

It wasn´t 100% reproducable, i sometimes didn´t have the extra window, but sometimes had it, even before the patch.
Now it´s reliably gone and i as well don´t see the issue anymore, where one of the Windows stays black (like the settings).

Thanks for fixing it, unkown Valve Employee 👍🏻, and thanks for supporting VR on Linux!

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/577#issuecomment-2767435202

I dont think thats correct because:

1. I dont use wayland
2. "Desktop" in VR dosn't work in X11 either

Still happens under Linux Mint, xkill doesnt work on them either. It happens every time the settings window opens, which seemingly happens at launch too.

Still happens under Linux Mint, xkill doesnt work on them either. It happens every time the settings window opens, which seemingly happens at launch too.

Under Wayland or Xorg? Which desktop environment?
Also, are you using SteamVR beta 20.10.2 and not SteamVR stable?

I have this issue also using linux mint and steam installed from the .deb with cinnamon which is x11 not wayland. Running a 4080 with nvidia-550 drivers.

I have this issue also using linux mint and steam installed from the .deb with cinnamon which is x11 not wayland. Running a 4080 with nvidia-550 drivers.

Are you using the "beta" branch of SteamVR or the Stable? It´s only fixed in the beta right now!

Are you using the "beta" branch of SteamVR or the Stable? It´s only fixed in the beta right now!

For myself, think I'm on stable -- I'll also check out Beta and report back!

Okay, that seems to have solved that problem. Still has minor cosmetics (Restart SteamVR when changing settings for example, mouse pointer glitching when "viewing" the desktop from within VR, etc.) that can be worked around.