[BUG] SteamVR launches with error "SteamVR Fail (-203)"

steamvrclosed bug

ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux#871 · opened 2026-03-04 by bismurphy · updated 2026-03-04 · 1 comments · github

Bbismurphy 2026-03-04 github

Describe the bug
SteamVR launches, but nothing shows up on my headset. All I get is the small SteamVR window, with the error -203.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
Launch SteamVR from Steam. I have tried all 3 available branches.

Expected behavior
Operational VR.

System Information (please complete the following information):

Steam client version (build number or date): 1772502488
SteamVR version: 2.15.4
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Mint 22
Steam runtime diagnostics: https://gist.github.com/bismurphy/4cc72b6c59b9ebea6ac8fd799c87ae21
SteamVR Web Console Output: https://gist.github.com/bismurphy/824795d3487b01faf488a0f8b6046bc1

No clear feedback on why my Vive is not working.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2026-03-04 github

Hello @bismurphy, an X11 based user session with mesa 26.0.1 from the kisak-mesa PPA will hit #836 and #855. I'd PPA Purge that PPA and use https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/steamvr instead.

Closing in favor of the older issue reports.

Nothing extracted yet.