[BUG] Steam Frame Streaming VR doesnt load game video

steamvrclosed bug

ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux#960 · opened 2026-09-24 by november781 · updated 2026-09-25 · 3 comments · github

Nnovember781 2026-09-24 github

Describe the bug
When connected to a desktop PC, with steam VR launched. Games will start and register headset and controller movements but the headset never receives video from the computer. The entire time the headset acts like it was fully disconnected and will show a "resume" or "connect" button

Linux Native VR games like HL:A seem to show video but will crash due to asset issues or just randomly.

To Reproduce

launch steam (not the experimental SRT3 client)
launch steamVR —for some reason hitting "stream" without already having steamVR open will not register that the Steam Frame is connected and will launch games in 2D mode.
Ensure Steam Frame is connected—with or without the dedicated wireless dongle
From the Frame: pick a windows vr game, like No Man's sky or H3
game will launch, sound will play, but no video will be returned to the headset

Expected behavior
I should be able to see the output of the streamed game in my headset

System Information (please complete the following information):

Steam client version (build number or date):1790121765
SteamVR version: 2.18.1
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Fedora 44 KDE
Steam runtime diagnostics: SteamRuntime Diag.txt
Steam and SteamVR logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
Minidumps: steam-minidumps.tar.gz

Nnovember781 2026-09-25 github

steam-logs.tar.gz

My previous steam logs upload seems to have been malformed. This one should be correct

Nnovember781 2026-09-25 github

Ok I'm an idiot.

Fedora users: MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING THE FREEWORLD DRIVERS.

I was missing mesa-vulkan-drivers-freeworld.

Run the following commands

  dnf swap -y mesa-va-drivers mesa-va-drivers-freeworld
  dnf swap -y mesa-vdpau-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers-freeworld
  dnf swap -y mesa-vulkan-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers-freeworld
  dnf swap -y mesa-va-drivers.i686 mesa-va-drivers-freeworld.i686
  dnf swap -y mesa-vdpau-drivers.i686 mesa-vdpau-drivers-freeworld.i686
  dnf swap -y mesa-vulkan-drivers.i686 mesa-vulkan-drivers-freeworld.i686

Nnovember781 2026-09-25 github

Edit: spoke too soon. I had it working once, but I'm back to sound and the desktop window reacting to my head movement but getting no video on the HMD

Nothing extracted yet.