protonscr

Steam launching but no GUI (grey preview of library/store) with AMD Proprietary OpenGL

steamopen AMD driversSteam clientDistro Family: Ubuntu
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#10001 · opened 2023-08-20 by EricGrahamMacEachern · updated 2025-03-20 · 6 comments · github
EEricGrahamMacEachern 2023-08-20 github

my system information:

  • Steam client version (build number or date): steam-runtime_0.20230606.51628
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
  • Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 580 Series
  • Driver Name: AMD open source driver
  • Driver Version: 2.0.247
  • Vulkan Instance Version: 1.3.250
  • Desktop: Ubuntu Gnome
  • Kernel: 6.2.0-26-generic
  • Windowing System: Wayland
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2500X Six-Core Processor
  • MemTotal: 16 GB

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

If I launch Steam by clicking the icon or from the terminal using steam or steam -vgui the application does not open and a blank store preview is displayed. Many other Steam users have had the same problem since the June 2023 update. I used the steam -vgui work around to launch Steam's legacy UI last month, but it stopped working this month. I can now only launch the five or so games I have in the system tray icon menu. The Steam icon appears in favourites bar repeatedly as the Steam UI crashes and opens repeatedly. Multiple steamwebhelper processes start and end while this happens.

Steam system tray menu

steamwebhelper

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Launch Steam from the desktop icon, menu, or the terminal.
  2. Wait for steam to launch and then for the Steam UI to crash. Steam will start multiple steamwebhelper processes, and then all but one them will end.
  3. Launch a game from the system tray icon, but not the main library, which will not display. Close Steam if using a non-Steam game to prevent crashes. Leave Steam open if using a Steam game, but be aware that the game may crash if Steam crashes.

#https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9977

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2023-08-20 github

Hello @EricGrahamMacEachern, the same initial troubleshooting question on #9977 is relevant here:

Can you check what video driver gets used with the 32 bit OpenGL render path on your system? I'd usually suggest a 32 bit build of glxinfo, but unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't provide a 32 bit builds of this on 22.04. Maybe try unpacking http://launchpadlibrarian.net/358252438/mesa-utils_8.4.0-1_i386.deb from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/i386/mesa-utils/8.4.0-1 with an archive utility and using the utility without installing it to the system.

EEricGrahamMacEachern 2023-08-20 github

Hello @EricGrahamMacEachern, the same initial troubleshooting question on #9977 is relevant here:

Can you check what video driver gets used with the 32 bit OpenGL render path on your system? I'd usually suggest a 32 bit build of glxinfo, but unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't provide a 32 bit builds of this on 22.04. Maybe try unpacking http://launchpadlibrarian.net/358252438/mesa-utils_8.4.0-1_i386.deb from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/i386/mesa-utils/8.4.0-1 with an archive utility and using the utility without installing it to the system.

I'm getting this from the unpacked mesa-utils:

./debian-binary: line 1: 2.0: command not found

I have attached the output of glxinfo to this comment.

glxinfo.txt

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2023-08-20 github

Thanks, my understanding is that OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6.0 Core Profile Context 22.40.230412 is AMD's proprietary OpenGL driver which is oriented for use with specific workstation workloads. That is being used instead of the more common mesa/radeonsi OpenGL driver which is installed by default with most distros.

EEricGrahamMacEachern 2023-08-20 github

Thanks, my understanding is that OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6.0 Core Profile Context 22.40.230412 is AMD's proprietary OpenGL driver which is oriented for use with specific workstation workloads. That is being used instead of the more common mesa/radeonsi OpenGL driver which is installed by default with most distros.

Okay. Should I switch to the open source OpenGL driver?

EEricGrahamMacEachern 2023-08-21 github

Thanks, my understanding is that OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6.0 Core Profile Context 22.40.230412 is AMD's proprietary OpenGL driver which is oriented for use with specific workstation workloads. That is being used instead of the more common mesa/radeonsi OpenGL driver which is installed by default with most distros.

I uninstalled all of my AMD drivers and installed the open source AMD drivers. Everything appears to be working correctly now. Thank you for your help. I think the "all-open" use case works for me. These are the commands I used to fix the problem:

amdgpu-install --uninstall
sudo apt-get purge amdgpu-install
sudo dpkg -i  amdgpu-install_5.6.50600-1_all.deb 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
amdgpu-install --usecase=graphics
IInklingGirl 2025-03-20 github

This persists for me on Ubuntu 22.04.

Upstream links