Experiencing a similar issue and it is consistently reproducible. Not entirely sure exactly when this issue occurred but think it is within the last few days for me. At least this is when I noticed it. Issue does not seem to occur when "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" in Settings -> Interface is disabled. Running Xorg, not Wayland.

• Steam client version (build number or date):

  Steam Beta Branch:  Stable Client
  Steam Version:  1715635533
  Steam Client Build Date:  Mon, May 13 11:01 PM UTC -08:00
  Steam Web Build Date:  Mon, May 13 8:06 PM UTC -08:00
  Steam API Version:  SteamClient021
  

• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu):

  $ lsb_release -a
  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
  Description:	Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
  Release:	20.04
  Codename:	focal
  

• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: [generate by running this command in a terminal tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs]: see below
• GPU: Nvidia/Intel/AMD: AMD, see below for output of lshw

STR:

• launch Steam on a focused desktop and observe Steam client UI is initially responsive
• switch to other desktop
• switch back to desktop containing the Steam client UI
• observe the client UI is unresponsive except for the "File menu"-like items and the system tray icon
• relaunch Steam
• reproduce issue as described above
• relaunch Steam
• disable "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" in Settings -> Interface
• attempt to reproduce issue as described above
• observe issue cannot be reproduced

steam-logs.tar.gz
lshw.txt

I can reproduce this 100% too. I'm on awesome wm and AMD graphics with steam version 1715635533 on debian sid.
Couple of extra points:

1. I can un-freeze the window by minimizing it then un-minimising it
2. I can't reproduce with "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" turned off, so assuming it's the same for other reporters this is possibly the same issue as https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10793 (but this issue has better reproduction steps)

2. I can't reproduce with "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" turned off, so assuming it's the same for other reporters this is possibly the same issue as [Steam randomly freezes [#10793](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/10793)](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10793) (but this issue has better reproduction steps)

Confirming that this seems to be the case for me as well (updated my original comment to reflect this). Perhaps also related to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/7245, then?

1. I can't reproduce with "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" turned off, so assuming it's the same for other reporters this is possibly the same issue as https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10793 (but this issue has better reproduction steps)

Also confirming that this seems to be the case for me as well.

So weird that this issue keeps popping up again after so many updates

Confirming that I'm able to reproduce this on i3wm on Arch Linux. Disabling "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views", as stated above, fixes it for me.

If you resize the window, it triggers an update and redraws the UI as well FYI, at least on i3

Oh hey, resizing the window "fixes" it on awesomewm too. I noticed the menu is still active, even if its not drawing new stuff. So I've just been navigating the UI blind until I get fed up enough to restart steam. This is much better.

In my experience it seems to just be the Library tab, though because of the way the steam client is designed this seems to have adverse effects for the other parts of the UI.

Experienced on current general release (w/e version that is), but switched to beta to see if it helped (it didn't). Currently on beta build

Steam Version:  1718751621
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime_0.20240610.91380
"Artix Linux" (64 bit)
Driver: AMD AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (radeonsi, navi31, LLVM 17.0.6, DRM 3.57, 6.9.5-273-tkg-bore)

I had GPU Acceleration Enabled. I'll try for a bit without it and see if the problem goes away (EDIT: I can't seem to disable it for some reason, it just re-enables itself after restarting steam. Prolly an unrelated issue, but it means I can't test this "fix" for myself)

Can reproduce 100% on Nobara Linux with i3wm

Also newly experiencing this on Arch + i3 after switching to an AMD graphics card.

I can confirm this.

Resizing the window make it live again (this is stupid). Can't reproduce after disabling "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" in settings.

Arch + Linux 6.99 + Awesome WM 4.3-4 + Mesa 24.1.3.

Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client
Steam Version: 1718904662
Steam Client Build Date: Thu, Jun 20 2:14 PM UTC -08:00
Steam Web Build Date: Wed, Jun 19 9:04 PM UTC -08:00
Steam API Version: SteamClient021

Ran into the same issue. Turned off GPU Acceleration. Does this have to do with chromium not supporting mesa? Have a RX 7800 XT, if that's of any use.

Reproducible here as well. Switching workspaces (even momentarily) reliably freezes ui.
Resizing or closing to system tray and re-opening also reliably unfreezes it.

Turning off "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" in the Interface settings also fixes the problem, hopefully that doesn't degrade the ui's performance.

CPU: AMD 5800X3D
GPU: AMD 6800XT
OS: Archlinux
Window Manager: i3 (also affects kde+i3)
Steam Version: 1721173382

I had the same issue previously when running i3 within kde, but also affects pure i3.

Switching to the workspace on my second monitor or to another window in the same pane as Steam (ie: steam ui gets hidden) does not cause it to freeze, so it has something to do with the workspace steam is on being hidden.

Consistently reproducible for me, too. Exact same observations as @DarwinSurvivor said. Turning off GPU acceleration fixes the problem for me as well.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (16) @ 5.05 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
OS: EndeavourOS
Window manager: i3 (x11)

Same problem, had to turn off GPU acceleration, it works on hyprland tho so I wonder what desktops have this issue

Same problem, had to turn off GPU acceleration, it works on hyprland tho so I wonder what desktops have this issue

I can confirm that it is still an issue in gnome 46 (wayland) in debian testing as of 03-09-2024

Reproducible here as well. The easy workaround for me is to maximize/unmaximize the window, which forces a refresh.
Disabling GPU acceleration helps, but the rest of the UI becomes sluggish as expected

CPU: Intel i7 10700k
GPU: Radeon RX 6600
OS: Arch Linux
Graphics: X11, Picom, AwesomeWM

can confirm still happens after latest update.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U
GPU: Radeon Vega 7 integrated gpu
OS: Devuan testing
Graphics: X11, Picom 11.2, AwesomeWM 4.3

simply disabling Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views stops the problem from happening, if enabled just resizing does unfreeze the ui.

"Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" in Settings -> Interface is disabled.

I am using Endeavour OS and disabling gpu acceleration in steam setting fixed my issue.

Debian Stable with i3 checking in on a laptop which doesn't have a dedicated GPU, this affects me as well and disabling GPU acceleration for web views fixed it for me too.

Since turning off GPU acceleration breaking big picture I made a script to go into big picture and automatically change the setting for GPU acceleration on and then back off when you close steam.

#!/bin/bash

STEAM_CONFIG="~/.steam/registry.vdf"

sed -i '/"GPUAccelWebViewsV3"/s/"0"/"1"/' $STEAM_CONFIG

export STEAM_ENABLE_GPU=1
export STEAM_ENABLE_GPU_ACCELERATION=1
STEAM_OPTS="--enable-gpu-rasterization"  
steam -bigpicture $STEAM_OPTS

sed -i '/"GPUAccelWebViewsV3"/s/"1"/"0"/' $STEAM_CONFIG

I can definetely reproduce it. I think the easiest solution on i3 is just toggling full-screen mode.
installed steam by

pacman -S steam

I can start steam by rofi menu or by executing

steam

Can confirm this same issue and behavior on my AMD laptop, nothing like this on my Intel+Nvidia Laptop or PC

So i guess it's somehow an AMD compatibility issue?

And yeah, disabling acceleration in settings does stop it from happening

@sTiKyt it could be something coded to an nvidia quirk? mine is an intel laptop without dedicated gpu. Skimming up through the other reports I'm not seeing any other nvidia gpus mentioned.

I too have the issue on Arch/Intel HD integrated GPU. I can just trigger it by going to another workspace in i3 and going back to the workspace with steam window.

Disabling accelerated web views fixes the problem.

You might wanna try this, I've a similar issue, but not linked to playing a game, I can cause the issue at will by simply change workspaces out, example:
Steam on workspace 4,
got to workspace 1, then back, steam wont update it ui, simply workaround is just change its size, u can either use a float window or full screen shortcut and back and it goes back to normal, I've posted a video on a similar open issue, maybe a duplicate.

Check this discussion: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10806

I too have the issue on Arch/Intel HD integrated GPU. I can just trigger it by going to another workspace in i3 and going back to the workspace with steam window.

Disabling accelerated web views fixes the problem.

Also works for me

Just closed my duplicate issue with instruction to go to #10806 instead, and attempt to disable GPU accelerated web views :+1:

• #11056

This sounds like exactly the same issue :+1:

Same issue on Fedora 41 with i3. Suggest fix of disabling GPU accelerated Web views also appears to work.

Same issue on Fedora 41 with i3. Suggest fix of disabling GPU accelerated Web views also appears to work.

I did this on Linux Mint 22.1 and problem solved!

For i3wm users, I wrote a simple script that detects steam's focused window and modify its border width so the steam webviewer is getting redrawed (works only with smart_borders/hide_edge_borders none)

# One line for i3config :
exec_always --no-startup-id i3-msg -t subscribe -m '[ "window" ]' | while read line ; do if [ $(echo $line | awk '/"class":"steam","instance":"steamwebhelper"/{print}') ]; then i3-msg '[class="steam"] border pixel 1' && sleep 1 && i3-msg '[class="steam"] border pixel 2'; fi; done

# Better indentation (to put in a script if you prefer)
i3-msg -t subscribe -m '[ "window" ]' |\
	while read line ; do
		if [ $(echo $line | awk '/"class":"steam","instance":"steamwebhelper"/{print}') ]; then
			i3-msg '[class="steam"] border pixel 1'
			sleep 1
			i3-msg '[class="steam"] border pixel 2'
		fi;
	done

I am open to better solutions. I personally prefer to keep using GPU acceleration (have the same issue on arch/i3wm with my AMD RX 5700 XT). I just prefer to automate the redraw before it gets patched.

Sigh, a year anniversary of that issue on Xorg without a fix. BTW, to workaround this issue I'm using steam with -system-composer argument. No need to disable 3d acceleration or do resize every time you switch workspaces. That way the only instance where resize is needed is to bypass black screen when you entering/exiting big picture but only if steam window was in fullscreen at the time.

Thanks @CkNoSFeRaTU!

I now use alias steam='steam -system-composer' and it's works!

And what does -system-composer actually do? Just out of curiosity

I'm using steam with -system-composer argument.

I can confirm that this method works, even with "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" in Settings -> Interface turned on.

For people using a .desktop file to launch steam, find the line starting with Exec=/usr/bin/steam %U or something similar in your steam.desktop file (most likely located at ~/.local/share/applications/steam.desktop), and change it to Exec=/usr/bin/steam -system-composer %U.

For people using a .desktop file to launch steam, find the line starting with Exec=/usr/bin/steam %U or something similar in your steam.desktop file (most likely located at ~/.local/share/applications/steam.desktop), and change it to Exec=/usr/bin/steam -system-composer %U.

It is better to avoid editing a desktop file if it is not inside ~/.local/share/applications/steam.desktop, if the desktop file is not there (a system installation, let's say) just copy it to ~/.local/share/applications and then edit it there, it should override the system-level entry. Sytem-wide desktop entries can be changed by updates. More details on the arch wiki page

What I usually do is:

# One of the entries from, usually the simpler name
# location can chage from distro to distro, but is usually under /usr/share/applications
locate --basename --regex 'steam.*\.desktop$'`

# And then copy the file to ~/.local/share/applications
cp /usr/share/applications/steam.desktop "${XDG_DATA_HOME:$HOME/.local/share}/applications"

# Then you can edit it there, and it should take precedence over the system-wide entry
# Keep all lines the same, except for the line with `Exec=` under `[Desktop Entry]`
$EDITOR "${XDG_DATA_HOME:$HOME/.local/share}/applications/steam.desktop"

yeh, i cobbled together a wrapper script to launch from my local steam desktop so that i can add other cli options onto the steam client if need be.

i call it steamer

the script is available in a repo that provides a makefile and a .desktop for convenience:
https://github.com/eylles/steamer

And what does -system-composer actually do? Just out of curiosity

It changes the way rendering is done but it's not really documented, description from Valve of that options is "Force the use of the system browser composer". With that option steamwebhelper component is run with -composer-mode=1 whatever that means.

There is also steamwebhelper`s option -use_xcomposite_workaround which also workarounds this issue. I think in older versions of steam it was enabled by default and you could also disable it by passing -cef-disable-xcomposite-workaround argument to steam but not anymore. The only way you can add it back is by modifying ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper_sniper_wrap.sh or ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh. But you also need to do that every time steam updates itself or sniper runtime. Also during modification you need to make sure the original script size is preserved otherwise validation check will also trigger force update which will erase your changes. So I didn't mentioned it in previous post though it could theoretically be more performant...

It's not a fix, but a workaround:

Unless, of course, you're experiencing #11987 😞

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10887#issuecomment-2920832970

The real fix is to start the steam client with the -system-composer flag like https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10887#issuecomment-2871509099 mentions, you can even use a wrapper for the steam client to launch it with options, like https://github.com/eylles/steamer which will add the -system-composer flag by default under x11 if said flag isn't already part of your launch flags for the steam client.

@eylles The real fix is to start the steam client with the -system-composer flag like https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10887#issuecomment-2871509099 mentions

Err... No. That's just another workaround. Manually writing or editing a launcher script is not a fix.

Steam itself should be handling this and it should work out of the box. The fact that we're all here coming up with scripts and interesting solutions is one of the great things about the Linux community. But this should work out of the box.

This isn't the fix, though. It's a workaround that's better, but more involved, because it allows you to keep hardware acceleration enabled for web views. 👍

I cannot find a better place to say this so I write this here. Delete it if not related. I'm using Flatpak to run Steam and the -system-composer fix works perfectly:

flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam -system-composer

Wow, this is literally the issue I've been having. Good to see there is a fix. I turned off GPU accelerated rendering in web views and I'm not having the issue anymore.

Noting that I am also having this issue consistently after replacing my desktop. I switched from a Nvidia to an AMD card? Might or might not be related. GPU accelerated graphics workaround did work for me.

again, turning off GPU accelerated rendering is not needed, just run steam with -system-composer OR consider using a launch wrapper like steamer

It still is a workaround, both turning gpu acceleration off and using a cli option should not be necessary and the only ones that can actually fix the issue are valve employees

we could as well be waiting until SteamOS 4 for the RealFix™ to be implemented into the steam client so that it can auto-detect if it has to use the system compositor or not, meanwhile the usage of steam client wrappers and launchers is common enough that just having another one that does the minimum needed is a good hack for users to not have to think about it.

ideally the actual fix from steam would do incur on adding some way to have the launch options to run the steam client with loaded from a config file, but i digress and this is just rambling already.

Noting that I am also having this issue consistently after replacing my desktop. I switched from a Nvidia to an AMD card? Might or might not be related. GPU accelerated graphics workaround did work for me.

in my case i upgraded a couple days ago from a gtx650 to an rx550 and i had the issue on the nvidia card as well, im using i3wm if that matters at all at this point, so i will have to keep using steam with gpu acceleration off for the moment

Just a +1 with specs.

Still happens on stable (didn't test beta) with:

Same issue here on three different systems, all running AwesomeWM @ ArchLinux - one with RTX 3070 Ti, one with integrated AMD Radeon 760M, another one with old Intel integrated graphics from 2016 or so.
Regular steam from repos, no betas chosen.

Adding -system-composer does fix the issue for me.

I’m seeing a steamwebhelper UI repaint issue on a hybrid GPU X11 setup.

System:

Arch Linux (fully updated, rolling)
X11 only (no Wayland)
i3 window manager (no compositor: no KWin, no picom)
AMD iGPU (amdgpu) driving display
NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti present (proprietary driver installed)
Steam installed via official Arch package

Issue:
Steam UI stops visually updating after switching X11 workspaces.

The window remains interactive (mouse hover/click works), but the content stops repainting.

Switching back and resizing the window immediately restores rendering.

Reproduction:

Open Steam (hardware acceleration enabled)
Go to Library or main Steam UI
Move Steam to another workspace (i3)
Switch away and return

Result:

Steam window appears frozen (no redraws)
UI is still interactive
Resizing the window forces immediate redraw and fixes it

Workaround:

Disable Steam GPU acceleration → issue disappears (but UI becomes noticeably laggy)

Notes:

Other applications (Firefox, games, etc.) do not exhibit this issue
Steam games themselves appear unaffected
Likely steamwebhelper GPU repaint issue triggered by X11 workspace changes

Workaround:

Disable Steam GPU acceleration → issue disappears (but UI becomes noticeably laggy)

@tomplerarchlinux-lang did you try starting steam with -system-composer flag? I start Steam with my own script (~/.local/bin/steam):

#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/steam -no-cef-sandbox -system-composer "$@"

It "solves" the issue and I can use GPU acceleration.

Also, just checked. When starting without above mentioned flag, it still freezes on workspace change.