protonscr

"steamwebhelper is not responding" window appears when starting steam

steamopen Distro Family: UbuntuWeb Component
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#11608 · opened 2024-12-27 by eons93 · updated 2025-04-09 · 2 comments · github
1 matching comments, n / p to jump
Eeons93 2024-12-27 github

Window offers 5 options I can try to continue but non of them do anything. I've seen past threads on this topic but this looks like a symptom that is present among many underlying issues. Logs attached below; I have skimmed through them but not much of it makes sense to me.

This all started after coming back from a vacation. After booting computer, asked to perform updates. I relented. Steam worked just fine before leaving a week ago and did updates right when it turned on. I doubt anything else would have done anything, computer was off while gone, but i don't have proof the updates did it.

image

Steam client version (build number or date): I don't know I can't open Steam
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 24.04
Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Possible in Beta but heavily doubt it
Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes.
GPU: AMD

I've tried each option the pop-up window provides with no change.
ran steam noaccel
reboot
checking for updates
Switched from Wayland to Xorg then changed windows manager to KDE Plasma
complete uninstall, purge, delete ~/.steam (After pulling userdata and steamlibrary)

steam-logs.tar.gz

webhelper.previous.txt
webhelper.txt
webhelper_gpu.txt
webhelper-linux.txt

[1969-12-31 16:00:00] Client version: no bootstrapper found
[1969-12-31 16:00:00] Startup - webhelper launched pid: 20727 commandline: ./steamwebhelper -lang=en_US -cachedir=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache -steampid=20382 -buildid=1733265492 -steamid=0 -logdir=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/logs -uimode=7 -startcount=0 -steamuniverse=Public -realm=Global -clientui=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/clientui -steampath=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam -launcher=0 -no-restart-on-ui-mode-change --valve-initial-threadpool-size=4 --valve-enable-site-isolation --enable-smooth-scrolling --password-store=basic --log-file=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --disable-quick-menu --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport --disable-features=SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,DcheckIsFatal,ValveFFmpegAllowLowDelayHEVC
[1969-12-31 16:00:00] Browser - launching child process with: /home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox --user-agent-product=Valve Steam Client --lang=en_US.UTF-8 --user-data-dir=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache --log-file=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --crashpad-handler-pid=20730 --buildid=1733265492 --steamid=0 --valve-initial-threadpool-size=4
[1969-12-31 16:00:00] Browser - launching child process with: /home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper --type=zygote --user-agent-product=Valve Steam Client --lang=en_US.UTF-8 --user-data-dir=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache --log-file=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --crashpad-handler-pid=20730 --buildid=1733265492 --steamid=0 --valve-initial-threadpool-size=4
[1969-12-31 16:00:00] Browser - launching child process with: /proc/self/exe --type=gpu-process --user-agent-product=Valve Steam Client --lang=en_US.UTF-8 --user-data-dir=/home/krimshaw/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache --crashpad-handler-pid=20730 --buildid=1733265492 --steamid=0 --valve-initial-threadpool-size=4
[1969-12-31 16:00:00] ERROR: CCEFThread Init failed to initialize SDL: unset not available
[1969-12-31 16:00:00] Failed CCEFThread initialize

Update:
I found a major clue to issue that is directly tied to an issue from a couple weeks ago that I thought was more or less solved. The ticket will be linked that my replies are in but the jist is that the steam window would constantly close and reopen (quick blinks of the window) if I ran the computer from the steam.desktop file. If I ran the steam command from the console though, steam would start with no issues (though after a couple hours, steam would behave weirdly like immediately closing steam after finishing a game session).

Someone mentioned I should set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=unset in /etc/environment which worked like a charm until now. If I change the line to SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 or =x11,wayland then the steamwebhelper issue goes away but the previous issue returns meaning i need to keep running steam from console. This at least lets me play games though.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9383#issuecomment-2544066773

Wondering what is wrong or unique about my setup and what can be done to remedy it. Unsure if I should reopen the other thread from the original issue or continue from here.

Eeons93 2024-12-28 github

not closed, just thought I'd update some info, looks like thats not how things work here

Aaleex5 2025-04-09 github

I use LMDE 6 which is based on Debian 12 and the same thing happens.

Launch options

Upstream links