Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1741636428
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): ArchLinux, running GNOME 47.5 (Xorg)
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• GPU: Nvidia

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

If I try to suspend my system through Big Picture mode, it fails to suspend. The animation for suspend shows and the screen goes dark, that's it. The system is still running and Steam becomes unresponsive (probably because it is expecting to suspend soon). Killing Steam allows me to use the system again. The following log appears in journalctl:

[2025-03-11 08:30:02] Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Access denied due to active block inhibitor

After enabling debugging in GNOME I found the following as well:

Mar 11 08:10:03 hostname gnome-session[2501]: GsmManager: Inhibit xid=0 app_id=./steamwebhelper reason=Playing audio flags=4gsm_inhibitor_new app_id: ./steamwebhelper

It seems Steam requests a block for suspend on every audio played through Steam. Since the suspend action plays some audio it also blocks itself from suspending.

If I disable UI sounds, Steam suspends successfully.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Start Steam in GNOME.
2. Open Big Picture mode.
3. Try to suspend.
4. Disable UI audio.
5. Try to suspend again.