Does this workaround solve things for you?
If /var/lib/dbus/machine-id doesn't exist and /etc/machine-id does, try this:
sudo ln -s /etc/machine-id /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

/var/lib/dbus/machine-id did not exist. Sadly your workaround didn't work as well.

Here is the console output without STEAM_RUNTIME=0:
http://ompldr.org/vaGJudQ

Here with STEAM_RUNTIME=0:
http://ompldr.org/vaGJudg

Here is the system information:
http://ompldr.org/vaGJueQ

This is strange:
Operating System Version:
Linux (64 bit)

As far as a I know it should be "Arch Linux" (64 bit). Steam doesn't detect my distro it seems.

The permission denied message usually means the machine ID wasn't detected properly.
Can you attach the output from these commands?
STEAM_RUNTIME=0 strace -f steam 2>&1 | grep "open(" >/tmp/steam_runtime_disabled.txt
STEAM_RUNTIME=1 strace -f steam 2>&1 | grep "open(" >/tmp/steam_runtime_enabled.txt

Thanks!

steam_runtime_disabled.txt: http://ompldr.org/vaGJvaA
steam_runtime_enabled.txt: http://ompldr.org/vaGJvaQ

Can you run the full strace without the grep and look for the calls around the message "Context did not connect"? From the current traces it looks like pulseaudio finds the machine id and the cookie file and is all happy.

I made a full strace log and I cannot find this message at all. Is there something particular I need to look for?
I can't post here the URL because I don't know if my password is saved inside the log.

I'm looking for "AL lib: pulseaudio.c:612: Context did not connect: Access denied"
It should show up if you did strace -f ... maybe the message was truncated in the log? Maybe look just for "AL lib"?

Specifically I'm looking for things right before that log message in the trace with the same process ID as that log message, anything indicating a failure to open a file, or a network message with a rejection message or something like that.

Sadly I can't find anything useful. I saw you made a patch for steam-runtime to fix this issue.

I will wait until the patch is deployed.

I don't think the patch will fix your issue. Everyone else was fixed by the machine-id symbolic link.
If you want you can send the log to [email protected]

Or you can just wait and see if the update fixes it. :)

I sent you the log file. I hope you can find something useful.

Same problem here, happened after the last update, a workaround is make a symlink of alsa-lib from lib32 on lib/i386-linux-gnu

@nikod This is a terrible idea. @slouken found out what is the problem and I guess it will get fixed soon. Until then, use this command instead: ln -s /run/user/1000/pulse/native /var/run/pulse/native

I know is not the best idea but is a workaround if you need the sound... anyway I did the symlink to /var/run/ but didn't do anything for me, no sound at all.

I've got this issue too after the last update. 1 February.
running STEAM_RUNTIME=0 gave me the audio.

@vorenon what that command do ?

I'm using Manjaro Linux which is Arch based.

We found a better workaround until the next update. If you have XDG_RUNTIME_DIR set, you can do this:
export PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/pulse

@slouken That did not work for me on Arch Linux 64, and yes I have the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR set:

➜  ~  echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
/run/user/1000

@jkelsey, you may have to do both the PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH workaround and the /etc/machine-id symlink workaround. If you do both, does sound start working?

@slouken I was having the same issues on Arch Linux 64. I can confirm that setting PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH and symlinking /etc/machine-id to /var/lib/dbus/machine-id works.

Yes, I confirm that too. On Manjaro Linux x64 (which btw is identified by the runtime script ) symlink + path works.

@slouken That is the same as veronon said, pretty much... didn't work for me sadly, I did the symlink of machine-id too... if I run steam with STEAM_RUNTIME=0 does work.

I just realized that this bug report is a duplicate of #1179. I am going to close this.