protonscr

[General] - Steam resets from bootstrap if you continually switch between Game Mode and Desktop enough times

steamclosed Steam clientDistro Family: SteamOS
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12035 · opened 2025-05-21 by matte-schwartz · updated 2025-05-22 · 2 comments · github
Mmatte-schwartz 2025-05-21 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): 1747772770
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): SteamOS
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
  • Steam Logs: go-s-bootstrap-resets.tar.gz
  • GPU: AMD Z2 Go

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

If I continually switch between Game Mode and Desktop on my Legion Go S, after 3-5 tries my Steam client will reset itself from the bootstrap. It seems to happen more quickly if I switch from Desktop to Game Mode before the Steam client has a chance to finish loading on my desktop session. but I've also had the issue trigger with a properly launched Steam client exiting on Desktop mode.

I clean installed SteamOS to confirm it is not an issue with $HOME corruption, but the new install has the same exact issue.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. On a Legion Go S, switch to desktop
  2. One the graphical session loads, use the shortcut to switch to Game Mode
  3. Rinse and repeat until your client explodes itself
Mmatte-schwartz 2025-05-22 github

happens consistently after switching from desktop to game mode exactly 3 times on all my general SteamOS devices now (Legion Go S, ROG Ally X, MSI Claw) running SteamOS Main with the 1747772770 client. I'm probably hitting the reset condition in gamescope-session's Steam setup given it always happens on my 4th try after that precise number of switches.

Notably, the issue doesn't seem to occur on my Steam Deck OLED on the same OS/client version as everything else.

Mmatte-schwartz 2025-05-22 github

just inhibited the short-session-tracker for now while I'm testing steam restarts for a separate issue. this is probably a case of the tracker working as intended, it was only causing issues because I was testing with Steam running for very short periods of time, which shouldn't occur in normal usage.

Nothing extracted yet.