protonscr

The steam overlay sometimes doesn't trigger, even if it looks like it should be able to.

steamopen overlayDistro Family: Arch
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12301 · opened 2025-08-31 by ghost · updated 2025-08-31 · 1 comments · github
?ghost 2025-08-31 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): Stable/1751405894 or Beta/1756242410
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Archlinux
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Both
  • Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes
  • Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz (these are from stable, if you need beta logs let me know)
  • GPU: Nvidia/Intel/AMD: Amd, steamdeck apu
  • DE: Kwin wayland. (On wayland, starting these games/apps from either wayland or xwayland yield the same results. True x11 wasn't tested yet)

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

In some games/apps, the steam overlay doesn't work even when it seems like it should. Sometimes the fps display even shows up, but trying to open the overlay with shift+tab or trying to toggle the fps display on/off with the keybind doesn't work.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Open a game/app where you expect the overlay to work through steam as a non-steam game. (Some examples as of now are non-steam retroarch and basically any kind of mupen64plus.
  2. Press the overlay hotkey, or try to toggle the fps display.
  3. (Nothing happens)

Also, for the examples I listed, when making the games fullscreen, the fps counter tends to show up, so the overlay should be working, but you still can't trigger it for some reason. I used a script to make the games start in fullscreen, so they usually display the fps counter right away or after a couple-second delay.

?ghost 2025-08-31 github

After some testing, I was able to get the overlay to work if I launch steam with gamescope instead of normally.

Nothing extracted yet.