Steam Link From Mobile Only Works With Snap Version (not deb or flatpak)

steamopen Streaming

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12475 · opened 2025-11-24 by microsoftruinseverything456 · updated 2026-01-02 · 5 comments · github

Mmicrosoftruinseverything456 2025-11-24 github

Computer Information:

Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Model: PRIME Z490-P
Form Factor: Desktop
No Touch Input Detected
Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0xa5
CPU Stepping: 0x5
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 5100 MHz
16 logical processors
8 physical processors
Hyper-threading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Supported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Unsupported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported
BMI1: Supported
BMI2: Supported
F16C: Supported
FMA: Supported
Operating System:
Ubuntu Core 22 (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 6.17.0-6-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 12401006
X Window Manager: GNOME Shell
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime_1.0.20250929.168578
Client Information:
Version: 1763795278
Browser GPU Acceleration Status: Disabled
Browser Canvas: Unavailable
Browser Canvas out-of-process rasterization: Disabled
Browser Direct Rendering Display Compositor: Disabled
Browser Compositing: Disabled
Browser Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Browser OpenGL: Disabled
Browser Rasterization: Disabled
Browser Raw Draw: Disabled
Browser Skia Graphite: Disabled
Browser Video Decode: Disabled
Browser Video Encode: Disabled
Browser Vulkan: Disabled
Browser WebGL: Unavailable
Browser WebGL2: Unavailable
Browser WebGPU: Disabled
Browser WebNN: Disabled
Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080/PCIe/SSE2
Driver Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 580.95.05
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 119 Hz
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x220a
Revision Not Detected
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Desktop Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Primary Display Size: 27.56" x 15.35" (31.54" diag), 70.0cm x 39.0cm (80.1cm diag)
Primary VRAM: 12288 MB
Sound card:
Audio device: %1$s
Memory:
RAM: 30705 Mb
VR Hardware:
VR Headset: None detected
No VR configuration with trackers detected
Most number of trackers in a session: 0
Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 957237 MB
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 350259 MB
Storage:
Number of SSDs: 2
SSD sizes: 2000G,1024G
Number of HDDs: 0
Number of removable drives: 0

Versions 1:1.0.0.83~ds-3 of the deb version and 1.0.0.84 of the flatpak version will only work with Steam Link from another PC Steam client. From mobile, only the snap 1.0.0.83 version will do it.

Mmicrosoftruinseverything456 2025-11-24 github

Also, only big picture mode displays anything on the remote end on Wayland. Games with a pre-launch UI that requires activation cannot be played, since the UI is not visible remotely.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2025-11-24 github

Hello @microsoftruinseverything456, please reproduce the issue with the .deb based Steam install, then gather a set of logs from ~/.steam/steam/logs, put the set in an archive and share them here. Also, please copy the contents of Steam Runtime Diagnostics from Steam (Steam -> Help -> Steam Runtime Diagnostics) and put it in a gist, then include a link to the gist in this issue report.

Mmicrosoftruinseverything456 2025-11-26 github

logs.zip

Steam Runtime Info.txt

@kisak-valve here's the info after retrying the connection. As a side note, the Steam Link app (Android, Graphene OS, Google Play Services installed) needs to be wiped of data for a new PC to be successfully added.

Mmicrosoftruinseverything456 2025-11-26 github

@kisak-valve Here's a link to the runtime info as a gist: https://gist.github.com/microsoftruinseverything456/5387bcb55e5dfcc70b5386583dde22d3

Mmicrosoftruinseverything456 2026-01-02 github

@kisak-valve Not sure if you guys fixed this or if Zorin did, but after switching to Zorin OS, everything works perfectly on the native deb version. I even got RPCS3 running through Link pretty easily. I suspect it was either HDR or something Canonical was doing, since Zorin also runs on Wayland, but without HDR support.

Edit: Scratch that partially, didn't realize that Zorin defaults to X11 on NVIDIA. Retested native Steam with Wayland on Zorin and it works about as well as snap Steam on Ubuntu. But only X11 allows for full desktop viewing outside of Big Picture. In other words, seems 1/2 Canonical's fault and 1/2 Wayland's fault.

Nothing extracted yet.