Can't launch Steam even after re-install

steamclosed Distro Family: Arch

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12628 · opened 2026-01-07 by peter-vasut · updated 2026-01-11 · 2 comments · github

Ppeter-vasut 2026-01-07 github

Your system information

Steam client version (build number or date): linux package version: 1.0.0.85-1
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Garuda Linux
Opted into Steam client beta?: No
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
Steam Logs: in description

[generate by running this command in a terminal tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs]

GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080ti

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

When I run the steam (after deleting everything), it just downloads update forever

Logs after I killed it:

steam-logs.tar.gz

Running steam command again freezes it at another place:

Next run:

(Note that with my previous attempt at the whole procedure it had frozen at ~200MB too, the second part froze at the end, then it started extracting package and installing update and then froze. I could never get to fully working Steam. I couldn't get to that point again this time.)

Steps for reproducing this issue:

Allow automated Garuda health check to remove steam native package as it's supposedly "obsolete".
Realize next day that steam doesn't run. (No error messages in console, no window. Tracing what gets run by the script I found out that it ran /home/peter/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-steam-remote, but running that manually produced no output in console and no visible window.)
Remove ~/.steam and ~/.local/share/Steam to see if it fixes issue.
Reinstall steam package.
Run steam command in console and observe results as described above with screenshots.

Plz fix.

Ppeter-vasut 2026-01-08 github

I've tried to run it today again, the download completed.

From the logs it looks like there should be some kind of GUI visible. I don't see any GUI, probably due to errors.

steam.sh[8690]: Running Steam on garuda Soaring 64-bit
steam.sh[8690]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[8740]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[8690]: Log already open
steam.sh[8690]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Startup - updater built Sep 12 2025 03:55:50
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/peter/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam''-srt-logger-opened'
01/08 21:15:24 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
01/08 21:15:24 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)/tid(13555)
Looks like steam didn't shutdown cleanly, scheduling immediate update check
CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Failed to load cached hosts file (File 'update_hosts_cached.vdf' not found), using defaults
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] 1. https://client-update.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source ='baked in'
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Checking for update on startup
ILocalize::AddFile() failed to load file "public/steambootstrapper_english.txt".
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Checking for available update...
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Downloading manifest: https://client-update.steamstatic.com/steam_client_ubuntu12
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Manifest download: send request
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Manifest download: waiting for download to finish
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Manifest download: finished
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Downloaded new manifest: /steam_client_ubuntu12 version 1766451605, installed version 0,existing pending version 0
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Package file webkit_ubuntu12.zip.vz.5b5360fe1e3eff4a1ae0e9f5cd0a634f0b0d2a1b_89697643 missing or incorrect size
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Add pending download: https://client-update.steamstatic.com/webkit_ubuntu12.zip.vz.5b5360fe1e3eff4a1ae0e9f5cd0a634f0b0d2a1b_89697643
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Manifest download: send request
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Downloading update (0 of 87,595 KB)...
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Process started with command-line: '/home/peter/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-child-update-ui' '-child-update-ui-socket' '9' '-srt-logger-opened'
01/08 21:15:25 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
ILocalize::AddFile() failed to load file "public/steambootstrapper_english.txt".
[2026-01-08 21:15:24] Using update UI: xwin
01/08 21:15:25 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)/tid(13556)
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Create window
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Downloading update (2,230 of 87,595 KB)...
SteamUpdateUI: An X Error occurred
X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
[2026-01-08 21:15:25] Downloading update (4,582 of 87,595 KB)...
...
[2026-01-08 21:15:33] Downloading update (87,595 of 87,595 KB)...
[2026-01-08 21:15:33] Download Complete.
[2026-01-08 21:15:33] Saving metrics to disk (/home/peter/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2026-01-08 21:15:33] uninstalled manifest found in /home/peter/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_ubuntu12 (1).
[2026-01-08 21:15:33] Found pending update

I've truncated the console output for brevity (...).

After 10 minutes of nothing happening, I've killed the process.

Ppeter-vasut 2026-01-11 github

It turned out I had mismatched versions of Nvidia packages. This was fixed with

sudo pacman -S garuda-hardware-profile-nvidia nvidia-dkms lib32-nvidia-utils lib32-opencl-nvidia opencl-nvidia

Apart from making it really clear that the X Error that occured is the reason Steam won't start (instead of continuing with download), I don't see what could be done better from Steam side, so I'm closing the issue.

Nothing extracted yet.