The good news is, since it's an actual client crash there are some crash reports, see at the bottom.
When playing CS:S for some time Steam tends to crash, making CS:S freeze every couple of ten seconds with the sound looping and eventually disconnecting me when it finally realizes Steam isn't running anymore.
This seems to only be happening with CS:S. CS 1.6, TF2 and other games are fine.
UPDATE1: This potentially correlates with using voice chat, just had another issue and it happened exactly when I pressed my voice chat button it might have happened when using voice chat before but I didn't pay attention to details then. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it seems like voice chat is a factor. New failure reports added.
UPDATE2: I'm very certain now that it is related to voice chat usage. I have deliberately avoided using it in game and haven't had these problems. I just played another round in which I used voice chat again: At first it was working fine but after some time into the game I hit my voice chat key and it was almost like a kill-switch, it instantly made Steam crash and induced the freezing behavior with stuttering sound. Latest failure reports added.
UPDATE3: I just realized that this issue is not limited to CS:S, I just played a round of CS 1.6 and now that Linux clients can actually receive voice chat have done so using voice com myself. At one point, at the press of my voice com button it made Steam crash and froze CS 1.6 with looping sound ( unlike CS:S, 1.6 didn't seem to recover from that at all.) Feb 15 crash log added.
The good news is, since it's an actual client crash there are some crash reports, see at the bottom.
When playing CS:S for some time Steam tends to crash, making CS:S freeze every couple of ten seconds with the sound looping and eventually disconnecting me when it finally realizes Steam isn't running anymore.
This seems to only be happening with CS:S. CS 1.6, TF2 and other games are fine.
UPDATE1: This potentially correlates with using voice chat, just had another issue and it happened exactly when I pressed my voice chat button it might have happened when using voice chat before but I didn't pay attention to details then. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it seems like voice chat is a factor. New failure reports added.
UPDATE2: I'm very certain now that it is related to voice chat usage. I have deliberately avoided using it in game and haven't had these problems. I just played another round in which I used voice chat again: At first it was working fine but after some time into the game I hit my voice chat key and it was almost like a kill-switch, it instantly made Steam crash and induced the freezing behavior with stuttering sound. Latest failure reports added.
UPDATE3: I just realized that this issue is not limited to CS:S, I just played a round of CS 1.6 and now that Linux clients can actually receive voice chat have done so using voice com myself. At one point, at the press of my voice com button it made Steam crash and froze CS 1.6 with looping sound ( unlike CS:S, 1.6 didn't seem to recover from that at all.) Feb 15 crash log added.
Recent Failure Reports:
Wed Feb 6 04:56:17 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130206055609_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-c1f6b540-576d-4f2e-8ea0-90d392130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:56:21 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055617_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-bb53fe05-4c38-45c9-afdc-2d95c2130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:56:33 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055630_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-cb9d77c4-b0a8-4e91-9991-b73c72130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:57:07 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055703_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-212e0e79-c8fa-48fc-8663-9e55a2130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:57:18 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055714_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-9488eb52-c739-419f-ba25-e02c22130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:58:10 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055806_5.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-213111a8-074b-4fd8-96c2-29cde2130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:58:20 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055816_6.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-99c85596-946c-4fb3-adb4-b516b2130205''
Wed Feb 6 04:58:23 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206055821_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-3ead92e2-a9ae-4f91-974d-45bb62130205''
Wed Feb 6 09:36:52 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130206103634_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-cfe3ced5-3466-4e5f-aa63-62c722130206''
Wed Feb 6 09:36:58 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206103652_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-7a9207ab-e680-406e-817d-ac8842130206''
Wed Feb 6 09:37:18 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206103714_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-a062a569-8588-4565-accf-738622130206''
Wed Feb 6 09:37:28 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206103724_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-3fb6450a-343d-4129-88fd-bb7982130206''
Wed Feb 6 09:38:19 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206103815_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-9be5cb1b-7f48-416f-8f4d-2daba2130206''
Wed Feb 6 09:38:23 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206103820_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-4bd23175-7c7f-442b-81e5-e0d2c2130206''
Wed Feb 6 13:00:20 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130206140012_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-4d9a35aa-394b-4f8e-8997-ddb3f2130206''
Wed Feb 6 13:00:24 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206140020_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-8a5000b4-44ce-4adf-8560-28f292130206''
Wed Feb 6 13:00:40 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206140037_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-2c9b0654-fc50-4ff0-bdde-d1f852130206''
Wed Feb 6 13:01:40 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206140136_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-af0be629-dfec-4ab0-b7f7-f75902130206''
Wed Feb 6 13:01:54 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206140151_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-d3d2d79c-943c-4fa5-be31-7f4752130206''
Wed Feb 6 13:01:58 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130206140156_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-f0005bf1-81d1-4cf7-be63-67b252130206''
Thu Feb 7 13:09:54 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130207140947_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-55fd1adf-e118-4cc2-ab73-7e5fb2130207''
Thu Feb 7 13:09:59 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130207140955_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-41f0ce9d-661f-4509-807a-2db7b2130207''
Thu Feb 7 13:09:59 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130207140955_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-59f1e3ab-f3f1-4ce1-80e2-839862130207''
Thu Feb 7 13:10:15 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130207141012_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-1b9a118d-656c-4769-b070-9bd752130207''
Thu Feb 7 13:10:39 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130207141036_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-485f405f-beda-47d6-b9b6-52a242130207''
Thu Feb 7 13:10:49 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130207141046_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-fd67b183-bea8-4bfc-a2a9-9b5cd2130207''
Thu Feb 7 13:10:57 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130207141055_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-4eb3ac9c-91b1-4b24-8419-3eb862130207''
Fri Feb 15 14:57:56 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130215155748_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-cb8152dd-9160-4e2f-8904-4861e2130215''
Fri Feb 15 14:58:56 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130215155853_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-b56981a6-c9db-46e2-ae05-82c3c2130215''