Got the exact same problem on Asahi Fedora Remix. I tried to manually patch ~/.local/share/Steam/steamui/chunk~2dcc5aaf7.js, but the problem persists.

I reproduced this issue and confirmed that the “Waiting for network” screen was not caused by a virtio-GPU fence hang.

Tested environment

• Fedora Asahi Remix 44
• Apple M1 Max
• Kernel: 7.1.6-400.asahi.fc44.aarch64+16k
• Steam client build: 1785799196
• muvm-0.6.0-3.fc44.aarch64
• libkrun-1.19.0-1.fc44.aarch64
• fex-emu-2604-1.fc44.aarch64

Reproduction

This happens when Steam needs to display its login form, for example on a clean installation, after signing out, or after the saved login token expires.

1. Start Steam normally:

   steam
   

2. The “Sign in to Steam” window remains indefinitely on:

   Waiting for network...
   

3. Steam's own logs show that networking is actually functional:

   Connectivity test: result=Connected
   IPv6 HTTP connectivity test ... SUCCESS
   IPv6 UDP connectivity test ... SUCCESS
   ConnectionCompleted(... WebSocket)
   

4. steamui_login.txt shows that the backend is waiting for credentials:

   SetLoginState: WaitingForCredentials - OK
   

5. The actual UI failure appears in webhelper_js.txt:

   SteamApp Init - Before Login - SystemNetworkStore - ERROR
   TypeError: SteamClient.System.Network.RegisterForDeviceChanges is not a function
   

The Steam UI bundle calls several SteamClient.System.Network methods that are unavailable in this environment. SystemNetworkStore therefore fails to initialize, and the login UI never replaces the “Waiting for network” screen.

Verified workaround

Exit Steam completely, locate the affected UI bundle, and patch the missing-function checks:

grep -l 'System.Network.RegisterForDeviceChanges' \
    ~/.local/share/Steam/steamui/chunk~*.js

Save the following as fix-steam-network.py:

#!/usr/bin/python3

from datetime import datetime
from pathlib import Path
import shutil
import sys

steam_ui = Path.home() / ".local/share/Steam/steamui"

replacements = {
    b'const t=(0,B.Dp)("System.Network.RegisterForDeviceChanges");':
        b'const t="function"==typeof SteamClient?.System?.Network?.RegisterForDeviceChanges;',

    b'(0,B.Dp)("System.Network.GetProxyInfo")&&SteamClient.System.Network.GetProxyInfo().then':
        b'"function"==typeof SteamClient?.System?.Network?.GetProxyInfo&&SteamClient.System.Network.GetProxyInfo().then',

    b'(0,B.Dp)("System.Network.RegisterForConnectivityTestChanges")&&SteamClient.System.Network.RegisterForConnectivityTestChanges(this.OnConnectivityTestStateChanged)':
        b'"function"==typeof SteamClient?.System?.Network?.RegisterForConnectivityTestChanges&&SteamClient.System.Network.RegisterForConnectivityTestChanges(this.OnConnectivityTestStateChanged)',

    b't||(this.m_bIsAwaitingInitialNetworkState=!1)':
        b't||(this.m_bIsAwaitingInitialNetworkState=!1,this.m_bIsConnectedToANetwork=!0)',
}

candidates = [
    path for path in steam_ui.glob("chunk~*.js")
    if b"System.Network.RegisterForDeviceChanges" in path.read_bytes()
]

if len(candidates) != 1:
    sys.exit(f"Expected one matching Steam UI chunk, found {len(candidates)}")

target = candidates[0]
content = target.read_bytes()

if all(content.count(new) == 1 for new in replacements.values()):
    print(f"Already patched: {target}")
    raise SystemExit(0)

for old, new in replacements.items():
    count = content.count(old)
    if count != 1:
        sys.exit(f"Refusing to patch: expected one match, found {count}: {old!r}")
    content = content.replace(old, new, 1)

timestamp = datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")
backup = target.with_name(f"{target.name}.before-network-fix-{timestamp}")

shutil.copy2(target, backup)
target.write_bytes(content)

print(f"Patched: {target}")
print(f"Backup: {backup}")

Run it:

python3 fix-steam-network.py

Then start Steam once without allowing it to verify and restore the modified bundle:

steam \
  -noverifyfiles \
  -nobootstrapupdate \
  -skipinitialbootstrap \
  -norepairfiles

Result

After applying the patch, the Steam username/password and QR-code login form appeared immediately. I signed in successfully.

After the initial successful login, Steam could be launched normally again.

Steam updates may replace the patched JavaScript bundle. If the saved login expires and the problem returns, the patch may need to be reapplied to the new chunk~*.js file.

Fence diagnosis

The large fence output produced by RUST_LOG=debug was misleading. libkrun scans a shared pending-descriptor collection, while the debug messages print only the fence ID and omit its context and ring. Entries belonging to other rings can therefore look like stale completed fences.

The installed libkrun 1.19.0 code removes completed descriptors for the matching (context, ring) and already contains the out-of-order completion fix. The fence diagnostics could still be improved, but they were not responsible for this Steam login failure.

Confirmed on M1 Pro, same client build. Also worth noting: steam -login bypasses the login form entirely and authenticates successfully without patching — though per your point about token expiry, that’s likely only a temporary workaround. steamcmd also logs in cleanly on the same machine.

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/13493#issuecomment-5285196297

Confirmed patching works on Gentoo amd64 using https://github.com/anyc/steam-overlay
It was a new Steam account having only logged in on the web, on a fresh Gentoo install with a fresh user profile. So after logging in for the first time, I checked "remember me" and then confirmed that 'steam -login' also works, after it repairs / reverts the patch. Thank you!

@oskarsss Thank you, the script works. Used on gentoo

Just happened to me too, can confirm patching works on Void.