Probably a video driver issue; what video driver are you using?
I am not entirely sure. If I run lspci - v, it lists two VGA controllers:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 310M](rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
I'm pretty sure what is actually being used is the NVIDIA. I'm also pretty sure I've installed the latest drivers. On the other hand, when I open the Additional Hardware Drivers window in System Settings, I'm told that "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system," and there are no drivers listed for me to install.
I'm not the authority on this matter, but it seems like you may need to run Steam with Primusrun. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Instructions on using primus/bumblebee
http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/5/846939854395048434/
Nothing extracted yet.
So, I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 on an ASUS laptop. I installed Steam yesterday, and the installation procedure seemed to go fine, but when I try to launch steam via the icon, it never launches. When I try to launch steam via terminal, this is what I get:
$ steam
Running Steam on ubuntu 12.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360621458_client)
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Looks like steam didn't shutdown cleanly, scheduling immediate update check
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360621458_client)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360621458_client)
unlinked 0 orphaned pipes
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 2708 with name 0eBlobRegistryMutex_417F625BCE879B840D09A19EF22AD3C1
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 2708 with name 0eBlobRegistrySignal_417F625BCE879B840D09A19EF22AD3C1
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 2708 with name 0emSteamEngineInstance
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 2708 with name 0eSteamEngineLock
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display
Any help would be appreciated!