Steam occasional startup failure - Maximum number of clients reached

steamopen reviewedSteam client

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#2501 · opened 2013-05-20 by felixknds · updated 2023-01-12 · 9 comments · github

Ffelixknds 2013-05-20 github

I am used to sometimes shutting Steam down (I do not reboot my computer very often). However, it seems inevitable that at some point, Steam will not restart until I reboot.

$ steam
Running Steam on ubuntu 12.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1368229716_client)
Maximum number of clients reachedMaximum number of clients reachedMaximum number of clients reachedMaximum number of clients reached/home/felix/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh : ligne 704 : 26296 Erreur de segmentation  (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"
Installing bootstrap /home/felix/.local/share/Steam/bootstrap.tar.xz
Running Steam on ubuntu 12.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME has been set by the user to: /home/felix/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1368229716_client)
Maximum number of clients reachedMaximum number of clients reachedMaximum number of clients reachedMaximum number of clients reached/home/felix/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh : ligne 704 : 26384 Erreur de segmentation  (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"

I am unable to tell when exactly this happens. Recently, I tried to launch L4D2 beta and it crashed. I naturally tried to restart steam but it just went off and this problem occurred once more. Had to reboot to fix this - and only then, steam (and L4D2) would work again, for an undetermined period of time...

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64
Core i5 3350
4 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7850

(Note: I cannot print the detailed hardware list since I can't reboot my computer just now - will do ASAP.)

Thanks

Jjohndrinkwater 2013-05-20 github

Maximum number of clients reached is an X error, it’s likely a process has not returned client connections back to your session.
You can look at the output of xlsclients and xwininfo -root -children to see if this is Steam-related, if so please include the output in a gist here - note it may contain information you’d prefer not to share.

Ffelixknds 2013-05-20 github

Thank you for your response. xlsclients didn't output anything about Steam, nor did xwininfo. However, after restarting X, I was able to run Steam. Now xwininfo gives:

$ xwininfo -root -children

xwininfo: Window id: 0xc0 (the root window) (has no name)

  Root window id: 0xc0 (the root window) (has no name)
  Parent window id: 0x0 (none)
     98 children:
     0x2c0006f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0006d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0006b "Screenshot Uploader": ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00065 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00063 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00061 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0005f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0005d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0005b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00059 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00057 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00055 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00053 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00051 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0004f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0004d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0004b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00049 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00047 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00045 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00043 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00041 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0003f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0003d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0003b "Servers": ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00039 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00037 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00035 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00033 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00031 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0002f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0002d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0002b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00029 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00027 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00025 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00023 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00021 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0001f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c0001d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00019 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00017 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x2c00015 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
<snip>

I can notice that when steam wouldn't start up, I had a few of these 64x24 windows, but without the "Steam" label...

Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2013-05-20 github

The windows are normal as Steam creates a bunch of non-visible windows when starting up. The are not the limit you're hitting. If xlsclients isn't showing a lot of clients it's unclear why you couldn't open new ones.

Ffelixknds 2013-06-01 github

Well, it just happened again: I tried to launch L4D2 on steam offline. It worked the first time. A few minutes later, I tried to open it again and it wouldn't start up. Now X won't accept any more clients (If I try to open another application it will likely crash because of the "maximum number of clients reached", though I've seen a few somehow recover from that error and still work).

Ppartty 2013-07-06 github

Hello, I have the same problem on Ubuntu 13.04.
The xlsclients and xwininfo doesn't work when this occurs, they give this: Maximum number of clients reachedxlsclients: unable to open display ":0.0"
When this happens I can't open any more applications until restarting or logging off.
I'll try to give more info later.

CCyberShadow 2017-02-12 github

I've run into (a variation of?) this problem.

Symptoms: A few minutes after starting Steam, in its terminal output the message "Maximum number of clients reached" keeps repeating every second, and you can't start more X11 programs. After a few more minutes, Steam crashes.

lsof -U, xlsclients, xwininfo etc. don't show an increase in the number of clients. However, a simple program which checks the number of remaining X11 client slots by exhausting it will show that the number is, in fact, decreasing.

I've tracked down the problem using hax11's Debug=2 mode. Every second, the Steam client (steam binary) will open a new X11 display connection, then send CreateGC, GetProperty, an XKEYBOARD request, QueryPointer, FreeGC and GetInputFocus, after which it unilaterally closes the read side of the socket (not sure how, perhaps shutdown(fd, SHUT_RD)?). This seems to not release resources on the X11 server side, thus causing a starvation of client slots.

I've worked around the problem on my system by getting hax11 to close both sides of the connection when one is closed.

RrLy07 2023-01-12 github

This seems to be an issue again. After 15ish minutes of starting steam getting spammed by Maximum number of clients reached in the logs and can't start any new program. This started after the latest update:

xlsclients doesn't show any change over time

╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:07 CET][pts/6|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,37, 0,50, 0,54]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1028 $ xlsclients   
valhalla  electron
valhalla  thunderbird
valhalla  waterfox
valhalla  steam

Checking xwininfo periodically shows no change:

╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:03 CET][pts/3|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,36, 0,55, 0,56]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1040 $ xwininfo -root -children | grep -i steam | wc -l
50
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:04 CET][pts/3|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,36, 0,55, 0,56]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1041 $ xwininfo -root -children | grep -i steam | wc -l
50
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:05 CET][pts/3|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,36, 0,55, 0,56]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1042 $ xwininfo -root -children | grep -i steam | wc -l
50

xwininfo -root -children                        

xwininfo: Window id: 0x6d3 (the root window) (has no name)

  Root window id: 0x6d3 (the root window) (has no name)
  Parent window id: 0x0 (none)
     182 children:
     0x7400296 "Qt Clipboard Requestor Window — Konsole": ()  3x3+0+0  +0+0
     0x118000fc "Qt Clipboard Requestor Window — Konsole": ()  3x3+0+0  +0+0
     0x580010d "No files selected.": ("Waterfox" "Waterfox")  118x31+619+809  +619+809
     0xb601393 "Qt Clipboard Requestor Window — Konsole": ()  3x3+0+0  +0+0
     0x1c0005f "Plasma": ("plasmashell" "plasmashell")  296x196+0+852  +0+852
     0x5a0007b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00079 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00077 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00075 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00073 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00071 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0006f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0006d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0006b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00069 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00067 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00065 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00063 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00061 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0005f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0005d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0005b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00059 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00057 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00055 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00053 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00051 "Servers": ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0004f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0004d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0004b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00049 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00047 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00045 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00043 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00041 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0003f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0003d (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0003b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00039 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00037 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00035 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00033 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00031 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0002f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0002d "Steam": ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0002b (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00029 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00027 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00025 "Friends": ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00023 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00021 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0001f (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a0001d "Web Chat Container": ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5a00005 (has no name): ("Steam" "Steam")  64x24+0+0  +0+0
     0x5c00001 "steam": ("steam" "Steam")  10x10+10+10  +10+10

lsof -U | grep steam however continiously increasing over time:

╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:03 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1049 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
153
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:03 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1050 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
164
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:03 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1051 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
174
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:04 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1052 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
179
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:04 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1053 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
195
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:05 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1054 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
207
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:06 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1055 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
212
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:06 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1056 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
231
╭─[cs 23/01/12 12:07 CET][pts/4|zsh][6.1.4-zen2-xanmod1-1/x86_64/0,47, 0,60, 0,58]
├─[rly@valhalla:~]
╰─1057 $ lsof -U | grep -i steam | wc -l
284

lsof -U | grep -i steam
https://gist.github.com/rLy07/883f329f1423b7d8853af1c45cb5642c

Someone else also reported this in #5764 but as I don't see any issues regarding an actual memory leak this seems more fitting.

TTourfaint 2023-01-12 github

I can confirm, this issue is back and cripples my pc when steam is running, when i ran a command to show the clients, steam had over 200 entries, completely clogging up my system.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2023-01-12 github

Hello @rLy07, @Tourfaint, please use #9094 to discuss the more recent look alike issue.

Nothing extracted yet.