If you run 'jockey-text --list' and 'jockey-text --check' what does it say prior to doing steps #3 and #6? I'm guessing it will give the same recommendations, in which case this problem goes beyond Steam's scope.
jockey-text comes from the jockey-gtk or jockey-kde packages, if you don't have it.
jockey-text --list:
xorg:nvidia_96 - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
jockey-text --check:
no output
Steam message right after login:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1307/firsted.png
Terminal output:
http://pastebin.com/diWDmuG6
This is starting Steam, clicking cancel on that message box, then selecting File->Exit.
jockey-text --list:
xorg:nvidia_96 - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use)
jockey-text --check:
no output
Steam message right after login:
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7905/secondj.png
(Disregard the graphics glitch, it's something that differs between distros, kernel versions and different drivers, unrelated to the problem. Once I figured it out, I may make a bug report for it. Currently I'm not sure it's caused by Steam itself.)
Terminal output:
http://pastebin.com/uYcEwHtB
This is starting Steam, clicking the OK button (which is the one and only), then Steam exits immediately.
I made a completely clean install for this. Installed LUbuntu 12.04, then ran the updater and installed all updates. Then rebooted. After that, I installed Steam using the .deb package from store.steampowered.com. Ran the jockey-text commands and saved the output. Then started Steam and saved the output and made a screenshot.
After this, I went to Preferences/Additional Drivers and enabled the Nvidia 96 driver, which is the one and only available. After it finished downloading and installing it, I rebooted the system again.
I ran the jockey-text commands again and saved the output again. Started steam and saved the terminal output and once again, I made a screenshot.
As you can see, it is a standard Steam message box. It appears after login, it's probably beyond the scope of Steam. It's similar to what was meant to exclude people from the closed beta back when Steam was in that state. However, this one cannot be worked around as easily as that one. It can still be done, I can bypass it, and then games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike 1.6, all GoldSrc games, Beat hazard and other indies work fine and run great with the nvidia-96 driver. The bypass method is still a pain in the ***, that's why I decided to open this bug.
The message about nvidia 304.22 appears on other distros, for example, Fedora 17 and 18 as well, when Nvidia 96.xx is active. (Steam exits too.) The one about nvidia-96 does not if Nouveau is active, however.
Let me know if you need more info.
Thanks for the info, Steam must be wrapping the jockey info and doing something wrong.
Nothing extracted yet.
This is about running Steam on old computers with old nvidia cards. Even though they're not officially supported, the behavior of Steam suggests it is trying to, but fails.
Suggestion:
Only show the nvidia 304.whatever message for cards that actually support it.
Do not exit by force. Even if these cards are not supported, even if you know there are bugs, let the user proceed at their own risk. Show a warning if you need to, but don't exit. This is not windows 8 to force your will on users.
The same thing applies to the 173.xx drivers and Geforce FX cards as far as I know.