My chat windows stack (as per Windows) so if I have one chat window open, it just tacks on a tab. I've had it pop up as well. What DE are you using?

Yes, if I have a chat window already opened, it'll open a new tab. If I don't though, the window won't be created.
As I said, I am using Cinnamon.

You can disable the tabs though, I haven't tried what happens in that case, I will try later.

EDIT:

I have a friend that have the same issue under KDE (with Kubuntu 12.10).

I can confirm this with KDE, i guess is for the lack of desktop integration with KDE and others

KDE on openSUSE 12.2

When I have one chat window already open then the new conversations are just shown in new tabs, however I have to open the chat window my self, it doesn't open automatically, as on windows, whenever I get a message.

This issue affects me as well.

My concern was the quote:

"if i'm afk or something and someone sends an IM, i won't know that they did until i manually open chat windows for all of my friends until i find out whether someone had sent an IM or not."

I can confirm this with Xmonad. For the moment I guess as soon as steam is started it's best to open a conversation window until a better soloution comes along.

We're trying to repro this problem. On KDE it is working fine for me. We're releasing a new client today / tomorrow, please try to reproduce this problem on KDE and let me know if it persists.

This problem still exists for Gnome Shell 3.6 and possibly older versions as well.

I still have the problem on KDE after the update.

Same here, with KDE i see the notification window but it doesn't open any window

Can this be reopened?

It's not working on XFCE (Arch) after the last update (8 Jan). New window is not opening. What is so difficult and why is this issue closed?

Thanks for re-opening it. The problem we face currently is that nobody is able to reproduce this up here, on xfce, unity, or kde, so perhaps there are conditions leading up to being able to reproduce this? Will try gnome next.

I also experience this problem on Unity.

I'm available to help troubleshoot it in any manner that I can.

Just tried on gnome as well, and could not repro (previously tried on xfce, unity, and kde and could not repro). Can one of you post a screenshot of the steam windows, and what state they are in, so we can tried to replicate that? Also, are you running multi-mon, or single monitor? Thanks.

It seems that I always tend to have the main and friends windows open, though I've probably had them minimized as well. I am running a dual-monitor setup in the NVIDIA TwinView configuration, though I do see the OP seems to have only a single monitor.

Here's a screenshot. I blocked out the friends details for their privacy.

Only i can add, every time when i open a new chat window have this information (it's like https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/643)

Steam: An X Error occurred
X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
Major opcode of failed request:  20 (X_GetProperty)
Resource id in failed request:  0x5c00124
Serial number of failed request:  64275

(Two last numbers are differents every time)

however, when appears a chat popup notification and it doesn't open a new window only have

AL lib: pulseaudio.c:331: PulseAudio returned minreq > tlength/2; expect break up

(For sure, it's the notification sound)

I don't have more information. KUbuntu 12.04.1, KDE 4.8.5.

It appears that some people have previously reported the same problem in OS X:

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/2/882966056750261104/

With regards to Windows 7, I've noticed that when I get a chat notification, the window is never displayed in the open state. Instead, there's a flashing orange indicator in the task bar. IOW, it seems the window is being created in a minimized state.

And just thinking out loud, I do notice that sometimes popup dialogs (like "Connecting to Steam..." when first loading) are sized incorrectly (too small) or located in weird places on the display. Is it possible there is a case where the chat window is being initialized with a (0, 0) size causing X to throw up, or perhaps is somehow located outside the workspace's viewport and the window manager doesn't add it to the task bar?

Also, is there a program or something we can use to simulate a chat notification, so we can troubleshoot w/o pestering our friends (and w/o creating a fake Steam account)? I'd like to bring X up w/ verbose logging and see if it indicates anything.

I've had this issue with E17, fluxbox, and KDE. However, opening any chat window after receiving a message will bring up the proper tabs along with it.

Having the same issue on KDE, Kubuntu 12.10.

Following up on #686, I'm using Xfce 4.8 under Arch Linux (I have another Arch box using awesome with the same issue).

@scottlu Could it possibly be a dependency-related issue in this case? It sounds like you're using Xfce on the same box with KDE and GNOME - I don't have the same environment and it's purely Xfce on this box. (as for awesome, it just turned out to be really unusable that I don't bother with running steam on it.)

In addition, the console doesn't log anything when this occurs (and I don't quite know how to get any relevant information).

There isn't a way to open a new window without stealing focus?

I think we have this problem fixed in the release we made today. Please give it a try. I'm optimistically closing this bug.

I still have the same issue.

I have tested the last update in KDE, and i can see something but this isn't solved at all.

When i receive a new message and should appears the window, instead, appears this

But i don't see any window if i don't click on the message popup notification. In addition, now i can see the old chat logs in the chat window, before i can't.

Yes, i didn't want to say an open maximized chat window, only appear the blinking minimized window in task bar.

For explaining the behaviour, Steam have the "first" place in the taskbar (near to the three icons in the left) and when the popup chat notification appears in the other side, Steam moves to the "second" place how it was to appear other window, but don't appear anything here or in any desktop.

I'm using KDE 4.8.5 on openSUSE 12.2 x86 and for me, nothing has changed. I forced the update to the newest version of Steam and restarted it. Then I asked a friend on Steam to send me a PM. The only thing I saw was the usual popup in the corner on the bottom right. The popup disappears after three seconds and nothing else happens, not even an "empty" place in my task bar. I have to open the chat window manually via the friends list to see unread messages.

I'm using MATE under linux mint. I get a toast/notification but no chat window pop up at all. Also, no space appears on the task bar. Programs like skype behave fine and load a chat window but don't steal focus. Its really annoying as If I hear the notification but don't see it, I have to play a nice little guess-the-contact game until I find the right one.

Ubuntu 12.10 x64 here, same problem. I see the notification, but no chat window opens.

I'm confirming that this bug has been fixed for me in Xfce - the 'enter group chat' window comes up minimized after I click the popup on the lower right.

I can confirm it. Notification, but chat window won't open.

Linux Mint 13 LTS x64, Cinnamon

Maybe this would fix the issue: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1040

This is fixed, a minimized window now appears when receiving a chat message.

This problem is not fixed. Still happening in 2025. Debian 12.9 with Cinnamon desktop.

It's actually double annoying because in the main Steam client windows, you can see in notifications (the green bell) there's a new chat message, and when you click on that.. nothing happens. The only way to find a chat message you haven't seen is to open chat window manually for EVERY friend until you find the one who sent a message.

sigh