Fatal Error: Steam failed to load : *SteamStartEngine... A Steam Engine Instance already exists
I'm not; it's installed on a BTRFS partition. I'll try shrinking it a bit and installing Steam to an ext4 partition on the same disk.
As another possible line of inquiry, when the dialog is open, pgrep -a steam reports two processes; ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam steam://open/games
and ~/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam steam://open/driverhelperready - the latter disappears when I close the dialog box. Maybe the driver check is stepping on the main client's toes?
Is there a process hanging off steam for the driverhelperready call? (ps fau output should do)
ps faux gives me:
ryan 5785 0.0 0.0 13604 1768 ? Ss 18:37 0:00 \_ bash /usr/bin/steam steam://open/games
ryan 5794 0.0 0.0 13856 1976 ? S 18:37 0:00 | \_ bash /home/ryan/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh steam://open/games
ryan 5882 9.4 6.0 1119764 356408 ? Sl 18:37 0:15 | | \_ /home/ryan/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam steam://open/games
and a little further down:
ryan 6068 0.0 0.1 40360 7028 ? S 18:39 0:00 /usr/bin/python3.3 /home/ryan/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/driverhelper.py begin_get_info NVIDIA Corporation 4.4.0 NVIDIA 334.16 GeForce GT 640M/PCIe/SSE2
ryan 6069 0.0 0.0 13864 1988 ? S 18:39 0:00 \_ bash /home/ryan/.steam/root/steam.sh steam://open/driverhelperready
ryan 6135 0.1 1.1 173160 69196 ? Sl 18:39 0:00 \_ /home/ryan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam steam://open/driverhelperready
OK; progress!
I opted-in to the Steam beta, and it starts up without the error now. Instead, it continually spawns new Steam clients. It got up to 5 unique processes with no sign of stopping. Only the most recent one can see the Steam network.
If I kill all of the new ones, leaving only the first, and disable automatic logging in, everything works. Dota2 starts and it sees the client. Spectating works, and I assume real games work too. Personally, I'd consider this issue "resolved".
Edit: I spoke too soon; upon subsequent attempts, Dota2 doesn't start properly.
Right, it seems to be (hackily) resolved.
If you leave the newly spawned login box alive, without actually logging in, the first Steam client seems to work. (i.e. login once, then ignore the extra login dialog which spawns after you've loaded one client instance.)
I've been running Steam like this for the past week, and have had no trouble getting Dota2 or Rogue Legacy started. I'm not sure if achievements are being recorded, but playtime is (AFAICT), and Steam's DRM is happy.
Marking this closed because it's effectively fixed for me.
A recent update seems to have completely resolved the issue. (i.e. no more second login window.)
Hi;
I recently got on a new laptop, and have been having terrible troubles getting Steam and Dota2 working.
![The dialog.]()
I get the same error as in https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2694, i.e.
Fatal Error: Steam failed to load: *SteamStartEngine(0x<various>) failed with error 1: A Steam Engine Instance already existsThe Steam client starts and works, but Dota2 doesn't - it can't find the Steam client. (Steam client missing or out of date)
The message appears when I first start Steam, and can also be reliably reproduced by clicking "Check for Video Driver Updates..." in the Steam menu; the only difference is the hex code.
I'm using BTRFS on my Steam drive, with the 3.12.10-gentoo kernel. Graphics is NVIDIA GT640M and an integrated Intel HD card, although I run Steam on the Nvidia (Bumblebee 3.2.1). Apart from that, my system information is here.
I've tried deleting ClientRegistry.blob, and reinstalling Steam, to no avail. Steam doesn't start on boot, and it happens after reboots.