[Archlinux] Steam won't start

steamopen Steam clientDistro Family: ArchWeb Component

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#9773 · opened 2023-07-02 by GameKyuubi · updated 2023-08-24 · 11 comments · github

GGameKyuubi 2023-07-02 github

Your system information

Steam client version (build number or date): 1.0.0.78
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Archlinux
Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] no
Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes
Steam Logs: [generate by running this command in a terminal tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs]
GPU: Nvidia

Starting steam in any way I can think of steam, steam -vgui, steam reset and then steam always results in:

src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (529) : Failed creating offscreen shared JS context
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (529) : Failed creating offscreen shared JS context
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (529) : Fatal assert; application exiting
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (529) : Fatal assert; application exiting

I have tried downgrading a few times, same problem.

steam-logs.tar.gz

DDoomguy1364 2023-07-02 github

I'm having a similar issue, also on Arch Linux, sometimes steam won't launch at all, sometimes after numerous attempts it will.
I have tried both in an out of beta, with or without GPU acceleration, with and without scaling, same thing.

Steam is now dumping thousands of cores per minute while attempting to launch, I have over 10,000 lines of this same error in my journal until steam finally launched.

Process 1484 (steamwebhelper) of user 1000 dumped core.
#20 0x00007f05f045a4cb n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libGLESv2.so + 0x25a4cb)
#21 0x00007f05fa95d634 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x575d634)
#22 0x00007f05fa5569a1 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x53569a1)
#23 0x00007f05fa5481c1 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x53481c1)
#24 0x00007f05fa54781c n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x534781c)
#25 0x00007f05fa548863 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x5348863)
#26 0x00007f05fa56de25 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x536de25)
#27 0x00007f05f8171a18 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x2f71a18)
#28 0x00007f05f816d844 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x2f6d844)
#29 0x00007f05f816d7ac n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x2f6d7ac)
#30 0x00007f05f816eaea n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x2f6eaea)
#31 0x00007f05fad2d3ab n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x5b2d3ab)
#32 0x00007f05f9616196 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x4416196)
#33 0x00007f05f9626bdc n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x4426bdc)
#34 0x00007f05f95dfc17 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x43dfc17)
#35 0x00007f05f4f2e981 g_main_context_dispatch (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x5a981)
#36 0x00007f05f4f8bb39 n/a (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0xb7b39)
#37 0x00007f05f4f2c032 g_main_context_iteration (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x58032)
#38 0x00007f05f95dfa72 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x43dfa72)
#39 0x00007f05f96272a4 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x44272a4)
#40 0x00007f05f95fee5e n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x43fee5e)
#41 0x00007f05fe2304f2 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x90304f2)
#42 0x00007f05f9469c4a n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x4269c4a)
#43 0x00007f05f946adf2 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x426adf2)
#44 0x00007f05fbddff0f n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x6bdff0f)
#45 0x00007f05fbde045e n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x6be045e)
#46 0x00007f05f9469121 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x4269121)
#47 0x00007f05f94fb95c n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x42fb95c)
#48 0x00007f05f94d4e7d n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x42d4e7d)
#49 0x00007f05f6cefdda n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/libcef.so + 0x1aefdda)
#50 0x00000000005bd960 n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper + 0x1bd960)
#51 0x000000000058140b n/a (/home/doomguy/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper + 0x18140b)
ELF object binary architecture: AMD x86-64

Tthe-birchmen 2023-07-02 github

Check issue #9588 I was having the same issue and removing xdg-desktop-portal-gnome fixed the issue.

DDoomguy1364 2023-07-03 github

That package is not installed for me and I am still having the same issues.

DDoomguy1364 2023-07-04 github

If anyone stumbles upon this thread attempting to get their steam to launch. The best work around I've found is to disable text scaling (which seems to make steam launch only after about 2-3 silent crashes) and you NEED to have hardware acceleration enabled (steam as of 3 days ago will almost never make a successful launch with hardware acceleration disabled.)

If you are unable to get to steam to launch at all, but get the system tray icon; Clicking that will still pop a sub-menu of which spam clicking "settings" will open a legacy settings menu after a few attempts, from there you will be able to enable hardware acceleration and disable text scaling. Afterwards, relaunching steam it will silent crash a few times and take a while to boot fully, but it should mostly work after that.

System specs if it helps debugging:
OS: Arch Linux
DE: Plasma 5.27.6
WM: KWin
KERNEL: 6.4.1-arch1-1
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
GPU DRIVER: NVIDIA 535.54.03
RAM: 16 GB

Aahcm 2023-07-04 github

Uninstalling xdg-desktop-portal-gnome fixed it for me on Arch.
Login windows' ratio between content and window size was off, not seeing all of it.
Client's UI does not seem to respect 150% scaling.
xdg-desktop-portal 1.16.0-3
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 1.14.1-1
xdg-desktop-portal-xapp 1.0.2-1
are still installed.

GGameKyuubi 2023-07-04 github

Weirdly, removing xdg-desktop-portal-gnome also let me start it. Will it run again after closing? Yet to be seen.

DDoomguy1364 2023-07-05 github

The newest NVIDIA proprietary driver (535.54.03-6) update from yesterday has fixed my issue with steam launching, no more errors!

Xxi-pinmping 2023-07-08 github

I dont have the gnome desktop portal and am on the latest nvidia drivers/arch kernel

Xxi-pinmping 2023-07-11 github

Although I have no gnome xdg portal installed (nothing but kde on this system) and the latest nvidia drivers I am still unable to start steam, even after using all recommended flags in the archwiki and the issues threads here such as --reset --vgui --no-cef-sandbox, etc

NNightWatchman 2023-08-07 github

I'm using:

Steam August 1st release
Up to date Manjaro as of Aug 6, 2023
Radeon 7900 xt with open-source drivers
Installed steam via pacman

After steam performed initial setup, it would open and then immediately close before presenting login screen.
Some inspection via the terminal yielded the error message Failed creating offscreen shared JS context, which is as close as I ever got trying to figure out what was wrong.

Following the suggestions on this thread, I uninstalled xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, and that seems to have gotten the client to start on my computer.

Gguygastineau 2023-08-24 github

I am having the same problem. Running in hyprland with XWayland, steam cannot use xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland (blank partition picker). I tried installing xdg-desktop-portal-gtk so I can add more install locations, but it causes steam to crash at launch.

Component	Value
OS	Arch Linux
WM	Hyprland
KERNEL	6.4.11-zen2-1-zen
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core
RAM	64 GB (DDR5)

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