Steam/Client troubleshooting

This article Article description::provides troubleshooting details for the Steam client on Linux systems.

ATI video drivers

 * If ATI Legacy drivers are used, and a Valve game (Counter-Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2, etc.) fails to start with the following error:

Required OpenGL extension "GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode" is not supported. Please update your OpenGL driver.

Update the ATI Legacy drivers to the most recent version.

Big Picture Mode and games not working with controller
This issue is most likely caused by incorrect uinput device node permissions.

Sony DualShock 3
Check :

crw-rw 1 root input 10, 223 Apr 3 21:44 /dev/uinput

In order for Big Picture Mode to see the controller, it needs the user to have write access to it. The solution is a udev rule:

After saving the file, udev will need to be "re-triggered":

If the user(s) that intend to use the controller with Steam are not already in the group, they will need to be added:

After that, log out and back in as said user. Steam should detect the controller without issue. A good way to test this is to make sure Steam has focus and press the button. If Big Picture mode starts, the controller is detected and configured correctly.

Microsoft Xbox 360 controller
The Microsoft Xbox 360 controller should work out of the box with steam-overlay and CONFIG_JOYSTICK_XPAD compiled into the kernel.

Direct rendering is not being used
If Steam starts with the following error:

Error: OpenGL GLX context is not using direct rendering, which may cause performance problems.

Confirm if direct rendering is enabled with, which is provided by the package:

If direct rendering is not enabled, ensure that the correct OpenGL implementation is selected:

Next, ensure that the user running Steam has sufficient permissions to access direct rendering. If the USE variable is set to  and ConsoleKit or systemd is being used, permissions will be handled automatically. Otherwise, add the user running Steam to the group:

If direct rendering is enabled and the correct OpenGL implementation is selected, then this issue may be caused by 1.3*. . This issue has been fixed for users of the ebuild. Otherwise, run the following as a temporary workaround:

For ATI drivers:

For Nvidia drivers:

If direct rendering is still not enabled, refer to the Steam Knowledge Base article on direct rendering for possible solutions.

Friends list offline and store not rendering
When running Steam in the GNOME desktop environment the store (and special offers) no longer properly render; the friend's list is constantly in an offline state and status cannot be changed to online. When viewing Steam client debugging output, the following line is repeatably displayed:

./steamwebhelper: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libdconfsettings.so: undefined symbol: g_log_structured_standard

The issue is caused by Steam not properly setting the GSETTINGS_BACKEND environment variable, not setting the GIO_MODULE_DIR environment variable to its own GIO/modules path, and not shipping a newer version of glib library in its included runtime.

The workaround is to set the GSETTINGS_BACKEND environment variable to  when launching Steam. This is best completed by editing the  line in the  file used to launch Steam:

Hardened Gentoo
It seems that the Steam binary has  bits set, and needs to be PaX marked in order to work on a hardened system:

The binaries of most games should also be PaX marked:

Failure to perform PaX marking will result in the game failing to run, with little information given. To check if a game needs to be PaX marked, run the game's startup script or binary file (found in or ) under a debugger. This can be accomplished with some of Valve's provided startup scripts by setting the GAME_DEBUGGER environment variable to :

If a binary needs to be PaX marked, should output something similar to:

warning: Cannot call inferior functions, Linux kernel PaX protection forbids return to non-executable pages!

and/or:

Cannot access memory at address 0x80486c6.

After an update in July 2013, Steam also needs a PaX marked when the OpenGL libraries require   markings, otherwise games will fail to run from the Steam client :

However, this results in Bash failing to run. It is also a security issue, and it is strongly recommended to try without PaX marking. If it works when using the proprietary Nvidia drivers, please make a note of it on this page.

libGL fails to load driver
The Steam runtime overrides various system libraries, including libgcc, libstdc++, and libgpg-error with its own bundled versions. This can result in Steam failing to start with the following error:

libGL error: unable to load driver: .so

To workaround this issue, locate the problematic library by starting Steam with libGL debugging enabled:

Next, delete the problematic library from the Steam runtime to force the use of system library instead:

Repeat the above to discover other problematic libraries in the Steam runtime. The bundled libraries may reappear after every Steam update. In this case simply delete the libraries again from the Steam runtime.

If the above solution does not work, run the following as a temporary workaround:

For Nvidia drivers:

libGL fails to load driver with AMDGPU
When using AMDGPU, Steam may fail to start with the following error:

libGL error: unable to load driver: radeonsi_dri.so libGL error: driver pointer missing libGL error: failed to load driver: radeonsi libGL error: unable to load driver: radeonsi_dri.so libGL error: driver pointer missing libGL error: failed to load driver: radeonsi libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast

To workaround this issue, disable the problematic libraries from the Steam runtime to force the use of system libraries instead :

Memory corruption
If Steam starts with the following error:


 * glibc detected *** zenity: malloc: memory corruption: 0x00000000016cf020 ***

Installing the package should fix the issue.

Missing fonts
If Steam is having issues with missing fonts, installing the and  packages may fix the issue.

If the X server does not recognize the newly installed fonts, run the following:

Reset the installation
To reset (i.e. wipe) the Steam installation, including installed games, and reinstall Steam without losing data:

Reversed X cursor
If an X cursor theme has not been set by the desktop environment or window manager, Steam will override the default X cursor theme. This can result in a reversed X cursor from left to right. The issue can be fixed by setting an X cursor theme, if one is available, or by installing an X cursor theme:

If the X cursor is still reversed, even after exiting Steam, run the following to fix the issue:

Segfault when remember my password is selected
Selecting the  option at the Steam login dialog when Steam is running without D-Bus, will cause Steam to segfault the next time it is started. This issue can be fixed by running the following:

Segfault when starting Steam
If Steam fails to start with the following error:

munmap_chunk: invalid pointer: 0xf75aca24 free: invalid pointer: 0xffca16d0

Setting the locale to  may fix the issue :

If Steam fails to start with the following error:

The futex facility returned an unexpected error code.

The kernel option CONFIG_COMPAT_32BIT_TIME needs to be activated. As of 2020/05/08, Steam still uses 32 bits times even though this is deprecated in favor of 64 bits times.

Segfault when using apulse
Using Steam with while D-Bus is not running, will cause Steam to segfault with a   message. This issue can be fixed by ensuring that D-Bus is running:

Taskbar button persists even when closed or minimized
Depending on the desktop environment being used, the Steam taskbar button may persist even when the Steam window is closed or minimized to the system tray. To correct this behavior, force the Steam window to close instead of minimize:

To set the STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE environment variable permanently, add the following to the shell login initialization file:

Log out and back in to have the changes take effect.

Steam hangs when installing a game
If clicking the Install button on a Steam game page causes the Steam client to hang with the following console output:

GameAction [AppID 255710, ActionID 1] : LaunchApp failed with AppError_18 with "" GameAction [AppID 255710, ActionID 1] : LaunchApp changed task to Failed with ""

It might be possible to fix this by running Steam with:

Use system libraries
Steam bundles many libraries which are used instead of the system libraries. To force Steam to use the system libraries, disable the Steam runtime:

To set the STEAM_RUNTIME environment variable permanently, add the following to the shell login initialization file:

Log out and back in to have the changes take effect.

Windows games crash immediately on launch
If Windows-only games crash without even displaying a window, and the Steam log include a line that begins:

wine: Unhandled exception 0x20474343 in thread..

the cause might be that the system Mesa library (on which Steam depends) is not compiled with Vulkan support. Follow the instructions on the Vulkan page to rectify this.

xterm launches briefly and then closes
This issue is caused by the shell being set to something other than a POSIX compliant shell (i.e. fish). Change the shell to a POSIX compliant shell and accept the Steam license agreement. The shell can be set back afterwards.

External resources

 * https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Using-a-NTFS-disk-with-Linux-and-Windows - Official Valve instructions for using Proton to share games on an NTFS partition between Linux and Windows.