[KDE] Steam periodically breaks desktop compositing on launch

[DrDoctor13]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Dec 15 2017 at 11:47:57
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Manjaro
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Describe what you expected should happen and what did happen. Please link any large code pastes as a Github Gist

Occasionally, upon launching Steam, KDE desktop compositing will break. The error message generated by Kwin is:

kwin_core: OpenGL 2 compositing setup failed
kwin_core: Failed to initialize compositing, compositing disabled

This has various effects from causing horrible graphical artifacting to causing the entire desktop to turn black, necessitating a reboot.

Linux kernel: 4.14.12 KDE version: 5.11.5 Nvidia drivers version: 384.111 (GTX 970)

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Continuously open, log in to, and close Steam on KDE with OpenGL compositing enabled
2. Compositing will break, either as early as the first boot or after a couple of tries

[kisak-valve]

Hello @DrDoctor13, you should bring this to the attention of a KDE dev and your distro's package maintainer for KDE.

It should be possible to blindly Alt-F2 and run kwin --replace from the visually corrupt kde session to restart kwin.

[DrDoctor13]

I have submitted this bug to them in the past, they have directed me upstream to Nvidia, but the facts are that this bug still persists after several updates to KDE and nvidia and it only happens when I use Steam.

Running kwin_x11 --replace does not always work in my experience, but I will try running it the next time it occurs. I will try bringing this to attention in the Manjaro forums.

[urbenlegend]

I get this issue as well. KDE Plasma 5.11.5 with Nvidia 390.25 drivers. I can reliably reproduce this when trying to launch the game Valley. Right when Steam pops up the dialog asking whether I want to launch the game or launch the game configurator, the KDE compositor freezes completely.

EDIT: In fact, it's any game that, upon launching, shows a launch option dialog. The Talos Principle has the same issue. It pops up a dialog asking me whether I want to launch the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of the game. When it appears, the compositor completely breaks.

[kisak-valve]

There's something going on with the steam client that can cause it to stop rendering which is unrelated to KDE. Kwin falling over itself from steam's behavior needs to be investigated by KDE devs, as a single client shouldn't cause a window manager to have that kind of trouble and we can track steam's render stall here.

[oysstu]

I'm also experiencing intermittent launch problems with Steam, causing Kwin to either freeze or restart with a graphical error (steam is able to start though). I'm also using Nvidia 970. Keep in mind that this card has some rather unique memory layout (Nvidia caught some flak for it at release). Could be related. Kernel 4.14.23, KDE 5.12.2, Nvidia 390.25.

[mercuriete]

I have the same problem. Almost every time i quit a game, kwin is killed. My workaround is press ALT+F2 to open execute bar. type "kwin_x11".

Your system information Steam client version (build number or date): Apr 2 2018 Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Gentoo Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

kde-plasma/kwin-5.11.5 media-libs/mesa-18.0.0 kernel 4.14.32-gentoo

DRI_PRIME configuration amd + intel

01:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Venus PRO [Radeon HD 8850M / R9 M265X]

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

[notmutiny]

I get this problem every day with Kubuntus latest LTS release. Drives me insane and now I don't open Steam unless I have to.

[PSzczepanski1996]

I have the same issue using KDE 5.14 on Arch - mostly appears when I go into shop from tray menu list. I use wayland tbh. I probably will stop using Steam for while.

For me whole system freezes completly and I must do hard reboot :/

Specs: i5-6600, 16gB ram, rx480 4gB

[D0048]

Have the same issue on KDE neon

[Moanrisy]

My KDE got shut down when running steam

[mercuriete]

I am here to say this bug doesn't happen to me since lot of month ago. So for me can be closed. I will unsuscribe to this bug because dont affect me anymore.

Thanks for doing a good product. 👍

[Bumbadawg]

With KDE, Nvidia @144hz here (using latest 430 driver), black rendering happens ONLY to the chat/friend list windows for me. Desktop remain fine.

Once in a while i have to close them (click in the top right corner even if black) and reopen. I use virtual desktops in case. Got it since the new chat arrived.

For people having to restart their desktop, here's my command i bound to Win+K: killall plasmashell; kwin --replace & kstart5 plasmashell & xrandr --output DP-4 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 144

[Desmo5574]

Steam client version (build number or date): Jun 28 2019 at 23:26:31 Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 18.04 Neon Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Yes Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

I have the same problem as well. It has been happening on both 16.04 & 18.04 based Neon. I have tried both the .deb package, the flatpak version and they both result in a complete hard freeze that necessitates a workstation restart. Other than Steam, my workstation with Neon is rock stable via stress and other benchmark tests. I have tried turning off compositing via ALT SHIFT F12 to no avail.

[Bumbadawg]

Also does break in overlay. NB for everyone: Pierre-Loup our messiah, retweeted this https://twitter.com/subdiff/status/1142024810404487168 which might help in the long run those compositing issues :) Thanks Valve Linux team for applying the correct approach to the libre software.

[EdSantos754]

Hi.

This is also happening to me.

Steam client version (build number or date): Jun 15 2020 Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Kubuntu 18.05, Plasma 5.12.9 Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No, but I've just opted in to see if it changed anything - it didn't Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

I think it is related to compositing and only happens in KDE.

Last year I had to copy my System information from Steam (to use in ProtonDB) but I was not able to do that, due some KDE/Steam strange bug. So I searched for a solution at the time, and found out this one, which worked fine. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=390278662 See buzzmandt comment from 18/07/2019:

On Kubuntu KDE Plasma 5 you can turn off compositing and unhide the pop-up dialog by hitting alt+Lshift+F12. I don't know if other distros do this or if this is a plasma 5 thing

Now, I'm having the exact problem described in the issue #6395 (linked just above) and I remembered what I had done last year or so (although this only started affecting me recently). Anyway, if you press alt+Lshift+F12, this problem will be immediately fixed. However, it's not a permanent fix, as it will happen again if you visit Steam Settings menus :(

You can actually alternate between bug and no-bug every time you press alt+Lshift+F12...