Steam client UI won't start anymore

[chtenb]

Your system information

• Steam client version: installed latest .deb today
• Distribution Ubuntu 22.04
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [No]
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes]
• GPU: Nvidia
• logs: steam-logs.tar.gz

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

1. Run steam in the terminal.
2. System tray appears, but is not functional. Nothing else happens.
3. Yesterday everything still worked. I'm suspecting it has something to do with a steam update? I re-installed the latest .deb today, but still no luck.

Here is the process stdout

Unable to determine whether the expected Nvidia drivers are available.
The Steam client may have limited functionality.
steam.sh[31024]: Running Steam on ubuntu 22.04 64-bit
steam.sh[31024]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[31142]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[31024]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] Startup - updater built Jul 28 2023 18:44:09
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/chiel/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-no-browser'
08/05 13:34:52 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1690583737)/tid(31218)
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/chiel/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] 1. https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1000, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] 2. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] 3. https://cdn.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] Verifying installation...
[2023-08-05 13:34:52] Verification complete
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf6417370
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf6415cc0
/usr/share/themes/Yaru-dark/gtk-2.0/main.rc:775: error: unexpected identifier 'direction', expected character '}'
/usr/share/themes/Yaru-dark/gtk-2.0/hacks.rc:28: error: invalid string constant "normal_entry", expected valid string constant
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
steamwebhelper.sh[31280]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/chiel/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[31280]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()
CAppInfoCacheReadFromDiskThread took 85 milliseconds to initialize
BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 1ms
[2023-08-05 13:36:53] Background update loop checking for update. . .
[2023-08-05 13:36:53] Checking for available updates...
[2023-08-05 13:36:53] Downloading manifest: https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam_client_ubuntu12?t=628120537
[2023-08-05 13:36:53] Manifest download: send request
[2023-08-05 13:36:53] Manifest download: waiting for download to finish
[2023-08-05 13:36:54] Manifest download: finished
[2023-08-05 13:36:54] Download skipped: /steam_client_ubuntu12?t=628120537 version 1690583737, installed version 1690583737, existing pending version 0
[2023-08-05 13:36:54] Nothing to do

[chtenb]

I did a full fresh reinstall of my ubuntu system, and now steam seems to start again. However, other people seem to have this problem as well, so it may well be that something unspecific to my system broke steam, either a steam update or some package upgrade.

[smcv]

This matches the symptoms of an issue I saw with the NVIDIA driver on an Ubuntu 22.04 test system.

During an upgrade, the package manager installed a different kernel (in my case it was the lowlatency kernel variant) and made it the default, but did not install the corresponding kernel headers that were necessary to compile the proprietary NVIDIA kernel module, resulting in that kernel having no hardware-accelerated 3D graphics.

The GNOME desktop environment worked surprisingly well with the llvmpipe software renderer, but the Steam user interface variously either did not appear, or crashed, or was drawn as a transparent/invisible window. If I understand correctly, this is a known issue in the steamwebhelper (it does not appear correctly when using llvmpipe).

Very old or un-demanding games might have run acceptably with llvmpipe and a fast enough CPU, but if I had been able to start a demanding modern game then it would have also been very slow, as a result of not using my GPU.

If other people get a similar symptom on an Ubuntu system that is using the NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver, I would recommend checking that the graphics driver is installed and working correctly. In particular, lsmod | grep nvidia should list modules like nvidia and nvidia_modeset, and if it does not list an nvidia module then the proprietary NVIDIA driver is not working as intended.

[kisak-valve]

Closing as a video driver issue per the last couple comments.

The issue with rendering the Steam client with llvmpipe is being tracked at #9752.

[gazhay]

Can confirm this still happens with properly installed nvidia drivers

bash -x steam
+ export STEAMSCRIPT=steam
+ STEAMSCRIPT=steam
+ export STEAMSCRIPT_VERSION=1.0.0.74-1ubuntu2/Ubuntu
+ STEAMSCRIPT_VERSION=1.0.0.74-1ubuntu2/Ubuntu
+ STEAMCONFIG=/home/gaz/.steam
+ : /home/gaz/.local/share
+ '[' -L /home/gaz/.steam/steam ']'
+ '[' -e /home/gaz/.steam/steam ']'
+ '[' -L /home/gaz/.steam/root ']'
+ '[' -e /home/gaz/.steam/root ']'
+ '[' -L /home/gaz/.steam/steam ']'
++ readlink -e -q /home/gaz/.steam/steam
+ STEAMDIR=/home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation
+ ubuntu32=/home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32
+ steam=/home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/steam
+ runtime=/home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime
+ real=/usr/lib/games/steam/steam
+ test -n en_GB.UTF-8
+ nosse2='WARNING:
The hardware on this system lacks support for the sse2 instruction set.
The browser within the steam client will not work. For more information,
see: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4090-RTKZ-4347'
+ grep -q sse2 /proc/cpuinfo
+ test '!' -d /home/gaz/.steam
+ true
+ test '!' -d /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation
+ true
+ '[' -d /home/gaz/.steam/steam ']'
+ '[' -d /home/gaz/.steam/root ']'
+ test '!' -x /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/steam.sh
+ true
+ test '!' -d /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32
+ true
+ test '!' -x /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/steam
+ true
+ test '!' -e /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.tar.xz
+ true
+ test '!' -d /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime
+ rm -f 'steam-runtime.tar.xz*'
+ rm -f /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/error.log
+ test -x /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/steam.sh
+ exec /home/gaz/.steam/debian-installation/steam.sh -nominidumps -nobreakpad
steam.sh[3070154]: Running Steam on ubuntu 22.04 64-bit
steam.sh[3070154]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[3070281]: Updating Steam runtime environment...
--<<hangs here forever>>-- ^C
 lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia_uvm           1363968  0
nvidia_drm             69632  7
nvidia_modeset       1241088  8 nvidia_drm
nvidia              56365056  394 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_modeset
drm_kms_helper        311296  1 nvidia_drm
drm                   622592  11 drm_kms_helper,nvidia,nvidia_drm