Cannot disable Steam Play for supported titles

[eriktorbjorn]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1690583737, Fri, Jul 28 8:44 PM UTC -08:00
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Debian (unstable)
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No (not that I'm aware of)
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• GPU: AMD (lspci says "VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Bonaire XTX [Radeon R7 260X/360]")

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

I opened the Settings dialog and clicked on "Compatibility".

I clicked on the toggle for "Enable Steam Play for supported titles".

What I expected to happen: The toggle changing to the "off" position. What actually happened: Nothing.

(The reason I want to disable it is that I don't trust Proton to run well on my hardware, since Vulkan support is experimental.)

Maybe the entire settings page is slightly broken, because this is what the manual says it should look like:

Steam support were not able to help me with my issue. Actually, I'm not even convinced they read it.

[eriktorbjorn]

Possibly related issue: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9419

[disconnect5852]

same problem here! Now shows all of my games runnable on linux, while most of them aren't (start it, then nothing ever happens(

[Matias314]

Same problem here

[NetDin0]

Same here

[ihatesoftwaresomuch]

I'm having the same issue. None of my games are working, best case they start but quit before they successfully connect to a server. I'm using the lastest opensuse tumbleweed.

[bclima]

Same here....

[Ligthert]

Same... :unamused:

[lucaslira95]

Same...

[AlexCloudDev]

same :(

[lucifertdark]

There's a workaround available, you'll need ProtonUp-QT from https://github.com/DavidoTek/ProtonUp-Qt so you can install Steam-Play-None. It will do the job till Valve sort it out properly.

[goph-R]

Same, Debian 12, XFCE, GTX 1660

Edit: I still can't disable that option, but after I run the client from the terminal and checked the output, I noticed that it tries to run the .exe files as native linux binaries, so in my case I had to force the Proton Experimental, and now about everything works.

(Right click on the game, Properties, Compatibility, Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool -> Proton Experimental)

[asif-mahmud]

i got stuck here too

[jhahvhi]

Same Debian testing gnome

[nm004]

I could revert it back by removing the entry of app id in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<steamid>/compat.vdf.

[Ligthert]

I don't know what happened, but in the past couple of weeks this setting has worked for me and I am good. :-)

[NetDin0]

I can't believe this bug hasn't been fixed yet.

[her001]

I did some testing to verify this issue. It is true that there is no off button. However, overriding the compatibility setting to Steam Linux Runtime 1.0 (scout) runs the game in the exact same way as a native game without a compatibility tool set. It may be that there is still an issue here, in that this should be made more clear in the UI. Otherwise, the functionality of running the native client for the few games that are set to use Proton by default has not been removed.

Valve has made it clear that the Scout runtime is literally just the libraries shipped with the Steam client, without pressure-vessel (the containerization stuff). You can verify this yourself by checking the libraries that games are launched with by Steam:

1. Set the launch options for a native game to echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH > ~/libs.txt #%command%.
2. Run the game.
3. Check the libs.txt file in your home folder. For a native game, they will be the same regardless of whether the Scout runtime is selected.
4. You may also check the command in your process list. It is not run with pressure-vessel when using Scout.

Further, if you disable the Steam runtime when starting Steam (setting STEAM_RUNTIME=0, as with the steam-native-runtime package in the Arch repos, which is also not recommended), setting the compatibility tool to Scout still respects the disabled Steam runtime.

tldr: If you want to run the native version of a game, setting the compatibility tool to Steam Linux Runtime 1.0 (scout) is the same as unsetting it.

EDIT: There is one thing I didn't check. In the Steam settings, under compatibility, if Steam Play support is disabled, does this also make Steam default to installing the native version of games instead of the Proton versions? I would assume so.

[Houtworm]

The issue is not that something is unclear in the UI, The issue is that a setting in the Steam Settings is broken.

If we untick "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" it should actually do that. not tick it again after a forced reboot.

"Enable Steam Play for supported titles" doesn't toggle at all, and will just stay in the on position if you click it.

Setting Steam Linux Runtime Scout for every game might be a workaround, but it is far from ideal. I don't want to set them all to scout just to turn them all off again when this problem gets fixed.

I don't want Valve to decide how I run my games, I want games to run natively, and preferably display the grayed out install button when there is no Linux depot.

I want an opt in into proton, not an opt out, this way the line between Proton and Native gets blurred. It is a Linux device so when I press install I expect it to install the Linux build, and if I want to use a compatibility tool I will select one myself.

I hope that this issue will get fixed very soon, I bought a Steam Deck over the Ally for the software, But I might be better off returning the Deck and Install Arch on the Ally while I am still within the return period. At least On Arch I can disable the second toggle.

[eriktorbjorn]

I want an opt in into proton, not an opt out, this way the line between Proton and Native gets blurred.

Me too. Particularly since Proton has never ever actually worked for me when I've tried it. Perhaps because I've never tried it with Vulkan, since that's experimental on my hardware, but it's also never given me any error message about it. It just silently failed.

[z-impi]

Same on Arch Garuda. Button is not moving. Same in beta. :(

[LinuxRocks101]

I'm also having this issue on Linux Mint 21.2 Edge Cinnamon. D:

At least Steam opens in Linux Mint. I had to switch back cause it'd just lockup and never open after the login screen on Kubuntu 23.10. :|

[flamming-python]

Even purging the Steam client from my computer & deleting the .steam folder from my home directory, does not seem to reset this option to off. I would have to build a time machine and stop myself from flicking it on in the past. Valve have really outdone themselves. And this issue is considerably older than this bug report, BTW. Just another bug that has been allowed to be relegated into the backlog and go unfixed despite its pretty serious usability consequences for customers whose computers do not support Proton well or at all

[gPhantasm]

Still having this issue. I can install the Linux version of games by forcing it with the Linux Runtime, but every 24 hours it installs an "update" for the game which overwrites its files with the Windows version. Steam Support told me it's because I'm not using Ubuntu with GNOME... Sure.

[NoTitleGamesOfficial]

Same issue using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

[MrAventador]

I have the same issue on Arch

[NetDin0]

Today a patch was released, but for me nothing as changed

[kisak-valve]

Hello @NetDin0, the release note you're highlighting is for #9875. If you're seeing that issue, then follow the instruction at https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9875#issuecomment-1853037408 to nudge the game config out of the quirk state.

[datante]

Can confirm the issue is still not fixed. I am running Linux Mint 21.3

[Gerardo-RC]

I could revert it back by removing the entry of app id in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<steamid>/compat.vdf.

This is the solution, thank you very much, all the games to be installed that are not native are disabled 👍

[qquq]

The issue is still not resolved. Debian 10 LTS Steam Beta as of date 06.02.2024

[carlRondoni]

Not resolved on arch linux :(

[LinuxRocks101]

I switched to KDE Neon to try out Plasma 6, and this issue still isn't resolved. Will this ever even be looked at and fixed? It can't be that hard or take that long to do. This is probably one of the more important features on Steam in Linux. So you'd think that it'd have been taken care of already. Plus Steam Support was useless about this problem too. 🙄

[eduardoeae]

Arch Linux up to date... still not fixed.

[Hesder]

I have the same problem with a fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04. The button works, but has no effect.

MANUAL WORKAROUND:

Edit the following file and empty the content (This files registers for each game the compatability mode, throwing it away forces steam to generate it again, based on your current settings).

~/.steam/steam/userdata/115053894/config/compat.vdf

[Milor123]

Guys how can disable the fuc***** BETA steam, it crashes my steam :( i dont wanna lost all my data. please help me

[ghost]

Problem still exists almost a year later. Pretty good encouragment to not use steam on Linux and take the good ol' black flag approach.

[zoobporsor]

I still cant turn it off too. I have no idea if its trying to play Native linux games , or trying to run Proton games. I don't know how to force run native linux games and turn off Proton.

[nikolaoslibero]

It seems, as I've seen no communications to the contrary, that with the October 25th client beta update steam has "it's not a bug, it's a feature"d it.

The button was removed entirely.