[Steam Beta client] Steamwebhelper doesn't start

[MastaG]

Batocera build version

v39 28-01-2024

Your architecture

PC

Your Graphic Processor Unit (GPU)

Dedicated (e.g. GTX 1050; Radeon R9 380)

Graphical brand

Nvidia

Issue description

I've followed the wiki instructions to install the com.valvesoftware.Steam flatpak. It works but when I try to opt in for the beta client, it will restart and download the update but fail to start any longer. It will show me a window saying the Steamwebhelper process is not responding and I can:

• Restart Steamwebhelper
• Run Steamwebhelper without GPU acceleration
• Run Steamwebhelper without Sandbox
• Restart Steam
• Exit

None of the options will get Steam running. I have to uninstall the flatpak and all the userdata from terminal and reinstall Steam in order to get it working again.

Expected result

Working Steam beta client

Reproduction steps

Install Steam from flatpak as per wiki instructions Login and opt in for beta client

Logs and data

No response

[taleteller]

Yeah, I have not tested this solution yet, but with newer versions of Batocera the custom.sh is called with arguments on different stages of the system. Therefore a script should look more like this ...

#!/bin/bash

case "$1" in
    start)
        mkdir -p /run/user/1000
        chown batocera /run/user/1000
        cat >/usr/bin/with-dbus-session <<EOF
#! /bin/bash
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
eval \`dbus-launch --sh-syntax\`
dbus-update-activation-environment --all
\$*
kill \$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
EOF
        chmod 755 /usr/bin/with-dbus-session
        mkdir -p /userdata/system/batocerahome
        chown batocera /userdata/system/batocerahome
        sed -i /etc/passwd -e "s/1000::\/userdata\/system:/1000::\/userdata\/system\/batocerahome:/"
        sed -i /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/configgen/generators/flatpak/flatpakGenerator.py -e "s/flatpak run/with-dbus-session flatpak run/"        
        ;;
esac

exit $?

[pycage]

Yeah, I have not tested this solution yet, but with newer versions of Batocera the custom.sh is called with arguments on different stages of the system. Therefore a script should look more like this ...

#!/bin/bash

case "$1" in
    start)
        mkdir -p /run/user/1000
        chown batocera /run/user/1000
        cat >/usr/bin/with-dbus-session <<EOF
#! /bin/bash
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
eval \`dbus-launch --sh-syntax\`
dbus-update-activation-environment --all
\$*
kill \$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
EOF
        chmod 755 /usr/bin/with-dbus-session
        mkdir -p /userdata/system/batocerahome
        chown batocera /userdata/system/batocerahome
        sed -i /etc/passwd -e "s/1000::\/userdata\/system:/1000::\/userdata\/system\/batocerahome:/"
        sed -i /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/configgen/generators/flatpak/flatpakGenerator.py -e "s/flatpak run/with-dbus-session flatpak run/"        
        ;;
esac

exit $?

Thanks, I just tested your version on Batocera 39 and can confirm that it starts Steam.

[p4p1]

Yeah, I have not tested this solution yet, but with newer versions of Batocera the custom.sh is called with arguments on different stages of the system. Therefore a script should look more like this ...

#!/bin/bash

case "$1" in
    start)
        mkdir -p /run/user/1000
        chown batocera /run/user/1000
        cat >/usr/bin/with-dbus-session <<EOF
#! /bin/bash
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
eval \`dbus-launch --sh-syntax\`
dbus-update-activation-environment --all
\$*
kill \$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
EOF
        chmod 755 /usr/bin/with-dbus-session
        mkdir -p /userdata/system/batocerahome
        chown batocera /userdata/system/batocerahome
        sed -i /etc/passwd -e "s/1000::\/userdata\/system:/1000::\/userdata\/system\/batocerahome:/"
        sed -i /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/configgen/generators/flatpak/flatpakGenerator.py -e "s/flatpak run/with-dbus-session flatpak run/"        
        ;;
esac

exit $?

Thanks this solution works on batocera version 39

[taleteller]

For me this solution is not working well. I can get games running when modifying /usr/bin/batocera-steam as mentioned, but steam itself runs as black screen. Obviously there is more to a dbus session than this handles. To the command dbus-launch I added the parameter --exit-with-session because if feels right. And I removed the batocerahome modifications without negative effects.

When launching steam without modifications with a command like this:

su - batocera -c "DISPLAY=:0.0 flatpak run -v com.valvesoftware.Steam"

I can see the following line coming up:

E: Can't find session bus: Error spawning command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=e0b78ee78d8f0b06ef7cc61c65ede204 --binary-syntax --close-stderr': Failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or directory)

Therefore steam cant find a session and tries to create it. One would assume this fails in general because dbus-launch is not part of the flatpak sandbox, but after the launch attempt of steam I can find this process on the system:

batocera  2356  0.0  0.0   4476  2048 ?        S    20:41   0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch=e0b78ee78d8f0b06ef7cc61c65ede204 --binary-syntax --close-stderr

The command line is identical, therefore steam manages to start the process but cant connect to it. Looking into /userdata/system/.dbus/session-bus also shows a matching session belonging to the right user. It refers to a socket in /tmp that also got created successfully.

Conclusion: When steam starts a dbus session comes up but somehow steam cannot talk to it. Thats all I can tell from my shallow understanding of dbus.

[uqs]

Tried this on a fresh v39 but all I get is error: Permission denied and there's not even an strace on the system to see what's going on, sigh.

To be clear, the final run of flatpak run -v com.valvesoftware.Steam throws that error, with nothing else being output, and add -vv doesn't help either.

[dmanlfc]

Working a fix. I will provide a v40 image soonish after testing

[taleteller]

Out of curiosity, will it contain a more "traditional" dbus environment? Because I remember having tested installing GOG linux native games via Lutris and they all failed to launch because of some dbus issues.

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Daniel Martin @.> Gesendet: Freitag 15. März 2024 11:51 An: batocera-linux/batocera.linux @.> CC: Thomas Holzeisen @.>; Comment @.> Betreff: Re: [batocera-linux/batocera.linux] [Steam Beta client] Steamwebhelper doesn't start (Issue #10948)

Working a fix. I will provide a v40 image soonish after testing — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/issues/10948#issuecomment-1999401154, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AALKMLPGYW2OXI7VJSFU763YYLHC7AVCNFSM6AAAAABCSD2ECSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSOJZGQYDCMJVGQ. You are receiving this because you commented. Message ID: @.***>

[dmanlfc]

this is fixed v40 test image is here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_bqmR7CoZ78i7DolYt5b-RRqB5c-LPyN?usp=drive_link

[benkolle1]

Thanks for fixing this. Is this the same test image as the one that can be downloaded trough the batocera Butterfly update channel?
And schoukd we re-install steam flatpack or will it just work again?

[iainsmacleod]

this is fixed v40 test image is here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_bqmR7CoZ78i7DolYt5b-RRqB5c-LPyN?usp=drive_link

So, did you fix this using your proposal for 11007, or is this a temporary workaround?

Great job, quick turnaround on this - thank you.

[dmanlfc]

https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/pull/11255 can be applied to v39. Just change the 3 files accordingly.

[dmanlfc]

This is a closed thread. Use Discord for conversations.

[taleteller]

Closing this was probably a bit premature: 1) steam launches, but dead slow because it is in mesa/software render mode. Probably because acceleration is not available as "root" user. 2) without acceleration there is no main menu within steam, therefore you cannot exit it. Switching out of big picture works better. (edit: I had a dozen dbus-launch sessions but cannot confirm their origin) 3) games launched from batocera menu or within the steam client run in mesa/software and also are dead slow 4) exiting steam the hard way leaves the process tree running in the background. 5) starting steam works typically once giving me the error

dbus[3668]: Unable to set up transient service directory: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR "/run/user/1000" is owned by uid 1000, not our uid 0

where i have change ownership this directory via console.

Therefore this issue is far from over and starting steam in a root environment is not supported or recommended. I suggest to open a new ticket for further feedback. I personally have no Discord and no desire to get it, github is the right place for bugs anyway.

[pycage]

I agree that patching Steam to make it run as root is not a good solution. If this really kills HW acceleration, then that doesn't help users at all.

The missing main menu seems to be another problem, though. With my custom.sh I have Steam and games running fine with HW acceleration, but the main menu still does not display. I can navigate it though to exit Steam normally (open menu, press up to select Exit and press the confirm button). Do some normal Linux distributions also have that issue with the main menu, or is this Batocera-only?

[taleteller]

It is ... complicated. I spent another few hours, made a clean slate with a freshly installed Steam and got the Client working with GPU. I had misleading relics of previous tests. But it still has plenty of caveats.

A freshly installed Steam via flatpack registers as "Valve Corporation" under "Ports", and it will not launch. Since the patch is a workaround for batocera-steam and not flatpak run it keeps failing. Actually the only way I got the steam client launched was via Xterm locally. But this is hardly viable so i created a runner under roms/ports/Steam.sh with this content:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
bash /usr/bin/batocera-steam

This way I got access to Steam, including GPU acceleration (for Nvidia at least). Now the missing menu issue persisted in big picture mode. However I found a matching ticket, but it is closed and the proposed "working" client version is exactly the same I have, but still no menu. Therefore this might be an upstream issue. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10580

Switching via Alt-Enter into regular Steam is possible, though it likes to crash, opening popups sometimes gives you a black screen you need to Alt-Tab back. Its a hassle but it is possible to install games.

Launching games turned out to be possible as well, but it takes four times as long. Leaving Games or the Steam client is a bit of a gamble. Sometimes it works. Exiting via Menu+Select mostly works, but if Steam persists in memory you better reboot.

In general I think we need a solution that provides a valid DBus Session for flatpak under the user of "batocera". This is was Steam expects as well as probably the "Heroic Game Launcher" or "Lutris". Doing it as root contradicts the sandbox isolation of flatpaks, nobody recommends this.

Devs may please correct me, but it seems the fact that the users "batocera" and "root" share a home folder produces problems with isolating their files. It might be wise to untangle them.

[dAn84imola]

Hy to all, I join this topic to share my steamwebhelper.log (see the end of my post): I'm a Batocera user without any knowledge about Linux or syntax program (I'm literally ignorant, I know, sorry about it). In this last weeks I'm encountering the well know error: I'm via flatpak 1.0.0.79, by the way I don't think it's the beta client (...how to chek it!?).

I tried the to delete the two runtimes (heavy and sniper) in the folder ~/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64 as mentioned in this topic https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10412 but wasn't a solution in my case.

I also tried as suggested above by @taleteller to create a runner, but this too it wasn't fine for me.

Is there a workaround in order to start the games from my existing installed library? I don't care about the Steam program itself by know ('cause I set in big picture mode in order to instantly lunch the game). I also tried the mega container present in batocera.pro but haven't the knowledge to add further proton version as easy via flatpack: most non Linux games need the Proton G version wich isn't present.

Some advise or suggestione? Thank you for the patience and your contribution for solving this issues to all of us.

[steamwebhelper.sh[1005]: === Sat Mar 16 17:45:31 CET 2024 === steamwebhelper.sh[1005]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime at /userdata/saves/flatpak/data/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper steam-runtime-launch-client[1025]: E: Can't find session bus: Error spawning command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=f790733a37638815043c7cd16558bc74 --binary-syntax --close-stderr': Failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or directory)]

[uureel]

@dAn84imola

haven't the knowledge to add further proton version as easy via flatpack: most non Linux games need the Proton G version wich isn't present.

[danieldids]

I agree that patching Steam to make it run as root is not a good solution. If this really kills HW acceleration, then that doesn't help users at all.

The missing main menu seems to be another problem, though. With my custom.sh I have Steam and games running fine with HW acceleration, but the main menu still does not display. I can navigate it though to exit Steam normally (open menu, press up to select Exit and press the confirm button). Do some normal Linux distributions also have that issue with the main menu, or is this Batocera-only?

I've been in a quest to find a nice game console experience linux distro recently. I've tried chimeraOS, holoISO, vanilla manjaro, vanilla ubuntu, got into discord channels, github pages, murky old foruns, and the issue really seems to be from steam. Only today I got to know that batocera had integration with steam games, which got me excited because I know and love batocera, and again, you guys are also having some problems with steam.

From my investigation, because of steamDeck steam has shifted its work to using some custom stuff (like gamescope as a micro-compositor and AMD as the "official" GPU for everything). This is breaking everybody.

Steam's gamemode interface uses (requires?) the vulkan API. Without it, this gamemode interface gets laggy, as many people have described.

(my 2 cents)

[JumpMaster]

I agree that patching Steam to make it run as root is not a good solution. If this really kills HW acceleration, then that doesn't help users at all. The missing main menu seems to be another problem, though. With my custom.sh I have Steam and games running fine with HW acceleration, but the main menu still does not display. I can navigate it though to exit Steam normally (open menu, press up to select Exit and press the confirm button). Do some normal Linux distributions also have that issue with the main menu, or is this Batocera-only?

I've been in a quest to find a nice game console experience linux distro recently. I've tried chimeraOS, holoISO, vanilla manjaro, vanilla ubuntu, got into discord channels, github pages, murky old foruns, and the issue really seems to be from steam. Only today I got to know that batocera had integration with steam games, which got me excited because I know and love batocera, and again, you guys are also having some problems with steam.

From my investigation, because of steamDeck steam has shifted its work to using some custom stuff (like gamescope as a micro-compositor and AMD as the "official" GPU for everything). This is breaking everybody.

Steam's gamemode interface uses (requires?) the vulkan API. Without it, this gamemode interface gets laggy, as many people have described.

(my 2 cents)

Same here. After using RetroPie I moved to Batocera for x86 Arcade + Steam. Let me know if you find a good alternative for use with Steam.

[dAn84imola]

I agree that patching Steam to make it run as root is not a good solution. If this really kills HW acceleration, then that doesn't help users at all. The missing main menu seems to be another problem, though. With my custom.sh I have Steam and games running fine with HW acceleration, but the main menu still does not display. I can navigate it though to exit Steam normally (open menu, press up to select Exit and press the confirm button). Do some normal Linux distributions also have that issue with the main menu, or is this Batocera-only?

I've been in a quest to find a nice game console experience linux distro recently. I've tried chimeraOS, holoISO, vanilla manjaro, vanilla ubuntu, got into discord channels, github pages, murky old foruns, and the issue really seems to be from steam. Only today I got to know that batocera had integration with steam games, which got me excited because I know and love batocera, and again, you guys are also having some problems with steam. From my investigation, because of steamDeck steam has shifted its work to using some custom stuff (like gamescope as a micro-compositor and AMD as the "official" GPU for everything). This is breaking everybody. Steam's gamemode interface uses (requires?) the vulkan API. Without it, this gamemode interface gets laggy, as many people have described. (my 2 cents)

Same here. After using RetroPie I moved to Batocera for x86 Arcade + Steam. Let me know if you find a good alternative for use with Steam.

I'm using the mega container from batocera.pro (see https://github.com/uureel/batocera.pro). From there, you got lot app like Lutris and Steam and this last is working as planned previously (in that sense, I personally solved!). For the most demanding users who have skills software language there is too the "steam tinker launch" in order to configure more things (like protons, wine and more stuff...) https://github.com/sonic2kk/steamtinkerlaunch/wiki#features

[profezzorn]

This does not seem to be solved. I installed batocera beta, which made steam run, but.... It doesn't seem to have hardware acceleration, at least not when running "big picture" mode (nvidia 1080) Controllers don't seem to work. Maybe it's just some lost configuration somewhere? The "steam (flatpak)" link I have doesn't work anymore. How do I just start steam?

[uqs]

I got it to work, but I'm not using BPM and don't need 3D acceleration for the one game I use this for, so it might not help you much.

1. Install latest Batocera v39 onto SSD on a thinclient with integrated Intel GPU
2. Update to the developer build (butterfly)
3. Install steam flatpak as mentioned in the docs
4. Starting it up will throw an error that it cannot be run as root, this check comes from a shell script, so it's easy to change
5. grep -r under flatpak/ or saves/flatpak for the error string (I forgot the name of the shell script that needs changing)
6. Remove the if ... fi clause in that shell script that checks for uid == 0
7. Run steam in non-big-picture-mode, install games, it works. Controller, audio and video are working same as before.

I had no luck with those "pro" containers, they made the system totally unresponsive and everything slowed to a crawl (they might work for a proper desktop, but oh boy is that some overhead ...)

Good luck!

[Sturmlocke86]

I just installed Batocera 39 onto a new rig that I plan to use in the living room for all things Steam, Retro, Multimedia etc. and was wondering what the state of Flatpak Steam in V39 is. Are there still issues? I've been using the Steam Flatpak on my normal computer with Ubuntu and openSUSE without issues. Is the above strictly an issue with Batocera or something affecting Flatpak Steam in general?

[taleteller]

@Sturmlocke86 yes it is still an issue with v39. I got it running with a nightly of v40 that runs .. but not pretty. Vulcan for example is not available for steam running as root. I hope v40 release will include a sane solution, but currently its hope and tinker for people with enough linux knowledge.

[Sturmlocke86]

@Sturmlocke86 yes it is still an issue with v39. I got it running with a nightly of v40 that runs .. but not pretty. Vulcan for example is not available for steam running as root. I hope v40 release will include a sane solution, but currently its hope and tinker for people with enough linux knowledge.

Thanks for taking the time 👍🏻 What a bummer... because tinkering and time is something that I really don't have right now with both of my kids in my arms while I'm typing this. I just donated 50€uros to the project. Hope it helps fix these issues a bit faster. Batocera is our main multimedia system in the living room and we use it for everything from Retro and Steam gaming all the way up to Kodi with Prime Video and YouTube. It's the main reason we prefer to use it over everything else, and we even have some other Flatpaks installed.

I might be able to donate a few more bucks next month. That's all I can do for now.

[taleteller]

@Sturmlocke86 its about the same for me, thats why I stopped updating. From what I can see there were no changes in the code base since 2 month, which was the "run as root" workaround. But if you are on a fresh box, try a fresh v39 in combination with Steam from here: https://github.com/uureel/batocera.pro

[ghenry22]

!/bin/bash

case "$1" in start) mkdir -p /run/user/1000 chown batocera /run/user/1000 cat >/usr/bin/with-dbus-session <<EOF

! /bin/bash

unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax` dbus-update-activation-environment --all \$* kill \$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID EOF chmod 755 /usr/bin/with-dbus-session mkdir -p /userdata/system/batocerahome chown batocera /userdata/system/batocerahome sed -i /etc/passwd -e "s/1000::\/userdata\/system:/1000::\/userdata\/system\/batocerahome:/" sed -i /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/configgen/generators/flatpak/flatpakGenerator.py -e "s/flatpak run/with-dbus-session flatpak run/"
;; esac

exit $?

Updated to latest v40 on butterfly

Tried to run steam but it just shows a black screen ( I can see steam processes running in top through SSH), I can exit steam and it pops up the steam closing window briefly. So at least the webhelper error from v39 seems to be gone now.

Creating the custom.sh file with the content as described in the preceding comments on that system now allows the steam client to launch, it ran the latest update, then launched into big picture and I can browse my library and install games, seems fine for what it needs to do.

This is with steam STABLE not beta any more so will be affecting all users.

Flatpak update was run so all files are up to date, note that there is a deprecation notice for Proton now shown which will probably be a future issue.

Just tested launching a few games from the steam collection menu in the main batocera UI and those are now starting up as expected and seem to be working so far (very brief test). I only have fairly light arcade games installed, like the Ninja turtles one, River City Girls and a few other classic platformer type things).

Running on an Intel NUC8 if that's useful. Happy to run any tests that might be useful to lead to a resolution here.

[Sturmlocke86]

@Sturmlocke86 its about the same for me, thats why I stopped updating. From what I can see there were no changes in the code base since 2 month, which was the "run as root" workaround. But if you are on a fresh box, try a fresh v39 in combination with Steam from here: https://github.com/uureel/batocera.pro

Thanks for the workaround! I think I'll wait for a proper and official solution though, because knowing my luck by tinkering with these things it might result in a major headache. Seems like we're looking at a potential fix in V40 of Batocera?

Updated to latest v40 on butterfly

Tried to run steam but it just shows a black screen ( I can see steam processes running in top through SSH), I can exit steam and it pops up the steam closing window briefly. So at least the webhelper error from v39 seems to be gone now.

Creating the custom.sh file with the content as described in the preceding comments on that system now allows the steam client to launch, it ran the latest update, then launched into big picture and I can browse my library and install games, seems fine for what it needs to do.

This is with steam STABLE not beta any more so will be affecting all users.

Flatpak update was run so all files are up to date, note that there is a deprecation notice for Proton now shown which will probably be a future issue.

Just tested launching a few games from the steam collection menu in the main batocera UI and those are now starting up as expected and seem to be working so far (very brief test). I only have fairly light arcade games installed, like the Ninja turtles one, River City Girls and a few other classic platformer type things).

Running on an Intel NUC8 if that's useful. Happy to run any tests that might be useful to lead to a resolution here.

Nice, thanks for sharing! Is Proton for Flatpak being deprecated or what does that note mean? How well was big picture performing fps-wise? I hope this gets fixed in a way that it'll just work without using a custom script with V40 when it releases.

[Classicdubs]

Hey guys, I followed this video and steam is up and running on my Batocera 40 beta. https://youtu.be/GNNXEFfKdQ8?si=MKH-L6MDFN5qMzLE Only issue I have is that it freezes when I try and shutdown steam. The steam icon spins for a few seconds, then it freezes. I have to alt-f4 to close it out. If anyone knows a solution to this, I'm all ears. Other than that, it boots right up, and games are working. Chris

[Sturmlocke86]

Wife made me update to V40 of Batocera because she wanted to play some Steam games on the big screen. So I went from V39 to V40 dev in the hopes that Steam would work again after reading the change log: "Fixed: Steam flatpak issue after forced runtime update."

But Steam doesn't launch and it shows an error message telling me that it can't run as root. Is there a simple way to get this working with Steam Flatpak now that I'm on V40?

[iainsmacleod]

I'm sorry to say, for the moment I have moved to ChimeraOS - AMD GPU support only.

Based on comments I'm not sure there is a commitment to get steam working, which is the developers choice, so for the moment my "Steam machine" runs ChimeraOS.

[Sturmlocke86]

ChimeraOS is a nice indeed, I've used that before and I actually still have it running on one machine. I'd be sad if Batocera can't fix Steam though, because the way it is right now with Kodi, Steam, Retro all in one box makes it the perfect living room setup. Batocera is capable of replacing a bunch of devices by combining it all into a single box.

As an 80's retro kid, I absolutely love the way Batocera looks and feels though, so I don't see myself switching anytime soon. I'll gladly donate some more cash if it helps, but I need Steam support back for sure.

[uqs]

As I've written, you need to grep for that error message, remove the check from that shell script, and then it might work (it did for me)

[Classicdubs]

As I've written, you need to grep for that error message, remove the check from that shell script, and then it might work (it did for me)

Are you referencing what I posted? The freezing issue on shutdown? Where would the script be located?

[Sturmlocke86]

No idea, but I think he means me going by his previous post @Classicdubs

Unfortunately, I still haven't had much success getting Steam to run with Batocera V40. Problem is that I really don't have much time to tinker with things, so I just went ahead and donated another 50 Euros and will donate some more in a few days. Not much else I can do since time is limited right now. Would love to see Steam running on Batocera again though. Flatpak Steam runs great on every other Linux distro in our household, not sure if this is a widespread problem or just limited to Batocera as of this writing.

[iainsmacleod]

I keep checking for updates on Steam support. Does anyone know an open ticket for the issue, I don't see one?

[taleteller]

Sadly there is no ticket and since their development is behind a Discord server I have no Idea if there is even activity on this topic. On the repository there is clearly none.

My plan was to open a new ticket when v40 gets released and its still not solved for good.

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: iainsmacleod @.> Gesendet: Donnerstag 11. Juli 2024 9:11 An: batocera-linux/batocera.linux @.> CC: Thomas Holzeisen @.>; Mention @.> Betreff: Re: [batocera-linux/batocera.linux] [Steam Beta client] Steamwebhelper doesn't start (Issue #10948)

I keep checking for updates on Steam support. Does anyone know an open ticket for the issue, I don't see one? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/issues/10948#issuecomment-2222200523, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AALKMLONS5PGJGZVBVAPBF3ZLYVZTAVCNFSM6AAAAABCSD2ECSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDEMRSGIYDANJSGM. You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: @.***>

[Sturmlocke86]

Is V40 getting released this month? I don't use Discord so no idea where we stand in this regard. I'm more a fan of forums or GitHub for all things development, bug tracking and open discussions about issues.

[dmanlfc]

Commenting on a closed issues is going to get you nowhere... whinge all you want. until you follow proper procedures, your commentary here will be ignored.

[Sturmlocke86]

Whinge? Pretty strong words there mate. Sounds almost disrespectful tbh. I don't see anyone whinging. Clueless, confused, helpless and lack of guidance are words that come to mind, but whinging is not one of them. Seems like the ppl commenting here are of the opinion that this topic / ticket was prematurely closed and are now left wondering what to do. The Batocera wiki for Steam links to this bug report, which is how ppl like me got here in the first place.

Link: https://wiki.batocera.org/systems:steam

_"WARNING: Non Working Emulator (for now...) Recent updates for steam client now result in steamwebhelper error. There's ongoing work on this problem, but Steam is not usable anymore (for now at least) on batocera. There's no known workaround.

You can track the issue here: https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/issues/10948"_

What are the proper procedures? Opening a new ticket, discussing the topic on Discord? I thought this bug report was the proper procedure. How about pointing us in the right direction instead of purposely ignoring a topic that is of importance to a number of us around here just because we're not following proper procedures. Personally I lack the time to do much right now, so I donate cash and voice my opinion following the link that was provided via the wiki. If we're doing it wrong, tell us what to do then. 1+1=3.

Thanks. Cheers

[dmanlfc]

I'm not your mate and respect is earned before you can be disrespected. Continuing on a closed thread is going to get you nowhere. It's whinging, I don't like repeating myself. Do a clean install of v40 beta. https://mirrors.o2switch.fr/batocera/x86_64/beta/last/batocera-x86_64-40-20240629.img.gz If you have an issue, open a new one and follow the issue template.

[Sturmlocke86]

I was trying to be friendly by calling you mate, clearly you don't share that same feeling or enthusiasm. Well then, dear Mr. Daniel M., I'm not sure what you mean by saying respect is earned before being disrespected, because thus far a lot of the comments here have been respectful. I still disagree, it's not whinging. I don't like repeating myself either, so I'll just leave it at that. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Thanks for pointing us in the right direction though. I do appreciate that. Surely this will help ppl find the way now. In Germany there is a phrase: "warum nicht gleich so?"

That said, sadly the way you responded to us here left a bad taste in my mouth and so I'll be moving away from Batocera. I actually regret donating and will take the whinging elsewhere. Good luck on future endeavors.

Thanks & farewell.

[Gugus-1]

I'm sorry to arrive after the fact, but there is a way to get Steam working on Batocera v40 that I use. The idea is to create a Steam.sh file in roms/ports and put the following in it, after install it through flatpak:

!/usr/bin/env bash

bash /usr/bin/batocera-steam

Another thing I tried is installing Batocera.pro, and, it also working.

[iainsmacleod]

@Gugus-1 thanks for the info, but I'm looking for direct support without modifications. It makes it easier to support in my multi system environment. Really appreciate the info though. As an aside, I tried batocera.pro and could not get it to work.

@Sturmlocke86 I feel your pain.

@dmanlfc nobody is whining. I believe you closed this ticket incorrectly on March 17 - you should probably have done a fresh install and tested before closing the ticket. As for v40 bug report, at this time I'm going to wait for the software to be officially released before reporting - several of us had put info in this ticket, which just got closed without appropriate testing, so I want to wait for a stable build to report on.

The only reason I asked about another existing open ticket is because, as @Sturmlocke86 pointed out, the wiki point you to here for updates....

TL;DR - those in search of updates on steam support, best open a new ticket, this isn't being maintained or updated by devs.

Appreciate all the work devs have been doing here, but fixes and workarounds did not help, this is still an issue in v39 and v40 from what I see.

Thanks All!

[iainsmacleod]

FYI - I upgraded from the latest beta (fresh install), to the latest stable v40, and steam is working for me.

Not sure why we didn't see a beta with the fixes, seems strange to not release a beta of code changes that are pushed to prod...but whatever.

Thanks to @dmanlfc for the fixes, I've been seeing some commits from him, so I assume he got it sorted.

[Sturmlocke86]

+1 @iainsmacleod, same here. I updated from Batocera V40 Beta to stable and Steam was still showing the same "cannot run as root" error message (even after reinstalling Steam and updating Flatpak etc). So I went ahead and reinstalled Batocera V40 stable from scratch and now Steam works like a charm! Performance is great too. Thanks @Batocera for finally fixing this. It's 2:30am here right now and I'm watching my wife play Hogwarts Legacy via Batocera+Steam (bpm) on the big screen in our living room -> no issues whatsoever (Nvidia T600 GPU). After that we're watching a movie with Kodi (+Prime Video addon) to fall asleep and tomorrow the kids are doing some retro gaming.

To that end: Yes, I have reconsidered my decision and we'll continue using Batocera after all. I still don't like nor appreciate how we got treated here earlier, which was what drove me away in the first place, but I'm willing to look past that for now because our family enjoys Batocera so much that we don't want to use anything else anymore. Batocera is the ultimate family experience because it can do everything from Retro to Kodi, Steam, Luna, Gog and more with Flatpak support. There's just so much potential here that it's difficult to use anything else. I just donated some cash again today and I'll continue to donate on a regular basis.

Cheers