Steam Native No longer launches when using gnome DE

I’m not sure what changed that broke this but it occurred around the first week of November (Before November 5th). I originally noticed that when I tried to launch Steam native it was no longer launching and instead it was launching Steam runtime version instead, I didn’t pay too much attention just figured some package was out of sync and it would correct itself in a few days. I posted in the issues area but never got any replies.

This weekend I had a little time to try to flush this out and troubleshoot the issue. I have done a clean install of of CachyOS based of the cachyos-desktop-linux-241110.iso. If you do a basic installation with the only change being selecting the Gnome DE instead of KDE and then after the system finishes installing the cachyos-gaming-meta package and nothing else.

After installing this and rebooting then try launching Steam Native and instead Steam Runtime will be launched in it’s place.

For whatever reason doing a clean install and keeping KDE as the desktop environment and then installing the cachyos-gaming-meta package will launch Steam Native as expected.

This is something that I’m not sure the exact date that it broke or what package broke this functionality but I know that is occurred before 11/05/2024. I know with 100% certainty that Steam Native was working back in October as that was how I was launching steam and then it broke early November after an update.

what does it say when you launch it from terminal?

Here is the output from both gnome (which doesn’t work) and from the working KDE (which is launching native correctly). These outputs are both from the clean installed into a VMWare workstation virtual machine to rule out any hardware issues. They are both clean installs of the latest cachyos with the only change to the gnome version being that I selected gnome desktop instead of KDE during the install process accepting all other defaults. Then after the system came up the cachyos-gaming-meta package was installed on both machine. Nothing else was installed on these test systems.

The thing is both the working system and the non-working system are kicking out similar errors the difference being that the native version is launching on kde and the runtime version ends up being launched on the gnome version. My basis of which version is running is based entirely on the fact that the active icon in the two desktop environments is indicating that native version is running on kde and the gnome environment indicates that the runtime version has launched instead. I’m not sure if there is another way to see which libraries are actually being used once steam has launched. As I mentioned in the original post the gnome version was launching the native version properly in October and then when I updated at the beginning of November it started opening up the runtime version instead.

This is the output from the non-working gnome setup
❯ steam-native
steam.sh[2399]: Running Steam on cachyos rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[2399]: STEAM_RUNTIME is disabled by the user (this is unsupported)
setup.sh[2451]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[2399]: Steam client’s requirements are satisfied
CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] Startup - updater built Nov 12 2024 17:09:08
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] Startup - Steam Client launched with: ‘/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam’ ‘-srt-logger-opened’
11/25 09:58:25 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
11/25 09:58:25 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1731433018)/tid(2500)
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] Failed to load cached hosts file (File ‘update_hosts_cached.vdf’ not found), using defaults
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] 1. https://client-update.steamstatic.com, /, Realm ‘steamglobal’, weight was 1, source = ‘baked in’
[2024-11-25 09:58:25] Verifying installation…
[2024-11-25 09:58:26] Verification complete
UpdateUI: skip show logo
Steam logging initialized: directory: /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xe70e1dc0
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xe70e0500
steamwebhelper.sh[2536]: Using supervisor /home/craig/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steamwebhelper.sh[2536]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh
steamwebhelper.sh[2536]: Using CEF sandbox (try with -no-cef-sandbox if this fails)
steamwebhelper.sh[2536]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point
Steam Runtime Launch Service: starting steam-runtime-launcher-service
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service is running pid 2681
sh: line 1: exec: steam-runtime-launcher-service: not found
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service pid 2681 exited
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service possible problem, disabling
vkCreateInstance failed with error -9
BInit - Unable to initialize Vulkan!
exec ./steamwebhelper -lang=en_US -cachedir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache -steampid=2500 -buildid=1731433018 -steamid=0 -logdir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs -uimode=7 -startcount=0 -steamuniverse=Public -realm=Global -clientui=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/clientui -steampath=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam -launcher=0 -no-restart-on-ui-mode-change --valve-enable-site-isolation --enable-smooth-scrolling --password-store=basic --log-file=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --disable-quick-menu --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport --disable-features=SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,DcheckIsFatal,ValveFFmpegAllowLowDelayHEVC
steamwebhelper.sh[2866]: Using supervisor /home/craig/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steamwebhelper.sh[2866]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh
steamwebhelper.sh[2866]: Using CEF sandbox (try with -no-cef-sandbox if this fails)
steamwebhelper.sh[2866]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point
exec ./steamwebhelper -lang=en_US -cachedir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache -steampid=2500 -buildid=1731433018 -steamid=0 -logdir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs -uimode=7 -startcount=1 -steamuniverse=Public -realm=Global -clientui=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/clientui -steampath=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam -launcher=0 -no-restart-on-ui-mode-change --valve-enable-site-isolation --enable-smooth-scrolling --password-store=basic --log-file=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --disable-quick-menu --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport --disable-features=SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,DcheckIsFatal,ValveFFmpegAllowLowDelayHEVC

This is the output from the KDE test system that is working
❯ steam-native
steam.sh[1710]: Running Steam on cachyos rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[1710]: STEAM_RUNTIME is disabled by the user (this is unsupported)
setup.sh[1760]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[1710]: Steam client’s requirements are satisfied
CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] Startup - updater built Nov 12 2024 17:09:08
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] Startup - Steam Client launched with: ‘/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam’ ‘-srt-logger-opened’
11/25 09:40:47 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
11/25 09:40:47 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1731433018)/tid(1807)
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] Failed to load cached hosts file (File ‘update_hosts_cached.vdf’ not found), using defaults
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] 1. https://client-update.steamstatic.com, /, Realm ‘steamglobal’, weight was 1, source = ‘baked in’
[2024-11-25 09:40:47] Verifying installation…
[2024-11-25 09:40:48] Verification complete
UpdateUI: skip show logo
Steam logging initialized: directory: /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xdfa58dc0
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xdfa57500
steamwebhelper.sh[1840]: Using supervisor /home/craig/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steamwebhelper.sh[1840]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh
steamwebhelper.sh[1840]: Using CEF sandbox (try with -no-cef-sandbox if this fails)
steamwebhelper.sh[1840]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point
Steam Runtime Launch Service: starting steam-runtime-launcher-service
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service is running pid 1977
sh: line 1: exec: steam-runtime-launcher-service: not found
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service pid 1977 exited
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service possible problem, disabling
vkCreateInstance failed with error -9
BInit - Unable to initialize Vulkan!
exec ./steamwebhelper -lang=en_US -cachedir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache -steampid=1807 -buildid=1731433018 -steamid=0 -logdir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs -uimode=7 -startcount=0 -steamuniverse=Public -realm=Global -clientui=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/clientui -steampath=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam -launcher=0 -no-restart-on-ui-mode-change --valve-enable-site-isolation --enable-smooth-scrolling --password-store=basic --log-file=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --disable-quick-menu --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport --disable-features=SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,DcheckIsFatal,ValveFFmpegAllowLowDelayHEVC
steamwebhelper.sh[2148]: Using supervisor /home/craig/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steamwebhelper.sh[2148]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh
steamwebhelper.sh[2148]: Using CEF sandbox (try with -no-cef-sandbox if this fails)
steamwebhelper.sh[2148]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point
exec ./steamwebhelper -lang=en_US -cachedir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache -steampid=1807 -buildid=1731433018 -steamid=0 -logdir=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs -uimode=7 -startcount=1 -steamuniverse=Public -realm=Global -clientui=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/clientui -steampath=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam -launcher=0 -no-restart-on-ui-mode-change --valve-enable-site-isolation --enable-smooth-scrolling --password-store=basic --log-file=/home/craig/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt --disable-quick-menu --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport --disable-features=SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,DcheckIsFatal,ValveFFmpegAllowLowDelayHEVC

As far as I know, this should only be a visual thing with how the DE handles desktop icons. It seems that the steam-native package is simply a script to ignore the provided steam runtime and use the system’s libraries instead (source), so as the terminal output seems to be the same, I wouldn’t bother.

While I’m not positive how to see if the native libraries are actually being used vs the runtime libraries, from looking at the steam-native and steam-runtime launch scripts located in /usr/bin/ the only difference seems to be that some environment variables are set to point to your local libraries and to fix some possible coredump issues when you launch with the steam-native script and when you launch with the steam-runtime script it just launches the steam binary.

I’m assuming this is happening because Gnome just messed something up on their end. Since the .desktop files are named steam-native.desktop for the native version and steam.desktop for the runtime version. The actual executable used by both is also called steam (located at /usr/lib/steam/steam) so I’m thinking gnome is associating the executable with the .desktop file of the same name or something. I’ll put in an upstream bug but it’s gnome so I entirely expect it to be ignored and told that is how they intend it to be now even though it breaks or at least in this case makes it looks like programs that were launched with one desktop file look like another desktop file is running.

The reason I came to this conclusion is when I renamed the steam.desktop file to steam-runtime.desktop then what happens when I launch steam-native.desktop is that instead of the steam-runtime.desktop icon being shown it is showing a generic binary file named steam as what is running. This is something that gnome changed just recently as during the month of October and prior to that the Steam-native.desktop icon would show as running when you launched steam with that desktop icon.

Interestingly when you launch the runtime version with the desktop file renamed it also shows the binary file which tells me gnome isn’t keeping track of the desktop file used to launch a program and instead is trying to do some kind of match up with running apps and .desktop files or something after they are running.

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