Call for Testing: Steam snap for arm64

Project Discussion Desktop
21

tested working:
Star Vortex
Soul Calibur VI
Granblue Fantasy Relink
DOOM Eternal
Dead or Alive 6

Last Epoch - plays great, freezes when told to exit, used steam to close
Path of Exile 2 - runs, but very poorly
Melty Blood: Type Lumina - never ending black screen. does not work.

EDIT
Titan Quest 2… works, as long as you aren’t making a new character.

additionally, I started trying to play some multiplayer with a friend, and I have encountered a new issue. sometimes while playing, steam just.. closes. Claude Code says

Summary

System Info:
Device: NVIDIA DGX Spark
DGX Software: 7.3.1
Kernel: Linux 6.14.0-1015-nvidia aarch64
Steam snap: 1.0.0.85 (rev 238, latest/candidate)

Issue:
Steam client crashes with segmentation fault during gameplay. Games may continue running but Steam closes, interrupting multiplayer sessions.

Crash Pattern (5 crashes in one session):
Jan 17 07:59:52 steam.sh: line 928: Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Jan 17 07:59:57 src/common/pipes.cpp (900) : fatal stalled cross-thread pipe (pipe is disconnected).
Jan 17 07:59:57 src/common/pipes.cpp (900) : Fatal assert; application exiting

Jan 17 23:47:05 src/common/pipes.cpp (900) : fatal stalled cross-thread pipe (pipe is disconnected).
Jan 17 23:47:05 steam.sh: line 928: Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Jan 18 00:53:21 steam.sh: line 928: Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Jan 18 00:59:07 steam.sh: line 928: Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Jan 18 00:59:09 src/common/pipes.cpp (900) : fatal stalled cross-thread pipe (pipe is disconnected).

Jan 18 01:13:08 XIO: fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server “:1”

Games affected:

  • Titan Quest 2
  • Vampire Survivors (Steam crashed, game kept running)
  • Path of Exile 2

Notes:

  • Crashes occur during gameplay, not at launch
  • Sometimes game survives while Steam client dies

So.. perhaps I haven’t done enough testing.

1 Like
22

Since the Steam client for Linux is currently only available for amd64, we’ve bundled amd64 Steam

Where can we find this amd64 version of Steam? I thought that Steam was 32-bit x86, so there is no amd64 version of Steam, but rather a 32-bit x86 version of Steam.

1 Like
23

I thought that Steam was 32-bit x86, so there is no amd64 version of Steam, but rather a 32-bit x86 version of Steam.

This is correct, I just meant to convey that it was usable on amd64 hosts (but will update the wording to be more precise). Thanks!

1 Like
24

Hi @livinglinux ! Following up on your prior question about host-side Vulkan/GL:

We just published a version of the snap to edge which enables library forwarding. I’d be very interested to know how this impacts game performance or functionality on your device. (You can switch to the edge channel via sudo snap refresh -–edge steam, or sudo snap install –-edge steam if it is not currently installed).

Edit:

Will you also include drivers for other ARM SBC chips?

msm for Snapdragon and I think Panfrost for Mali GPUs. And some boards might have PowerVR GPUs.

We are still working on the missing driver issues with other devices. (thanks again for the reports :slight_smile: )

3 Likes
25

Thanks for your efforts to improve performance.

Unfortunately this version doesn’t work on my setup. As I was testing and got an error when launching HL2, I decided to purge the snap package, switch to Wayland and start again.

Launching HL2 still failed with a fresh installation of the snap package.

I see the following errors, but it still continues.

pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_INTEL_nullhw.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_overlay.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_screenshot.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_gfxreconstruct.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_INTEL_nullhw.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_overlay.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_screenshot.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamfossilize_i386.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamfossilize_x86_64.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_i386.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_x86_64.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /snap/steam/239/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/MangoHud.x86.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /snap/steam/239/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/MangoHud.x86_64.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/MangoHud.x86_64.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_anti_lag.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_device_select.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/renderdoc_capture.i686.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /home/livinglinux/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/renderdoc_capture.x86_64.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_anti_lag.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d
pressure-vessel-wrap[16330]: Internal error: /usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/VkLayer_MESA_device_select.json is not in /usr/lib/pressure-vessel/overrides/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d

But in the end it fails with this error.

Adding process 14541 for gameID 220
Opening host-side X11 display: 0xaab75fa0 → 0xffc49000
SDL video target is ‘x11’
SDL video target is ‘x11’
Failed to create SDL window: Couldn’t find matching GLX visual

For context, back in 2024 I had issues getting a screen recorder working with Wayland, so I switched back to X11 and forgot about it. I will continue testing with Wayland from this point.

26

Hi @SwiatLinuksa_YT !

We just released a version to edge that enables library forwarding. (See my edit & message above for details). I’d be very interested to learn if you notice any performance or functional differences with the edge version relative to the candidate version on your hardware.

Thanks for the tests!

27

Hi @livinglinux , thanks for the quick response!

Out of curiosity, did you just test this once with the new version? I noticed a similar failure on one of my devices that happened on first launch, but that I was unable to reproduce after a reboot, or on my other devices.

Also, if you launch steam in the console, at some point you should see some output that is structurally similar to this (but with different values, if you’re not on a Spark):

Running query: 1 - GpuTopology
Response: gpu_topology {
  gpus {
    id: 1
    name: "NVIDIA GB10"
    vram_size_bytes: 1610612736
    driver_id: k_EGpuDriverId_NvidiaProprietary
    driver_version_major: 580
    driver_version_minor: 126
    driver_version_patch: 9
    luid: 0
  }
  default_gpu_id: 1
}

Would you mind sharing that, if you can grab it? (and also perhaps the diff between your host’s /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ folder and ~/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ (which is our x86 rootfs’ version)

28

The GPU is not found. I went back to the first version, and the GPU isn’t found there either, but Steam is able to start Half-Life 2.

Running query: 1 - GpuTopology
CVulkanTopology: failed create vulkan instance: -9
CVulkanTopology: failed to create vulkan instanceFailed to query vulkan gpu topology
Failed to query vulkan gpu topology
Response:
Exit code: -2

Contents of /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/

broadcom_icd.aarch64.json
freedreno_icd.aarch64.json
gfxstream_vk_icd.aarch64.json
lvp_icd.aarch64.json
nouveau_icd.aarch64.json
panfrost_icd.aarch64.json
radeon_icd.aarch64.json
virtio_icd.aarch64.json

Contents of ~/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/

asahi_icd.json
dzn_icd.json
dzn_icd.x86_64.json
freedreno_icd.json
gfxstream_vk_icd.json
intel_hasvk_icd.i686.json
intel_hasvk_icd.json
intel_hasvk_icd.x86_64.json
intel_icd.i686.json
intel_icd.json
intel_icd.x86_64.json
lvp_icd.i686.json
lvp_icd.json
lvp_icd.x86_64.json
nouveau_icd.json
nouveau_icd.x86_64.json
nvidia_icd.json
radeon_icd.i686.json
radeon_icd.json
radeon_icd.x86_64.json
virtio_icd.i686.json
virtio_icd.json
virtio_icd.x86_64.json

And just to be sure, this is the first thing that I see when starting steam.

update.go:85: cannot change mount namespace according to change mount (/var/lib/snapd/hostfs/boot /boot none bind,ro 0 0): permission denied

1 Like
29

Thanks, that’s good to know - it suggests that you were probably fully using CPU emulation in the initial version, which could explain the performance you were seeing.

Could you try exiting Steam, then copying all of the icd json files from your /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ into ~/snap/steam/common/x86_rootfs/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/, and then try launching it again, and see if it gets picked up that way?

1 Like
30

@mitchellaugustin I tried that, but that doesn’t make it work. One other thing, can you change the installation instructions for edge? It looks like the double dashes are converted into one character.

@truthonlyone As you also have the RX-550, can you test the new version?

1 Like
31

Is there a difference between the contents of your radeon_icd.aarch64.json and our x86 rootfs’

radeon_icd.i686.json
radeon_icd.json
radeon_icd.x86_64.json

? (and if so, can you send them?)

Also, IIRC you mentioned that you had also succeeded in getting FEX running manually on this device. Can you check the Steam logs with that version and see if it reports a GPU?

(and good catch on the instructions, thanks - I updated them)

1 Like
32

It might be I mixed that up with the other systems I’m testing. Perhaps it was with Box64.

Anyway, the manual installation sees the GPU.

Running query: 1 - GpuTopology
Response: gpu_topology {
gpus {
id: 1
name: “AMD Radeon RX 550 / 550 Series (RADV POLARIS12)”
vram_size_bytes: 2147483648
driver_id: k_EGpuDriverId_MesaRadv
driver_version_major: 25
driver_version_minor: 3
driver_version_patch: 2
luid: 0
}
gpus {
id: 2
name: “llvmpipe (LLVM 20.1.8, 256 bits)”
vram_size_bytes: 3221225472
driver_id: k_EGpuDriverId_MesaLLVMPipe
driver_version_major: 25
driver_version_minor: 3
driver_version_patch: 2
luid: 0
}
default_gpu_id: 1
}

But I did run into this issue: steam.sh[14053]: Error: Steam now requires user namespaces to be enabled.

Not sure why that is happening. I haven’t seen that error when I was testing with the Radxa Dragon Q6A (manual Fex installation).

I used this workaround (which might not be a good idea from a security perspective): sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0

Performance is a little bit better, but still not what I was expecting.

When I have time, I will look at the json files.

When I uninstalled the snap, it was busy for a long time with the archive step. I didn’t see any disk activity, so I aborted, and did a purge. But I had forgotten to look at the json files in the snap installation.

But here is radeon_icd.aarch64.json.

{
“ICD”: {
“api_version”: “1.4.305”,
“library_path”: “/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libvulkan_radeon.so”
},
“file_format_version”: “1.0.0”
}

1 Like
33

Hello everyone.

I’ve just installed the edge version on my ASUS Ascent GX10 and ran Steam. I’ve picked a simple game for my first test: Braid. From installation to gameplay the whole thing was effortless and worked great.

I’m running the box headless through Sunshine, no quirks due to this yet - not that I expect anything other than some added latency.

Thank you very much for working on this - I didn’t expect to be able to run games on this device, let alone this effortlessly. I can’t express how nice a surprise this is. :slight_smile:

I’ll keep you posted as I try more (substantial) games.

Edit: Tried Team Fortress 2. Peak FPS around 400 at native 1080p resolution, average 160. Gameplay was perfect. DGX OS (Noble), driver still on 580. I still haven’t tried a game that needs to run on Proton. Looking forward to that!

3 Likes
34

After a restart, I tried launching Team Fortress 2 again, and unfortunately the game couldn’t launch. It hung in the “Loading…” screen with perplexingly flat, 0% GPU use (as opposed to a 1-3% normally when system is idle). It eventually crashed out. Braid still worked.

I restarted steam and tried again… same. Then I quit steam and restarted from the command line to capture some logs to troubleshoot. It inexplicably worked that time. Has anyone else encountered this?

I’ll try to capture some logs next time it happens! Thanks!

1 Like
35

Hi everyone:

I have a bit more insight into what is happening now. When I try running TF2 in full-screen mode, on launch or after I change video settings, it often attempts a modeset reset (tries to set mode to “NULL” and then tries to set 1920x1080 or whatever other mode it was set to). This causes a situation where GPU use stays flat at 0%, the game hangs and ignores any kill command (other than kill -KILL process_id). Sometimes, after I kill the process, I find that my monitor’s refresh rate has changed to 24Hz, down from 60 Hz - and once the whole resolution had changed. It is more likely to happen at higher resolutions and video settings. This might have to do specifically with my display or how it’s configured to serve Sunshine (which was not actively in use), I’m not sure. The issue never happens if I launch with -windowed (and optionally -noborder) even at native resolution (but the window “spills out” of the screen so I cannot run at native resolution). When running windowed though, everything works great at max settings.

On a separate note, after I maxed out the video settings and started playing in windowed mode, I noticed the average FPS was 350-400 (cl_showfps 2). Contrast this against my earlier average of 160 on lower settings - I cannot explain it. I monitored GPU use as I played. It started out at about a sustained 35-40% on average and peaked at around 70%. Game play was fluid throughout. However, at a certain point, the system decided it does not want to run GPU at those levels. GPU use fell down to 15-35% and FPS fell down to 160. Differently to 160fps on lower video settings, the game was visibly more choppy. I did not check temperatures but I did put my hand near the fan - not hot at all. System may have switched to a different power profile. It may also have been a CPU bottleneck of some kind (but I don’t see why - same map, same concentration of players) and thus there was less for GPU to do. Nothing else was running alongside Team Fortress 2. I will try to capture some live information next time about this.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if I can offer more information.

D.

1 Like
36

Thanks for the reports! I have not seen these issues you mention, but if you do manage to reproduce it again with logs, definitely let me know. (if it’s verbose, it might be better to file it as an issue on GitHub)

1 Like
37

Hi all!

We have released an update to the edge channel that should fix the client on Snapdragon X laptops. This may also improve functionality on other hardware, so let us know if you see any behavior changes on your devices.

Try it out with sudo snap refresh --edge steam (if you already have a version of the snap installed) or sudo snap install --edge steam (if you don’t have the snap installed yet)!

Additionally, we’ve adjusted thunking (library forwarding) to be user-configurable in this revision, with it being disabled by default.

If you’d like to re-enable thunking on your machine with this version, you can set the “GL” and “Vulkan” fields to 1 in ~/snap/steam/common/fex_config/Config.json.

4 Likes
39

I got the same issue on an asus ascent gx10 (dgx spark clone). Same error messages using edge version. I purged steam edge and installed candidate version then it worked.

40

@mitchellaugustin horizon zero dawn works without issues using steam candidate + proton on Asus ascend gx10.

Xbox 360 and Xbox one gamepads does not work correctly, the gamepad is recognized but buttons pressed does not trigger anything. Only the left stick works, right stick does only work up and down, weird.

1 Like
41

@aassouad When did you test the edge version? If you were seeing Opening host-side X11 display: 0xaab75fa0 → 0xffc49000 today, that suggests you are not on the latest edge version (which only released this morning), since the latest edge version disables library forwarding by default (which is where this message comes from).

Would you mind testing edge again with sudo snap refresh --edge steam and, if it doesn’t work, sending the output of snap list steam and cat ~/snap/steam/common/fex_config/Config.json, after re-launching steam?