Steam Won't Launch or Crashes on Startup on Ubuntu 24.04

Support and Help
1

I’m encountering an issue where Steam won’t launch or crashes on startup unless I do one of the following:

  1. Start Steam from a terminal.
  2. Disable the “Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views” option in the Interface section of Steam settings.

Currently, I am using the Steam Snap package.

This problem occurs regardless of whether I’m using the Steam Snap package or the official Steam Client installer (deb package) from Steam’s website.

System Information:

  • Steam snap: steam/1.0.0.81 (latest/stable)
  • Ubuntu version: 24.04.1 LTS / 6.8.0-51-generic
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (radeonsi, navi31, LLVM 17.0.6, DRM 3.57, 6.8.0-51-generic)

vainfo output:

$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.20.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_20
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.20 (libva 2.12.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.3 for AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (radeonsi, navi31, LLVM 17.0.6, DRM 3.57, 6.8.0-51-generic)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileNone                   :	VAEntrypointVideoProc

Any help or insights into resolving this issue would be appreciated.

1 Like
2

Launch Steam from the terminal with these environment variables to get more debug output:

STEAM_RUNTIME_VERBOSE=1 STEAM_DEBUG=1 steam

This should provide more detailed logging about what’s happening during startup.

Next steps to try:

  1. Check if you have the latest Mesa drivers installed:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mesa-va-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers

  1. If you’re using Wayland, try switching to X11 session temporarily to rule out any Wayland-specific issues

  2. Check if the issue persists after removing the Steam config folder (backup first):

mv ~/.local/share/Steam ~/.local/share/Steam.backup

Would you be able to try these steps and share what happens? Particularly interested in any error messages from the verbose Steam launch.

1 Like
3

Thanks for your reply. I have tried your steps, and here are the results:

  1. Logs from Launching Steam with STEAM_RUNTIME_VERBOSE=1 and STEAM_DEBUG=1:

    https://justpaste.it/dy93r

    Note: The logs cover the entire session from launch until I close Steam:

  2. Mesa Drivers are Up to Date. Here is the Status:

    $ sudo apt install mesa-va-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
mesa-va-drivers is already the newest version (24.0.9-0ubuntu0.3).
mesa-vdpau-drivers is already the newest version (24.0.9-0ubuntu0.3).
mesa-vdpau-drivers set to manually installed.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 12 not upgraded.

  3. Attempted Fix: Removing the Steam Config Folder:

    mv ~/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam ~/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam.backup

    The problem persists after removing the Steam config folder. After signing in, Steam does not launch.

4

I failed to mention that I, of course, re-enabled the Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views setting in Steam to reproduce the issue, before following your steps.

5

3 posts were split to a new topic: Steam windows closes unexpectedly

6

Disable the “Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views” option in the Interface section of Steam settings.

This fixed this for me - and this bug was present in the <*.deb> version of the STEAM installer I installed from Synaptic.