Steam application does not launch

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 12:42am

Hello,

I am trying to install and use Steam on my endeavourOS desktop and the application won’t launch.

I tried launching it by double-clicking on the desktop icon, and there is no response.

When I try to launch it from commandline, There seems to be no error messages, however nothing happens.

steam.sh[52787]: Running Steam on endeavouros rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[52787]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically

I have searched this forum for related topics and none of the solutions provided help.

Could someone please help me out with this issue? Please let me know if any additional information I could provide

cscs · September 28, 2025, 12:47am

Hello and welcome,

How was steam installed?

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 12:54am

Hello, thanks for your response,

I ran

sudo pacman -S steam

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 1:14am

Some more information of the packages installed.

❯ pacman -Qs steam        
local/steam 1.0.0.84-1
    Valve's digital software delivery system

❯ pacman -Qs nvidia
local/egl-gbm 1.1.2.1-1
    The GBM EGL external platform library
local/egl-wayland 4:1.1.20-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/egl-x11 1.0.3-1
    NVIDIA XLib and XCB EGL Platform Library
local/lib32-nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit)
local/libvdpau 1.5-3
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/libxnvctrl 580.82.09-1
    NVIDIA NV-CONTROL X extension
local/linux-firmware-nvidia 20250917-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for NVIDIA GPUs and SoCs
local/nvidia-dkms 580.82.09-1
    NVIDIA kernel modules - module sources
local/nvidia-hook 1.5.2-1
    pacman hook for nvidia
local/nvidia-inst 25.7.2-1
    Script to install/uninstall nvidia driver packages in EndeavourOS
local/nvidia-settings 580.82.09-1
    Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
local/nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities

manuel · September 28, 2025, 8:48am

For the record please show the output of

nvidia-inst -t

albersc2 · September 28, 2025, 9:03am

The output of pacman -Qs nvidia you showed looks correct to me. What I’d try is renaming .local/share/Steam to .local/share/SteamBU and then launching it again. Give it a few minutes – sometimes it takes a bit.
Optional: If you want, before launching Steam, also delete the contents of .cache. It shouldn’t be necessary, but it’s useful to rule out one more thing.

xircon · September 28, 2025, 9:14am

and which nVidia card do you have?

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 9:44am

The output after running nvidia-inst -t

❯ nvidia-inst -t  
2025-09-28 19:42:46: Note: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate] [10de:2504] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2025-09-28 19:42:46: Note: Currently installed packages related to Nvidia:
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       egl-gbm 1.1.2.1-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       egl-wayland 4:1.1.20-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       egl-x11 1.0.3-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       lib32-nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       libvdpau 1.5-3
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       libxnvctrl 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       linux-firmware-nvidia 20250917-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       nvidia-dkms 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       nvidia-hook 1.5.2-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       nvidia-inst 25.7.2-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       nvidia-settings 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47:       nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47: Info: nvidia-inst version 25.7.2-1
2025-09-28 19:42:47: Info: Command line: nvidia-inst -t
2025-09-28 19:42:47: Info: Selected mode: nvidia (Nvidia's open source)
2025-09-28 19:42:47: Info: Installing packages: nvidia-open-dkms
2025-09-28 19:42:47: Info: Removing packages: nvidia-dkms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COMMANDS TO RUN:
    pacman -Rs --noconfirm --noprogressbar --nodeps nvidia-dkms
    pacman -Syuq --noconfirm --noprogressbar --needed nvidia-open-dkms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 9:46am

I deleted .local/share/Steam and .cache folders and rebooted the system.

after that when I ran steam it is still stuck. Below is the info I can see.

❯ steam           
bin_steam.sh[2768]: Setting up Steam content in /home/aravindanv/.local/share/Steam
gio: Setting attribute metadata::trusted not supported
steam.sh[2768]: Running Steam on endeavouros rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[2768]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[2834]: Updating Steam runtime environment...
setup.sh[2834]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libcurl-gnutls.so.4

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 9:48am

it is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

xircon · September 28, 2025, 9:53am

try the open drivers - as suggested by nvidia-inst -t

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 10:13am

I ran the commands in as suggested by nvidia-inst, and rebooted. same result..

❯ rm -rf .local/share/Steam

❯ steam           
bin_steam.sh[1919]: Setting up Steam content in /home/aravindanv/.local/share/Steam
gio: Setting attribute metadata::trusted not supported
steam.sh[1919]: Running Steam on endeavouros rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[1919]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[1987]: Updating Steam runtime environment...
setup.sh[1987]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libcurl-gnutls.so.4

Below is the information after running nvidia-inst -t again.

❯ nvidia-inst -t                                                    
2025-09-28 20:08:52: Note: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate] [10de:2504] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2025-09-28 20:08:52: Note: Currently installed packages related to Nvidia:
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       egl-gbm 1.1.2.1-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       egl-wayland 4:1.1.20-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       egl-x11 1.0.3-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       lib32-nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       libvdpau 1.5-3
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       libxnvctrl 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       linux-firmware-nvidia 20250917-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       nvidia-hook 1.5.2-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       nvidia-inst 25.7.2-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       nvidia-open-dkms 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       nvidia-settings 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52:       nvidia-utils 580.82.09-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52: Info: nvidia-inst version 25.7.2-1
2025-09-28 20:08:52: Info: Command line: nvidia-inst -t
2025-09-28 20:08:52: Info: Selected mode: nvidia (Nvidia's open source)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COMMANDS TO RUN:
    ==> Looks like all requested packages and settings are already OK!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MichelN · September 28, 2025, 10:23am

Is steam running from the igpu ?

aravindan_v · September 28, 2025, 11:40am

I don’t think so. I just checked this link and installed nvtop. The GPU Select option in the application only lists NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. Also, steam is not listed in the list of applications currently using the GPU.

albersc2 · September 28, 2025, 1:16pm

I’m not really sure what else to suggest. Your Steam is failing at the initial stage, when it checks if the runtime environment is up-to-date, but it reports the message: “Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libcurl-gnutls.so.4”.

It seems to me that either something is misinstalled regarding Steam or lib32-nvidia-utils, or there is some conflict with other packages you installed. You could also try forcing Steam to use its built-in runtime environment by running:

STEAM_RUNTIME=1 steam

Have you tried Lutris? Do games work properly there?

aravindan_v · October 4, 2025, 6:01am

tried STEAM_RUNTIME=1 steam and no difference.

aravindan_v · October 4, 2025, 7:51am

So, I have tried debugging the steam.sh script and I could see the script stops at the below command.

tar --blocking-factor=${BF} --checkpoint=1 --checkpoint-action=‘exec=echo $TAR_CHECKPOINT’ -xf “$2” -C “$3” | “${STEAM_ZENITY}” --progress --auto-close --no-cancel --width 400 --text=“$1”

this value $STEAM_ZENITY is pointing to an executable zenity, which seems to be a toolkit to show dialog boxes from shell scripts.

It looks like something is wrong with zenity.

albersc2 · October 4, 2025, 8:12am

try this

zenity --info --text=“Zenity works”

aravindan_v · October 4, 2025, 8:15am

I tried it, it does not do anything. I removed both steam and zenity and reinstalled both. same issue.

albersc2 · October 4, 2025, 8:31am

Check dependencies, especially gtk4 and libadwaita

LANG=C pacman -Qi zenity
Name : zenity
Version : 4.2.0-1
Description : Display graphical dialog boxes from shell scripts
Architecture : x86_64
URL : https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/zenity
Licenses : LGPL-2.1-or-later
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : gcc-libs glib2 glibc gtk4 hicolor-icon-theme libadwaita pango
Optional Deps : None
Required By : steam
Optional For : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Installed Size : 5,03 MiB
Packager : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) heftig@archlinux.org
Build Date : vie 19 sep 2025 00:43:28
Install Date : jue 02 oct 2025 15:46:02
Install Reason : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script : No
Validated By : Signature