Steam failing to launch after update, nouveau driver?

[postal06]

Hello :] Updated my mirrors and system earlier (No problems with that as usual) but now Steam (Which has been working fine for months) suddenly has issues with loading.

Trying to run it with the runtime application just lets it sit in the task manager. (Which is when I noticed something was kaput) Did a restart, then ran “steam” with the terminal. Output:

[gone@postal ~]$ steam
steam.sh[2775]: Running Steam on endeavouros rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[2775]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[2830]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[2775]: Log already open
steam.sh[2775]: Using supervisor /home/gone/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steam.sh[2775]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2025-03-15 20:43:31] Startup - updater built Mar  9 2025 21:56:57
[2025-03-15 20:43:31] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/gone/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-srt-logger-opened'
03/15 20:43:31 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
03/15 20:43:31 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1741636428)/tid(2891)
glx: failed to create dri3 screen
failed to load driver: nouveau

Drivers sound a bit intimidating, so I figured I’d ask what it wants here to save myself future headaches. :,] I saw someone suggest running “steam-native”, but that came up with “command not found” for what its worth. I installed steam using the terminal command “sudo pacman -S steam” if that means anything too.

Here is the output with inxi:

System:
  Kernel: 6.13.7-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.3 Distro: EndeavourOS
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: A320M/ac serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI-[Legacy]: American Megatrends v: P1.90 date: 01/03/2020
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2800 min/max: 1550/3400 cores: 1: 2800 2: 2800 3: 2800
    4: 2800 5: 2800 6: 2800 7: 2800 8: 2800 9: 2800 10: 2800 11: 2800 12: 2800
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660] driver: nvidia v: 570.124.04
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia
    platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 570.124.04 renderer: NVIDIA
    GeForce GTX 1660/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.304 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-smi wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.13.7-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.1 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak] driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: bc:54:2f:2e:b3:82
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: a8:a1:59:34:e6:38
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 3168 Bluetooth driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: disabled
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 126.37 GiB (27.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: PNY model: CS900 500GB SSD size: 465.76 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 457.38 GiB used: 126.37 GiB (27.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 42.6 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.27 GiB used: 2.74 GiB (8.8%)
  Processes: 297 Uptime: 13m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.37

Thank you for any advice. <:]

[Stephane]

can you check if you have activate [multilib] in your /ect.pacman.conf ?
think also to upgrade your UEFI motherboard

ASRock A320M/ac

is path for Steam good for home/< user > ?

be careful on this point ,

UEFI-[Legacy]

that mean you are not really boot in UEFI ( GPT with /boot/efi ) , but fallback with legacy ( MBR )

[postal06]

Hello! So,

I checked pacman.conf, multilib is enabled. Should I enable multilib-testing?

I’m unsure what checking the path for Steam entails, but heres the folder for it.

Thank you for the advice about upgrading my BIOS, I admittedly got this computer when I was much less wise about those things. So it’s completely slipped my mind as something to think about :,]

I’ll look into it more once I get this sorted. I feel the issue here probably lies in some odd dependency/driver/something missing? I did another little update and restart earlier, Steam still has the same error.

Forgive me if I seem a bit oblivious on what to do, I really do appreciate the help.

[Stephane]

@postal06

glx: failed to create dri3 screen
failed to load driver: nouveau

steam wants to start at first with nouveau drivers
can you relaunch ?

[postal06]

So, good news! I believe I have a work around.

Checking the steam-for-linux github page, I found someone else is having my same issue. (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/11829) And it seems to be related to lib32-mesa. Their solution was to swap to X11, and this seems to of fixed it for me as well.

I’ve been able to run two games smoothly, one less intensive (Postal Redux) and one more intensive (Dead by Daylight) and everything else seems to be working (shop, community, inventory, my own profile,) so I guess I’ll be spending some time with X11 ;D

Thank you to those who replied, I hope this helps anyone else too.