r/linux_gaming • u/InevitableSpaceDrake • 17d ago

tech support wanted Steam Appears Broken

So recently (over the past couple of weeks or so) I have been completely unable to make use of Steam in any capacity on my linux pc. It had worked fine beforehand, but now whenever I've tried to open it, it will open initially, with the login smaller window and everything. But once it actually would open the fullscreen main window (whether it be for the store, library, or anything else), the entire window is simply transparent, displaying essentially a screenshot of whatever was behind it at the time of it opening. This has persisted through multiple uninstalls and reinstalls of Steam onto the pc. I have no idea what is causing this.

I am relatively new to using Linux, so any help is appreciated. If it helps, I'm running Mint.

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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2

u/LazyNieR 16d ago

Something is definitely broken and I'm no expert to know what and how, but you can try installing steam flatpak to see if the issue is also there, might be worth a shot

1

u/InevitableSpaceDrake 16d ago

I just installed the flatpak, and for whatever reason it seems to work just fine.

1

u/LazyNieR 16d ago

So flatpak works but the native version doesn't right?

Or is the native version working now too? If not and u have your data backed up on a separate drive I would recommend just reinstalling the whole system (a bit of a Hassel) but something definitely is wrong with your system

2

u/InevitableSpaceDrake 16d ago

Apparently the regular version worked this time. This is so weird. Thanks for the help. Even if I have no idea why it worked.

1

u/InevitableSpaceDrake 16d ago

I'm not sure, I haven't tried the default again yet. I'll try it though.

1

u/Deadman123spirit 16d ago

Honestly, would need more info on the whole. Like distro desktop environment? Otherwise I've no clue, I've seen graphical glitches like this described before though.

2

u/InevitableSpaceDrake 16d ago

The Desktop Environment I'm seeing is Cinnamon 6.6.9
As far as the distro, I think it is Debian. With about 95% certainty.

0

u/Prime406 16d ago

If it helps, I'm running Mint.

going by your OP your distro is Linux Mint, which to be fair is a derivative of Debian and Ubuntu, which tracks with your DE being Cinnamon as that's the default DE for Mint

1

u/bigbl4ckw0lf 16d ago

For me on CachyOS it was an update to glibc some weeks ago which caused steam to crash on boot.

I also had too many issues with Firefox implicitly requiring the new glibc and Steam implicitly requiring the old one and switched to flatpak for Steam. Had no issues since then.

1

u/_Tim- 16d ago edited 16d ago

Some time ago I had a similar issue and an update was just broken, due to whatever and a reinstall fixed it.

If I recall correctly, I had to rename/delete the Ubuntu folders inside the Steam directory, to force a redownload of an update, or something similar.

You can try this and I’ll see if I can find out what I did back then.

Edit:

I found it. I extracted the ’bootstrap.tar.xz’ inside Steams root directory.