Steam won't start on 18.04

Question

I'm on Ubuntu 18.04, 64 bit.

I downloaded the .deb from the Steam website. I tried installing with Ubuntu Software. It didn't seem to work. I tried installing via the terminal, using various commands and combinations of commands.

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/steam_latest.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt-get install -f

In Ubuntu Software, it currently lists both "Steam" and "Steam installer" as installed applications. When I go to Steam and click "launch", nothing happens. When I open the show applications menu from the desktop and type "Steam", a program named Steam, with the Steam logo, appears. I click it; nothing happens.

How do I diagnose what is wrong?

How do I figure out why Steam is not running on my computer?

—

EDIT – in response to Organic Marble, here is the code output to the command steam—

Repairing installation, linking /home/elen/.steam/steam to /home/elen/.local/share/Steam
Running Steam on ubuntu 18.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)
/home/elen/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxcb-dri3.so.0: undefined symbol: xcb_send_request_with_fds
/home/elen/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 444: no match: ssfn*

To format a code block, type it in, select it, and press the {} button in the editor. — Chai T. Rex, May 22 '18 at 00:03
You can gather valuable information by opening a terminal emulator window and typing steam in it. There will almost certainly be error messages printed out; copy them and add them to your question. — Organic Marble, May 22 '18 at 00:26
Who keeps downvoting this question and its answers? This is a legitimate issue with a fresh Ubuntu + Steam install, It just hangs on the first run. — ASalazar, May 27 '18 at 17:34

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered May 27 '18 at 01:30

21

Running 'steam' on console stalled also for me on a fresh install. This is the sequence of actions that made it work for me.

Deleted ~/.steam
Deleted ~/.local/share/Steam
Ran 'steam' in a terminal. Pressed Control+C when it stalled
Ran '~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' in a terminal. It autoupdated and finished normally.
Ran 'steam' again. It started normally.

This happened to me on Ubuntu 17.04 and 17.10, and after this it always worked fine, although the binary of step 4 was different. It seems like an issue with their initial setup.

answered May 27 '18 at 01:30

ASalazar

381

1

This worked for me! – lucasvscn Jun 16 '18 at 22:31
3

On 18.04, this worked as well - and I only needed steps 1+2 and start steam afterwards. then the update is running and steam is working again. – Julian Egner Nov 22 '18 at 21:33
It fixed exiting without log messages, but now I get X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation) – xjcl Dec 02 '21 at 08:11

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 09 '21 at 08:11

5

Well mate, I've had a similar trouble. Hope this helps:

Remove the Valve package:
```
sudo apt purge steam-launcher
```
Delete the repository if it hasn't been removed with the package (don't worry if rm doesn't find the file; that means that this step wasn't needed)
```
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam.list
```
Refresh the package database:
```
sudo apt update
```
Install Steam from the repos:
```
sudo apt install steam
```

Solution found in this post

Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 fully updated, at 17.08.2018

edited Dec 09 '21 at 08:11

Zanna

70,465

answered Jul 17 '18 at 12:59

Chips

51

1

Absolutely. The Valve package stopped working for me at 16.04. I've been using Ubuntu version since, and it's been all good. – Jacek Ciolek Jul 21 '18 at 18:36
Holy fudgesicles, works like a charm. – Chaim Eliyah Apr 10 '21 at 01:44

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 28 '18 at 20:20

3

I made it work installing both the 390 64-bit driver and this 32-bit library:

sudo apt-get install libnvidia-gl-390:i386

edited Jul 28 '18 at 20:20

Stephen Rauch

1,156

answered Jul 28 '18 at 16:36

aitkiar

31

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 01 '18 at 15:05

2

just had this issue this link resolved it for me launchpad

/usr/bin/steam --reset
find ~/.local/share/Steam/ \( -name "libgcc_s.so*" -o -name "libstdc++.so*" \) -print -delete
~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam

answered Jun 01 '18 at 15:05

chaos505

121

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 03 '19 at 12:10

Ubuntu 18.04: Once you successfully uninstalled your current Steam (all directory related to steam) please open a terminal and type the following in order to have a fresh and clean installation:

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse

Once you're right the output should be:

'multiverse' distribution component enabled for all sources

Then install steam (using the terminal this is important in order to see potential error messages)

sudo apt install steam
sudo apt update

Once the installation is successfull, just type steam

steam

Here either it works and then have fun ! Or you have the following error message:

tar: This does not look like a tar archive
xz: (stdin): File format not recognized
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
find: ‘/home/$USERNAME/.steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime’: No such file or directory

If you do have this message, don't give up and run:

mkdir "/home/$USERNAME/.steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime"

It should now works !

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered May 21 '18 at 23:18

-1

The client itself doesn't open until you click on its icon in the system tray, near the date & Time (top right). After that, it appears to function normally, as I found at https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/2906376154318030934/

answered May 21 '18 at 23:18

K7AAY

17,202

Steam won't start on 18.04

6 Answers6

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