[SOLVED] Steam: "Needs to be online" error

skanky · 2020-04-13 16:54:59

Hi all,

After a recent failure and reinstall of Arch, I've had to mess with the settings/install for the first time in years, I've got a little rusty at this (and a little out of date in my knowledge), so I may be making a fundamental error somewhere for which I apologise in advance.

I've recently installed Steam, following the ArchWiki page (non-flatpak version) and am getting the seemingly infamous Needs to be online error.

$ steam
Running Steam on arch rolling 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Pins up-to-date!
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1.0)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1.0)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1.0)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1.0)
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Startup - updater built Apr  9 2019 22:48:20
ILocalize::AddFile() failed to load file "public/steambootstrapper_english.txt".
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Verifying installation...
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Unable to read and verify install manifest /home/skanky/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_ubuntu12.installed
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Verification complete
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Downloading Update...
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Checking for available update...
[2020-04-13 17:09:22] Downloading manifest: client-download.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_ubuntu12
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] Download failed: http error 0 (client-download.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_ubuntu12)
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] Downloading manifest: media.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_ubuntu12
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] Download failed: http error 0 (media.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_ubuntu12)
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] failed to load manifest from buffer.
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] Failed to load manifest
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] Error: Download failed: http error 0
[2020-04-13 17:09:23] Error: Steam needs to be online to update.	 Please confirm your network connection and try again.
[2020-04-13 17:09:25] Shutdown
threadtools.cpp (3225) : Assertion Failed: Illegal termination of worker thread 'Thread(0x0x580048d0/0x0xebcffb'
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1.0)
crash_20200413170926_7.dmp[28850]: Uploading dump (out-of-process) [proxy 'http://localhost:8118']
/tmp/dumps/crash_20200413170926_7.dmp
threadtools.cpp (3225) : Assertion Failed: Illegal termination of worker thread 'Thread(0x0x580048d0/0x0xebcffb'
crash_20200413170926_7.dmp[28850]: Finished uploading minidump (out-of-process): success = no
crash_20200413170926_7.dmp[28850]: error: Couldn't connect to server
crash_20200413170926_7.dmp[28850]: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20200413170926_7.dmp'', upload no: ''Couldn't connect to server''

I followed the Steam debugging instructions and tested my DNS and it seems to be working okay, but I may need a sanity check to make sure I'm not missing anything.

For instance I could ping client-download.steampowered.com (the server it says it can't reach) and get an IP address. I then try and ping that IP address and get a failure. I would also get a failure if I tried to access the server/download path in Firefox.

After a little looking around, I found a blog post that suggested using the ip address 208.64.200.30 in my hosts to access all the mediaX.steampowered.com sites.
Doing this mean I can now download client-download.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_ubuntu12 using Firefox, but Steam still gives the same error, saying it can't connect.

Here's the hosts file:

» cat /etc/hosts
# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1	localhost
127.0.0.1	philae
208.64.200.30 client-download.steampowered.com
208.64.200.30 media.steampowered.com
208.64.200.30 media1.steampowered.com
208.64.200.30 media2.steampowered.com
208.64.200.30 media3.steampowered.com
208.64.200.30 media4.steampowered.com

Here's the dig output (using the above hosts, I can clear it out, if necessary):

$ dig media.steampowered.com

; <<>> DiG 9.16.1 <<>> media.steampowered.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 6973
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;media.steampowered.com.		IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
media.steampowered.com.	37	IN	CNAME	cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com.edgesuite.net.
cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com.edgesuite.net. 3455 IN CNAME	a1843.g1.akamai.net.
a1843.g1.akamai.net.	12	IN	A	90.255.252.104
a1843.g1.akamai.net.	12	IN	A	90.255.252.75

;; Query time: 33 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Apr 13 17:29:22 BST 2020
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 156

I even tried copying client-download.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_ubuntu12 file to /home/skanky/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_ubuntu12.installed to see if I could force a change in behaviour and maybe a different error, but still get the same error.

Any help or pointers would be gratefully appreciated here.

Thanks.

Last edited by skanky (2020-04-13 17:31:55)

jsoy9pQbYVNu5nfU · 2020-04-13 17:13:30

Uploading dump (out-of-process) [proxy 'http://localhost:8118']
/tmp/dumps/crash_20200413170926_7.dmp

Do you have a weird proxy configured on port 8118 (perhaps privoxy)? If the variables HTTPS_PROXY and HTTP_PROXY are not set, Steam might be picking up the settings from the DE so I'd check there a) if the proxy is up and if yes b) it works correctly and if c) the Steam servers are not on any DNSBL you might be employing there. Perhaps try without any proxies first. Also delete weird stuff out of /etc/hosts, these shouldn't be needed.

Last edited by jsoy9pQbYVNu5nfU (2020-04-13 17:15:23)

skanky · 2020-04-13 17:31:28

That's fixed it, many thanks.
My bash_profile was carried over from my old, pre-failure system and I'd forgotten that I'd been using privoxy on there. I've not gotten round to setting that up again and missed the setting.

Good spot, and I knew I was missing something obvious. Again, many thanks.

I'd forgotten how great this community was.

Arch Linux

#1 2020-04-13 16:54:59

[SOLVED] Steam: "Needs to be online" error

#2 2020-04-13 17:13:30

Re: [SOLVED] Steam: "Needs to be online" error

#3 2020-04-13 17:31:28

Re: [SOLVED] Steam: "Needs to be online" error

Board footer