Arch Linux

unnilquadium

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 86

Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

On my system the Steam status tray icon wasn't working properly (icon displayed but no action on it was possible). DE is xfce4.

After some investigation I found out that installing libdbusmenu-gtk2 solved this issue.

Would it be a good ideia to let the maintainer know this so that he can add this package as a dependency for steam?

stanczew

Member

Registered: 2021-03-02

Posts: 114

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

I remember hitting this issue some time ago. It turned out that the tray icon works if you have lib32-gtk2 and lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2 both installed or not installed. If you have just lib32-gtk2, but no lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2, then the icon won't work correctly.
steam-native-runtime package already pulls lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2, which should satisfy all dependencies needed for the tray icon to work. lib32-gtk2 doesn't seem to be pulled by anything other than packages related to steam-native-runtime.
Therefore the two common scenarios should both have working tray icon:

• steam package installed, lib32-gtk2/lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2 not installed;

• steam-native-runtime installed, lib32-gtk2/lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2 pulled as dependencies.

So, do you have lib32-gtk2 installed, and which steam package do you use?

unnilquadium

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 86

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

Presently I only have the steam package installed (no steam-native-runtime)

Indeed I have lib32-gtk2 installed as a dependency for another package. I do not have lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2, as I found out that installing libdbusmenu-gtk2 without its 32-bit counterpart solved the issue.

Furthermore I can confirm that unistalling both lib32-gtk2 and libdbusmenu-gtk2 also solves the problem.

stanczew

Member

Registered: 2021-03-02

Posts: 114

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

That's weird, for me installing just libdbusmenu-gtk2 is not enough – I have to install lib32-libdbusmenu-gtk2 to get the tray icon working.
My guess is that there are some problems with Steam using system libraries vs its own steam-runtime copies; something similar to what was described in bug 66832.

Anyhow, I don't think adding {lib32-,}libdbusmenu-gtk2 to dependencies of steam package is the right solution, as it would needlessly pull gtk2/lib32-gtk2 (with all their dependencies) for all Steam users.
Instead, maybe it could be an optdepend, with a good description as to when/why installing it would be needed? Or maybe a note in the Wiki would be enough?

unnilquadium

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 86

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

I agree.

A note in the wiki is probably the sensible thing to do.

stanczew

Member

Registered: 2021-03-02

Posts: 114

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

Actually, there is already a relevant note present:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/ … skbar_menu

It suggests installing {lib32-,}libappindicator-gtk2 packages, which in turn depend on {lib32-,}libdbusmenu-gtk2; this should cover all required dependencies.

unnilquadium

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 86

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

I had already tried the workaround from the wiki and it didn't work.

I tried again and the 2 packages suggested by the wiki break the menu, at least in my case.

It works with libdbusmenu-gtk2, but not with {lib32-}libappindicator-gtk2.

As it stands, I don't really know what's causing this behaviour, but at least this thread will hopefully serve as a reference for someone having the same issue.

stanczew

Member

Registered: 2021-03-02

Posts: 114

Re: Steam tray icon needs libdbusmenu-gtk2

It still works for me with lib32-gtk2 and lib32-libappindicator-gtk2 installed… I'm also out of ideas at this point.

As it stands, I don't really know what's causing this behaviour, but at least this thread will hopefully serve as a reference for someone having the same issue.

Agreed.