[SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

nawqvqk · 2023-06-18 03:41:57

A couple of days ago, I connected another monitor to my GPU for fun.
Everything ran smoothly, even after I disconnected it.
Afterwards, I installed 'yay' to help me be lazy.
I did a full system upgrade using yay, and once again everything seemed to be fine.
I loaded Steam, and saw that it only appeared as a badge in the bottom right how it usually does.
I used the System Monitor to stop Steam.
I reloaded it, this time in the console, in order to see if there were any issues I could resolve.
The first error I saw was "(process:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:25.866: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed"
I've been trying to chip away at that error ever since.

Peculiar behavior:
Whenever I start steam (after uninstalling the package and all libraries containing any information about Steam), the GUI will load up.
However, it looks different than it u)sually does, and certainly different from my other Arch installation on another computer (which is also fully up-to-date, and uses an Nvidia GPU).
For example, the loading screen that displays before you enter your credentials for the first time has the steam logo, with a spinning neon blue circle around it.
When I load up Garry's Mod, it works fine and aside from the looks of the steam GUI itself, everything works.
But if I close out this instance of the GUI, and try to load it back up, it spits out that same GLib error in the console, and only displays a badge in the bottom right.

Full console dump:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[me@mypc ~]$ steam
steam.sh[3137]: Running Steam on arch rolling 64-bit
steam.sh[3137]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[3211]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[3137]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] Startup - updater built Jun 16 2023 01:41:16
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/me/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam'
06/17 22:59:25 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1686880776)/tid(3298)
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/me/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] 1. https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1000, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] 2. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] 3. http://media.steampowered.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] Verifying installation...
[2023-06-17 22:59:25] Verification complete

(process:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:25.866: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(process:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:25.866: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Loaded SDL version 3.0.0-1735-g2e465ae31
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xefe23db0
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xefe22500
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
steamwebhelper.sh[3315]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/me/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[3315]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()
CAppInfoCacheReadFromDiskThread took 34 milliseconds to initialize
Failed to init SteamVR because it isn't installed
steamwebhelper.sh[3545]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/me/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[3545]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()

(steam:3298): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:59:36.676: gtk_disable_setlocale() must be called before gtk_init()
local (potentially out of sync) copy of roaming config loaded - 165 bytes.
roaming config store loaded successfully - 165 bytes.
migrating temporary roaming config store

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:38.780: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:38.780: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 0ms

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:38.879: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:38.879: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
System startup time: 13.18 seconds
steamwebhelper.sh[3699]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/me/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[3699]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()
BuildCompleteAppOverviewChange: 302 apps
RegisterForAppOverview 1: 4ms
RegisterForAppOverview 2: 4ms
steamwebhelper.sh[3845]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/me/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[3845]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:56.735: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 22:59:56.735: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:00:02.923: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(steam:3298): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:00:02.924: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
[2023-06-17 23:00:03] Shutdown
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The shutdown was because of me using KDE's System Monitor to end the process.

What I've Done:
Read the Steam Archwiki page, as well as the troubleshooting page.
Fully upgraded the system, including all AUR packages detected by yay
Installed steam-native-runtime (I've since uninstalled this)
Rebooted (many times)
Tried to run steam using gdb (couldn't because: ""/usr/bin/steam": not in executable format: file format not recognized")

I've re-installed the following packages via 'sudo pacman -S':
steam
lib32-mesa
mesa
nvidia-utils
lib32-nvidia-utils
nvidia
gtk2
gtk3
gtk4
All steam dependencies (according to pacman -Qi steam)

General Specs:
GPU: GeForce RTX 2060 (rev a1)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
DE: KDE Plasma (console output via Konsole)

I've done research on the GLib error, and GLib is part of GTK, and the 'GObject' is a C namespace.

Obviously, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
I sincerely appreciate the efforts of anyone who willingly volunteers their time to helping me, I'm using the Arch forums as a last resort.

Once again, thank you for your time.

Last edited by nawqvqk (2023-06-26 13:46:25)

Lone_Wolf · 2023-06-18 11:34:40

Loaded SDL version 3.0.0-1735-g2e465ae31

That doesn't come from repos and looks like a -git version .
Output of pacman -Qs sdl ?

Welcome to archlinux forums.

nawqvqk · 2023-06-18 14:05:35

Lone_Wolf wrote:

Loaded SDL version 3.0.0-1735-g2e465ae31
That doesn't come from repos and looks like a -git version .
Output of pacman -Qs sdl ?
Welcome to archlinux forums.

[me@mypc ~]$ sudo pacman -Qs sdl
local/lib32-sdl12-compat 1.2.64-1
SDL 1.2 runtime compatibility library using SDL 2.0
local/lib32-sdl2 2.26.5-1
A library for portable low-level access to a video framebuffer, audio output, mouse, and keyboard
local/sdl12-compat 1.2.64-1
SDL 1.2 runtime compatibility library using SDL 2.0
local/sdl2 2.26.5-2
A library for portable low-level access to a video framebuffer, audio output, mouse, and keyboard (Version 2)
local/sdl_mixer 1.2.12-12
A simple multi-channel audio mixer

rexvizsla · 2023-06-18 14:51:35

I'm experiencing the exact same issue. My steam console dump looks exactly the same, including the SDL version. I'm also running steam version 1686880776. My Kernel version is 6.3.8-arch1-1 and I'm using Nvidia-dkms drivers (535.54.03).
The issue is most certainly caused by the latest changes to the steam UI because that's when it stopped working for me. I also found this article reporting about people having the issue as well: https://www.dexerto.com/tech/new-steam- … y-2178066/

nawqvqk · 2023-06-18 15:09:54

rexvizsla wrote:

I'm experiencing the exact same issue. My steam console dump looks exactly the same, including the SDL version. I'm also running steam version 1686880776. My Kernel version is 6.3.8-arch1-1 and I'm using Nvidia-dkms drivers (535.54.03).
The issue is most certainly caused by the latest changes to the steam UI because that's when it stopped working for me. I also found this article reporting about people having the issue as well: https://www.dexerto.com/tech/new-steam- … y-2178066/

That's really good to know.
I'm going to attempt to downgrade steam, hopefully this temporarily solves the issue.

I'm going to use this to downgrade steam, just in case anyone else wants to do this as well.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/downgrade

nawqvqk · 2023-06-18 15:16:48

Upon downgrading to steam package version 1.0.0.67, my console output was the same.
This might not be an issue with the new GUI

Last edited by nawqvqk (2023-06-18 15:17:19)

nawqvqk · 2023-06-20 03:05:00

Upon further research, this issue was opened on GitHub.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … ssues/9658

Just like adarshmk said on the page, running with -vgui let's me open games, but the friend's list is broken.

ndavid · 2023-06-24 19:17:44

Guys it seems that a fix has been found -> https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … 1605607970

nawqvqk · 2023-06-26 13:45:15

For me, turning on GPU accelerated rendering did the trick.
I first launched steam with the old interface

$ steam -vgui

And then went to Steam -> Settings -> Interface just like in the github post.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

Last edited by nawqvqk (2023-06-26 13:45:37)

Arch Linux

#1 2023-06-18 03:41:57

[SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#2 2023-06-18 11:34:40

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#3 2023-06-18 14:05:35

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#4 2023-06-18 14:51:35

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#5 2023-06-18 15:09:54

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#6 2023-06-18 15:16:48

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#7 2023-06-20 03:05:00

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#8 2023-06-24 19:17:44

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

#9 2023-06-26 13:45:15

Re: [SOLVED] Steam GUI runs in background except after thorough reinstall

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