Exiting anything while Electron apps are running crashes all running Deck software in Game Mode

[Tenshinen]

Attempting to exit any game, while one or more Electron or Chromium based apps are running, causes all currently open programs to crash.

Example: Open Discord, Google Chrome, and a game of your choice. Hit Exit in the game. Discord and Chrome will no longer function, nor will the game, yet all 3 will show in the open list still. Attempting to Exit via steam, or force exit, will result in all open programs getting stuck on a Steam loading logo indefinitely, requiring a restart.
Attempting to exit the game via Steam first will result in all running Chromium/Electron apps to attempt to close instead of the game.

Does not happen with multiple non-Chromium/Electron programs.
Does not happen when a singular piece of software is running, regardless of Electron/Chromium or otherwise.

[toidi]

Can confirm that when running discord and discover overlay there is a soft lock when exiting games, which forces you to restart the deck.

[Bristle]

Confirmed same behavior on mine. I stopped trying to use Discord and Chrome in game mode a while ago because of it.

[Schreda]

Im facing the same issue. I would like to devel some application for the steam deck and tried out electron and tauri but both of them do not work in game mode - in desktop mode everything works as expected. Hopefully it can be fixed soon otherwise i need to switch totally to native development - but ui heavy apps/games are better suited with web tech in favor of iteration

[Tenshinen]

Originally posted by Schreda:

Im facing the same issue. I would like to devel some application for the steam deck and tried out electron and tauri but both of them do not work in game mode - in desktop mode everything works as expected. Hopefully it can be fixed soon otherwise i need to switch totally to native development - but ui heavy apps/games are better suited with web tech in favor of iteration

For me as a user, turning off Hardware Acceleration fixes the issue in things like Chrome and Discord, although that's obviously not ideal at all

[Nanashi]

It's not an issue with a specific type of app, it's an issue with non-Steam games being unable to be closed.

It's currently fixed in Beta, but Beta currently has an issue that renders desktop mode unusable without a mouse and keyboard (more Steam Virtual Keyboard issues).

[Tenshinen]

Originally posted by Arale Norimaki:

It's not an issue with a specific type of app, it's an issue with non-Steam games being unable to be closed.

It's currently fixed in Beta, but Beta currently has an issue that renders desktop mode unusable without a mouse and keyboard (more Steam Virtual Keyboard issues).

This is not true. This is a separate issue, entirely unrelated to the Non-Steam App issue. I have had this issue since June, way before the Non-Steam App problems, and I still have this issue in Beta.

[Nanashi]

Weird, I haven't had this happen. I'll check again whenever I get home.

[Nanashi]

I just tried running Ferdium (a Chromium/Electron based multi-client) and closing it while running a game doesn't result in a crash. Nor does closing the game.

[Tenshinen]

Originally posted by Arale Norimaki:

I just tried running Ferdium (a Chromium/Electron based multi-client) and closing it while running a game doesn't result in a crash. Nor does closing the game.

You're misunderstanding the issue. It occurs when two separate Chromium/Electron apps are running at once. Running one Chromium app and one game works fine. Running two Chromium apps at once is the problem, and they cannot close correctly.
I suggest trying to run Chrome and Discord, as I consistently have this issue with that combo. Trying to close either through the Steam menu breaks things

[Nanashi]

Originally posted by Tenshinen:

Originally posted by Arale Norimaki:

I just tried running Ferdium (a Chromium/Electron based multi-client) and closing it while running a game doesn't result in a crash. Nor does closing the game.

You're misunderstanding the issue. It occurs when two separate Chromium/Electron apps are running at once. Running one Chromium app and one game works fine. Running two Chromium apps at once is the problem, and they cannot close correctly.
I suggest trying to run Chrome and Discord, as I consistently have this issue with that combo. Trying to close either through the Steam menu breaks things

Ohh, that makes more sense. I don't bother with running browsers in game mode, because (at least in the case of Brave and Ungoogled Chromium) it wipes my cache and I have to log in to everything again.

[Schreda]

Hey,
after adding the WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 to the startup command it was working for me. BTW this workaround also works for tauri applications