Web browsers won't load in game mode.

[Ainion]

Hello there,

Wondering if someone could help me with an issue I've been having the past few months on my steam deck in gaming mode specifically.

When I first got my deck I had no issues running a browser (Mainly chrome) at the same time as any games whilst in gaming mode, mainly for guide and walk through purposes, but a few months ago chrome suddenly stopped working at all whilst in gaming mode, when I attempt to load chrome it just closes itself again or just loads a black screen, the browser works completely fine in desktop mode but just doesn't work at all in gaming mode. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling chrome through the discover store as well as various other browsers such as firefox, opera and brave and the same issue occurs when loading them, the browser just closes itself or sometimes loads a completely black screen.

I am unsure what is causing this, whether its something I have done or an update broke this a few months ago, assistance from anybody more linux savvy would be highly appreciated!

[deaddoof]

What are you launch options? Go to the gear in the gamemode application menu. Please give us your current launch options.

[Ainion]

Okay I've never actually changed the launch options so assumed they'd just be the default.

On chrome the launch option is listed as "run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome"

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Ainion:

Okay I've never actually changed the launch options so assumed they'd just be the default.

On chrome the launch option is listed as "run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome"

Hmmmm. The launch option is missing org.google.Chrome

Target:

/usr/bin/flatpak

Start in:

$HOME

Launch options:

"run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "org.google.Chome"

I believe these launch options should work but I didn't test it.

[Ainion]

So sorry on further inspection i did find more to the launch options command line when I scrolled to the right, completely my fault, the full launch options by default are as follows:

Target:
"/usr/bin/flatpak"

Start in:
/usr/bin/

Launch options:

"run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome" "--file-forwarding" "com.google.Chrome" "@@U" "@@" --window-size=1024,640 --force-device-scale-factor=1.25 --device-scale-factor=1.25

If any of that is wrong its because I can't figure out how to copy and paste in game mode and hand to type it all out manually, should I change the start in to $home then?

[XDubio]

Have you subscribed any webpages to show notifications? Game Mode always tries to focus on the active window only, even for popup windows. This could yield odd results, when the popup window was not meant to be focused like a notification, or a tool tip window (Firefox does the later).
If so, you may try a blank profile for test.

[Ainion]

I don't think I've ever subscribed to any sort of notifications in my deck no, and this is occurring even even after uninstalls and reinstalls before I've even logged onto any profiles on the browser.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Ainion:

I don't think I've ever subscribed to any sort of notifications in my deck no, and this is occurring even even after uninstalls and reinstalls before I've even logged onto any profiles on the browser.

Start in is meant to be the directory to host your userfiles. /usr/bin is only meant for system binaries. You should not be writing user files into the directory. It could be an issue for starting chrome.


You can run the command in the konsole in desktop mode to see what is broken.

/usr/bin/flatpak "run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome" "--file-forwarding" "com.google.Chrome" "@@U" "@@" --window-size=1024,640 --force-device-scale-factor=1.25 --device-scale-factor=1.25

I am not sure about the @@ symbols. I keep forgetting that they represent. You can remove them to see if it works

[Ainion]

Hey guys, thanks for your help but I think I figured out the issue.

One of the buttons on my steam deck has somehow become faulty and registers itself as repeatedly being pressed, the button in question is the "select", I'm currently working on getting this repaired but as it's not the most frequently used button on the steam deck hasn't caused to many issues and in games I have mapped it's function to one of the back grips instead.

Turns out with all web browsers the default function of this button is "close tab" so when I was loading a browser the home screen tab was being instantly closed leaving me with the blank black screen no matter what browser I used, since disabling and remapping this function to another button I have had no issues with browser's in game mode, was really my own fault for not figuring this out sooner as I had previously believed both issues separate to each other, I appreciate all assistance offered and apologise for wasting anyone's time.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Ainion:

Hey guys, thanks for your help but I think I figured out the issue.

One of the buttons on my steam deck has somehow become faulty and registers itself as repeatedly being pressed, the button in question is the "select", I'm currently working on getting this repaired but as it's not the most frequently used button on the steam deck hasn't caused to many issues and in games I have mapped it's function to one of the back grips instead.

Turns out with all web browsers the default function of this button is "close tab" so when I was loading a browser the home screen tab was being instantly closed leaving me with the blank black screen no matter what browser I used, since disabling and remapping this function to another button I have had no issues with browser's in game mode, was really my own fault for not figuring this out sooner as I had previously believed both issues separate to each other, I appreciate all assistance offered and apologise for wasting anyone's time.

Naw, its fine. People lose track of stuff all the time. Learn how to validate your setup next time. Makes help less invasive.

[Centurion]

By default, Chrome loads in game mode in English. There is no option to change the language in the settings. I want to change the language to another. How can I do this through launch options?

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Centurion:

By default, Chrome loads in game mode in English. There is no option to change the language in the settings. I want to change the language to another. How can I do this through launch options?

set language environment variable

/usr/bin/flatpak run "--env=LANGUAGE=??"--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome" "--file-forwarding" "com.google.Chrome" "@@U" "@@" --window-size=1024,640 --force-device-scale-factor=1.25 --device-scale-factor=1.25

You can also try the --lang ?? switch too if the LANGUAGE override does not work.

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/i18n#locales-testing

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24992240/start-google-chrome-with-a-specific-locale-using-a-command-line-argument

I did not test either of these switchs.

[Centurion]

Thanks a lot! everything worked out

[Alucard]

Originally posted by Ainion:

So sorry on further inspection i did find more to the launch options command line when I scrolled to the right, completely my fault, the full launch options by default are as follows:

Target:
"/usr/bin/flatpak"

Start in:
/usr/bin/

Launch options:

"run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome" "--file-forwarding" "com.google.Chrome" "@@U" "@@" --window-size=1024,640 --force-device-scale-factor=1.25 --device-scale-factor=1.25

If any of that is wrong its because I can't figure out how to copy and paste in game mode and hand to type it all out manually, should I change the start in to $home then?

I have found that if you install Google Chrome through discover, there is a different set of instructions you need to give. It’s similar, however you have to delete the “@“ and “U” parts, I also cut out all window size and forced scaling options as those were not needed. Also the start in location is different. It’s not in “usr/bin” anymore. Configure as is below and it will work properly.

Tested as of 9/21/2024

Target:
"/usr/bin/flatpak"

Start in:
/home/deck/.local/share/applications/

Launch options:

"run" "--branch=stable" "--arch=x86_64" "--command=/app/bin/chrome" "--file-forwarding" "com.google.Chrome"