Steam takes 1 min 40 s to open

[Selfinflictedcumshotwound]

I am using Kubuntu 20.10. Steam takes 1 min 40 s to open while on the same machine, Won Win 7, Steam opens pretty quickly.
I had Kubuntu 18.04 before and there too, it was a slow startup for Steam.
I tried Kubuntu 21.04 on another PC and there too, it took about 1 min 40 s.

[class101 [OLED deck]]

Never heard of that, on Arch Linux here Steam has always started in 6-7 seconds. Might have something to do with KDE or something kubuntu distro specific.

I would use some tools like procmon, strace, wireshark to monitor what the Steam binary is doing during that time.

[Zyro]

All fine on Debian with KDE (7 seconds, started after reboot to have no caching effects)...

[🌲🌌Ambient Ranger🌌🌲]

Perhaps you're using the Snap App version of Steam? Snaps take forever to load...

[meheezen]

need more details...
it loads almost instantly in here

[AbedsBrother]

Takes about 15 seconds for Steam to to open for me. Running Arch.

[PunkHazard]

Load times can depend on your hard drive too. I have an SSD and it opens instantly, even on Snap. On my hard disk it takes significantly longer.

[Selfinflictedcumshotwound]

I don't think the HDD matters. The Win 7 is on a 500 GB HDD and the Kubuntu 20.10 is on a 1 TB HDD. On my other PC, I tested it with a slow Toshiba laptop HDD and it also took the same time:+ 1 min something. I have installed them from Discover. I don't know if it is a snap or what.
It isn't the only app that is slow. Brave is slow to start up. I know that this is a snap app. Firefox is slow to startup. LibreOffice Writer as well.
I'll try OpenSuse since I have that on another PC.

[dilatedjux]

It takes 14 seconds on Fedora.

[Kepos]

There are different versions availible for Steam. The native pack, then on the Ubuntu trail there is also flatpack and others, which may have caused this. Suggesting to try the native version instead.

[Beninan]

Steam has always taken a long time to load for me throughout the years with multiple different computers, hardware configurations, and distributions. I have found it takes longer to start the very first time after the computer has started. After that, exiting and opening Steam again is much quicker.

I just tested it on my two primary computers and set a stop-watch. Both computers have Steam installed through their respective package managers.

My laptop is from around 2012. Specs are i7 3610QM, 8gb RAM, and an old school spinning-disk HDD, running Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon.
Opening Steam on a fresh reboot took 30 seconds until the loading window popped up. At 50 seconds the Steam window appeared, but it wasn't until 1:00 when the store page loaded and Steam was usable (it actually responds to button presses).

My desktop is from around 2019. Specs are i7 8700K, 16gb RAM, Steam is installed onto an SSD, running Manjaro with Cinnamon.
Opening Steam on fresh install took 41 seconds until the loading window popped up, 54 seconds until the Steam window appeared, and 1:03 until the store page loaded the steam was usable.

After exiting Steam on both computers and allowing a minute for all processes to close, I restarted Steam on both again.
Laptop- 4 seconds to loading window, 8 seconds to Steam window, 21 seconds until usable
Descktop- 21 seconds to loading window, 23 seconds to Steam window, 25 seconds until usable.

Oddly enough, my older laptop with worse specs loads faster than my newer desktop with better specs and an SSD.

To everyone that is replying saying Steam loads quick for them, are you loading Steam after a fresh reboot of the computer, or are you closing Steam and reloading?

[meheezen]

^ok, i rebooted my desktop, put a stopwatch and started Steam, it took 7 seconds for the Store page to fully load and be responsive

my specs (if that matters):
ryzen 3700x on B550 chipset
2x16GB 3200MHz ram
Samsung 980 Pro 250 GB / (7GB/s read, 6GB/s write)
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB /home (4GB/s read, 3.5GB/s write)
running Centos8 Stream, all disks luks encrypted and XFS formatted
Steam installed from rpmfusion-nonfree repo

i also dont recall my old 2011 laptop (lenovo x220) being that slow when opening Steam, i can take it out the shelf and do a test if anyone thinks its relevant

Originally posted by CockBall BaconMan:

I don't think the HDD matters. The Win 7 is on a 500 GB HDD and the Kubuntu 20.10 is on a 1 TB HDD. On my other PC, I tested it with a slow Toshiba laptop HDD and it also took the same time:+ 1 min something. I have installed them from Discover. I don't know if it is a snap or what.
It isn't the only app that is slow. Brave is slow to start up. I know that this is a snap app. Firefox is slow to startup. LibreOffice Writer as well.
I'll try OpenSuse since I have that on another PC.

well, disk type/bus does matter, SMR hard drives are incredibly slow for todays applications (those have been sold since 2012), 15k rpm disks will give you performance similar to SATA SSD's and NVMe PCIe devices will put them all to shame.

[Beninan]

Originally posted by meheezen:

^ok, i rebooted my desktop, put a stopwatch and started Steam, it took 7 seconds for the Store page to fully load and be responsive

Interesting... Like I said before, it has always taken a long time to load for me, and I sometimes dread having to open up Steam for something quick, because its never quick. Now I'm really curious why. I always thought it was normal

[Trisimiton]

what is your graphics card and what display server are you using?

[Selfinflictedcumshotwound]

Originally posted by meheezen:

Originally posted by CockBall BaconMan:

I don't think the HDD matters. The Win 7 is on a 500 GB HDD and the Kubuntu 20.10 is on a 1 TB HDD. On my other PC, I tested it with a slow Toshiba laptop HDD and it also took the same time:+ 1 min something. I have installed them from Discover. I don't know if it is a snap or what.
It isn't the only app that is slow. Brave is slow to start up. I know that this is a snap app. Firefox is slow to startup. LibreOffice Writer as well.
I'll try OpenSuse since I have that on another PC.

well, disk type/bus does matter, SMR hard drives are incredibly slow for todays applications (those have been sold since 2012), 15k rpm disks will give you performance similar to SATA SSD's and NVMe PCIe devices will put them all to shame.

Yes, I understand that an SSD and NVMe would put an HDD to shame but that would only hide the problem when there is most likely a software issue.
My WIn 7 is on a
Seagate ST500DM002
SATA3 6GB/s
7200 RPM
16 MB cache
3.5 inch
8.9 cm
MODEL = ST500DM002
It has 1 disk
Average latency = 4.16 ms

The Kubuntu 20.10 is on a
WD Caviar Blue 1 TB SATA3 6GB/s
7200 rpm
64 MB Cache
3.5 inch
8.9 cm
MODEL = WD10EZEX
THE DRIVE HAS 4K SECTORS.

The Kubuntu 21.04 was on a test HDD. An old Toshiba laptop HDD that is obviously slow.

[Selfinflictedcumshotwound]

Originally posted by Beninan:

My desktop is from around 2019. Specs are i7 8700K, 16gb RAM, Steam is installed onto an SSD, running Manjaro with Cinnamon.

Please don't test with SSD or NVMe or M.2 and any super high speed solid state device.
That will just hide the performance problem.
Use a slow device, a HDD.
To truly compare, run Win 7 on a similar HDD and open Steam.
The CPU doesn't matter, the RAM speed doesn't matter.