Steam shows two icons in task bar now (fixed)

[Man's Best Friend]

It was just a brief Steam issue. Beta branch 8/14/24 has fixed it.

Anyone else have an issue with a recent (not sure how recent) update where Steam doesn't quite work right when pinned to the task bar? I'm on Debian with KDEPlasma, and in the past Steam pinned to the task bar worked like you expect. The pinned icon is whatever window is open, and all windows stack into that one icon. Now though, all windows get their own icons, with none of them stacking. Even the first window gets its own icon separate from the pinned one. Of course none of these can be pinned either. Every other application works normally.

[Kepos]

Did you probably install and autostart both of Steam runtime+native?

[Thiesen]

I am on Linux Mint with CInnamon and atleast Under Cinnamon you can configure the taskbar to either be grouped or ungrouped... this means that programs like Firefox will get its own groupings if you open another FIrefox window...

Maybe you have been doing some similar thing under KDE???

And for me every Steam related window (Steam main window, Friends window and what not) they all gets grouped under the Steam icon...

My spec:

System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-40-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.2.9 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.2.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 22 Wilma base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: TUF X470-PLUS GAMING v: Rev X.0x serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: SKU uuid: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 5806 date: 11/23/2020
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Zen+ rev: 2 cache:
    L1: 768 KiB L2: 4 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1837 high: 4092 min/max: 1550/3200 boost: enabled cores: 1: 1421 2: 1375
    3: 1550 4: 1375 5: 1636 6: 1637 7: 4090 8: 1550 9: 1375 10: 1550 11: 1550 12: 1375 13: 1637
    14: 1550 15: 4092 16: 1635 bogomips: 102207
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 33 [Radeon RX 7700S/7600/7600S/7600M XT/PRO W7600] vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-3 pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, Writeback-1 bus-ID: 0b:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:7480 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22") s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 model: Asus VC279 serial: <filter> res: 1920x1080 hz: 60
    dpi: 82 size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27") modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
    surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi inactive: gbm,wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.1 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi navi33 LLVM 17.0.6 DRM 3.57
    6.8.0-40-generic) device-ID: 1002:7480
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 layers: 9 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A
    device-ID: 1002:7480 device: 1 type: cpu driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 31 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 0b:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab30 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0d:00.3 chip-ID: 1022:1457 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-40-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network driver: e1000e v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: f000 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:10d3 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 4.3 TiB used: 1.8 TiB (41.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 2B2QEXE7 temp: 34.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD40EFAX-68JH4N0 size: 3.64 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> fw-rev: 0A82 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37480G size: 447.13 GiB type: USB rev: 3.0
    spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 tech: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 227.23 GiB used: 58.45 GiB (25.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 974.1 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (0.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 3.58 TiB used: 1.7 TiB (47.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 14 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-11:2 info: Razer USA Naga Trinity type: mouse,keyboard driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 1532:0067 class-ID: 0300
    serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 1-14:3 info: Ducky One 3 RGB type: HID,keyboard,mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    interfaces: 5 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 3233:1311 class-ID: 0300
    serial: <filter>
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 8 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 4-2:2 info: Fujitsu iodd_ST300 type: mass storage driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1
    rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 power: 8mA chip-ID: 04c5:2028 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 46.0 C mem: 53.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 3179 pm: dpkg pkgs: 3155 pm: flatpak pkgs: 24
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-dbgsym-repositories.list
    1: deb http:// /ddebs.ubuntu.com noble main restricted universe multiverse
    2: deb http:// /ddebs.ubuntu.com noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https:// /mirror.zetup.net/linuxmint/packages wilma main upstream import backport romeo
    2: deb http:// /mirror.zetup.net/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http:// /mirror.zetup.net/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http:// /mirror.zetup.net/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http:// /security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-source-repositories.list
    1: deb-src https:// /mirror.zetup.net/linuxmint/packages wilma main upstream import backport romeo
    2: deb-src http:// /mirror.zetup.net/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb-src http:// /mirror.zetup.net/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb-src http:// /mirror.zetup.net/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb-src http:// /security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Memory: total: 48 GiB available: 46.95 GiB used: 6.37 GiB (13.6%)
  Processes: 460 Power: uptime: 1d 22h 26m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep wakeups: 0
    hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Compilers: gcc: 13.2.0 Client: Unknown python3.12 client inxi: 3.3.34

[Pepe]

Seems more like a KDE config issue rather than a Steam issue.

1. Right click on your Task Bar;
2. Click on Configure Task Manager;
3. From the left side pane, click on Behavior;
4. From the Group drop down, select "By program name";
5. Click Apply.

[Man's Best Friend]

So, it worked fine for months, and it's only in the past week or two that it's started misbehaving. So I have to assume I installed it correctly.

Trying to group the icons just causes all the sub windows to condense into one icon, but they still fail to group with the pinned icon. Mind you, the pinned icon still works, even the right click menu. It just never seems to have any windows attached to it.

Interestingly, the sub windows show up with a different icon than the pinned icon. The shading is more pronounced from top to bottom. I wonder if somehow this is confusing Plasma, though I'm not sure how to fix that short of reinstalling Steam.

Plasma is already set to group by program name. As an experiment I tried ungrouping, and then regrouping. No effect. I also tried restarting the shell. No effect.

Maybe I should finally just reboot fully since this does seem to be something unique to me.

[Pepe]

Are you sure you have a pin and not a quick launch icon? Unpin it, and pin the launched Steam icon, see if that works. Maybe, just maybe, I can only guess, some kind of Steam update created a shortcut in the Quicklaunch bar in the Task Manager and your initial pin has been removed, creating this confusion.

[Man's Best Friend]

It specifically won't let me pin the launched icon. In fact the launched icon is missing the whole right click menu that you normally get from Steam (friends, library, store, etc).

Just tried rebooting, predictably nothing changed.

[Pepe]

Look this KDE Task Manager issue on the web. I don't know what version of KDE you have on Debian, but I had some weird bugs with KDE in the past.

I suggest to:
1.a) Update your packages. Maybe there's a newer KDE package that fixes your issue.
or..
1.b) Downgrade your KDE packages. Maybe the bug just appeared after a recent upgrade.

2. Enter Edit Mode, delete your Task Manager and recreate it... I know it's kind of silly, but it worked for me once in a similar situation. Before deleting your current task manager bar, just be sure you hover over your Task Manager elements to know exactly what to put back in place.

[Man's Best Friend]

No effect so far. I guess at this point I'm just going to have to sit and wait to see if it fixes itself. Oh well. It's not really a problem since everything still works. I was just hoping for a simple fix. Which seems less and less likely to happen.

Thanks anyway. We'll see what the future holds.

[RavingGrob]

While a fix here doesn't seem likely, wanted to add my experience to the mix as well. Exact same behavior since some update over a week ago now. NixOS on latest unstable branch with latest kernel.

[Man's Best Friend]

That's good to hear. The fact that it's not unique to me suggests that it may well be some change in Steam that kicks off some obscure unexpected behavior in certain distros.

[skye]

copy the steam and steam-native .desktop entries from "/usr/share/applications" to "~/.local/share/applications" , and under [Desktop Entry] for them both, add

StartupWMClass=steamwebhelper

source:
https://reddit.com/r/pop_os/comments/1ehvytq/why_does_steam_show_up_twice_on_my_dock/

[Man's Best Friend]

I gave it a shot, but didn't work.

However, I did fix it. Apparently it seems to be an issue with the current beta build! I went back to the current regular build, and the icons collapsed back into one. I bet if I switch back the the beta, they'll split again. It's weird though, I've been on the beta since it got the recording update, and it had been fine.

So, if anyone else encounters this, go back to the main build?

[skye]

it did work for me, I'm sry it didn't work for you though. glad you solved it either way!

[statik]

Have the exact same issue on KDE. Was working as expected up until a couple days ago and started getting the double-icon (two different icons). Thanks for the suggestion of going back to stable, it also fixed it for me.

[Man's Best Friend]

Well, I went back to the beta branch to get some game footage, and the double icon predictably came back.
But then Steam updated today, and it went away while still being on the beta branch. So, yes. This absolutely was just a brief Steam issue.