Fatal Error: Steam needs to be online to update ...

[dotachess]

Does anyone know if there's somewhere I can download these files myself? I realize this is a common question, but I'm not seeing many solutions to the horrid error.

Is there anywhere I can download these update files manually? If so, could someone provide the directories needed. I'm on Linux Mint 14, Nadia.

Thanks.

[Cosmo]

Is it working on windows?

Have you made sure that you are definitely connected to the Internet? (seems silly but it needs to be asked.)

Worse case scenario: I have had this problem recently myself - whilst at University, and from what I can tell, it is often to do with your ISP, some of them block some servers used by steam (some of the time), for example, at university I can use steam and install/update games, but not update steam itself, I've tried roughly 10 fixes I think.

If this is the case and you can get Internet somewhere else, a friend's place or something you may have to use it to download the updates.

HOWEVER, this probably isn't the case and there are a number of fixes you can try.

Generally speaking, downloading them from other sources isn't one of them, no one bothers to upload them, and it would potentially violate Terms of Use with account sharing so it's too risky to host them.

IMPORTANT: back up your steam folder entirely before trying these, as you will probably have to delete almost everything.

(I think you can find your steam files in the .steam folder of your home directory)

I'm afraid I'm not aware of the exact installation folder under linux, but most of these solutions involved clean installations anyway.

the steam support solution: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7333-UAXB-2919

I think there are around 5 solutions scattered throughout this thread (please list the solutions you have tried and aren't working for you in the OP, it will help narow down the cause).

Hope this helps,
Marcos Cosmos

[Saner than a coconut]

First and foremost, do you block any IP ranges through IPtables or anything? Some IP - lists contain certain ranges belonging to valve, so it could be that it is blocking one of the download servers or something.

Secondly, have you been able to update your steam client before, and does this problem only occur since :
a) an update
b) installation of a new program/ packages
c) other action

If you still don't get it to work, could you run steam through your terminal, try to update, and then post the output? (ctrl + alt + t to open terminal ; then just type "steam" (without quotation marks) to run steam in terminal)