Steam won't start on linux

[fluff]

Steam has been going fine and all and I was able to download everything (Including games) and get in it before, but for some reason now it just refuses to start. There is no error, it just doesn't open.

Help would be appreciated.

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

Steam has been going fine and all and I was able to download everything (Including games) and get in it before, but for some reason now it just refuses to start. There is no error, it just doesn't open.

Help would be appreciated.

Now, how are we supposed to help when you provide no information? ;)

Open up a Terminal and run steam manually. That will provide you with a bunch of msgs that might shed some light on the problem.

[fluff]

Originally posted by dirrtygsharp:

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

Steam has been going fine and all and I was able to download everything (Including games) and get in it before, but for some reason now it just refuses to start. There is no error, it just doesn't open.

Help would be appreciated.

Now, how are we supposed to help when you provide no information? ;)

Open up a Terminal and run steam manually. That will provide you with a bunch of msgs that might shed some light on the problem.

I'm using Ubuntu installed with Wubi. Also, could you tell me the command line to open steam in terminal?

[paus3d]

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

Originally posted by dirrtygsharp:

Now, how are we supposed to help when you provide no information? ;)

Open up a Terminal and run steam manually. That will provide you with a bunch of msgs that might shed some light on the problem.

I'm using Ubuntu installed with Wubi. Also, could you tell me the command line to open steam in terminal?

Ctrl+Alt+T.

[[Linux] unbridledExüberance]

(Then just type in steam)

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

Originally posted by dirrtygsharp:

Now, how are we supposed to help when you provide no information? ;)

Open up a Terminal and run steam manually. That will provide you with a bunch of msgs that might shed some light on the problem.

I'm using Ubuntu installed with Wubi. Also, could you tell me the command line to open steam in terminal?

Oh no. Not another wubi user!!! *shakes fist at Canonical*

If you have a taskbar along the left side of the screen, click on the button at the top left of the screen. That's called "dash home". Start typing "Terminal" and the Terminal app should appear. Click on it to open a Terminal.

A shortcut is to press CTRL-ALT-T.

Inside the Terminal, type 'steam' and press enter. You will see a bunch of msgs appear. Copy and paste those into a reply to this thread.

[fluff]

Originally posted by mr.exuberant:

(Then just type in steam)

I have done that several times. This popped up after typing in steam

Running Steam on ubuntu 12.10 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
Looks like steam didn't shutdown cleanly, scheduling immediate update check
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
unlinked 0 orphaned pipes
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eBlobRegistryMutex_19FD4FC4480D10C603C95EEA84F8562F
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eBlobRegistrySignal_19FD4FC4480D10C603C95EEA84F8562F
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0emSteamEngineInstance
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eSteamEngineLock
/home/anthony/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 561: 4904 Segmentation fault (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"

Nothing happened afterwards.

[dirrtymartini]

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

Originally posted by mr.exuberant:

(Then just type in steam)

I have done that several times. This popped up after typing in steam

Running Steam on ubuntu 12.10 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
Looks like steam didn't shutdown cleanly, scheduling immediate update check
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
unlinked 0 orphaned pipes
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eBlobRegistryMutex_19FD4FC4480D10C603C95EEA84F8562F
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eBlobRegistrySignal_19FD4FC4480D10C603C95EEA84F8562F
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0emSteamEngineInstance
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eSteamEngineLock
/home/anthony/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 561: 4904 Segmentation fault (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"

Nothing happened afterwards.

Ugh. A segfault. We're going to need more eyes on this to assess the segfault.

While we're waiting, please provide your system specs. CPU, RAM, and Video card.

Also, please provide a quick summary of your installation process for Ubuntu and Steam. Did you follow any guides?

[instabilis]

In Terminal try

rm ~/.local/share/Steam/ClientRegistry.blob

Then run steam via Terminal again
(it's a stab in the dark)

Edit:
Also, Steam isn't set to start up in Big Picture mode is it?

[fluff]

Originally posted by dirrtygsharp:

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

I have done that several times. This popped up after typing in steam

Running Steam on ubuntu 12.10 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
Looks like steam didn't shutdown cleanly, scheduling immediate update check
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1360966495_client)
unlinked 0 orphaned pipes
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eBlobRegistryMutex_19FD4FC4480D10C603C95EEA84F8562F
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eBlobRegistrySignal_19FD4FC4480D10C603C95EEA84F8562F
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0emSteamEngineInstance
removing stale semaphore last operated on by process 4796 with name 0eSteamEngineLock
/home/anthony/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 561: 4904 Segmentation fault (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"

Nothing happened afterwards.

Ugh. A segfault. We're going need more eyes on this to assess the segfault.

While we're waiting, please provide your system specs. CPU, RAM, and Video card.

Also, please provide a quick summary of your installation process for Ubuntu and Steam. Did you follow any guides?

2GB of RAM
CPU MHz is 800

[fluff]

Originally posted by instabilis:

In Terminal try

rm ~/.local/share/Steam/ClientRegistry.blob

Then run steam via Terminal again
(it's a stab in the dark)

Edit:
Also, Steam isn't set to start up in Big Picture mode is it?

It isn't set up to be in Big Picture mode. Everything was fine, then I left for the weekend, got on, and now it refuses to start

[fluff]

I suppose I could just uninstall steam, I have the time to install all my games again.

[[Linux] unbridledExüberance]

That doesn't really tell us anything. The clock speed and RAM size doesn't matter. What we mainly need is what your graphics card is and what your current driver is. Your CPU type (ie. Intel or AMD, 32-bit or 64-bit) could possibly be relevant as well

[instabilis]

Originally posted by Anthony Thell:

I suppose I could just uninstall steam, I have the time to install all my games again.

To do that you just need to remove everything but the SteamApps folder (where the games are stored) in ~/.local/share/Steam/, and then remove the ~/.steam folder

I believe Steam is in the Ubuntu Software Centre now too, so you could try that

[Spartacurse]

I have the exact same problem.
I am but a linux nooblet so bare with me if I say something utterly stupid.

Running Ubuntu 12.10 w/ gnome 3.6

lspci -v | less returns (cropped):

00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Host Bridge (rev a1)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M4N68T series motherboard
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Host Bridge (rev a1)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M4N68T series motherboard
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: <access denied>

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Juniper [Radeon HD 5700 Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Device 1482
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
        Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at dffe0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at e800 [size=256]
        Expansion ROM at dffc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
        Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon

launching steam from both link and terminal "occasionally" works after a re-install however the

~/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 700: 21407 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"

still occurs.

I noticed how the same error message came up once I tried to install Counter-Strike: Source again which was what lead me to this problem in the first place.

A few hours earlier...

I couldn't get CS:S to launch, it just loaded and vanished as soon as the starting screen would've appeared normally.

A quick google lead me to this:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/240/discussions/0/864959810010481242/

which described my issues to the point and speckle.

I followed the advice in the "EDIT" and started messing with my drivers, this in turn lead to new issues and then some more issues. Ultimately I think I re-installed my graphics driver but really I entered so many different commands having no idea what I was doing so I can not traceback for you there. Removed some folders, added some, swore I'd kill the guy who made the .run file for ATI graphics driver etc etc etc.

yeah I did something in the /etc/ folder too, can't recall what.

But the point is, I couldn't do what the EDIT told me to do due to errors encountered.

So I guess that has to do with it as well. So what's left?

I really don't mind re-installing my entire machine, this install is only a few weeks old and I've experimented with it so badly a lot of things aren't really functional anymore. But how else will one learn if not by breaking things, right?

On the note, I do have some experience in programming, mainly PHP, Java - webby stuff you know, so I know I'm no expert but I can sort of understand technical mumbo jumbo if explained in a proper way rather than in commands only. :P

Hope that info helps.

[さくら]

From what I gather, line 561 and line 700 in the script are actually different things breaking. 561 is (from what I've heard and seen directly) glibc.

Since you appear to be running an amd64, I'm guessing you probably don't have the i386 glibc6.

You'll need root privileges to do this.

dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update && apt-get install libc6:i386
(You may be missing some other dependencies, basically it should complain about them being missing.)

700 on the other hand, from what I gather is a problem with the video drivers (which I haven't personally had to deal with). Make sure you have the i386/x86/32-bit version of the appropriate drivers, in addition to the amd64 one if you use an amd64 architecture.

The short longish version (assuming that the AMD/ATI drivers are like the nvidia ones), also, I'm assuming a deb/apt-based environment, if you're using another distro, your package manager may differ:

Method 1: grab the .run off the (card manufacture's) site, use it to build the driver, making sure to tell it to build the driver for 32-bit as well. (And probably find during build that you need kernel headers and/or a different version of gcc -- for which aliasing the correct one to gcc would probably suffice. Failing that, symlinking the correct (same as the one that built the kernel) version of gcc to /usr/bin/gcc (which is a symlink already)), make (if needed) the necessary changes to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and restart the xserver (doable via a system restart or /etc/init.d/(whatever desktop manager you're running) restart.

eg:
vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/init.d/kdm restart

Method 2:
Use apt to install the in-distro version of your video driver, which may be as a package or as something that gets compiled, in the latter case, you'll *still* need the headers, but shouldn't need to pull anything fancy with gcc assuming you have the correct version installed.

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to reflect the correct driver name, and restart xorg.
eg:
vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/init.d/gdm restart

OR
method 3:
The module-assistant method, this is yet a third way to do it. You will still need the kernel headers. (I'm making some assumptions here -- don't have an ATI card).

m-a update
m-a get fglrx
m-a build fglrx
m-a install fglrx
vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/init.d/xdm restart

Replace vim with whatever text editor you feel like using, but it's best if it's one that works without GUI, nano, joe, or pico are some others.

Replace (k/g/x)dm with whatever dm you're using on your system.

Section "Device"
Identifier "" <-- put the appropriate identifier in there. Although I'm not sure how important it is.
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection

Replace the parts in quotes with the appropriate identifier and name of the driver for your video card.