Proton using ~/.wine prefix instead of game prefix in compatdata?

[Hydrux]

For some reason any proton version past 5.0 is using the ~/.wine prefix when running my games. The games won't launch unless I'm using a version <= 5.0. Even Proton GE is using the ~/.wine prefix.

Additional info: I recently deleted my .local/share/steam folder and reinstalled because proton wasn't working. I got it to work but now have this issue.

EDIT: I forgot to mention an important detail; I am using this fix because my proton versions >5.0 weren't launching games: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamPlay/comments/kbw1mk/steam_proton_5134_not_launching_games/

[Cat on Linux]

how exactly it happens? what do you have in compatdata for Proton prefix?

[Hydrux]

Cat on Linux님이 먼저 게시:

how exactly it happens? what do you have in compatdata for Proton prefix?

I just have my normal game prefixes in compatdata. It's just >5.0 versions of proton don't use those prefixes.

[Cat on Linux]

Silence Is Consent님이 먼저 게시:

Cat on Linux님이 먼저 게시:

how exactly it happens? what do you have in compatdata for Proton prefix?

I just have my normal game prefixes in compatdata. It's just >5.0 versions of proton don't use those prefixes.

how you determine it doesn't use these?

[Hydrux]

Cat on Linux님이 먼저 게시:

how you determine it doesn't use these?

When I launch a game with >5.0 proton it shows desktop shortcuts I only have in my ~/.wine prefix virtual desktop.

[Marlock]

so proton >5.0 actually runs in virtual desktop mode because your ~/.wine prefix has it switched on?

cool! it would probably be hard to figure this out otherwise...

are you using normal steam or steam beta?

iirc there was some recent fix around the way steam starts proton up, maybe it's your issue

also, did you check if Steam Linux Runtimes (Soldier) is properly installed? (re)installing it might help... as >5.0 is when it started being used, afair

[Hydrux]

Marlock님이 먼저 게시:

so proton >5.0 actually runs in virtual desktop mode because your ~/.wine prefix has it switched on?

cool! it would probably be hard to figure this out otherwise...

are you using normal steam or steam beta?

iirc there was some recent fix around the way steam starts proton up, maybe it's your issue

also, did you check if Steam Linux Runtimes (Soldier) is properly installed? (re)installing it might help... as >5.0 is when it started being used, afair

I verified the integrity of my Steam Linux Runtime Soldier and it is fine, but games still won't launch.

[Cat on Linux]

Silence Is Consent님이 먼저 게시:

Cat on Linux님이 먼저 게시:

how you determine it doesn't use these?

When I launch a game with >5.0 proton it shows desktop shortcuts I only have in my ~/.wine prefix virtual desktop.

run game with mangohud if you have it installed to see if it actually uses wine (which I doubt). maybe it just symlinks your shortcuts but uses proton.
mangohud %command%
or you can try to run game from terminal and check which version it uses. steam app is not designed to use your local wine. it needs steam processes to authenticate game and these are missing from wine build.

[Marlock]

OP seems to think it's proton running, not wine, but using the default ~/.wine prefix instead of the game-specific ones in compatdata... which suggests steam is failing to pass it some parameters

[Marlock]

go to Steam > Library > right-click the game entry > Properties > Set Launch Options and in the text box paste this (and adapt the target path to the desired prefix folder):

STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH="/path/to/prefix/folder" %command%

in your case you want an entry pointing to a proton prefix, so this is a guide to get the exact target path:

Proton creates a new WINE prefix for each game. These prefixes are located in the same library as the game, in the steamapps/compatdata/[appid]/pfx/ directory.
([appid] being the game's Application ID)

this may be enough as a workaroud to force proton to use the correct prefix for a specific game, but absurdly cumbersome for big libraries and I bet steam is failing to pass more than just this parameter, so it may still behave weirdly... it should be useful as a diagnostics step nonetheless, especially paired with enabling proton logs output

[Cat on Linux]

Marlock님이 먼저 게시:

OP seems to think it's proton running, not wine, but using the default ~/.wine prefix instead of the game-specific ones in compatdata... which suggests steam is failing to pass it some parameters

but how is it even possible? few points

1. steam still has no means to edit path for compatdata besides override for STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH. or setting in python scripts for proton (no means for user unless they really mean it)
the feature is on the wishlist.

2. if steam has empty STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH value how on earth it manages to create prefixes then?

3. if it creates prefixes why it uses wine prefix all of a sudden?

btw there's quick diagnostic to make sure it uses .wine prefix. rename the folder and run game in question. if it will start to create new .wine prefix then let's call it a miracle (or steam bug)

[Hydrux]

Marlock님이 먼저 게시:

this may be enough as a workaroud to force proton to use the correct prefix for a specific game, but absurdly cumbersome for big libraries and I bet steam is failing to pass more than just this parameter, so it may still behave weirdly... it should be useful as a diagnostics step nonetheless, especially paired with enabling proton logs output

I forgot to mention something important. proton versions >5.0 weren't launching anything so I had to do this:

u/cPlusPlusMaster on r/SteamPlay님이 먼저 게시:

I got it to run. For anyone else having this issue here's what I did that worked: I used a text editor to open the script at <steam-library>/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier/_v2-entry-point, then at the beginning of the script immediately after #!/usr/bin/env bash I added the following:

shift 4

exec "${@}"

Cat on Linux님이 먼저 게시:

btw there's quick diagnostic to make sure it uses .wine prefix. rename the folder and run game in question. if it will start to create new .wine prefix then let's call it a miracle (or steam bug)

I did this and it indeed did create another .wine prefix in my home folder.

[Cat on Linux]

Silence Is Consent님이 먼저 게시:

I did this and it indeed did create another .wine prefix in my home folder.

amazing!
you have mentioned removing .local/share/steam folder and using proton-ge versions. have you used compatibilitytools.d folder to drop in additional compatibility tools like ge, boxtron etc?
if yes, there's a chance this folder was in .local/share/steam
make sure you have it in your new .steam library
maybe it's the reason of messed paths.

[Cat on Linux]

here's what Valve implemented for compatibility tools in attempt to fulfill user request for system wide paths. maybe you should check these paths to see if you have anything in these folders as well.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/6310#issuecomment-511630263

I'd suggest to move everything you find in there to some safe folder, delete all compatibility tools, copy userdata folder to safe folder and close steam app. delete all protons, soldier and everything it has in common folder besides games. if you have multiple game libraries - check all of them and delete all proton folders.
open your steam folder and delete everything but steam.sh
keep your userdata folder safe but do not copy it over yet. run steam so it can install everything again. once done, check if you have nothing extra in compatibility tools. try to add one of your libraries, select game and use Proton >5.3 as compatibility tool. see if it runs.

if it does, try with your userdata.

[Hydrux]

For anyone having this problem: I installed the "steam-native-runtime" package instead of "steam" on Arch and it fixed all my problems.