Arch Linux Native runtime broken with Satisfactory. (PSA/BUG)

[cammelspit]

Dunno if it matters or if anyone really cares as there are literally dozens of us out there. I use an Arch Linux VM running on my Slackware server as a gaming and general computing PC. Satisfactory works BRILLIANTLY on Linux and I would argue is multitudes of times better since proton compiles shaders before the game launches so you get none of those weird stutters as the shaders compile on Windows. Anyways, when you install Steam on Linux you are generally faced with two options, I always install them both. One OS the Steam (Native) and the other is Steam (Runtime).

For the new Linux users or the uninitiated the 'Native' version runs Steam with all of the libraries running on you system like you would expect, the (Runtime) version on the other hand uses prepackages libraries that come straight from Valve. Arch Linux, OPENSuse tumbleweed, Fedora Rawhide, and a few others are rolling release distros. Rolling release means they do very little in crazy amounts of testing and usually have SUPER up to date packages. In the case of Arch Linux, this means it's rare to even wait days before new version make it to the repositories as a rule.

I give this information because Linux use has more than doubled in the last year, not in small part due to the popularity of the Steam deck, and there are a lot of less experienced users out there. Long story short, the Native version of Steam as of today seems to no longer be able to boot Satisfactory due to some Library update when I have put maybe 50+ hours in on this latest post 1.0 play through using it. Now I have to switch to the Runtime version for the game to launch.

This is part PSA, part bug report, part teaching moment. I was bored and wanted to save someone else the extra 15 minutes of troubleshooting if they run into this problem.

NOTE:Distros like SteamOS, Debian, Ubuntu, point releases of Fedora. Those are not rolling release and are heavily validated before being updated. As such, you shouldn't need to do anything if you are on the deck or traditional release distro because they don't update so aggressively.

[Bedna]

This is part PSA, part bug report, part teaching moment. I was bored and wanted to save someone else the extra 15 minutes of troubleshooting if they run into this problem.

A well intended action, unfortunately, the information you provide is wrong.
You are getting it backwards. steam-native-runtime uses local libraries.
Steam-native-runtime is not the recommended way to use steam on arch.
If you CHOOSE to use the "native client" YOU have to make sure EVERYTHING is in the exact correct versions (good luck with that).

Literally point 1 on the wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Installation

Enable the multilib repository and install the steam package (recommended) or alternatively the steam-native-runtime package for running Steam with native system libraries. See /Troubleshooting#Steam runtime.

I just started the game to make sure it still runs on arch (plasma), and it does (using proton-GE).

NOTE:Distros like SteamOS, Debian, Ubuntu, point releases of Fedora. Those are not rolling release and are heavily validated before being updated. As such, you shouldn't need to do anything if you are on the deck or traditional release distro because they don't update so aggressively.

The steamdeck runs an immutable version of arch and has nothing to do with rolling releases.
Besides, steam is using (IIRC) ubuntu LTS libraries, so "being up to date" and use local packages most likely cause more errors than not.

Just uninstall steam-native-runtime and use the normal steam package.

sudo pacman -Rns steam-native-runtime
sudo pacman -Syu steam

[cammelspit]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam

Straight from the WIKI. if you start 'steam' it launches steam with its prepacked binaries. The *.desktop file created at install runs just steam but is named 'Steam (Runtime)'. The package name is just 'steam'

If you start 'steam-native' it launches steam with system binaries binaries. The *.desktop file created at install runs steam-native but is named 'Steam (Native)'. The package name is 'steam-runtime-native'

So I indeed did get it the right way round. Generally speaking I do use the Native client, that is using the system binaries the majority of the time and have played hundreds of hours between 3-4 big AAA games using it without issues, of which I count Satisfactory among them. This was just letting the world know if they try to launch the game via steam-native AKA Steam(Native) AKA steam-runtime-native then it just broke today. If on the other hand they choose to use the more stable steam AKA Steam(Runtime) AKA steam then it still works just fine. I think you just got the package name in the repository vs the installed binary name reversed when I referred to Steam as Steam Runtime (Notice no using the native) because that's what it refers to itself as when you install it.

BTW I use KDE, when you install Steam on Arch, does it not apply the (Native) and (Runtime) suffix to the *.desktop files? I have only been using GNU/Linux as my 100% OS for just under a year and I don't care for Gnome and I haven't even tried a tiler yet but from what I have tried XFCE, Cinnamon, etc, they all get the same *.desktop files installed and so they all use the same naming convention, unless I am misremembering.

Anyways, Have a great day!

[Bedna]

Straight from the WIKI. if you start 'steam' it launches steam with its prepacked binaries. The *.desktop file created at install runs just steam but is named 'Steam (Runtime)'. The package name is just 'steam'

Where is this on the wiki?
Are you an AI hallucinating things?
I literally linked to the wiki stating the correct facts.
Maybe you have a hard time reading, so I copy/paste it again:

Enable the multilib repository and install the steam package (recommended) or alternatively the steam-native-runtime package for running Steam with native system libraries. See /Troubleshooting#Steam runtime.

Or maybe I also have to click the link and post for you to understand:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/Troubleshooting#Steam_native_runtime

Warning: Using the Steam native runtime is not recommended as it might break some games due to binary incompatibility and it might miss some libraries present in the Steam runtime.

Instead of graciously taking this as a learning moment, you felt like trying to defend yourself by making up lies. faceslap

It seems you don't understand the difference between steam (just a symlink to steam-runtime), steam-runtime and steam-native-runtime.

when you install Steam on Arch, does it not apply the (Native) and (Runtime) suffix to the *.desktop files?

IDK and IDC, i run the application "directly" (via symlink steam), I very rarely check any .desktop file for any application.
Again, STEAM IS JUST A SYMLINK TO STEAM-RUNTIME!

$ which steam
/usr/bin/steam

$ ls -l /usr/bin/steam*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 22 11:52 /usr/bin/steam -> /usr/bin/steam-runtime
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Aug 22 11:52 /usr/bin/steamdeps -> /usr/bin/true
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 41 Aug 22 11:52 /usr/bin/steam-runtime

$ cat /usr/bin/steam-runtime
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/lib/steam/steam "$@"

You are completely wrong.

[cammelspit]

It's okay to be incorrect, you don't have to get so defensive. Native is the one with system libraries, the other is pre packaged binaries for those libraries. I've said it three times now, not very complicated just Google it if you don't believe me. The arck wiki also confirms the "native" is the one using your systems "native" libraries.

Read the documentation my dude, it's plain as day. Just take a breath, it's okay. You don't have to pop a blood vessel. Here, since you don't wanna click the wiki and read the first little blurb I'll quote it here.

"Enable the multilib repository and install the steam package (recommended) or alternatively the steam-native-runtime package for running Steam with native system libraries."

See?

pacman -S steam

This gives you normal steam, prepackaged libraries. Following so far?

pacman -S steam-native-runtime

This is also steam, this uses system manages libraries, or to put it another way it uses "Native runtimes".

Native = native
Absence of native = not native

A runtime is another word for library so a native library is native, to your machine. I don't know how much clearer I can be here. I can only get you so far here dude. At some point you have to just Google it.

Here is a reddit post that pretty succinctly explains it. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/w9r6a4/steam_runtime_or_steam_native_are_there_any_major/

Arch and Garuda have the same packages both, only Garuda installs both by default on a basic installation so you will find a lot of people talking about it in the context of Garuda. Personally I have them both installed for no particular reason. However, I do find that they both can have very different behavior when I'm having issues and need to troubleshoot something, particularly when trying to get a game to run that has little or no documentation, even on protondb and so it's handy. A few months ago I had a frame time issue with gamescope when using the NON-native version that was fine in the Native one so I started using it as my primary steam version. It's worked out great for the most part.

You are just confusing yourself by getting all hopped up on terminology. Dial it back and let the good times roll. I just spent like 5 hours jetting round my factory having a blast, you should too it's good for ya, infinitely relaxing. Life is far to short to be pedantic, insulting and borderline aggressive when you just got a term mixed up. I do find the AI comment amusing, and AI wouldn't actually link you anywhere, it would just say 'check the Arch documentation if you have further questions'.

[Caleon]

I guess it's something in your machine, arch+steam native runs satisfactory almost perfect here. There's a crash after I exit the game, something related to vulkan, but only happens when I quit so doesn't matter to me.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Caleon:

I guess it's something in your machine, arch+steam native runs satisfactory almost perfect here. There's a crash after I exit the game, something related to vulkan, but only happens when I quit so doesn't matter to me.

Very interesting. Thanks for testing it!

[Man's Best Friend]

Originally posted by Caleon:

I guess it's something in your machine, arch+steam native runs satisfactory almost perfect here. There's a crash after I exit the game, something related to vulkan, but only happens when I quit so doesn't matter to me.

Pretty sure that's entirely unrelated to the specific flavor of Linux. I get it too on Debian. Like you said though, it's on exit, so who really cares? Though it is interesting that if you click OK to close, it takes a few minutes to actually close, but if you click Cancel to invoke the debugger it just closes instantly.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Man's Best Friend:

Originally posted by Caleon:

I guess it's something in your machine, arch+steam native runs satisfactory almost perfect here. There's a crash after I exit the game, something related to vulkan, but only happens when I quit so doesn't matter to me.

Pretty sure that's entirely unrelated to the specific flavor of Linux. I get it too on Debian. Like you said though, it's on exit, so who really cares? Though it is interesting that if you click OK to close, it takes a few minutes to actually close, but if you click Cancel to invoke the debugger it just closes instantly.

Funny you should see this behavior. I intentionally haven't played SF since update 7 I believe so i could be wowed and amazed by the game. At the time, I was running Windows and this precise thing happened since I bought the the day it became available on Steam in early access. I tested it on the Deck and Linux a couple times but not longer than a few minutes and had similar crash on exit behavior you describe. Now that it's 1.0 and I am playing it in earnest again, I haven't had a single crash on exit yet, just one or two freezes mid game play but admittedly I did have a YouTube video playing on top of the game, music in the background, a terminal running an update, OBS recording, and a partridge in a pear tree for good measure. <- for internet reasons, that last one is a joke. Really, I kinda expected it to have died long before but it held up valiantly to my shenanigans or 'stress test',

[Bedna]

From the arch wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/Troubleshooting#Steam_native_runtime

Warning: Using the Steam native runtime is not recommended as it might break some games due to binary incompatibility and it might miss some libraries present in the Steam runtime.

Originally posted by cammelspit:

It's okay to be incorrect, you don't have to get so defensive.

Yes it is absolutely ok, and you are incorrect. Not only that, what you "recommend" others to do is directly harmful.
And my reaction is because when I see direct false information that will HURT OTHERS IF THEY FOLLOW RECOMMENDATION, I speak up.

[Zenobius]

Originally posted by Bedna:

From the arch wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/Troubleshooting#Steam_native_runtime

Warning: Using the Steam native runtime is not recommended as it might break some games due to binary incompatibility and it might miss some libraries present in the Steam runtime.

can you please test this @Bedna. start from a fresh install too.

for science.

i need to know who is wrong.

[Awayward]

Originally posted by Bedna:

Straight from the WIKI. if you start 'steam' it launches steam with its prepacked binaries. The *.desktop file created at install runs just steam but is named 'Steam (Runtime)'. The package name is just 'steam'

Where is this on the wiki?
Are you an AI hallucinating things?
I literally linked to the wiki stating the correct facts.
Maybe you have a hard time reading, so I copy/paste it again:

Enable the multilib repository and install the steam package (recommended) or alternatively the steam-native-runtime package for running Steam with native system libraries. See /Troubleshooting#Steam runtime.

Or maybe I also have to click the link and post for you to understand:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/Troubleshooting#Steam_native_runtime

Warning: Using the Steam native runtime is not recommended as it might break some games due to binary incompatibility and it might miss some libraries present in the Steam runtime.

Instead of graciously taking this as a learning moment, you felt like trying to defend yourself by making up lies. faceslap

It seems you don't understand the difference between steam (just a symlink to steam-runtime), steam-runtime and steam-native-runtime.

when you install Steam on Arch, does it not apply the (Native) and (Runtime) suffix to the *.desktop files?

IDK and IDC, i run the application "directly" (via symlink steam), I very rarely check any .desktop file for any application.
Again, STEAM IS JUST A SYMLINK TO STEAM-RUNTIME!

$ which steam
/usr/bin/steam

$ ls -l /usr/bin/steam*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Aug 22 11:52 /usr/bin/steam -> /usr/bin/steam-runtime
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Aug 22 11:52 /usr/bin/steamdeps -> /usr/bin/true
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 41 Aug 22 11:52 /usr/bin/steam-runtime

$ cat /usr/bin/steam-runtime
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/lib/steam/steam "$@"

You are completely wrong.

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love arch users. faceslap lmao

[GI Ged]

Originally posted by Caleon:

I guess it's something in your machine, arch+steam native runs satisfactory almost perfect here. There's a crash after I exit the game, something related to vulkan, but only happens when I quit so doesn't matter to me.

this error is also in ubuntu 24.04 LTS, can be avoided by going first to the main menue and close SF via steam library

[cammelspit]

Personally I have found that I get better performance if I use the DX12 backend instead of vulkan, even considering the extra layer of abstraction present. It also doesn't lock up at all or crash for me under DX12 but does when I use the Vulkan native renderer. Though having the game freeze 3 times in 262 hours since 1.0 is a FAR cry from an issue in the grand scheme of Linux gaming. Oh, and my original issue with the native libraries cleared itself up after a couple days of Arch updates so that's a thing....

[Kage Goomba]

That awkward moment where the OP ignores the Wiki(s)....

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

That awkward moment where the OP ignores the Wiki(s)....

That awkward moment you realize you didn't read the wiki OR the OP. lol