Steam is not showing GUI after launch: using iGPU or dGPU? (contains solution and bonus question)

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1

I’m unable to launch Steam - or at least its GUI. It definitely starts, and even updates given the case, but the GUI somehow crashes, while its processes stay alive though:

Screenshot_20240501_135425

Starting from the terminal, it says this:

~$ steam
steam.sh[27050]: Running Steam on fedora 40 64-bit
steam.sh[27050]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[27123]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[27050]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
tid(27167) burning pthread_key_t == 0 so we never use it

All not too helpful - but searching for that last line brought me to this topic in the steam forums
Apparently, the desktop launcher has a launch option to use the dedicated GPU - not visible in th application tab of the .desktop editor:

Screenshot_20240501_141753
Screenshot_20240501_141753669×665 49.8 KB

…but under Andvanced Options:

Screenshot_20240501_141954
Screenshot_20240501_141954442×598 37 KB

Of course, you’d want it to run using the dedicated GPU, but disabling this option now lets me start the GUI! I thought I’d leave this discovery here for other people experiencing the same problem - but a question is still left:

Is it now launching all the games using the iGPU? It seems likely, because the same issue has been regarding the games, when launched from a desktop shorcut: They wouldn’t run before, but are working now that I disabled the discrete GPU option - only for the Steam client, not the games themselves!
It would also explain why the dGPU apparently let me down in the more demanding games (for which it should still be plenty powerful enough, no AAA titles by a long shot) - it simply wasn’t handling the game, the iGPU was.

  1. How can I tell if the game is using the iGPU or dGPU?
  2. Is there/should there be a difference when launching games from the Steam client vs. via desktop shortcuts?

system info:

~$ inxi --graphics
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6600/6600 XT/6600M]
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Device-2: AMD Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile
    Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Device-3: Microsoft Microsoft LifeCam Cinema
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland
    v: 23.2.6 compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa dri: radeonsi
    gpu: amdgpu,amdgpu resolution: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: radeonsi,swrast
    platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.0.6
    renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6600M (radeonsi navi23 LLVM 18.1.1 DRM
    3.57 6.8.7-300.fc40.x86_64)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.280 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
2

Theoretically steam should use the dGPU. That one is higher powered and dedicated for graphics use.

The one thing that sticks out is that you are using Wayland and it is known that steam & wayland do not play well together at this time. Have you by chance tried using steam on X11 instead? It appears many see improvement when using X11.

3

I have been successfully using Steam on wayland with amdgpu.

4

Some have differing experiences.

5

That was my point in replying. Some have problems, some do not.
So details will matter to find out why.

6

Any more details that I might supply?
I really don’t want to go back to X11, it’ll just break other functionality that I want working. While I honestly appreciate(!) the helpful intentions, I’m getting kind of tired of this scenario - whenever some graphics issue occurs, someone goes “just switch back to X11”. This shouldn’t be regarded as a fix anymore, especially when Wayland is default like in Fedora. Instead, we should work to find the things that are still causing problems in Wayland.
One good step forward might be an answer to my specific question

7

It is not and has not been a fix. It is a work around and should be considered a valid reason to file a bug report against the app that has this problem when using wayland.

Users drive development and without bug reports to inform the developers of specific apps when there is a documented issue changes do not occur.

It is up to you (everyone who has this type problem) to assist in improvement of these issues.

8

Post the output of inxi -Fzxx which will describe your system.

9 
~$ inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.8.7-300.fc40.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 2.41-34.fc40
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.0.4 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland
    dm: SDDM Distro: Fedora Linux 40 (KDE Plasma)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Micro (HK) Tech product: HX80G v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Shenzhen Meigao Equipment model: F6BBA
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC.
    v: 0.22 date: 12/13/2022
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics
    bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 512 KiB
    L2: 4 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1051 high: 2548 min/max: 400/4463 cores:
    1: 1574 2: 400 3: 400 4: 1854 5: 1891 6: 400 7: 400 8: 1432
    9: 400 10: 2123 11: 400 12: 400 13: 1800 14: 400 15: 400
    16: 2548 bogomips: 102217
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
    ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6600/6600 XT/6600M]
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-2,
    Writeback-1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73ff
  Device-2: AMD Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile
    Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 pcie:
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none empty: HDMI-A-3
    bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1638 temp: 39.0 C
  Device-3: Microsoft Microsoft LifeCam Cinema
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-2:2 chip-ID: 045e:0812
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland
    v: 23.2.6 compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa dri: radeonsi
    gpu: amdgpu,amdgpu display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 res: 1920x1080 size: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1
    drv: radeonsi device: 2 drv: swrast gbm: drv: radeonsi
    surfaceless: drv: radeonsi wayland: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.0.6
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6600M
    (radeonsi navi23 LLVM 18.1.1 DRM 3.57 6.8.7-300.fc40.x86_64)
    device-ID: 1002:73ff display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.280 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 0
    type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A device-ID: 1002:73ff device: 1
    type: integrated-gpu driver: N/A device-ID: 1002:1638 device: 2
    type: cpu driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:ab28
  Device-2: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 07:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637
  Device-3: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor driver: N/A
    pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 07:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2
  Device-4: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Realtek
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 07:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
  Device-5: Microsoft Microsoft LifeCam Cinema
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-2:2 chip-ID: 045e:0812
  Device-6: C-Media Audio Adapter (Unitek Y-247A)
    driver: cmedia_hs100b,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-4:3 chip-ID: 0d8c:0014
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.7-300.fc40.x86_64 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 4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I226-V driver: igc v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 04:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:125c
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: MEDIATEK MT7921K Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz driver: mt7921e
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 05:00.0
    chip-ID: 14c3:0608
  IF: wlp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: MediaTek Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-4:4
    chip-ID: 0e8d:0608
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 5.2 lmp-v: 11
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 663.59 GiB (35.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD Blue SN570 2TB size: 1.82 TiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4
    serial: <filter> temp: 35.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 1.82 TiB used: 663.23 GiB (35.6%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 353.6 MiB (36.3%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 19 MiB (3.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 1.82 TiB used: 663.23 GiB (35.6%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 3.75 GiB (46.9%)
    priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: 40.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
  GPU: device: amdgpu temp: 35.0 C device: amdgpu temp: 34.0 C
    mem: 36.0 C fan: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.04 GiB
    used: 6.62 GiB (44.0%)
  Processes: 448 Power: uptime: 5h 14m wakeups: 3 Init: systemd
    v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: flatpak pkgs: 69 Compilers: N/A Shell: Bash
    v: 5.2.26 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.34
10

I wonder if the issue is that you have 2 GPUs and Stream is using the weaker one?
I’m not sure how you force the use of the RX6600.

11

On my steam install the right click on the icon allows entering the setup where the interface can be configured, along with hardware acceleration, etc.