I’ve been having this issue with not being able to launch Steam on my laptop without using the terminal since switching from Windows a week ago. I open Steam, everything seems like it’s working, then once it launches, it crashes, then launches again, and repeats that cycle until I kill it in system monitor. The only way I’ve been able to get it to actually open was by typing “steam” in the terminal. My best guess is that it’s user error, or maybe because I originally downloaded it from Rpmfusion, then Flatpak, then Fedora itself. Really stuck on this currently, any help is appreciated!
Can you show the output of these two commands?
dnf list --installed steam
flatpak list | grep -i steam
These are the outputs I got:
dnf list --installed steam
Installed packages
steam.i686 1.0.0.85-2.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-steam
flatpak list | grep -i steam
[no output]
Great, so you have only the RPMFusion-packaged Steam installed and not the Flatpak.
So I wonder what happens when you run it from your desktop environment’s app launcher, vs when you run it from your terminal.
On your system, is there a file at ~/.local/share/applications/steam.desktop (where ~ is your home directory)?
If so, what do you see in its first section (starting with [Desktop Entry] and stopping at [Desktop Action Store] ?
In the standard file (which can be found at /usr/share/applications/steam.desktop), this looks like:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam
...... here I snipped out a bunch of "Comment" lines in different languages, those aren't important
Exec=/usr/bin/steam %U
Icon=steam
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;Game;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/steam;x-scheme-handler/steamlink;
Actions=Store;Community;Library;Servers;Screenshots;News;Settings;BigPicture;Friends;
PrefersNonDefaultGPU=true
X-KDE-RunOnDiscreteGpu=true
I get this
Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam
[comments edited out]
Exec=/usr/bin/steam %U
Icon=steam
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;Game;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/steam;x-scheme-handler/steamlink;
Actions=Store;Community;Library;Servers;Screenshots;News;Settings;BigPicture;Friends;
PrefersNonDefaultGPU=true
X-KDE-RunOnDiscreteGpu=true
One thing I might add though, it launches correctly after opening a game through the desktop environment
Steam writes a pile of logging into files located into ~/.local/share/Steam/logs. Might be worth cleaning that directory out, launching it from the desktop icon and seeing what gets written into that location.
The cef_log.txt might prove useful.
I wasn’t able to find either of those on my laptop. Anywhere else I should look?
You don’t have ~/.local/share/Steam/logs on your machine, but you have Steam installed from an rpm and you’ve been running it?
Where is it installed?
It’s really weird, and I’ve found files for it in several different locations, but one I found was in
/usr/lib/steam/
open a terminal and run ls -al ~/.local/share/Steam/logs (it’s case sensitive, so copy and paste this)
You should get a pile of file dumped back on screen, like so:
Permissions Size User Date Modified Name
drwxr-xr-x@ - steve 19 Mar 14:50 .
drwx------@ - steve 20 Mar 19:05 ..
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.5M steve 20 Mar 18:59 appinfo_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.1M steve 20 Mar 19:05 bootstrap_log.txt
.rw-r--r--@ 319k steve 20 Mar 19:05 cef_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 608k steve 20 Mar 18:59 client_networkmanager.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.0M steve 9 Feb 20:07 cloud_log.previous.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.0M steve 20 Mar 19:01 cloud_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 8.4M steve 30 Dec 2025 compat_log.previous.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 7.7M steve 20 Mar 18:59 compat_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.4M steve 20 Mar 19:05 configstore_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 3.5M steve 20 Mar 19:05 connection_log.txt
.rw-r--r--@ 8.4M steve 13 Jan 20:36 console-linux.previous.txt
.rw-r--r--@ 1.8M steve 20 Mar 19:05 console-linux.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 524k steve 9 Mar 10:12 console_log.previous.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 321k steve 20 Mar 18:59 console_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 4.2M steve 10 Jun 2025 content_log.previous.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.5M steve 20 Mar 18:59 content_log.txt
.rwxr-xr-x@ 1.8M steve 20 Mar 19:05 controller.txt
Won’t look exactly like mine, unless you have the same alias for ls but the gist of it should be the same.
Got that, does indeed look very similar.
what should I do next?
ok - that’s all of the output written by steam when you fire it up. It’s ephemeral.
Therefore, I’d:
- Ensure steam is not running.
- Clean it out (as there’s buckloads in there) with
rm ~/.local/share/Steam/logs/*.txt - Start steam up from the application laucher, which should go into its endless restart cycle you described earlier.
- Stop it.
- Eyeball some of that output, especially
cef_log.txtandconsole-linux.txt, looking for whatever it’s not happy about badly enough to shut down and restart.
Okay, I know that those files exist where they’re supposed to, but Dolphin is giving me the error that the folder does not exist, even though it’s giving me info on how many folders and files there are. I’ll try to download another file explorer and get the files from there.
absolutely nothing.
The files exist, but even the terminal is saying that the location doesn’t exist.
No idea what’s going on here
Copy and paste your output and the command.
Steve
Found the files!
They were in my home folder, in a hidden .steam folder.
Absolutely no idea what ay of this means so I’ll post it here in the meantime
cef_log.txt
[28895:28895:0320/142142.598126:WARNING:chrome_main_delegate.cc(748)] This is Chrome version 126.0.6478.183 (not a warning)
[28895:28895:0320/142142.642235:INFO:crash_reporting.cc(238)] Crash reporting enabled for process: browser
[28895:28895:0320/142142.650646:WARNING:task_impl.cc(31)] No task runner for threadId 0
[28895:28895:0320/142142.653062:WARNING:task_impl.cc(31)] No task runner for threadId 0
[28895:28895:0320/142143.098991:WARNING:account_consistency_mode_manager.cc(77)] Desktop Identity Consistency cannot be enabled as no OAuth client ID and client secret have been configured.
[28979:28979:0320/142143.143602:INFO:crash_reporting.cc(238)] Crash reporting enabled for process: utility
[28895:28895:0320/142143.183314:WARNING:bluez_dbus_manager.cc(248)] Floss manager not present, cannot set Floss enable/disable.
[28895:28895:0320/142143.394624:WARNING:browser_management_service.cc(128)] EnterpriseLogoUrl fetch failed with error code -1 and MIME type
[28895:28895:0320/142145.381843:ERROR:atom_cache.cc(229)] Add STEAM_GAME to kAtomsToCache
[29499:29499:0320/142155.744435:WARNING:chrome_main_delegate.cc(748)] This is Chrome version 126.0.6478.183 (not a warning)
[29499:29499:0320/142155.784627:INFO:crash_reporting.cc(238)] Crash reporting enabled for process: browser
[29499:29499:0320/142155.794022:WARNING:task_impl.cc(31)] No task runner for threadId 0
[29499:29499:0320/142155.796259:WARNING:task_impl.cc(31)] No task runner for threadId 0
[29499:29499:0320/142156.346502:WARNING:account_consistency_mode_manager.cc(77)] Desktop Identity Consistency cannot be enabled as no OAuth client ID and client secret have been configured.
[29604:29604:0320/142156.388671:INFO:crash_reporting.cc(238)] Crash reporting enabled for process: utility
[29499:29499:0320/142156.445779:WARNING:bluez_dbus_manager.cc(248)] Floss manager not present, cannot set Floss enable/disable.
[29499:29499:0320/142156.667655:WARNING:browser_management_service.cc(128)] EnterpriseLogoUrl fetch failed with error code -1 and MIME type
[29499:29499:0320/142158.935234:ERROR:atom_cache.cc(229)] Add STEAM_GAME to kAtomsToCache
console-linux.txt
[2026-03-20 14:21:39-0500] srt-logger[28511]: Log opened
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] steam.sh[28499]: Running Steam on fedora 43 64-bit
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] steam.sh[28499]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] setup.sh[28557]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] steam.sh[28499]: Log already open
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] steam.sh[28499]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Startup - updater built Mar 13 2026 01:52:12
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/lochlann/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-srt-logger-opened'
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] 03/20 14:21:39 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] 03/20 14:21:39 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1773426488)/tid(28605)
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/lochlann/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] 1. https://client-update.fastly.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 900, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] 2. https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 400, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] 3. https://client-update.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Verifying installation...
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Verifying file sizes only
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Process started with command-line: '/home/lochlann/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-child-update-ui' '-child-update-ui-socket' '8' '-srt-logger-opened'
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] 03/20 14:21:39 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Using update UI: console
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] 03/20 14:21:39 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(0)/tid(28606)
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Create window
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Set percent complete: 0
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Set percent complete: -1
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Set status message: Verifying installation...
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [----] Verifying installation...
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Verification complete
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] UpdateUI: skip show logo
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] Destroy window
[2026-03-20 14:21:39]
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] Steam logging initialized: directory: /home/lochlann/.local/share/Steam/logs
[2026-03-20 14:21:39]
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] ProcessNextMessage: socket disconnected
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] [2026-03-20 14:21:39] No more messages are expected - exiting
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] XOpenIM() failed, LANG = en_US.UTF-8
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] XOpenIM() failed, LANG = en_US.UTF-8XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf5f0a090
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf5f08800
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] 03/20 14:21:39 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] 03/20 14:21:39 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steamsysinfo)/version(1773426488)/tid(28629)
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] Running query: 1 - GpuTopology
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] Response: gpu_topology {
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] gpus {
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] id: 1
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] name: "AMD Radeon RX Graphics (RADV POLARIS11)"
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] vram_size_bytes: 4294967296
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_id: k_EGpuDriverId_MesaRadv
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_version_major: 25
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_version_minor: 3
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_version_patch: 6
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] luid: 0
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] }
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] gpus {
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] id: 2
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] name: "AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics (RADV RAVEN)"
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] vram_size_bytes: 5913403392
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_id: k_EGpuDriverId_MesaRadv
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_version_major: 25
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_version_minor: 3
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] driver_version_patch: 6
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] luid: 0
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] }
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] default_gpu_id: 1
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] }
[2026-03-20 14:21:39]
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] Exit code: 0
[2026-03-20 14:21:39] Saving response to: /tmp/steammgokie - 126 bytes
[2026-03-20 14:21:40] Steam Runtime Launch Service: starting steam-runtime-launcher-service
[2026-03-20 14:21:40] Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service is running pid 28789
[2026-03-20 14:21:40] bus_name=com.steampowered.PressureVessel.LaunchAlongsideSteam
[2026-03-20 14:21:45] /usr/share/themes/Breeze-Dark/gtk-2.0/widgets/entry:70: error: unexpected identifier 'direction', expected character '}'
[2026-03-20 14:21:45] /usr/share/themes/Breeze-Dark/gtk-2.0/widgets/styles:36: error: invalid string constant "combobox_entry", expected valid string constant
[2026-03-20 14:21:50] Desktop state changed: desktop: { pos: 0, 0 size: 1920,1080 } primary: { pos: 0, 0 size: 1920,1080 }
[2026-03-20 14:21:50] Caching cursor image for , size 40x40, serial 3, cache size = 0
[2026-03-20 14:21:52] fsync: up and running.
[2026-03-20 14:21:53] reaping pid: 28606 -- steam
[2026-03-20 14:21:55] Fossilize INFO: Overriding serialization path: "/home/lochlann/.local/share/Steam/shader_cache_temp_dir_d3d11_64/fozpipelinesv6/steamapprun_pipeline_cache".
[2026-03-20 14:21:59] fsync: up and running.
[2026-03-20 14:22:02] Fossilize INFO: Overriding serialization path: "/home/lochlann/.local/share/Steam/shader_cache_temp_dir_d3d12_64/fozpipelinesv6/steamapprun_pipeline_cache".
Absolutely no idea what ay of this means so I’ll post it here in the meantime
Nah - I meant the command you were using to try to find these files and clean them out. I was expecting you to be typing something like “steam” instead of “Steam”.
It IS a hidden folder in your home directory - the “~” means “my home” and the “.local” directory begins with a period, which means it’s hidden from browsers unless you turn on “show hidden files”.
checks out, thanks for the clarification
Do you, by any chance, happen to have a machine with an iGPU?
Can you try disabling it in the BIOS and running Steam from the app launcher with it disabled?
1 Like
From what I can tell in the logs, it looks like an issue with Chrome? Not entirely sure though.