Couldn't set up Steam data - please contact technical support

[s3ns3i]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1.0.0.82
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Fedora
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: none
• GPU: AMD

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

I installed the Steam client on Fedora 41 by using their store and it installed a rpmfusion-nonfree-steam.rpm package.
When I tried to launch Steam for the first time, I got an error with this message:
"Couldn't set up Steam data - please contact technical support"

I fixed the problem by changing one line in the /usr/lib/steam/bin_steam.sh file:

STEAMDATALINK="$STEAMCONFIG/$STEAMPACKAGE"

changed to:

STEAMDATALINK="$STEAMCONFIG/$STEAMPACKAGE/Steam"

Because the script looked into .steam/steam/ubuntu12_32 folder and in my case it was .steam/steam/Steam/ubuntu12_32.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Install Steam using Fedora's Software
2. Choose the rpmfusion-nonfree-steam package, and not Flathub
3. When Steam installs, try to run it

[TTimo]

(cc @smcv - looks like distributions modifying our packaging is causing issues again)

[smcv]

the script looked into .steam/steam/ubuntu12_32 folder and in my case it was .steam/steam/Steam/ubuntu12_32

This sounds like Fedora (or maybe just this one user) might perhaps have installed Steam into ~/.steam/steam/Steam instead of the usual ~/.local/share/Steam?

STEAMDATALINK="$STEAMCONFIG/$STEAMPACKAGE/Steam"

This is not how it's meant to work. Normally ~/.steam/steam and ~/.steam/root are meant to both be symbolic links pointing to the Steam installation directory, which is the directory that contains files and directories like steam.sh and ubuntu12_32/.

[smcv]

Please report this to the supplier of the rpmfusion-nonfree-steam RPM package, which is not directly controlled by Valve.