Steam hangs on startup (double free or corruption, apparently due to unsafe call to unsetenv, var:'DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID')

[Nightfirecat]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Unknown (console log says updater built Feb 7 2025 00:16:31)
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Debian 12
• Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• GPU: Nvidia/Intel/AMD

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Steam hangs when launching after having downloaded a new launcher. The contents of console-linux.log seem to indicate that this is caused by an unsafe call to unsetenv. (for DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID)
The following crash dump was created in /tmp/dumps: dumps.tar.gz

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Attempt to launch Steam
2. Observe that it hangs

[themoonisacheese]

Same issue here:

• Steam client version (build number or date): updater built Feb 7 2025 00:16:31
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Debian 12
• Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• GPU: AMD
• dump:crash_20250208175705_5.tar.gz

[gurubert]

After re-installing Steam it works again: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=439808

[Nightfirecat]

After re-installing Steam it works again: forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=439808

This seems to do the trick. Copying the commands from the thread for visibility here:

sudo apt-get remove steam steam-launcher steam-installer
sudo apt-get purge steam steam-launcher steam-installer
rm -rf ~/.local/share/Steam && rm -rf ~/.steam*
cd Downloads/
sudo dpkg -i steam_latest.deb 
steam --clearbeta

Importantly, skipping rm -rf ~/.steam* caused the reinstall to not be successful, that appears to be a necessary step.

[themoonisacheese]

note that rm -rf ~/.steam* will also delete any game installed in the default location. for me, this is a dealbreaker as i have about 1Tb in there (that being said some spring cleaning might be in order)

[Quicksilver151]

same issue. ill try to reinstall

note that rm -rf ~/.steam* will also delete any game installed in the default location. for me, this is a dealbreaker as i have about 1Tb in there (that being said some spring cleaning might be in order)

move your ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps folder elsewhere

[themoonisacheese]

@Quicksilver151 i ended up eating the deletion anyway, it freed up space used by games "i might play again someday". The only loss i have to report is my f.e.a.r. 3 savegame, everything else was saved by steam cloud.

[Quicksilver151]

k sadly reinstall didnt work for me

i continue to get error:

XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf7534780
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf7533050
ERROR: unsafe call to unsetenv count:1 var:'DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID'
double free or corruption (out)
crash_20250311203818_4.dmp[40679]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
/tmp/dumps/crash_20250311203818_4.dmp
/home/renderinguser/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 946: 40662 Aborted                 (core dumped) "$STEAMROOT/$STEAMEXEPATH" "$@"
renderinguser@renderinguser-vivobook:~/Downloads$ crash_20250311203818_4.dmp[40679]: Finished uploading minidump (out-of-process): success = yes
crash_20250311203818_4.dmp[40679]: response: CrashID=bp-53975712-a740-4d12-a958-9c24a2250311
crash_20250311203818_4.dmp[40679]: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20250311203818_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-53975712-a740-4d12-a958-9c24a2250311''

i dont test the beta. so i feel like the breaking changes in the beta just made it into the new normal update and now --clearbeta doesnt do anything

[themoonisacheese]

My install, which was previously fixed, is now broken again. the steps in this post did not fix it again.

dump

[wedesoft]

Same here, extract from .local/share/Steam/logs/console-linux.txt:

[2025-03-11 19:08:47] Steam logging initialized: directory: /home/steam/.local/share/Steam/logs
[2025-03-11 19:08:47]
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf7532780
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf7531050
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] ERROR: unsafe call to unsetenv count:1 var:'DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID'
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] double free or corruption (out)
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] crash_20250311190847_5.dmp[2069]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] /tmp/dumps/crash_20250311190847_5.dmp
[2025-03-11 19:08:47] /home/steam/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 946:  2055 Aborted                 (core dumped) "$STEAMROOT/$STEAMEXEPATH" "$@"
[2025-03-11 18:05:09] crash_20250311190847_5.dmp[2069]: Finished uploading minidump (out-of-process): success = yes
[2025-03-11 18:05:09] crash_20250311190847_5.dmp[2069]: response: CrashID=bp-60d5206a-d257-4728-98bd-8983b2250311
[2025-03-11 18:05:09] crash_20250311190847_5.dmp[2069]: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20250311190847_5.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-60d5206a-d257-4728-98bd-8983b2250311''

This is on Debian 12 (bookworm).

steam@wedetux:~/.steam$ neofetch
       _,met$$$$$gg.          steam@wedetux
    ,g$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P.       -------------
  ,g$$P"     """Y$$.".        OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) x86_64
 ,$$P'              `$$$.     Host: TUXEDO Aura 15 Gen1
',$$P       ,ggs.     `$$b:   Kernel: 6.1.0-31-amd64
`d$$'     ,$P"'   .    $$$    Uptime: 12 mins
 $$P      d$'     ,    $$P    Packages: 3482 (dpkg)
 $$:      $$.   -    ,d$$'    Shell: bash 5.2.15
 $$;      Y$b._   _,d$P'      Resolution: 1920x1080
 Y$$.    `.`"Y$$$$P"'         DE: Plasma 5.27.5
 `$$b      "-.__              WM: KWin
  `Y$$                        WM Theme: Aritim-Dark
   `Y$$.                      Theme: [Plasma], Breeze [GTK2/3]
     `$$b.                    Icons: [Plasma], breeze [GTK2/3]
       `Y$$b.                 Terminal: alacritty
          `"Y$b._             CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics (8) @ 2.000GHz
              `"""            GPU: AMD ATI 05:00.0 Renoir
                              Memory: 2152MiB / 15355MiB

[wedesoft]

Ok I found a workaround in another issue. I run steam as follows:

LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 steam -no-cef-sandbox

Then I had to enter and exit big picture mode to get the GUI to display. (see issue #11807)
You can also launch games from the tray icon instead of entering and exiting big picture mode.
Update: tried to play Civ 6 but it seems to disable hardware acceleration for the game as well.

[themoonisacheese]

@wedesoft extremely annoying but at least i can play. thanks!

[regggo]

Replying to #11736 (comment)

That worked without going into big-pic mod on the first go. But on a reload it went into a black window (presumably big-pic mode) that i had to kill the process to get out of.

Tried a flatpak with com.valvesoftware.Steam and that started steam no problem, but...on a reload, any mouse-over of the steam-launcher caused it to crash, auto-restart and crash in a never-ending loop.

[lostgoat]

There is a fix for this issue in the beta client, you can opt into beta via the terminal by running the following commands after closing steam:

echo publicbeta > ~/.steam/steam/package/beta && steam

[lostgoat]

The fix should now be in stable.

[wedesoft]

Thanks for the fix!