I have a few issues with steam and steam games.
I'll start with my laptop's specs:
Acer-Aspire-E5-722G
- Operating system : Kubuntu 26.04
- Kernel: 7.0.0-29 generic
- CPU: AMD A8-7410 APU with 4 cores
- Memory : 6.72GB DDR3 (supposed to be 8)
- Storage: WD HDD with 931.51GB
- Graphics device 1 : AMD Radeon(TM) R5 M335
- Graphics device 2 : AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics (iGPU)
Issue 1: I have installed steam and it ran once but now it crashes if i try to open it (I can share the crash logs) and it works fine if I run it in terminal (I just type steam in Konsole and hit enter).
Issue 2: I installed Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 on my laptop and I ran it once and I had to turn the settings way down for decent frames but I got it playable, when I try to open it it doesn't crash it just take forever (I waited foor 20 minutes and it didn't open). Here is what I have tried:
-
I switched Poton version form experimental to the latest stable version (9.0-4)
-
I added
to CSM 18 launch options settings in steam
Here is a picture of where it gets stuck
Issue 3 (I don't know if this one is solvable): I used to have Windows 10 on this laptop and I could play American Truck Simulator on it with low settings, but on Kubuntu it doesn't launch.
Thanks in advance.
If you need more information just ask and i'll try to provide it.
UPDATE: All of the issues have been solved (mostly)
Issue 1: I disabled "GPU acceleration" and “smooth scrolling in web views”
Issue 2: I used this fix from ProtonDB: Set launch options to PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Issue 3: I used this fix from ProtonDB: Set launch options to PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% however my laptop doesn't have enough RAM and steam was closed by the kernel
Issue 1: Seems like some people have also had luck disabling both of those options instead, try that as well if you haven't already.
Issue 2: Glad that one is resolved.
Issue 3: Are you using mods for this game? If so try disabling/uninstalling all of them real quick to make sure it launches without them.
If nothing else works you can also try a clean install of the game. This may require that you uninstall it, delete everything leftover for this game in the /steamapp/common/ folder. That being said I'm not sure how big this game is and if you're on a metered connection or not, so I would recommend saving this option for last.
Quick question, how did you install steam? Did you install steam via the repo (something like
sudo apt install steam), the app store (I think it's called app center, or snap-store on kubuntu), download the installer from steams webpage, or via flatpak/appimage/snap?Issue 1: disbling those seemed to have worked
Issue 3: I forced proton (11.0) disable my dlcs and it worked and i have re-enable a few and it still works, just have to try the rest
It appears Issue 3 isn't solved after all, it crashes now.
Try switching back to the native Linux version (disable force compatibility for proton 11.0 then update the game) and see if that works now. It's probably better to try and get that version working instead since forcing it through proton might be what's making it crash. It will also perform better.
If it's still not launching, try another game that has a native Linux version, and make sure that will launch. You can search for what games have a native Linux version via the Steam OS + Linux filter on Steam. If you don't own, or can't find any games then try Team Fortress 2 or Counter Strike 2 since they're free.
This appears to have worked but it closed and I got a notification saying the linux kernel closed steam due to low memory (or something alog those lines).
That's unfortunate. Sounds like your computer probably doesn't have enough RAM to properly play the game. The only reason it was likely working on Windows was because Windows will work, albeit very slowly, with max RAM usage, whereas Linux has tools in place (as you discovered) to avoid that, since the system will freeze of RAM usage maxes out.
Sadly there isn't really a good solution to this I can recommend besides buying and installing more RAM, which with current prices isn't the most feasible option. Not to mention it involves opening the computer itself which I have no idea how comfortable you would be doing that.
There are a few things you can do software side to try and maybe make it work, but none of it is simple and it's not guaranteed to work either. This is an issue that swapping distros could help (though it may not outright fix it) as you can install something more lightweight that uses less memory. You would likely also want to change desktop environments as KDE Plasma does consume a fair bit of memory. That being said, I have no idea how easy it is to get Steam up and running on distros designed to be lightweight, so it may involve some additional downloads that defeat the entire purpose of it being lightweight.
Another option on the software side, would be to set up a swap partition. It uses the internal storage drive as a sort of backup memory. It's not guaranteed to fix your issue either, as it comes with some limitations. I don't have experience setting up a swap partition on an already installed drive, so I wouldn't be able to walk you through it. It would probably be easier to reinstall the OS and make sure you create a swap partition at install.
If you do decide to change distros to try and free up some more system memory, some lightweight alternatives I could suggest, based on what you're currently using, are Lubuntu, or Linux Mint using XFCE or MATE. Again, I'm not sure how easy it would be to setup Steam on a lightweight distro so it's up to you if you even want to try changing distros.
Thanks for the thought out reply.
I would be fine with installing more RAM myself but with the current prices I don't think I'm going to do that.
I would be fine with changing distros, in fact I used to use Mint Cinnamon then Mint MATE (Cinnamon I had issues with freezing quite often) and now Kubuntu, but I like KDE a lot.
Looks like I may have spoken too soon about the RAM.
I decided to double check your actual laptop specs with a quick google search, and it looks like it uses DDR3L-SDRAM (I would suggest double-checking and confirming this yourself). If that's true, since it's an older type of RAM it hasn't actually been hit by the RAMpocalypse much at all and it's actually pretty cheap. I would recommend 16GB minimum for most modern gaming but make sure your laptop supports however much you decide to install.
I will try your fixes later, I installed steam fom their site (a .deb file)
It might be best to reinstall steam from the repository. It may even fix your issues. Typically 99% of the time if it's available from the repository, you want to install it from the repository rather than from any other source. You can uninstall it from your software manager (app center, snap-store or whatever it's called on kubuntu) then reinstall via the terminal or software manager. The software manager usually pulls from the same source as the command line, so it might be easier for you to use. Just be careful on ubuntu (and it's flavors) because I've seen ubuntu's software manager default to the snap version in the past (which you do not want if you can avoid it).
If uninstalling from the software manager doesn't work, you can try from the terminal.
sudo apt remove steamwould most likely work. Then just runsudo apt install steam. If for some reason the uninstall returns an error you can search the name of the package withapt list --installed | grep steamthen try again withsudo apt remove (package name).You're still doing things the Windows way.
Install it through your package manager as suggested (
sudo apt install steam), and that will also keep it up to date when you runsudo apt upgrade