this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
26 points (90.6% liked)

Linux Gaming

27122 readers
83 users here now

Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.

This page can be subscribed to via RSS.

Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.

No memes/shitposts/low-effort posts, please.

Resources

Help:

Launchers/Game Library Managers:

General:

Discord:

IRC:

Matrix:

Telegram:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
monolalia@lemmy.world
26
Steam not working properly/crashing (piefed.social)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Monkey@piefed.social to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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 Corj5g4pgE5QpOm.png

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

top 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Serious_Me@piefed.social 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Not sure why everyone is recommending you hop distros to fix these issues. Distro choice (at least among the more popular distros) rarely has any affect on gaming performance, it's usually whatever version of proton you're using that's more likely to affect performance when playing a game.

Starting with issue 1:

As someone else said, enabling GPU acceleration is likely to fix this issue. I had the same issue before and pretty sure this fixed it. You may also want to enable "smooth scrolling in web views" as well (it should be right next to the GPU acceleration option).

Issue 2:

  • This could be related to issue 1 and may be fixed when you resolve it. Still recommend you read the rest of the suggestions for this issue, it may help in the future.
  • Try changing which version of proton you're using. I recommend starting with a more recent version such as 11.0. Stable does not always mean it will run better.
  • You can also try Proton-GE. It's a community made version that has some additional features and fixes, most notably some video codex valve doesn't include for licensing reasons. It MAY work better, it may not. I usually keep the latest version installed myself so I can try it if a game is having trouble, even if I'm not actively using it. Easiest way to install this is through a program called "ProtonUp-QT" just note you may need to restart steam to see any new versions of proton you've installed. ProtonUp-QT is only available as a flatpak or appimage on Ubuntu it looks like.

Not specific to fixing this issue, but you can change which version of proton all steam games use by default in steam settings, under compatibility. Changing this requires you restart steam.

Issue 3:

  • If you are dual-booting, make sure that all games are installed on a partition formatted for Linux, NOT WINDOWS. Games sometimes run fine from drives/partitions not formatted for Linux, but most of the time do not work. Found this out the hard way myself.
  • From a few quick google searches, American Truck Simulator appears to have a native Linux version. If you are using a dual-boot and/or just copied the download from windows, verify the integrity of the files. If that does not work you can always try running the windows version by checking the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" under compatibility, then select a proton version. It won't perform as well but it's better than it not working. Usually when you do this the game will queue an update to install the windows specific files. If you uncheck the box it will queue another update to reinstall the Linux native files.
[–] Monkey@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Issue 1: unfortunately neither of those worked.

Issue 2: I used Proton 11.0 and a fix from ProtonDB and it works now

Issue 3: I am not dual booting, and I will look more into this issue.

[–] Serious_Me@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

  • 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?

[–] Monkey@piefed.social 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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

[–] Monkey@piefed.social 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It appears Issue 3 isn't solved after all, it crashes now.

[–] Serious_Me@piefed.social 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Monkey@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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).

[–] Serious_Me@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Monkey@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Serious_Me@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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.

[–] Monkey@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I will try your fixes later, I installed steam fom their site (a .deb file)

[–] Serious_Me@piefed.social 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

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 steam would most likely work. Then just run sudo apt install steam. If for some reason the uninstall returns an error you can search the name of the package with apt list --installed | grep steam then try again with sudo apt remove (package name).

[–] funkajunk@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

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 run sudo apt upgrade

[–] funkajunk@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Why Kubuntu? Can you try something like Bazzite and see if your experience differs?

[–] Linearity@piefed.zip 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The solution to an issue someone is facing isn’t to immediately switch the entire OS 🫩

[–] SusanoStyle@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I would agree pretty much with you, but OP posted this 13 hours ago. In ten hours only one person replied and only had a similiar issue about one of the points.

Kubuntu is no a popular distro of choice within the gaming space so i doubt it will easy to find someone who can help to troubleshoot their problem. Also i think i read somewhere that Ubuntu had some problems with 32 bit libraries. I may be wrong tho.

As i replied on another comment, changing distro will probably be the fastest way to solve or at least diagnostic the problem. It's probably extreme but better than nothing. I would also try the flatpak version first.

[–] SusanoStyle@lemmy.ml -1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

As other replies told you, trying another distro to check will probably be the fastest way to solve the problem. I don't think many people have experience with Kubuntu.

If you don't want to change distros, you could try the flatpak version, it has their own package of drivers, and runs in a different runtime.

Just know that the flatpak of steam is not official but a community project. I had used it before without problems but i like to be clear about it.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 0 points 6 days ago

ill add to the recommendation for bazzite. steam is on it out of the box so you don't need to install or setup.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 0 points 6 days ago

Have you installed the drivers for your GPU? If games are lagging it might be using the wrong drivers. I don't remember how to do that on Kubuntu specifically, but you should be able to find instructions fairly easily online. If that doesn't work or you're already using good drivers, try changing from/to Wayland/X11 from the login screen

[–] Quadrexium@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Issue 1 I've had something similar and it was due to the "enable gpu accellerared rendering in web views" setting (under Interface). But my steam didn't crash just the ui wouldn't show.