Steam functions flawlessly when started from the main interface yet fails to initiate games via the launcher.
Steam functions flawlessly when started from the main interface yet fails to initiate games via the launcher.
System: Arch, Linux-zen, KDE wayland, AMDGPU Recently, when I start Steam, I can't launch any games—Proton and native versions as well as native and Steam runtimes. When I press play, the button pauses for a few seconds before it cancels again. After closing Steam to try launching a game from the terminal (steam steam://rungameid/413150), it worked perfectly. Then I closed Steam and just typed 'steam' in the terminal; it opened normally. I made a new launcher using just the Steam command, but it still didn't launch games. I'm unsure where to go next. From what I found online, some Debian-based users have similar problems where Steam only opens from the command line and can't access the interface. This seems related to NVIDIA drivers, so it might not be the same issue I'm dealing with.
Thank you for your help, I got it to work using your advice but I'm not quite sure how. My system is up to date The issue persisted after a steam reset The permissions seem fine. Switching to x11, the games launched fine but funnily enough they work on Wayland now too and I don't know why. I don't think it was just the relogging because a reboot had not fixed it before. For now I'm happy it works, I'm going to play some stardew valey and hope the issue does not come back thanks again mate.
At the beginning of the session it indicates an environment issue: a file in your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile might be setting an environment variable that isn't recognized by KDE upon login. Examining more reveals this missing variable likely came from a developer mistake and was resolved after an update.
Thanks everyone for your assistance. It seems this was a hardware problem, likely related to the drive after it temporarily improved when I logged out. Over the past week I've noticed crashes, glitches, instability, and even my grub failed three times. This probably points to an early sign of the same issue. Initially I thought the drive was failing but smart data worked fine and a clean install on another drive also caused problems. Then I considered the power supply—replacing it with a spare made things stable, though it’s been running only about six hours so far. Yesterday with the old supply I couldn’t play for more than five minutes without freezing, and basic tasks crashed every hour. I’m pretty sure this is the root cause. The only power supply available was an old Corsair TX750w (not the same model), it’s large, nearly 15 years old, not modular, lacks 80+ rating, has ketchup and mustard connectors but still functions. The biggest issue is that my spaghetti cable won’t fit in my case, so I’m using an external power supply temporarily.