Xfce Forum

darkhog

Member

Registered: 2026-01-29

Posts: 6

Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

Hello, I'm writing this from openSuSE Tumbleweed. This is XFCE-specific as Steam works just fine on other DEs and even basic window managers such as IceWM. But on XFCE it only loads sometimes (more often it doesn't than does). I've installed Steam from the openSuSE Tumbleweed repo (non-oss).

I'm at my wit's end troubleshooting this. And yes, tried "common wisdom" including running "steam --reset" but it seems that --reset argument does nothing and just tries to launch Steam as normal. Does anyone else deals with such issues? Note, Steam doesn't start from terminal either.

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 943

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

I know nothing about steam. Is there anything in the logs or journal? xsession-errors? Does steam keep logs?

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darkhog

Member

Registered: 2026-01-29

Posts: 6

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

Right, sorry, forgot to paste the logs. Here they are: https://mega.nz/file/uR1GiL6J#eWRwfD5zW … jEmH2OcTxk

darkhog

Member

Registered: 2026-01-29

Posts: 6

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

Any help? It still happening, only launching rarely, otherwise it crashes.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,550

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

In the console-linux.txt log file, you seem to be getting alot of:

[2025-12-24 21:44:13] assert_20251224214400_32.dmp[303461]: error: Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?)
[2025-12-24 21:44:13] assert_20251224214400_32.dmp[303461]: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20251224214400_32.dmp'', upload no: ''Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?)''

In opensuse, there should be a package in the repositories called "ca-certificates-steamtricks". Try installing this to see if it helps.

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darkhog

Member

Registered: 2026-01-29

Posts: 6

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

Installed it, will know for sure in a week or so due to heisenbug nature (if it works one or two times it might still be a fluke, if it works consistently I will know this fixed it)

darkhog

Member

Registered: 2026-01-29

Posts: 6

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

Nope, didn't fix the problem. Still fails to start at times.

Also, it seems to be XFCE-specific, works fine on other DEs and WMs, even deranged stuff like dwm or *box.

Last edited by darkhog (2026-03-20 19:11:53)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,550

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

Can you post back the console-linux.txt file after an unsuccessful start?

Also, it seems to be XFCE-specific, works fine on other DEs and WMs, even deranged stuff like dwm or *box.

Try disabling the compositor to see if that helps.

Last edited by ToZ (2026-03-21 01:10:44)

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darkhog

Member

Registered: 2026-01-29

Posts: 6

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

This thread was made when I had compositor disabled (to fix different issue, flickering windows). Also tried any solutions you can easily google, none of them worked. Tried something else yesterday, but due to the heisenbug nature it might be a fluke that it works now so I won't share details of what I did until I'm 100% sure it worked in order to not leave a red herring for other people facing the same issue that will come upon this thread.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,550

Re: Steam only starts sometimes on XFCE (heisenbug)

If you are having the flickering problem that turning off the compositor works and you have an nvidia card, have a look at this guide. There have been some reported success with the recent nvidia updates by setting the vblank_vode to off or xpresent (with xpresent, you need the libxpresent libraries installed from your repo).

Perhaps the two issues are related.

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