Steam error, fails to launch

Support Software & Applications
1

I’m running a fresh Manjaro install since this past Sunday. I’m getting around to installing Steam and I can’t get it to run.
Thing is, I have my /home/username directory on its own drive/partition, but I foresaw problems with that, so I deleted ~/.steam, ~/.config/Steam, ~/.local/share/Steam, plus some other stuff I found laying in ~/.cache just in case.

Whether I try to launch via the GUI or in a terminal, I get the same vague and strikingly unhelpful error message:

❯ steam -v
bin_steam.sh[448198]: Setting up Steam content in /home/******/.local/share/Steam
bin_steam.sh[448198]: Error: Couldn't set up Steam data - please contact technical support

Searching out that specific message leads to a couple fixes that appear to work for some but not for everyone, including deleting the above folders, and altering the bin_steam.sh file to point to a different subfolder. Obviously, I’m falling in the “not for everyone” category.

I’ve done multiple re-installs, uninstalls, removing folders, reboots, etc., and it’s the same error message every time.

Any idea what to do with this?

Mod Edit: Fixed formatting

2

Hello @yeahgreen,

and welcome to the manjaro forum.

Steam normally runs fine ootb. Did you install steam from the repos or somewhere else like Flatpak or AppImage?

And can you provide system information to help the people help you.

[HowTo] Provide System Information

For me it sounds a little bit like a permission problem and in case of steam it often occurs while using not the version from the repos.

3

thats wrong

steam -v
steam.sh[49219]: Running Steam on manjarolinux 26.1.0-pre 64-bit
steam.sh[49219]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[49271]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[49219]: Log already open
steam.sh[49219]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
4

Nope. I’ve installed it right fromt he repos, using pacman first, pamac, and the GUI pamac frontend. Couple times each, in all my troubleshooting. (I don’t and have never used appimage, flatpak, etc.)
But I did get the same feeling about permission issues somehow. Maybe in something I read somewhere along the line trying to track this issue down.
I was sure to chown and chmod 774 my home dir immediately after my reinstall. Before I even logged into gnome the first time, I dropped to TTY, created my mount point, mounted the drive, linked to it, added it to fstab and then rebooted (because why not).
My old install ran like that since '20 or '21. Seemed like a fine idea.

System:
  Kernel: 6.18.36-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 16.1.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-6.18-x86_64
    root=UUID=0fe4e947-a7a5-4290-be36-d26412ef3346 rw rootflags=subvol=@
    quiet splash apparmor=1 security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: GNOME v: 50.2 tk: GTK v: 3.24.52 wm: gnome-shell
    tools: gsd-screensaver-proxy dm: GDM v: 50.1 Distro: Manjaro
    base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: X570 AORUS ELITE v: -CF
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Gigabyte model: X570 AORUS ELITE serial: <superuser required>
    uuid: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC.
    v: F38b date: 03/23/2023
Battery:
  Message: No system battery data found. Is one present?
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 64 GiB available: 62.71 GiB used: 6.25 GiB (10.0%)
  Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
  Array-1: capacity: 128 GiB slots: 4 modules: 2 EC: None
    max-module-size: 32 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: Channel-A DIMM 0 type: no module installed
  Device-2: Channel-A DIMM 1 type: DDR4 detail: synchronous unbuffered
    (unregistered) size: 32 GiB speed: 3600 MT/s volts: note: check curr: 1
    min: 1 max: 1 width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: N/A
    part-no: 3600 C18 Series serial: <filter>
  Device-3: Channel-B DIMM 0 type: no module installed
  Device-4: Channel-B DIMM 1 type: DDR4 detail: synchronous unbuffered
    (unregistered) size: 32 GiB speed: 3600 MT/s volts: note: check curr: 1
    min: 1 max: 1 width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: N/A
    part-no: 3600 C18 Series serial: <filter>
PCI Slots:
  Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 gen: 2
    level: v3 note: check built: 2020-22 process: TSMC n7 (7nm)
    family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 0x8701034
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 12 threads: 24 tpc: 2
    smt: enabled cache: L1: 768 KiB desc: d-12x32 KiB; i-12x32 KiB L2: 6 MiB
    desc: 12x512 KiB L3: 64 MiB desc: 4x16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 4092 min/max: 563/4674 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: powersave cores: 1: 4092 2: 4092 3: 4092
    4: 4092 5: 4092 6: 4092 7: 4092 8: 4092 9: 4092 10: 4092 11: 4092 12: 4092
    13: 4092 14: 4092 15: 4092 16: 4092 17: 4092 18: 4092 19: 4092 20: 4092
    21: 4092 22: 4092 23: 4092 24: 4092 bogomips: 182051
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1
    bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy
    constant_tsc cpb cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total
    cqm_occup_llc cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid
    f16c flushbyasid fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibpb ibs
    irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm mba mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe
    msr mtrr mwaitx nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae
    pat pausefilter pclmulqdq pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb
    pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse pse36 rapl rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed rdt_a
    rdtscp rep_good sep sev sev_es sha_ni skinit smap smca smep ssbd sse sse2
    sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp succor svm svm_lock syscall tce topoext
    tsc tsc_scale umip v_spec_ctrl v_vmsave_vmload vgif vmcb_clean vme
    vmmcall wbnoinvd wdt x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveerptr xsaveopt
    xtopology
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: ghostwrite status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: old_microcode status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT enabled with STIBP
    protection
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow mitigation: Safe RET
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; STIBP:
    always-on; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsa status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
  Type: vmscape mitigation: IBPB before exit to userspace
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600
    XT / 5700/5700 XT] vendor: XFX Pine driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-1
    code: Navi-1x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2019-20 pcie: gen: 4
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-1,DP-2 empty: DP-3,HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 0b:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:731f class-ID: 0300
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.23 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.12
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: modesetting,radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
    gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DP-1 model: Sceptre T24 built: 2019 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 94
    gamma: 1.2 chroma: red: x: 0.639 y: 0.337 green: x: 0.314 y: 0.627 blue:
    x: 0.157 y: 0.055 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329 size: 520x320mm (20.47x12.6")
    diag: 611mm (24") ratio: 16:10 modes: 1920x1080, 1280x1440, 1680x1050,
    1280x1024, 1440x900, 1280x960, 1280x720, 1024x768, 832x624, 800x600,
    720x576, 720x480, 640x480, 720x400
  Monitor-2: DP-2 model: Sceptre T24 built: 2019 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 94
    gamma: 1.2 chroma: red: x: 0.639 y: 0.337 green: x: 0.314 y: 0.627 blue:
    x: 0.157 y: 0.055 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329 size: 520x320mm (20.47x12.6")
    diag: 611mm (24") ratio: 16:10 modes: 1920x1080, 1280x1440, 1680x1050,
    1280x1024, 1440x900, 1280x960, 1280x720, 1024x768, 832x624, 800x600,
    720x576, 720x480, 640x480, 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: radeonsi surfaceless: drv: radeonsi wayland:
    drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: amd mesa v: 26.1.2-arch1.2 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (radeonsi navi10 ACO DRM
    3.64 6.18.36-1-MANJARO) device-ID: 1002:731f memory: 7.81 GiB unified: no
    display-ID: :0.0
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo x11: xprop,xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 10 HDMI Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 0b:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab38 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0d:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.18.36-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off tools: aucat,midicat,sndioctl
  Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-3: PipeWire v: 1.6.6 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: Gigabyte driver: igb v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:1539 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak] driver: iwlwifi
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 05:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:24fb class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: wgpia0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global
  Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.66 TiB used: 2.01 TiB (54.8%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEKNW010T8
    size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 002C temp: 46.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM008-2DM166
    size: 2.73 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> fw-rev: CC26 scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 953.57 GiB size: 953.57 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 12.56 GiB (1.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: 0fe4e947-a7a5-4290-be36-d26412ef3346
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 664 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
    uuid: DEA6-EBDA
  ID-3: /data/Storage raw-size: 2.7 TiB size: 2.66 TiB (98.39%)
    used: 1.99 TiB (75.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 84c8eb1f-b3cb-464d-9292-dd4e2e196964
  ID-4: /home raw-size: 953.57 GiB size: 953.57 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 12.56 GiB (1.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: 0fe4e947-a7a5-4290-be36-d26412ef3346
  ID-5: /var/cache raw-size: 953.57 GiB size: 953.57 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 12.56 GiB (1.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: 0fe4e947-a7a5-4290-be36-d26412ef3346
  ID-6: /var/log raw-size: 953.57 GiB size: 953.57 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 12.56 GiB (1.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: 0fe4e947-a7a5-4290-be36-d26412ef3346
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 size: 31.25 GiB fs: swap label: N/A
    uuid: bb88e9e2-4648-413b-b2e0-f37d05df7c9d
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-1:2 info: INSTANT USB GAMING MOUSE type: mouse,keyboard
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1
    speed: 1.5 Mb/s (183 KiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.0 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 30fa:1701 class-ID: 0300
  Hub-2: 1-3:3 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 05e3:0608 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-4:4 info: Integrated Express IT8297 RGB LED Controller
    type: keyboard driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 048d:8297 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-2:2 info: Genesys Logic All-in-One Cardreader
    type: mass storage driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 3.1
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 power: 896mA
    chip-ID: 05e3:0748 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Hub-4: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-5: 3-6:2 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 05e3:0608 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-7: 5-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 5-1:2 info: ROYUAN Gaming KB F75 type: keyboard,HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 498mA chip-ID: 3151:4010 class-ID: 0300
  Hub-8: 5-2:3 info: Hitachi ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 045b:0209 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-9: 5-2.1:4 info: Hitachi ports: 4 rev: 2.1
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 045b:0209
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 5-2.4:9 info: MediaTek Armor 28 Ultra type: <vendor specific>
    driver: usbfs interfaces: 1 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 2.0 power: 500mA chip-ID: 0e8d:201c class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  Hub-10: 6-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-11: 6-2:2 info: Hitachi ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 045b:0210 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-12: 6-2.1:3 info: Hitachi ports: 4 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 045b:0210
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 69.0 C mobo: 42.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 64.0 C
    mem: 70.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 745
Repos:
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1310 libs: 399 tools: gnome-software,pamac
    pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://mirrors.gigenet.com/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://ohioix.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    3: https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 586
  1: cpu: 18.4% command: gnome-terminal-server pid: 459893
    mem: 72.9 MiB (0.1%)
  2: cpu: 10.5% command: firefox pid: 199934 mem: 344.2 MiB (0.5%)
  3: cpu: 5.9% command: firefox pid: 199333 mem: 1108.3 MiB (1.7%)
  4: cpu: 5.2% command: zsh pid: 460391 mem: 10.9 MiB (0.0%)
  5: cpu: 3.3% command: firefox pid: 197008 mem: 1100.7 MiB (1.7%)
  Memory top: 5 of 586
  1: mem: 1108.3 MiB (1.7%) command: firefox pid: 199333 cpu: 5.9%
  2: mem: 1100.7 MiB (1.7%) command: firefox pid: 197008 cpu: 3.3%
  3: mem: 929.6 MiB (1.4%) command: firefox pid: 198009 cpu: 0.7%
  4: mem: 831.9 MiB (1.2%) command: thunderbird pid: 197623 cpu: 0.4%
  5: mem: 674.8 MiB (1.0%) command: firefox pid: 456489 cpu: 2.8%
Info:
  Processes: 586 Power: uptime: 1d 20m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 1 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 25.02 GiB services: gsd-power,
    power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 260 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Compilers: N/A Shell: Zsh v: 5.9.1 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.40
5

I’m pretty sure I’m asking needlessly, but did you do those operations recursively?

6

Hm, “bin_steam.sh” seams to be a bootstrap script which runs “steam.sh” at the end.

Whats the output from this:

ls -la ~/.local/share/ | grep Steam
7

Yes, sir.

Interesting. Didn’t think of looking at this.

❯ ls -la ~/.local/share/ | grep Steam
drwx------  5 [NAME] [NAME]   4096 Jun 30 19:50 Steam

Looks like that’s getting created without the proper permissions.
However, even after chmodding it, steam still exits with the same exact error as in my OP.

8

This output looks same like mine. Hm…

9

I’m wondering if this might be related to a regression error, since our ISO’s are above 3month old?

Or do you have installed your system with a unstable ISO?

10

I don’t know what that means. I just downloaded the iso from the website.

11

Translation: Did you use a current Manjaro ISO of the same edition (available from Downloads) to re-install your system?

Edit:- Now that I’ve skimmed above posts, I see noted that the ISO used was at least three months old – with the amount of changes since then, an older ISO might be a factor.

Just for clarity, did you relocate /home during Manjaro install, or was it an afterthought?

In retrospect, it might have been better to leave home in situ, and simply point to that partition during install – of course, you would have needed to choose the manual partitioning method – and, of course, make sure not to select /home for partitioning (then you could have assigned the mount point as before.

12

So, there’s progress. If you can call it that.

No matter what I do, no matter how many ways I uninstall/reinstall, reboot, whatever, I keep getting this exact message:

❯ steam -v
bin_steam.sh[487734]: Setting up Steam content in /home/one/.local/share/Steam
bin_steam.sh[487734]: Error: Couldn't set up Steam data - please contact technical support

First, let me say that, as best as I can find, there is no such thing as a Steam “technical support”. It’s just a page with dropdown selections of vague problem descriptions followed by equally vague and generic “solutions” that always seem to amount to uninstalling and reinstalling, checking drivers, etc.

Moving on:
After uninstalling, wiping all the residual files/folders, and reinstalling from the add/remove software frontend, I got that above error message. Again.

All the “official install” is doing is running the actual installer. It’s just a shell script that sets up directories and downloads the actual program.

So I go into the folder in ~/.local/share/Steam and run the script manually.

❯ sh steam.sh
steam.sh[493788]: Running Steam on manjarolinux 26.1.0-pre 64-bit
steam.sh[493788]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
steam.sh[493788]: internal error: /home/one/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/setup.sh is missing, this runtime is invalid or corrupted

Which is an actual error message that one can act upon. Finally! Progress!
Strangely, the error message seems to be a complete lie.

❯ ls /home/[$NAME]/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/
amd64            common-licenses  lib                 manifest.txt    pinned_libs_64  run.sh   **setup.sh**  version.txt
built-using.txt  COPYING          manifest.deb822.gz  pinned_libs_32  README.txt      scripts  usr

As the setup.sh file clearly isn’t missing. I suppose it’s possible that it’s “corrupted,” whatever that means, but looking through it, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it.
Even more strangely, if I run the setup.sh script directly, I get the following:

❯  sh /home/[$NAME]/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/setup.sh
setup.sh[510865]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!

But the client still won’t start, and gives the same cryptic “couldn’t set up data” message that started this whole thing.

All this is made more bizarre by the fact that I’ve been running Manjaro since '19 or so. I’ve had Steam installed since the lockdown days. On this exact computer. I was in the middle of playing a game when my power got knocked out last week and started this whole adventure. So, I know it will work.

What the heck is going on here?

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This information may have been useful from the onset, especially if you are now trying to re-use the partition. Probably checking the filesystem for damage might be an idea.

Apart from that, I’m afraid I won’t be much help here.

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Not an afterthought, really, since I knew I wanted home to be where it always was. But I didn’t do it through the installer, no. At first boot, I dropped to TTY from the login screen, deleted the home directory it created, and made an ln -s to the actual home dir location with all my pre-existing files etc., on a separate 3TB spinning HDD.

I just didn’t want to risk something going wrong in the installer. Accidentally format or whatever. I know, I know, it’s a checkbox, and it won’t necessarily. I’m just not risking 1.5TB of music and 500GB of work-/personal-related documents to the benevolence of the installer.

And what’s the installer doing in that case, anyway? It’s putting your home folder where you tell it and putting a link to it in /home.

It’s way past that. Its a clean, fresh install. The original install was toast. fsck failed after the power outage. I formatted the SDD, reinstalled, and that was the end of that. I relocated my home folder, rebooted, logged in to the desktop for the first time, had all my extensions and configuration already in place, and, after updating, started installing all software that I use.

Other than this one, single oddity, everything else seems to be working flawlessly.

Mod edit: Consecutive posts merged.

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Did you subsequently check the partition containing /home? From your description, that’s where the problem might lay; whether it be filesystem damage, or a result of deleting;

In which case, it’s difficult to guess.

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Yep. The HDD was fine.

That’s literally the second “official” Steam troubleshooting step, right behind uninstall/reinstall. As far as I can tell, no other troubleshooting/repair steps exist.

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The iso from the website is from march:

You can download a .ISO file and install from the latest stable version also:

There is exactly 3 month age difference between the official website and the latest stable release.

I would also recommend to install root and /home as EXT4 instead BTRFS.

At least as long you know what you doing and how to handle BTRFS.

You know that you can evade this problems with a more simpler way if you use Timeshift Snapshot’s, which you allow you to restore/rollback your system.

This can save you a lot of time.

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The separate partition where the steam folders would be created might need different mount options.
I had to add the exec option, due to some changes in the default behaviour.

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That seemed plausible, so I gave it a shot. Sadly, no difference.

OK, so, here’s the answer. Maybe not the answer, but an answer.

I got sick of running in circles with this and trying to find solutions to a problem description that amounts to “don’t work.” So, I re-installed again.

I made two changes to my previous scheme:

  1. I formatted root and made sure it was ext4 instead of btrfs (an accidental oversight on my part during my first go) as noted above. I can’t see how this would have made any kind of difference, but who knows?
  2. I made a backup and set /home in the installer.

I think #2 was the key. Contrary to what I believed, there must be something more going on than just moving /home and creating a link to it. I say this because I kept getting permission errors from Chromium.

I use FF and Chromium both. FF is my daily driver/general purpose, but I use Chromium for LAN stuff. Remote desktop, Emby, controlling my Kodi clients, stuff like that. Strictly a LAN browser. But I kept getting a permission error for /dev/sdmh or some such and it would fail to launch unless I did chmod 1777 on that device. I don’t even know what /dev/sdmh is. A memory allocation for it or something, I guess? Maybe? Whatever.

I had a couple other quirks that were popping up similar to that. Just kept getting random, odd permission errors where I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t consistent (i.e, every single time I used Program X), and usually only came up when I mounted/unmounted separate NFS shares that shouldn’t have anything to do with anything.

Don’t ask me.

Long story short: Reinstalled properly, booted into the new setup, installed Steam before anything else, and it worked straightaway.

Mod edit: Consecutive posts merged.

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