Steam ins't working on my Linux Mint 21.1 install

[Cornelius]

Hell all,
I have been running Linux Mint for about a year now. At first, I was running Linux Mint Debian addition (Elsie I think?). I was able to run Steam and play most games (specifically, I started with CSGO- and it worked fine)

However, a couple of months ago, for various reasons I switched to Linux Mint Ubuntu (Bullseye? or the most recent one)

Ever since the switch, Steam runs very poorly, and I can't download or play most games. CSGO doesn't run. I am able to start the game, but when I get to the CSGO menu screens, it is suuuuuper slow and glitchy. Very odd that I can open the game's menu, but it is super slow.

Any ideas why I am having issues playing Steam games?

[JGT_Phewrry]

Hi, if you are in Linux Mint 21.1 "Vera" then your base (Ubuntu) is "Jammy", "Bullseye" is the current version of Debian, in which "Elsie" is based.

How did you switch from "Elsie" to "Vera"? did you use a clean HDD/SSD? Or, did you use the partitions that were already defined for LMDE? and if that's the case, did you check the format option?.

It is only Steam that have problems downloading packets?
if it is, can you check if your router is blocking UDP ports?

about the poor performace:

please provide more info about your system, you can use this command of your terminal application

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz

copy the output of that command
or
You can go to: [Mint Menu] -> [Preferences] -> [System Info] and in the window press the "copy to clipboard button".
https://flic.kr/p/2oBoLDE

and then paste it in your post - preferably between the 'code' tags (you can use the '</>' button above).
this way. you give us a lot more to work with.
For example, knowing what kind of graphics chip is installed on your system will let the kernel compatibility experts know if your chip is well supported by the kernel/s included in Vera, or knowing which driver the graphics hardware is using can help us determine if you need to change it.

Now, if you ask me, I would say the steam installation is messed up, I mean, the problem is too widespread within the app, (networking and gpu/cpu latency). That is, if I understood your problem correctly. have your tried uninstalling and reinstalling?

Code: Select all

sudo apt purge steam && sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install steam

you could see what that does.

[motoryzen]

preferably between the 'code' tags (you can use the '</>' button above

when you open the main menu, " system reports", select " system information in upper left, copy button lower right you get all the same info 99.9% of the way and it will include the code tags already surrounding the resulting info when you paste it into a reply window here

[JGT_Phewrry]

when you open the main menu, " system reports", select " system information in upper left, copy button lower right you get all the same info 99.9% of the way and it will include the code tags already surrounding the resulting info when you paste it into a reply window here

Whoaa would you look at that! I just confirmed
Apparently they thought of everything

So now there's even less excuses to be lazy(?) and not provide useful info

[graven]

For what it's worth, I used to run Mint 19.3 and just recently started running Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy. I haven't noticed any difference in Steam performance.

[motoryzen]

JGT.

For future faster way of posting your system info.... ( must taste bitter before taste sweet- Jackie Chan- movie = " Forbidden Kingdom " )
.......
<<< Here's a script you can easily turn into a gui button launcher to accomplish that same task. >>

So you just highlight all of that text file info below and paste it into a " new document", save it naming it whatever you want . ( i named it systemreport.sh ), then right click and select Properties, and tick the box below to make it executable.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

mintreport
xdotool sleep 1 key Down
xdotool sleep 1 keydown ctrl sleep 0.2 key Tab sleep 0.2 key Tab sleep 0.2 keyup ctrl sleep 0.2 key Return

Then when you launch it, it will do everything except you coming back to this page ( or even a local new blank document if you want) and pasting the info. That you'll need to do..but this saves time imo.

You may need to play around with the sleep #s to larger or possibly smaller values depending on your system's speed.

You'll need to install xdotool first for it to work right
sudo apt install xdotool -y in terminal

The terminal command of inxi -Fxxxmprz... will return results very similar but a couple of things will be different... (shrugs). multiple options is never a bad thing

Cheers

[Cornelius]

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.0.0-1013-oem x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.8 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Micro-Star product: MS-7D59 v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Micro-Star model: PRO B660-A DDR4 (MS-7D59) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.10
    date: 03/04/2022
    CPU:
  Info: 10-core (6-mt/4-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12600K bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP smt: enabled arch: Alder Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 864 KiB
    L2: 9.5 MiB L3: 20 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1553 high: 3700 min/max: 800/4900:3600 cores: 1: 822
    2: 920 3: 826 4: 3700 5: 772 6: 3700 7: 762 8: 1074 9: 813 10: 836 11: 808
    12: 830 13: 800 14: 800 15: 3700 16: 3700 bogomips: 117964
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel AlderLake-S GT1 vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: i915
    v: kernel ports: active: none
    empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3, HDMI-A-4, HDMI-A-5
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:4680 class-ID: 0380
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate]
    vendor: eVga.com. driver: nouveau v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: DP-6 empty: DP-4,DP-5,HDMI-A-6 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:2489 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3200x1800 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 847x476mm (33.3x18.7")
    s-diag: 972mm (38.3")
  Monitor-1: DP-6 model: ASUS VG289 serial: <filter> res: 3200x1800 hz: 60
    dpi: 131 size: 621x341mm (24.4x13.4") diag: 708mm (27.9") modes:
    max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.7 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 22.2.5
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7ad0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA104 High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com.
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228b class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.0.0-1013-oem running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes

Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.75 TiB used: 2.89 TiB (105.2%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: TeamGroup model: TM8FP4001T size: 953.87 GiB
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: VB441D63
    temp: 38.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102 size: 1.82 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: 0001 scheme: GPT

[JGT_Phewrry]

Code: Select all

...
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate]
    vendor: eVga.com. driver: nouveau v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: DP-6 empty: DP-4,DP-5,HDMI-A-6 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:2489 class-ID: 0300
...

OK, I see now, you're currently using the Nouveau driver for your discrete graphics card, which I assume is the one you will be using for gaming.
For an acceptable performance in modern games you'll need to install Nvidia's proprietary driver. You can do this in the "Driver Manager" app.

Go to your Mint Menu -> Administration -> Driver Manager
Once there it should list the drivers available for your GPU, usually, the latest Nvidia driver should be the first listed on the app. Select it and then click on the "Apply Changes" button on the bottom right corner of the window. Then it might be necessary to reboot the system or not, but I suggest you to do it anyway just to be sure . So reboot your system and check whether the performance is now acceptable.

https://flic.kr/p/2oD5pDh


Hope it helps!