Steam flatpak crash on startup: Error "steamwebhelper is not responding". (Last Ubuntu apparmor upgrade issue). FIXED

[webxon]

Steam flatpak crash on startup: Error "steamwebhelper is not responding". (Last Ubuntu apparmor upgrade issue). FIXED

[g2p]

Thank you @lothor for finding the cause!

I can confirm that

sudo aa-disable /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict

Allows Flatpak Steam to work again. This persists across reboots.

[lothor]

...

Inside ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/strace I have:

176   openat(AT_FDCWD, "…/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-O9I2Q2", O_RDONLY|O_NOCTTY|O_NONBLOCK|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 8
…
176   openat(8, "usr/etc", O_WRONLY|O_CLOEXEC|O_TMPFILE, 0600) = 10
176   fchmod(10, 0600)                  = 0
176   fallocate(10, 0, 0, 64)           = 0
176   write(10, "pcm.!default {\n    type pulse\n}\nctl.!default {\n    type pulse\n}\n", 64) = 64
176   fchmod(10, 0644)                  = 0
…
176   linkat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/self/fd/10", 8, "usr/etc/tmp.xwx1yI", AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
176   close(10)                         = 0

Inspired by this strace output I've spent some time looking into why creation of the symbolic link is failing.

The linkat-error seems to be caused by the recent apparmor-upgrade in Ubuntu 24.04.

An additional bwrap-profile was added in the new version. After hitting the "E: linkat: ..."-error the following log-messages have been generated by the kernel (journalctl -k):

kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1720947696.498:1840099): apparmor="DENIED" operation="link" class="file" info="Failed name lookup - deleted entry" error=-2 profile="bwrap" name="<HOME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-CWG3Q2/usr/etc/#10624521" pid=9421 comm="pressure-vessel" requested_mask="l" denied_mask="l" fsuid=<UID> ouid=<UID>
kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1720947696.498:1840100): apparmor="DENIED" operation="link" class="file" profile="bwrap" name="<HOME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-CWG3Q2/usr/etc/tmp.FgCzMU" pid=9421 comm="pressure-vessel" requested_mask="l" denied_mask="l" fsuid=1000 ouid=1000 target="<HOME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-CWG3Q2/usr/etc/#10624521"
kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1720947696.498:1840101): apparmor="DENIED" operation="link" class="file" info="Failed name lookup - deleted entry" error=-2 profile="unpriv_bwrap" name="<HOME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-CWG3Q2/usr/etc/#10624521" pid=9421 comm="pressure-vessel" requested_mask="l" denied_mask="l" fsuid=<UID> ouid=<UID>
kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1720947696.498:1840102): apparmor="DENIED" operation="link" class="file" profile="unpriv_bwrap" name="<HOME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-CWG3Q2/usr/etc/tmp.FgCzMU" pid=9421 comm="pressure-vessel" requested_mask="l" denied_mask="l" fsuid=<UID> ouid=<UID> target="<HOME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-CWG3Q2/usr/etc/#10624521"

Workaround

Since I don't speak apparmor all that well I ended up removing said profile and restarting the computer to make sure the change is picked up:

sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict
sudo shutdown -r now

Fix?

Someone slightly more security-concious should probably look into how to modify the bwrap-profile :)

UPDATED: The problem seems to already have been reported to Ubuntu, ref. LP: 2072811.

[hrtkpf]

Having the same issue since yesterday.

Workarounds are to either use the native Steam client or to downgrade Steam client and keep using the flatpak version (see ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#11006 (comment)).

I am using NVIDIA drivers 550.90.07

[webxon]

Its temporaly thing how to repaire Steam flatpak:

• open terminal
• use command:

flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl  https://web.archive.org/web/20240210115543if_/http://media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam

and add config for Steam, that it cant be self-upgraded by himself (remember to delete it in future when issue will be gone)

for me its:
/home/user/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/

BootStrapperInhibitAll=Enable
BootStrapperForceSelfUpdate=False

[kavishan59]

aa-disable doesn´t work on my ubuntu 24.04 for some reason.

You can use this to disable it instead :

sudo ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo apparmor_parser -R /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict

If you want to re-enable it:

sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/disable/bwrap-userns-restrict
cat /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict | sudo apparmor_parser -a

I got the instructions from : https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/apparmor

[smcv]

Please could someone with appropriate permissions retitle this to mention Ubuntu in its title, or close it as "not our bug"?

It looks as though this is a regression caused by an Ubuntu stable update (SRU), and is not anything that can be solved by Flatpak or by this particular app. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2072811 is the place to look for a solution.

[hrtkpf]

FYI, the fix has now been released to the Ubuntu repos as part of the apparmor package. Just apt update && apt upgrade && reboot and the issue should be fixed.

I think this issue can be closed now.

[muXxer]

Thanks, I just wanted to open exactly the same issue, and I was wondering why no one encountered it already.
For me it was working fine 2 days ago, then I made some updates including kernel and nvidia drivers, and then it stopped working.

If I look into the logs under .var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/webhelper-linux.txt I can see the following issue.

Log:

steamwebhelper.sh[3518]: Using supervisor /home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steamwebhelper.sh[3518]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh
steamwebhelper.sh[3518]: CEF sandbox already disabled
steamwebhelper.sh[3518]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point
x86_64-linux-gnu-capsule-capture-libs: warning: Dependencies of libnvidia-pkcs11.so.535.183.01 not found, ignoring: Missing dependencies: Could not find "libcrypto.so.1.1" in LD_LIBRARY_PATH "/home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32:/home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/panorama:/app/lib/i386-linux-gnu/GL/default/lib:/app/lib/i386-linux-gnu/GL/nvidia-535-183-01/lib:/app/lib32:/app/lib/i386-linux-gnu:/lib64:/app/lib:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/GL/default/lib:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/GL/nvidia-535-183-01/lib:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/intel-vaapi-driver/lib:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openh264/extra:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu", ld.so.cache, DT_RUNPATH or fallback /lib:/usr/lib
pressure-vessel-wrap[3537]: E: linkat: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

Important part:

Dependencies of libnvidia-pkcs11.so.535.183.01 not found, ignoring: Missing dependencies: Could not find "libcrypto.so.1.1"

It seems that a library is missing in the flatpak, that is used by the latest nvidia driver? Just my guess.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Linux 6.8.0-38-generic #38-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Nvidia Driver Version: 535.183.01

Btw, running Steam natively without flatpak works on my system.

[webxon]

Radeon CPU and GPU

Ah so it's not only nvidia related :D

But I still guess it's because libssl-dev is missing, which should ship the libcrypto.so ? What does your logs say under /home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/webhelper-linux.txt ?

If you will startup workable Steam with console feature you will be surprised how many erros its throwing, but working. But this time its not working)

[webxon]

srt-logger[24324]: Log opened 2024-07-12 11:09:40+0200 steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: Using supervisor /home/daniel/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/daniel/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: CEF sandbox already disabled steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/daniel/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point pressure-vessel-wrap[24338]: E: linkat: No such file or directory

Anyone know how long does it take for these issues to be fixed. I was planning on having a nice relaxing weekend gaming.

Idk. But I now temporary using native Steam for Linux, and its works

[predator5047]

I also have the same issue on Ubuntu 24.04, 6.8.0-38-generic, with nvidia driver 550.90.07 on a RTX 3080
Using the workaround from the above comment allows steam to start

[g2p]

Reported here in Ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2072811

[webxon]

Please could someone with appropriate permissions retitle this to mention Ubuntu in its title, or close it as "not our bug"?

It looks as though this is a regression caused by an Ubuntu stable update (SRU), and is not anything that can be solved by Flatpak or by this particular app. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2072811 is the place to look for a solution.

Hi, there! Yes! Confirm, its Ubuntu issue. I just remember that day, and I am 100% remeber that there are in upgrade list were apparmor application. So its 99% apparmor upgrade. (I will rename ticket)

I can confirm next solution for Ubuntu:

command
sudo aa-disable /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict
was not working for me after input to console, I had 2 issues:

• issue 1) I have not installed on my Ubuntu copy apparmor utils, to fix it:
  sudo apt-get install apparmor-utils
  than (if you dont have apparmor configs installation, see my issue 2)
  sudo aa-disable /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict

• issue 2) I had 2 firefox installations (snap and downloaded package, so I just removed apparmor config for snap, because I just did not using it)

thats all, now I can restart my PC and I dont need to rewrite commands again after restarts.

If somebody have used my solution what I have been wrote before, you need now to upgrade Steam to latest version, you dont need anymore version from february, fix:

• Shutdown Steam client
• go to /home/user/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/
• find config what to have created "Steam.cfg" and delate it
• Startup Steam client (february version), than click in top menu "Steam" > "Check for Steam Client Updates..."
• Wait until Steam client will be updated. Thats all. Now Steam flatpak client should be working without issue.

p.s. remember, if in future apparmor will be upgraded by Ubuntu Devs, this issue may be back, and you'll should repeat this steaps until this apparmor' issue will be fixed

[Vennnot]

Same here. Worked fine yesterday. Only thing I've done since then is flatpak update

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Radeon CPU and GPU

[webxon]

Thanks, I just wanted to open exactly the same issue, and I was wondering why no one encountered it already. For me it was working fine 2 days ago, then I made some updates including kernel and nvidia drivers, and then it stopped working.

Thanks for response too

Important part:

Dependencies of libnvidia-pkcs11.so.535.183.01 not found, ignoring: Missing dependencies: Could not find "libcrypto.so.1.1"

It seems that a library is missing in the flatpak, that is used by the latest nvidia driver? Just my guess.

Its maybe really missed some X11 library in flatpak Steam repo, but I am on AMD GPU and CPU, so its not problem in
Nvidia driver

[muXxer]

Radeon CPU and GPU

Ah so it's not only nvidia related :D

But I still guess it's because libssl-dev is missing, which should ship the libcrypto.so ?
What does your logs say under /home/USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/webhelper-linux.txt ?

[Vennnot]

srt-logger[24324]: Log opened 2024-07-12 11:09:40+0200
steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: Using supervisor /home/daniel/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/bin/steam-runtime-supervisor
steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: Starting steamwebhelper under bootstrap sniper steam runtime via /home/daniel/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper.sh
steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: CEF sandbox already disabled
steamwebhelper.sh[24319]: Starting steamwebhelper with Sniper steam runtime at /home/daniel/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/_v2-entry-point
pressure-vessel-wrap[24338]: E: linkat: No such file or directory

Anyone know how long does it take for these issues to be fixed. I was planning on having a nice relaxing weekend gaming.

[seidelh]

I also have the same issue. Steam was working fine yesterday until today. Ubuntu 24.04, 6.8.0-38-generic, ryzen 2700x, rx 5700.

[DisasterIncarnate]

reporting same issue from same time, roughly 2 days ago, as someone else mentioned its nothing nvidia related as i also have an amd gpu and cpu setup, tried all the usual reported methods and it still gives the steamwebhelper error on launch, uninstalled the whole thing and reinstalled with same error.

the log files in my case show nothing as they arent generated before it all hangs/crashes.

The only useful output i do get when launching via terminal is this output:

src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (619) : Failed creating offscreen shared JS context

nothing else in my terminal output really stands out as a possible error, Webxon's solution is working for me so far but would be nice to know whats gone wrong and how to fix properly. The normal valve deb version works without issue, just the flatpak version is having issues.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
AMD Radeon RX 7600
Kubuntu 24.04 - 6.8.0-38-generic (64-bit)

[g2p]

Here's what the linkat error looks like under strace:

flatpak run --devel --env=LC_ALL=C --command=strace com.valvesoftware.Steam//beta -f -s 1024 -o strace -- steam

In another terminal, run

tail -F ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/*.txt

and look for the pressure-vessel pid in an error that looks like:

pressure-vessel-wrap[176]: E: linkat: No such file or directory

Inside ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/strace I have:

176   openat(AT_FDCWD, "…/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-sniper/var/tmp-O9I2Q2", O_RDONLY|O_NOCTTY|O_NONBLOCK|O_NOFOLLOW|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 8
…
176   openat(8, "usr/etc", O_WRONLY|O_CLOEXEC|O_TMPFILE, 0600) = 10
176   fchmod(10, 0600)                  = 0
176   fallocate(10, 0, 0, 64)           = 0
176   write(10, "pcm.!default {\n    type pulse\n}\nctl.!default {\n    type pulse\n}\n", 64) = 64
176   fchmod(10, 0644)                  = 0
…
176   linkat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/self/fd/10", 8, "usr/etc/tmp.xwx1yI", AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
176   close(10)                         = 0

Using intel graphics by the way. Thinking the screen recording beta might have broken things, but -clearbeta didn't help.

[g2p]

@smcv Any idea what might have changed recently? Something in a steam runtime?

[DisasterIncarnate]

In another terminal, run

tail -F ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/logs/*.txt

and look for the pressure-vessel pid in an error that looks like:

pressure-vessel-wrap[176]: E: linkat: No such file or directory

when i launch via terminal my steam briefly lock up at that pressurevessel output you mentioned then after a delay everything fails and all output after is about dump files, i get this which is slightly different to yours.

bus_name=com.steampowered.PressureVessel.LaunchAlongsideSteam
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (619) : Failed creating offscreen shared JS context
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (619) : Failed creating offscreen shared JS context
07/13 09:21:24 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1718904662)/tid(135)

also

pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: Wait status 0
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: -> exit status 0
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: Found i386-linux-gnu version of /app/links/$LIB/libshared-library-guard.so at /app/links/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libshared-library-guard.so
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: /app/links/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libshared-library-guard.so -> /run/parent/app/links/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libshared-library-guard.so
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: Making Steam environment variables available if required...
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: E: linkat: No such file or directory
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: Exiting with status 1
pressure-vessel-wrap[412]: D: Releasing lock 10

[RichardJECooke]

If I need to switch from Flatpak Steam to native Steam, how do I not lose all my settings, games, and my game's settings and saves please?

[g2p]

If I need to switch from Flatpak Steam to native Steam, how do I not lose all my settings, games, and my game's settings and saves please?

Something like this:

mkdir ~/.steam
ln -Ts ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam ~/.steam/steam
ln -Ts ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam ~/.steam/root

Before you ever run Steam or its installer.

[sketchbuch]

@webxon 's solution worked for me.

[Smith6612]

I can confirm the fix for Ubuntu 24.04 has been published to the Repos, and after installation, Steam is now able to work properly. On my system, I needed to run a sudo apt install --only-upgrade apparmor file-roller libapparmor1 followed by a reboot, as the update was held back / deferred.

These are the versions of the packages which are working for me per apt.

apparmor/noble-updates,now 4.0.1really4.0.0-beta3-0ubuntu0.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
file-roller/noble-updates,now 44.3-0ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libapparmor1/noble-updates,now 4.0.1really4.0.0-beta3-0ubuntu0.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]