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tbudha 6 Jul @ 11:21am
Failed to load steamui.so
My steam client started doing this out of the blue when attempting to start up:

UpdateUI: skip show logodlmopen steamui.so failed: /home/omniman/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_option_group_unref
Failed to load steamui.so - dlerror(): (null)

I was on Ubuntu 18, but upgraded to 20.04 to see if that would fix the issue. It didn't
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Showing 1-9 of 9 comments
Pepe 7 Jul @ 4:43am 
It could be many things, try forcing a local Steam client update, that should clear any caches, corrupt files or some package issues.

Close Steam and run this command.
steam -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl -exitsteam
#1
tbudha 7 Jul @ 9:12pm 
Tried it. Same error.
#2
Long 7 Jul @ 10:34pm 
How did you install Steam? Through your distro's official repository, from the flatpak repo, or from the website directly?

However you installed it, try uninstalling it, then re-download it, then re-install it.

Make sure you back up your game library's folder first before doing so!
#3
Long 7 Jul @ 10:36pm 
I usually just recommend installing Steam through your distro's official repo, or through flatpak repo. That way, the necessary dependencies usually are automatically included and installed.
#4
Pepe 8 Jul @ 3:57am 
1. Some topics on the web and on Steam suggests it could be a Steam Beta issue. You could try the following fixes:
a) https://gtm.you1.cn/app/221410/discussions/0/6620895347251759972/
Originally posted by kenobi:
Check here https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9317

Removing ~/.local/share/Steam/package/beta fixed it for me
b) https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9317#issuecomment-1495258402
steam -clearbeta

2. Some topics related to similar issues suggest the part of system library is being used or the steam linux runtime is not updated, or something in between... Even though I found a GitHub issue closed with "disabling the LD_* Steam runtime is not supported."
a) Try forcing using your system lib file, and check the errors from there on...
LD_PRELOAD='/usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0' steam
b) Delete Steam runtime and do an update
rm -rf .local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/ steam -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl -exitsteam
c) I found this command that also suggest could recreate all settings to default, but it might also clear up your game library (some user said on a forum):
steam --reset
This might do the same thing, from the broswer:
steam://flushconfig

3. As last resort, nuke the whole Steam install and reinstall it all clean (I think you can keep the games library directory if you don't store it in the default location - which is ~/.local/share/Steam/).
rm -rf ~/.steam/ rm -rf ~/.local/share/Steam/ sudo apt purge --autoremove steam sudo apt install steam
Last edited by Pepe; 8 Jul @ 4:00am
#5
Cray 8 Jul @ 5:06am 
Personally I've given up trying to fix steam when it fails massively - in the long run it's been more of a timesaver to just ignore the details, wipe ~/.steam and ~/.local/share/Steam and reinstall the whole thing, keeping the game library in a separate folder.

Sorry if this isn't a direct solution to the particular problem, but I'm confident it's an overall timesaver.

Steam's broken after an update three times over just the past month where wiping and reinstalling was the only fix, for me.

It's a poorly written garbage app, expecting it to fail regularly is a sane choice.
#6
Zyro 8 Jul @ 5:50am 
Originally posted by Cray:
Personally I've given up trying to fix steam when it fails massively - in the long run it's been more of a timesaver to just ignore the details, wipe ~/.steam and ~/.local/share/Steam and reinstall the whole thing, keeping the game library in a separate folder.

Sorry if this isn't a direct solution to the particular problem, but I'm confident it's an overall timesaver.

Steam's broken after an update three times over just the past month where wiping and reinstalling was the only fix, for me.

Never had that, in over ten years.
#7
tbudha 13 Jul @ 5:39pm 
I did the following:

sudo apt purge steam sudo apt autoremove sudo apt autoclean sudo apt update sudo apt full-upgrade rm -r ~/.steam rm -r ~/.local/share/Steam sudo apt install steam

Still get the following error:
UpdateUI: skip show logodlmopen steamui.so failed: /home/max/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_option_group_unref Failed to load steamui.so - dlerror(): (null)
Last edited by tbudha; 13 Jul @ 5:40pm
#8
Pepe 14 Jul @ 5:13am 
That error suggests that the libgio dynamic library in the steam runtime directory doesn't contain the object/constant/symbol described there which Steam client is looking for. That, probably means that the client code is newer and the packaged steam-runtime is older than what is needed. So it might be a package issue.

That's why I thought a force update from the terminal would fix it, because it's just downloading the latest Steam client and runtime from Valve, not from the distro repos.

As I said earlier it might work pointing out to the distro libs (/usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0). You could also try overwriting the dynamic library file in the steam-runtime directory with the one from the system. Or you could remove the steam-runtime and see if Steam has some kind of fallback mechanism that will look for the dynamic libs from the system, if the local runtime ones are not available.

libgio-2.0.so.0 is a symlink to a similar file name, with some kind of version at the end. What is the version you have?
ls -l ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ | grep libgio
I have libgio-2.0.so.0.5800.3, on Fedora, with latest forced update.

Also check your steam-runtime version
cat ~/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/version.txt
I have steam-runtime_0.20240610.91380.

Steam client version seems to be in a manifest...
cat ~/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_ubuntu12.manifest | grep version
Mine shows version "1718904662", which matches the version shown by Steam GUI.
Last edited by Pepe; 14 Jul @ 6:39am
#9
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Steam for Linux > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: 6 Jul @ 11:21am
Posts: 9

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