Steam takes very long to start, failed to connect to websocket

[peacememories]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1714854927
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 24.04
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: not available right now, I can post them when I next start steam, but the extract below should be the relevant information
• GPU: AMD Radeon 7900 XTX

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Recently when starting Steam, the tray icon appears immediately, but using any of the menu items does not work, and the Steam client does not appear.

Sometimes the client does appear after waiting for several minutes. I am not sure If this is always the case and I just was not patient enough most of the time.

When launching from the console it outputs this after hanging:

src/steamUI/webuitransportcontroller.cpp (206) : Failed to connect to websocket

This seems to me like something tries to connect to a websocket and the interface only continues initializing after the connection timeouts.

After appearing the interface does seem to work normally, so I am not sure what kind of websocket connection is failing.

This might be connected to #9658, but the problem started very recently for me and the mentioned issue seems to be a lot older.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Start steam
2. The interface does not appear
3. Try to click on the tray icon and select "Library
4. The interface still does not appear
5. Wait for several minutes
6. The interface appears

[kisak-valve]

Hello @peacememories, can you check if this is the same issue as discussed on #9383?

[usersteamdebian]

I have the same problem, since the last update it doesn't work well.
I tried uninstalling and purging ~/.steam/ ~/.steampath ~/.steampid but the problem persists

Your system information

Steam client version (build number or date): 1714854927
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) (64 bit)
Opted into Steam client beta?: No
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
Steam Logs: logs.zip
GPU: Radeon Vega 6

[YoinkerBoinker]

Same issue. I also reported another issue which seems pretty much the same thing (The behaviour is the same - really long dealys till it somehow seems to "refresh" itself). See #10853 I think the issue with the start might be related to that small popup that sometimes shows up when starting steam to inform you about new offers/releases.

I checked he issue kisak-valve shows but i don't have a igpu since this is on 5700x3d / Rx7700 XT

[UrsusLvovich]

I had a similar issue, started last tuesday for me. I guess when Steam had their last maintenance. When trying to open with the icon, the steam logo would show up in the task tray. But the main window wouldn't show up. I was able to still launch games by clicking the icon in the task tray though.
I then tried to run steam with sudo from the terminal. It did some update and the steam store actually came up this time. I thought I had resolved the issue, but trying to launch steam normally still resulted in the same behavior as before

[OdinVex]

I have the same issue with extremely stupidly long startup times (15 ****ing minutes on 16C32T@4.5GHz 64GB DDR4 4x2TB NVMe RAID0, so it's NOT my ****). I've resorted to starting steam in a shell and spamming Ctrl+C sporadically terminating crap in the background it attempts to launch, it can speed up my startup times. Do it enough and you'll notice patterns around that plagueware of Chromium underneath and the entire websocket garbage. Edit: I despise this new UI so much. I miss the old Steam UI, functional and fast (aside from DPI issues and rasterized images). My frustration with this stems from a year of this expecting better but getting the same no-dpi-slider crap.

Steam Version: 1715635533
Distro: Manjaro KDE (64 bit) Wayland
GPU: RX 5700 XT x 2

[wwmm]

I faced the same issue today. Steam's tray icon and the corresponding menu is in the system tray. But the window does not open. A curious workaround is disabling the internet connection before launching Steam. The window opens as usual this way without delay.

[wwmm]

I faced the same issue today. Steam's tray icon and the corresponding menu is in the system tray. But the window does not open. A curious workaround is disabling the internet connection before launching Steam. The window opens as usual this way without delay.

I think that the issue on my side may not be related to internet services. Having my xbox joystick plugged is what is actually making Steam's window to not be shown. Weird...

[fmorgner]

I am seeing a similar problem (on Arch). Checking the logs, I see the following in webhelper.txt:

[2024-05-18 00:47:06] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: websocket connect retry: limit exceeeded, bailing - steamUI
[2024-05-18 00:47:06] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to re-connect to websocket after close
[2024-05-18 00:47:06] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: OnWebsocketReconnect: Failed to reconnect to steam client
[2024-05-18 00:47:06] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: websocket connect retry: limit exceeeded, bailing - clientdll
[2024-05-18 00:47:06] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to re-connect to websocket after close
[2024-05-18 00:47:06] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: OnWebsocketReconnect: Failed to reconnect to steam client
[2024-05-18 00:47:07] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:07] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: connect attempt failed: 2 - failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:07] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:07] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: connect attempt failed: 2 - failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:09] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:09] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: connect attempt failed: 2 - failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:09] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:09] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: connect attempt failed: 2 - failed to reach open state

The following part keeps repeating every couple of seconds:

[2024-05-18 00:47:09] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: failed to reach open state
[2024-05-18 00:47:09] SP Shared JS Context-'SharedJSCo': WARNING: https://steamloopback.host/library.js:2: connect attempt failed: 2 - failed to reach open state

[OdinVex]

Replying to #10879 (comment)

Same but Manjaro, my webhelper is filled with entries alike.

Edit: My DNS server protects clients by preventing DNS rebind (removes any local-addresses from DNS records, reports NX for domains). I added it to the allowlist, no change in Steam's behavior.

Edit: Steam isn't listening on 443, so I'm wondering how it's trying to capture that loopback. 443 is a privileged port anyway (<=1024), regular processes wouldn't be able to open it anyway.

Edit: Adding CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE to steamwebhelper and steam (purely for the sake of testing) had no effect, not to mention steam isn't a binary.

Edit: This is also what causes games such as HMCC to hitch terribly keeping the FPS to maybe 1 frame per 30 seconds (HMCC calls some Steam APIs constantly in a blocking mode, made evident by patching steam_api to circumvent to test and suddenly vsync and fine).

Edit: A little poking around, this looks like IPC behavior. Chromium (the @!*%ty underneath of Steam's UI since they ruined it) uses IPC like this and it's just awful.

[peacememories]

Hello @peacememories, can you check if this is the same issue as discussed on #9383?

DRI_PRIME is not set on my machine, which makes sense since it's a desktop with only one, dedicated, GPU (the 5800x3d does not even have an IGP)

[RisaI]

This happens to me too, also tested with the flatpak version and steam-runtime.

Steam client version (build number or date): 1716584667
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch Linux
Opted into Steam client beta?: No
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
Steam Logs: -
GPU: AMD Radeon 7900 XTX

[OdinVex]

To help establish how long this issue has existed...it's been this way since the UI revamp. That long. -_- I've figured out that starting Steam in a shell and then waiting until after it initializes Vulkan to constantly spam Ctrl+C helps. Each call to the CEF's IPC like that needs a Ctrl+C. I can select a new game and wait ages for it to "load" the library details or I can alt-tab and Ctrl+C the shell and the library details instantly load. @!Q# Chrome/Chromium and CEF. This 'web browser as software' ^%#* should be outlawed. Edit: The Ctrl+C technique works for nearly everything, even for right-clicking the Steam icon to exit. Right-click and wait forever or right-click, alt-tab to the shell and Ctrl+C, bam instant menu. It even helps Steam shut down faster.