Steam don't start - libGL error

Hello community,

I have a problem here. Steam won’t start.
I get:

cronyk@Nexus:~$ steam
Running Steam on ubuntu 17.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1490228413)
libGL error: No matching fbConfigs or visuals found
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast

It just worked with the X.Org X server driver, but then other things won’t run in a good way.
The NVIDIA binary drivers 340 and 375 both cause the issue. Is there a way to work around this? I found many entrys in google with a similar problem but nothing worked for my Ubuntu 17.04.

Greetings,
Cronyk

I’ve seen that error message but not on machines running the NVidia driver if I recall correctly.

I’ve tried installing Steam on an old laptop running Ubuntu Mate 17.04 and using the Nvidia driver 340.102 and everything works fine.

Do you have issues running other OpenGL games outside of Steam? Also, did you install Steam with the package from Valve’s website itself?

Hm, I don’t discover other issues. Do you have such a game for testing?

But I found another problem with steam: I purged it and downloaded the steam_latest.deb from the official homepage. When I hit the install button, simply nothing happens.

In the Terminal it seems like it would install the version from the sources anyway:

cronyk@Nexus:~/Downloads$ sudo apt install /home/cronyk/Downloads/steam_latest.deb
Paketlisten werden gelesen… Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut.
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen… Fertig
Hinweis: »steam-launcher« wird an Stelle von »/home/cronyk/Downloads/steam_latest.deb« gewählt.
Die folgenden NEUEN Pakete werden installiert:
steam-launcher
0 aktualisiert, 1 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.
Es müssen noch 0 B von 2.752 kB an Archiven heruntergeladen werden.
Nach dieser Operation werden 2.898 kB Plattenplatz zusätzlich benutzt.
Holen:1 /home/cronyk/Daten/Downloads/steam_latest.deb steam-launcher all 1.0.0.54 [2.752 kB]
Vormals nicht ausgewähltes Paket steam-launcher wird gewählt.
(Lese Datenbank … 257821 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Vorbereitung zum Entpacken von …/Downloads/steam_latest.deb …
Entpacken von steam-launcher (1.0.0.54) …
Trigger für mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) werden verarbeitet …
Trigger für desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu2) werden verarbeitet …
steam-launcher (1.0.0.54) wird eingerichtet …
Trigger für bamfdaemon (0.5.3+17.04.20170406-0ubuntu1) werden verarbeitet …
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index…
Trigger für man-db (2.7.6.1-2) werden verarbeitet …
Trigger für gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu5) werden verarbeitet …
Trigger für hicolor-icon-theme (0.15-1) werden verarbeitet …

But the reinstall didn’t help:

cronyk@Nexus:~/Downloads$ steam
Running Steam on ubuntu 17.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1490228413)
libGL error: No matching fbConfigs or visuals found
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast

My Drivers are: NVIDIA binary driver - version 375.39 (Properitär, tested)

Could you help with other specific information about the system?

Hi, try delete some librarys from home/steam (those related with “GL”) i had this problem when steam instaled from steam_latest.deb. This package on ubuntu 16.04 also prevents playing audio in e.g Wolfstein Enemy Terytory. I think the best solution is:

  • instaling steam:i386 from ubuntu repository
  • eventualy deleting libs in mentioned folder or
  • load proper libs before starting app

Mayby this tip will help You. Cheers

Well, I installed it from the PPA now on a fresh windows. Must have been my messed up system