Funny this shows up when all of a sudden Steam won't launch anymore on my Arch install. It's installed via flatpak.
How do I even check which version of the Steam runtime I am running? The flatpak version of Steam is just 1.0.something.other.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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the flatpak version is unsupported by Valve for a reason. there's been a ton of problems over the lifespan of the flatpak. it's usually highly recommended everywhere not to use that version.
I've been using Steam in a flatpak for a couple years now, I think. What ton of problems are you referring to?
I don't have a reference, but I've been seeing random individuals asking for help and finally saying they fixed their issue by switching away from flatpak, so... You, I guess? Your.problem might be a perfect example of one of the many problems that keep popping up, that seem to only happen on the flatpak version.
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too many small things over the years to go over them all in one post. some still relevant, some not. drivers, for one. no game mode, if I remember correctly. you might end up having issues with controllers, and VR is out of the question on the flatpak. some people have reported issues with permissions.
it's enough of a troublemaker that Bazzite blacklisted the flatpak, I believe, and it can't be installed normally.
For me personally (Fedora 43 KDE) about 80% of unity games that don't have a native build refused to run at all. No problems at all since I swapped to a non-flatpak Steam install.
OTOH I'm having trouble with pretty much all flatpak apps in some way or another... might just be my system that's being weird.
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Install warehouse. It gives you all the details of which runtime is in a Flatpak and even lets you change the version.
I did not know about Warehouse. Thank you.
i usually avoid flatpaks, especially with steam. but every now and then my non-flatpak steam borks too and won't launch on mint. 9 times out of 10 simple reboot helps, but sometimes it requires a reinstall...
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Why would you use flatpack for stuff natively available on pacman? Search no further, flatpack is a good way to introduce problems where there are none
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Flatpak
🤷♂️ Seemed like a good way to install it. I had used the native package before but I think I tried flatpak because of some issue or another with the native version.
It's been working great for years now so, no issues until now.
I usually install big corporate software with flatpak if I can help it, to keep them as isolated as possible. Slack, Discord, Steam, etc. Stuff like that. 👍
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How do I even check which version of the Steam runtime I am running? The flatpak version of Steam is just 1.0.something.other.
#justFlatpakThings
You're not alone. I had the same thing on two machines yesterday. (Not flatpack)
yeah, many people had that problem. it happened around the same time the Arc Raiders servers went offline. a buddy of mine couldn't launch Steam, and when he did, it wouldn't load his friends list. my theory is that the 350,000 people who were all reloading Steam and Arc Raiders over and over DDoSed the two services.
Been happening though. Maybe it's a coincidence or it's happening again or something. Interesting theory though.
A decent error message would have been useful.
I don't know if there's an existing error message for "please stop reloading Steam all at once, the game will come back online just give them time".
"unable to contact server" would do. It tells me it's not a problem on my end.
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