Steam cant run: Unable to open a connection to X

English Games
#1

Hi,

Running Steam it popup:

"Unable to open a connection to X. Check your DISPLAY environment variable and make sure that you have enabled X. If you are running remotely, make sure that you have a remote connection which will allow an X connection.

For more information visit https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4050-WOJB-0608."

Searched through out google trying fix it and got a workaround but I have to do it every time(startup): xhost +; steam

xhost is issuing: “access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect”

And I cant get permission to my user from X

Thanks in advance. rotfl!

Rig:
openSUSE 13.1
Nvidia proprietary driver (updated)
Gigabyte GTX 770
i5 3330 (h60 corsair)

#2

I can confirm this issue, after steam client update on 22 april, its not working anymore.

#3

On 04/27/2014 01:36 PM, nevenblazic wrote:
>
> I can confirm this issue, after steam client update on 22 april, its not
> working anymore.
>
>

Hmm I have updated and it still works for me.

On 04/27/2014 11:16 AM, GoCorinthians wrote:>
> Hi,
>
> Running Steam it popup:
>
>
_“Unable_to_open_a_connection_to_X.__Check_your_DISPLAY_environment_variable_and_make_sure_that_you_have_enabled_X.__If_you_are_running_remotely,make_sure_that_you_have_a_remote_connection_which_will_allow_an_X_connection.
>
>
_For_more_information_visit_https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4050-WOJB-0608.”
> _
>

Did you visit the link steam provides? It has some debugging information
on it. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4050-WOJB-0608

–
Bring the Penguins Back! https://features.opensuse.org/316767
openSUSE 13.1
KDE 4.13.0

#4

No problems here either; one machine running native Steam, one running through wine.
I have not updated through any repository, but the clients have been ‘automatically’ updated in both cases.

#5

Just a wild guess:
There was an update to xorg-x11-server recently, this will break the nvidia driver if you installed it “the hard way” (by downloading and running the .run file from the nvidia homepage).
If that’s how you installed it, you have to re-install it after any update to Mesa-libGL1 and xorg-x11-server, as the nvidia driver replaces parts of those with its own versions.

Maybe this causes your issue?
Try re-installing the driver.
To check whether the driver is working, install “Mesa-demo-x” and run:

glxinfo | grep render

or have a look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

#6

hey,

Installed openSUSE all over.

I do noticed that after installing Steam appeared two new kernel choices on grub: 3.11.10-7 & 3.11.6-4. I booted with each one of them and same error issued sadly
Could be it?

Host-001:~ # zypper in Mesa-demo-x
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
Resolving package dependencies…

The following NEW package is going to be installed:
Mesa-demo-x

1 new package to install.
Overall download size: 25.8 KiB. After the operation, additional 67.7 KiB will be used.
Continue? [y/n/? shows all options] (y): y
Retrieving package Mesa-demo-x-8.1.0-4.1.2.x86_64 (1/1), 25.8 KiB ( 67.7 KiB unpacked)
Retrieving: Mesa-demo-x-8.1.0-4.1.2.x86_64.rpm …[done]
(1/1) Installing: Mesa-demo-x-8.1.0-4.1.2 …[done]
Host-001:~ # glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GTX 770/PCIe/SSE2
GL_NVX_conditional_render, GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info, GL_NVX_nvenc_interop,
GL_NV_compute_program5, GL_NV_conditional_render,
GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object2, GL_NV_path_rendering,
GL_NVX_conditional_render, GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info, GL_NVX_nvenc_interop,
GL_NV_compute_program5, GL_NV_conditional_render,
GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object2, GL_NV_path_rendering,

#7

Yep. no fix here!

#8

I’m using Tumbleweed and Steam RPM package was upgraded to 1.0.0.50 and this error started to appear for me.

This command:

xhost +; steam

helped me to fix the problem.

Thanks and sorry for the necro posting.

#9

Hey,

try

echo $DISPLAY

Outpu:

:0.0

DISPLAY=:0.0 xhost +;steam

works for me

OpenSuSE 13.2
NVIDIA ION
XFCE

#10

xhost + is A REALLY BAD IDEA, you should never use it but instead allow only certain hosts like localhost connect.

#11

also moved some files from
cd /home/gohan/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
to ~/xcb

mkdir ~/xcb
mv -v xcb ~/xcb

#12

Did another try:

Source: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Steam#Troubleshooting


find ~/.steam/root/ \( -name "libgcc_s.so*" -o -name "libstdc++.so*" -o -name "libxcb.so*" \) -print -delete
# Output:
-------------
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.18
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1.1.0
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.18
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1.1.0
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.18
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/test/libxcb.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/test/libxcb.so.1.1.0
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/i386/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.18
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1.1.0
/home/gohan/.steam/root/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime.old/amd64/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1

now steam works :slight_smile:

NVIDIA ION


zypper se -si nvidia
# Output:
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name                          | Type    | Version               | Arch   | Repository             
--+-------------------------------+---------+-----------------------+--------+------------------------
i | nvidia-computeG03             | package | 340.93-36.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i | nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop     | package | 340.93_k3.16.6_2-36.1 | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i | nvidia-glG03                  | package | 340.93-36.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i | nvidia-uvm-gfxG03-kmp-desktop | package | 340.93_k3.16.6_2-36.1 | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i | x11-video-nvidiaG03           | package | 340.93-36.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
#13

THIS IS GOLD. It worked for me. Thank you! :slight_smile:

#14

I have been running into this issue as well. After many years of trouble shooting i think i might have and idea why it isn’t working for me and why none of the resolutions on this post work with the exception of xhost +; steam.

First thin first is when i open steam on some of my machines, in the most recent case a Thinkpad T400, I get the error where steam cannot open a connection to X. Everything else works fine and running

echo $DISPLAY

reveals

:0.0

. GLXgears works as do a few other programs from the Games and Packman repository.

So it just dawned on me… Xhost… Xhost might have some tie to the localhost. Next story :slight_smile:

On most of my Linux installs i change the hostname to something i can remember, usually something cheeky like “pornbox” or something else i can remember easly when SSHing into the machine or doing VNC. Now on Suse based installs i usually change the hostname via Yast>Network . Sadly it dawned on me i usually do this AFTER i set up steam.

Hence my hypothesis that Steam is looking for the Xhost on the local host using the default random one the suse installer chooses automatically like “linux_1723gsaeywv”. Since that got changed Steam cannot find the display because the localhost as it knows it cannot be found.

Installing and reinstalling steam doesn’t function in fixing this. and in the case of one machine (thinkpad T400) if i do the xhost+; steam i get the now notorious line 713 error. On my Poweredge with nvidia as well as some other thinkpads and various machines once i did the xhost +; steam , everything worked fine and normally after a reboot.

Could it be that the YAST>NETWORK changes the hostname in /etc/hostname but doesnt add it to /etc/hosts?

Will need to experiment with this some more before posting a bug report, if there is one.

#15

Sometime later

=_=# Well that didnt work. My hypothesis might be wrong. Added the line in /etc/hosts as follows using that cheeky example made in the previous post.

127.x.x.x  localhost 127.x.x.x  pornbox

Now after a reboot or two and letting some programs like dolphin acclimate to the changes, steam still cannot find a connection to X on my Thinkpad T400. Back to 1² (square one for you non-math humored people ~_0).