Steam networking fails for some games with 9.20

[Yunraze]

I've been testing this version with Flatpak version of Steam of Silverblue, and I've found that the flatpak seems to have some kind of issue with Steam networking, because some multiplayer stops working if I use the flatpak. Using the same Proton-GE 9.20 non-flatpak has no such problems, but obviously gamescope is borked. I'd prefer to continue using the flatpak, but I'm at a loss as to what could cause the networking issue. I am reporting this as an issue, because it seems like it's related to the Proton-GE 9.20 flatpak somehow.

Examples:

• Helldivers 2 can't connect to any friends' games.
• No Man's Sky can't connect to any sessions.
• Elden Ring can't connect to any session.
• Monster Hunter World works just fine.
• V Rising works just fine (did not try changing networking to Steam P2P)

Silverblue commit:

● fedora:fedora/41/x86_64/silverblue
                  Version: 41.20241119.0 (2024-11-19T00:40:12Z)
                  BaseCommit: 9a5227d180260b9545127ebb559a2ea3cebfd6b91e11e3311a73bc04afd99e0a

Steam version:

Steam - Launcher for the Steam software distribution service

          ID: com.valvesoftware.Steam
         Ref: app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/x86_64/stable
        Arch: x86_64
      Branch: stable
     Version: 1.0.0.81
     License: LicenseRef-proprietary
      Origin: flathub
  Collection: org.flathub.Stable
Installation: system
   Installed: 43.8 MB
     Runtime: org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/24.08
         Sdk: org.freedesktop.Sdk/x86_64/24.08

      Commit: e19b6cdee48b2c41e753f9abbe8e127b1f50f97547210c8da7771a51fcd96328
      Parent: 173cd565d98d4951bd858bad290e8481a9e72dbf5f7c9c980165a060666184b1
     Subject: usbutils: Convert to meson (9c91d2eb)
        Date: 2024-10-31 04:19:01 +0000

Here's the version of the Flatpak I'm using:

Proton-GE (community build) - Latest Proton-GE version built on the Flatpak
Freedesktop SDK

          ID: com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton-GE
         Ref: runtime/com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton-GE/x86_64/stable
        Arch: x86_64
      Branch: stable
     Version: 9.20
     License: BSD-3-Clause and LGPL-2.1 and zlib-acknowledgement and Zlib and OFL-1.1 and MIT and MPL-2.0 and LicenseRef-proprietary
      Origin: flathub
  Collection: org.flathub.Stable
Installation: system
   Installed: 1.3 GB

      Commit: 613e58377a0c140755efeb769fb0eed6c0efd3541e751646d7f5d071679c9de3
      Parent: 84982b179c268e1c4bd00a84a439fdf32cb7f22e8a34bfc43e973bc246417bd0
     Subject: Update Proton-GE to 9.20 (382f50fa)
        Date: 2024-11-11 07:36:58 +0000

[ChrisHobday]

Unfortunately I don't have any of those specific games to test with, and haven't run into this issue with any of the online games I've played.

Did this start with 9.20 for you or have you been having this issue with older versions of this Flatpak? Can you try running older versions of this Flatpak and see if they also cause issue for you? You can use the "Update a Flatpak package to a specific version" of this guide https://linuxhandbook.com/updating-flatpak-packages/#Update%20a%20Flatpak%20package%20to%20a%20specific%20version .

What method are you using to install the non Flatpak Proton-GE? If you are not already, could you try manually installing the release from here https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases , by extracting the .tar.gz to ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/ , and report if that is issue free (apart from the not working Gamescope).

I'm not sure what could be causing this, as this Flatpak does only a few things different from manually installing, which are...

1. Remove these lines from toolmanifest.vdf with the toolmanifest.patch

-  "require_tool_appid" "1628350"
-  "use_sessions" "1"
-  "compatmanager_layer_name" "proton"

2. Rename the internal name and display name with compatibilitytool.patch

-    "GE-Proton9-20" // Internal name of this tool
+    "GE-Proton (Flatpak)" // Internal name of this tool
...
-    "display_name" "GE-Proton9-20"
+    "display_name" "GE-Proton9-20 (Flatpak)"

3. Install to a different location

[Yunraze]

Did this start with 9.20 for you or have you been having this issue with older versions of this Flatpak? Can you try running older versions of this Flatpak and see if they also cause issue for you? You can use the "Update a Flatpak package to a specific version" of this guide https://linuxhandbook.com/updating-flatpak-packages/#Update%20a%20Flatpak%20package%20to%20a%20specific%20version .

Thanks for such a prompt reply. I haven't had the chance to test with prior versions of the flatpak because I only became aware of its existence at 9.20. Thanks for the tip, I'll try to find some time this weekend to test this and report back. Might as well since I report such a strange issue.

What method are you using to install the non Flatpak Proton-GE? If you are not already, could you try manually installing the release from here https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases , by extracting the .tar.gz to ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/ , and report if that is issue free (apart from the not working Gamescope).

I've always been using either Experimental or Proton-GE, installed with https://flathub.org/apps/net.davidotek.pupgui2. I'll try the manual install as well and see if it works.

I'm not sure what could be causing this, as this Flatpak only does only a few things different from manually installing, which are...

Let's see if we can figure it out. I'm kind of hoping it's just a misconfiguration on my part, but in case it isn't, I'll try to find out more.