Steam vr troubleshooting

See also steam vr performance.

Logs

Some issues with SteamVR are caused by missing libraries, or directories.

# starting in console and watching logs is most dependable source of errors
# logs exist in ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/Steam/logs but NOT EVERY ERROR is logged
steam | grep -i -e 'vrwebhelper' -e 'failed' -e 'error' -e 'symbol'

Console

- launch steam from console and it will log there
- modify SteamVR's launch command to open and execute from a terminal.

UI

Logs available from UI using

SteamVR > Create System Report:
  - Logs tab

Unable to contact Mongoose

• doesn't seem to be firewall
• doesn't seem to be dnsmasq
• validated steamvr

Errors/Fixes

SteamVR > Settings won't start

Check the logs, I needed to downgrade freetype2 and install libcef.

SteamVR Dashboard won't display

Log Errors

(2021/10/17) symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6: undefined symbol: hb_ot_tags_from_script_and_language

Downgrade to freetype-2.2.10.4-1

sudo pacman -U https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/path/freetype2-2.10.4-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

# /etc/pacman.conf

[options]
# - freetype2: steamvr issue 2021/10/17
IgnorePkg = freetype2

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/7935

(2021/10/17) error while loading shared libraries: libcef.so

aura -A cef-standard
# OR
aura -A cef-minimal

NOTE:

still getting errors, perhaps adjust LD_LIBRARY_PATH

(2021/10/17) ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/will/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.

Ignorable.

(2021/10/17 | vrwebhelper_pairing.txt) CEF Local Resource Load Error: http://localhost:27062/fonts/get_font?font=motiva-sans-regular.ttf -> 404 (Not Found)

The filenames fonts installed with steam are mixed-case, but being retreived lowercased.
Linux filesystems are case sensitive, create symlinks for the lowercased variation.

cd ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/resources/webinterface/fonts \
  && ln -s Motiva-Sans-Bold.ttf    motiva-sans-bold.ttf \
  && ln -s Motiva-Sans-Regular.ttf motiva-sans-regular.ttf

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/255#issuecomment-877844004