Client fails to run when SteamCMD is installed. (Linux)

[jackmio32]

I have the Steam Ubuntu package (NOT the Flatpak) installed (so everything lives at ~/.steam/debian-installation, NOT ~/.local/share/Steam). When I install SteamCMD (from apt) and run the client, it fails to automatically find loginusers.vdf and libraryfolders.vdf. This issue occurs until I uninstall SteamCMD and manually remove the residual files left by SteamCMD in ~/.local/share/Steam (the package does not clean up after itself when removed for some reason).

[alkaris2]

The default location for Steam is /home/$USER/.local/share/Steam and the config files it looks for are within the /home/$USER/.local/share/Steam/config directory. You shouldn't be removing these files in this default install location.

[jackmio32]

Steam is not installed at the path you are talking about; As I said previously, Steam lives at ~/.steam/debian-installation (because Ubuntu/Debian). Only SteamCMD is present at ~/.local/share/Steam, under a subdirectory steamcmd (~/.local/share/Steam/steamcmd).
I was able to find a (rather janky) workaround to fix the problem for now, but I still want this fixed because the workaround is likely prone to breaking, and a permanent fix to the issue would be better.

[alkaris2]

Everything within ~/.steam directory except for registry.vdf, steam.pid, steam.pipe, steam.token is a symlink that points to /home/$USER/.local/share/Steam these are two directories that point to the same location, ~/.steam is just a short link directory created by Steam that symlinks to the real install directory. This is how Steam always works with it's directory structure.

For SteamCMD you should follow what it says from the Wiki installation guide - https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

SteamCMD is only required if you're running game servers that run on Steam. If you need an easy reliable way of installing game servers then use a Game Manager like LinuxGSM - https://linuxgsm.com, AMP - https://cubecoders.com/AMP, or GameAP - https://gameap.com

[jackmio32]

It is, in fact, not a symlink to ~/.local/share/Steam. (output of ll attached)

[alkaris2]

If you're doing some jank install setup then it's not going to work. Make sure you install it properly with the systems package manager. For Ubuntu it should just be sudo apt install steam-installer

[jackmio32]

late reply, but I installed it that way and it installed to ~/.steam/debian-installation. idk what else to tell you, im not the type to fuck with install locations for things that I need to just work.