Resonite's Linux launcher stopped working with Proton 11

Linux players of the social VR platform Resonite have found that its launcher stops working with Proton 11. A Steam Runtime developer has now said the way the launcher works was never meant to be supported.

The third shot in the official Steam store gallery for Resonite. Image: Yellow Dog Man Studios

Resonite is a free Windows app on Steam, so Linux players run it through Proton, Valve's compatibility layer. According to an owner's report, its launcher uses the Linux Steam Runtime for one part and Proton for the renderer. Proton 11 moved to a newer runtime, and that combination broke.

"Never aimed to support"

Simon McVittie, a Steam Runtime developer at Collabora who works on Valve's Linux tools, replied on Valve's tracker: "I don't think hybrid apps containing both Windows/PE and Linux/ELF executables are something that we ever aimed to support."

The fourth shot in the same official Resonite store gallery. Image: Yellow Dog Man Studios

A Windows game can rely on Proton, he explained, and a native Linux game can choose its runtime, but an app should not count on both at once. The container Proton runs in is an internal detail that can change.

That is one developer's view rather than an official Valve position, and Valve has not commented on the report. Yellow Dog Man Studios, which makes Resonite, has not posted there either.

The fifth shot in Resonite's own gallery. The app is free on Steam and listed as VR Supported. Image: Yellow Dog Man Studios

A missing library started it

The trouble began with a library the newer runtime left out. Steam Runtime 4 dropped the ICU libraries some .NET games need, which stops some games starting at all. A future runtime release will add them back, but there is no date.

That fix could bring Resonite's launcher back too, and nothing in the thread rules it out. Proton 11 has had other growing pains: its release candidate listed twelve games it had broken, all since fixed.