Valve confirms Steam Frame VR streaming on Linux needs SteamVR started by hand
A Steam Frame streaming PC VR from a Linux desktop cannot get SteamVR going by itself, so a game picked inside the headset opens as a flat window on the monitor instead. Valve has confirmed the bug, has no date for a fix, and tells owners to start SteamVR on the PC first.
On a Linux host, SteamVR has to be running before the Frame asks for a VR game. Image: Valve
The report comes from an owner on an Arch Linux desktop running the SteamVR 2.18.1 beta, who found that launching a title from the headset left SteamVR down on the PC. The headset sat on its "opening game" panel, and Steam gave up about 24 seconds after launch, logging "CRemoteClientJobStartStream timed out k_ERemoteClientWaitVRConnectionReady".
Streaming a flat game to the Frame over the same wireless adapter link worked normally on that machine, so the break sits in the VR launch path rather than in the stream itself.
Both VR paths behaved the same way. Proton's OpenVR bridge connected only to a vrserver that was already running and found none, and with the title's OpenXR configuration Proton reported the runtime as absent rather than starting it, even though SteamVR was registered as the system runtime.
The headset reaches the PC through the Steam Link driver, which lives inside SteamVR. With the runtime down there is nothing for the stream request to attach to, which is what the timeout in the log records.
Valve gives the workaround, not a date
Valve's reply on September 25 is all the company has said about it:
The issue SteamVR needing to be run before launching a game is known and we are working on a fix. We don't have an exact eta for when this will be released, but I have made a note and will try to respond here when it has been published. For now, you'll want to make sure SteamVR is launched before starting a game.
On a Linux host the sequence is fixed: bring SteamVR up on the PC, then pick the game in the headset. Do it the other way round and the game still launches, which is what makes the bug easy to walk into.
PC streaming is the Frame's strongest hand
The Frame went on sale on September 14, and the first reviews praised its PC streaming while flagging battery life and price. A launch step that has to be done by hand on the PC is small next to battery life, but it is invisible until a VR game opens as a flat window.
Valve has been filling in the Linux side of the Frame quickly, down to an ARM64 build of Wine Mono in Proton Experimental, the .NET layer the headset's Android titles need. The SteamVR launch path on a Linux desktop is one of the pieces still being smoothed.
Nothing in Valve's reply covers Windows hosts, and the report it answers is a Linux desktop. Until the fix ships, SteamVR has to be running before the headset asks for it.
