this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024

34 points (88.6% liked)

Linux

48372 readers

2308 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Steam not launching games - no idea what to do [Solved] (feddit.uk)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

71 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This may not be a Linux specific problem as I had the exact same issue earlier with Windows 7 and it's one of the reasons I installed Linux in the first place.

The specific game I'm trying to play is DayZ but it may not be issue specific to this game. It worked flawlessly untill this point. I had made no changes to anything. Basically when I try to launch the game it starts loading up normally and then just apparently quits and the "Play" button goes back green. No error, no black screen, no freezing or anything. It just stops launching the game.

I've tried checking the integrity of files, deleting downloads catche, disabling steam cloud, removing launch options.. nothing. Almost like it gets blocked by firewall or something. However I feel like it may be an issue with steam itself or then it's a hardware issue (I've got really old PC)

Few things I've noticed that may or may not be related:

When opening up steam it almost always used to download some updates first and check the integrity of them or something. Now it doesn't. It just opens up Steam. When I click "check for updates" it says everything is up to date.
The firmware updater shows available updates for my SSD and HDD but no option to update. I also tried with sudo fwupdmgr get-devices but it says "UEFI firmware can not be updated in legacy BIOS mode See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:legacy-bios for more information."

In the privacy settings it says "checks failed" and gives me this message:

I've tried reinstalling Proton BattlEye Runtime but it wont let me uninstall it and says "missing shared content"

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't have any idea about your hardware issues. They're likely unrelated if the game has already been played without issue.

For the steam diagnosing, start with running steam from your terminal, by running steam. You may get lucky and the error is clearly identified in the console.

If that fails, backup $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/221100 - the 221100 is the app ID of of DayZ on the steam store. After backing it up, delete the original 221100 directory and re-launch the game. This doesn't delete the game, but rather deletes the Proton prefix for the game.

If the game launches, copy any save files (if any) you may have in the backed-up 221100 directory over to the new one.

The above worked for me when I had similar issues when playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.

To be thorough, have you tried any other games to rule out your hardware being an issue?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I installed DayZ Experimental and I have the same issue with that. I haven't tried with other games as I have none installed.

Trying to run steam via terminal gives me this wall of text:


(process:18363): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_settings_schema_source_lookup: assertion `source != NULL' failed
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf6b24370
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf6b22cc0
steamwebhelper.sh[18409]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/pokko/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
/home/pokko/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh: line 53: /proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_userns_clone: Permission denied
/home/pokko/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh: line 60: /proc/sys/user/max_user_namespaces: Permission denied
steamwebhelper.sh[18409]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()
steamwebhelper.sh[18409]: CEF sandbox already disabled
flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13CAppInfoCacheReadFromDiskThread took 44 milliseconds to initialize
Steam Runtime Launch Service: starting steam-runtime-launcher-service
Steam Runtime Launch Service: steam-runtime-launcher-service is running pid 18505
bus_name=com.steampowered.PressureVessel.LaunchAlongsideSteam
flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices failed, unable to init and enumerate GPUs with Vulkan.
BInit - Unable to initialize Vulkan!
BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 0ms

(steam:18363): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_settings_schema_source_lookup: assertion `source != NULL' failed
flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13BuildCompleteAppOverviewChange: 183 apps
RegisterForAppOverview 1: 18ms
RegisterForAppOverview 2: 18ms

(steam:18363): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_settings_schema_source_lookup: assertion `source != NULL' failed

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh damn, you're using the snap version of Steam, this is unfortunately outside of my area of experience :(

Some key error messages I see are:

/home/pokko/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh: line 53: /proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_userns_clone: Permission denied
/home/pokko/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper.sh: line 60: /proc/sys/user/max_user_namespaces: Permission denied

and

flock /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf LOCK_SH failed. errno = 13vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices failed, unable to init and enumerate GPUs with Vulkan.
BInit - Unable to initialize Vulkan!

You've got permission errors and a GPU driver issue somewhere, likely related to the permission errors. The flock errors stand out to me also, as they are fonts. Maybe required fonts for the game to run?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I've been using Linux for only a couple of weeks and all this is complete hebrew to me. I have no clue what is snap version of steam.

[–] Ozy 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm not trying to steal hollyberry's job here but here is my understanding of snaps (and why they aren't good).

Snaps were created by Canonical (The company behind Ubuntu) to fix the issue of inconsistent dependencies. The problem with the format is that the market is proprietary and they just aren't very good. Also they perform somewhat worse than Appimages and Flatpak.

Personally I reccomend you look into Flatpak, as it's a better sandboxing format than snap is.

Also the reason you ended up with the SNAP version of steam is because Ubuntu prioritizes the snap version over the native version when using

apt install steam

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

~~the last part is not true, apt installs things natively. Ubuntu software (the graphical app store) uses snap, however~~

I stand corrected. The apt packages on Ubuntu sometimes just install snaps under the hood. really strange move by Canonical

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I installed Steam using the Ubuntu app store. Now I'm trying to uninstall it but it's been going on for an hour and doesn't seem to be progressing anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry you're having such a bad experience. It should be as simple as uninstalling in the Ubuntu store, and then reinstalling either using apt or flatpak. Is the uninstall not working?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I need no try again. The uninstall failed the first time. It got stuck at 80% or so. I've had so much issues with Linux from the start that I'm getting suspicious about wether it's a hardware issue.

[–] Para_lyzed 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The uninstalling issue almost certainly isn't hardware related, Ubuntu's app store is just a pile of hot garbage. Stuff like that happens all the time, or at least that was my experience years ago when I used Ubuntu, one of the (many) reasons I no longer recommend Ubuntu to new users.

As for the Steam issues, it's probably a mix of software and hardware issues. It seems there are some permissions issues (likely caused by snap), but it also seems like there are GPU driver issues. What GPU do you have? If you have an Nvidia card, have you installed their drivers? There is also a very real possibility that your card is so old that DayZ is no longer compatible with it (which may be the case given that it wasn't working in Windows, but to be fair Windows 7 is incredibly out of date and doesn't receive updates so it could have also been a software/driver issue there).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

My GPU is just a few years old GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER and I just updated the drivers from 535 to 545 but no difference. However I've gotten a prompt saying that Steam needs nvidia-driver-libs:i386 so I'm not sure if I should install that instead or in addition to the ones I already have.

I still haven't been able to uninstall steam snap(?) either. I'd like to try the non-snap version using terminal but I don't know how to proceed. I'm sorry I'm such a novice with Linux. I'm feeling like my replies are really unhelpful.

EDIT: No luck trying to install the other drivers. All I got is this:

[–] Para_lyzed 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If you were to open the Software & Updates app and go to Additional Drivers, does the driver package you tested say it comes from Nvidia and it is "(proprietary, tested)"? If so, then your drivers should be fine. nvidia-driver-libs:i386 is 32-bit, so I don't know why you would need that installed unless DayZ is only compatible with 32-bit drivers for some reason. I have Steam installed on my Fedora install, and I don't have any 32-bit Nvidia drivers installed but everything works perfectly. That's a separate issue altogether, and I don't recommend running 32-bit drivers unless your system is 32-bit. Can you copy the "System Details" window in the About tab of the Settings app? It should have Hardware and Software information like the CPU, GPU, windowing system, etc. There are a few things that could cause issues that I might be able to glean from that.

I'm on Fedora, but since it's running Gnome it should theoretically look the same. You access the system details here:

SystemDetails

CopySystemDetails

Here's what mine looks like for reference:

System Details Report

Report details

Date generated: 2024-01-10 07:58:06

Hardware Information:

Hardware Model: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ASUS TUF Dash F15 FX516PM_FX516PM
Memory: 16.0 GiB
Processor: 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11370H × 8
Graphics: Intel® Xe Graphics (TGL GT2)
Graphics 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3060 Laptop GPU
Disk Capacity: 1.0 TB

Software Information:

Firmware Version: FX516PM.329
OS Name: Fedora Linux 39 (Workstation Edition)
OS Build: (null)
OS Type: 64-bit
GNOME Version: 45.2
Windowing System: X11
Kernel Version: Linux 6.6.9-200.fc39.x86_64

To uninstall the steam snap, you should be able to open up a terminal and type the following:

sudo snap remove steam

And assuming that works, to install the native version of Steam (which should be what's installed anyway, but Canonical is pushing their proprietary snap BS that has never worked well), this should apparently work (I don't have an Ubuntu install to test on though):

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse
sudo apt update
sudo apt install steam

If it prompts you for anything, you can just confirm by typing "y". I'd recommend you check that it isn't installing the snap version, but I don't know how to guide you to do that, really. I haven't used a distro with the Aptitude package manager in over 5 years.

Of course, it probably isn't helpful, but I'd recommend avoiding vanilla Ubuntu if you aren't already too deeply invested. Linux Mint seems to be a common recommendation for new users and it's based off Ubuntu, but in all honesty I'd probably recommend Nobara (gaming focused and more user friendly version of Fedora). That way you don't get snaps shoved down your throat by Canonical, which break things constantly. Up to you if you want to install another OS though; in theory you shouldn't need to, and there should be a way to resolve these issues with your current install.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The drivers I had before were proprietary and tested but the ones I updated to now (545) are just proprietary. Earlier I got this message so that's why I'm trying to install the 32 bit drivers too though it worked just fine before without them.

Here's my system info. I'll try uninstalling steam again now.

System Details Report

Report details

Date generated: 2024-01-10 18:28:58

Hardware Information:

Hardware Model: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5Q-PRO
Memory: 12.0 GiB
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9450 × 4
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
Disk Capacity: 1.5 TB

Software Information:

Firmware Version: 1613
OS Name: Ubuntu 23.10
OS Build: (null)
OS Type: 64-bit
GNOME Version: 45.1
Windowing System: X11
Kernel Version: Linux 6.5.0-14-generic

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah the unistallation gets stuck with terminal aswell. It managed to break steam so it no longer opens but wont remove it either. Guess I'll just try and install it again via terminal nevertheless.

load more comments (3 replies)

load more comments (5 replies)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Isn't apt install firefox meant to install the snap version?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

that would be really weird. snap install firefox or clicking "Install" in Ubuntu Software installs the snap, apt install firefox installs from the apt repositories

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think I first read about it from here: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-deb-apt-ubuntu-22-04

I've never tested it, but some of my friends mentioned snaps getting installed via 'apt'

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

How would I go about checking which version mine is? Atleast it isn't in the snap folder.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Thankfully someone stepped in about snap... I don't like it and would have gone on a rant without circling back to the issue on hand lmao

As recommended somewhere up the chain, try a different version of Proton. Support for your hardware may have been deprecated.

From here, I'm out of my element. Best of luck, sorry I couldn't have been of more help!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Interestingly that file doesn't seem to be located in the location you mentioned but rather: home/snap/steam/common/.steam/steamapps/steam/comptdata

There is no steam folder at "share"

I'll try deleting that anyways. I'll report back in a moment

EDIT: Nope, nothing.

[–] Nibodhika 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The logs say error on Vulkan, make sure your GPU is running with the correct drivers. If it's a Vulkan thing old native games that use OpenGL should work, I think Team Fortress 2 is OpenGL but I'm not entirely sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'm sorry I just don't know how to check any of that. These are the GPU drivers I'm using (I think) The game worked just fine for several weeks with these drivers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

You can install vulkan-tools (ubuntu package name - not sure if it's the same for your distro) and running vkcube. It's a simple vulkan app that will display a rotating cube using vulkan. It will also spit out the GPU that it's running on.

If it reports your nvidia card and the cube looks good then your drivers may be fine and the issue is with Steam and/or this application specifically. If not then there's an issue with your drivers.

Occasionally when I've had a kernel update or something the nvidia drivers have gotten borked. Removing, re-installing, and rebooting has helped. Something like this:

apt purge nvidia-driver-*
apt install nvidia-driver-535
reboot

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Usually I start debugging this type of thing by killing all instances of steam and then launching it from command line. Steam logs a bunch of good stuff and putting it in context of your interactions helps. That said, based on what you've described, I would try older versions of proton, targeting releases back when games were launching. Proton/wine versions don't always work for all games and sometimes you'll need to launch particular titles with specific versions. Proton has been absolutely revolutionary, but these issues still pop up. ProtonDB might have reports on specific versions for specific games/titles.

load more comments (5 replies)

[–] bigboismith 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Try to open the game manually. IIRC protontricks can be used to open the executable with the correct proton instance. Would probably be my go-to first ste4 to start tinkering

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There seems to be something wrong trying to install it. I get message saying:

32-bit Nvidia driver (nvidia-driver-libs:i386) required                     
 │                                                                             
 │ This computer appears to be using the Nvidia binary graphics driver (the    
 │ nvidia-driver package).                                                     
 │                                                                             
 │ Steam is a 32-bit program, so running it on this computer requires the      
 │ 32-bit versions of the Nvidia libraries, even if all the games you will     
 │ run via Steam are 64-bit. Please install the nvidia-driver-libs:i386        
 │ package.                                                                    
 │                                                                             
 │ For full functionality (including Vulkan), also install the libraries       
 │ listed as Recommends in the nvidia-driver-libs:i386 package. 
 │
 │ If you are using a legacy version of the Nvidia driver such as              
 │ nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver, please install the corresponding 32-bit         
 │ legacy package, for example nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver-libs:i386.           
 │                                                                             
 │

[–] Moghul 2 points 10 months ago

The message seems to give you at least what it thinks the solution to the problem is:

apt install nvidia-driver-libs:i386

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Have you tried updating and rebooting your system? I have had this happen a few times and almost always that is what fixes it for me (more so the rebooting but it is generally good to have your system up to date). Other times it is typically something missing on your host system (like properly installed drivers), though if the game was running before then this is less likely to be the issue and a reboot is typically enough - so start with that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I have checked all drivers, atleast I think I have, and have rebooted the system many times. Even took off the power cord for a minute

[–] escew 2 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I didn’t see this mentioned yet in the comments - have you tried going to developer settings and deleting proton files for the game?

load more comments (4 replies)

[–] Caboose12000 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I had an issue like this once, it turned out something with openGL had gotten messed up in my last system update, so although I thought I hadn't changed anything, not even Linux native games would launch correctly. the solution that worked for me was just using my distros update tool to make sure everything was up to date, and that found and updated the broken package and since then everything's worked for me

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm starting to think it has something to do with my GPU/drivers aswell. Earlier when I ran the software updater it found an update for steam but while installing I got this message and I have no idea what it mean and how to sort it out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It quite literally just tells you to install those graphics drivers, and you should.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (7 children)

How?

load more comments (7 replies)

[–] Para_lyzed 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just to clarify, the error you are seeing in the firmware updater and privacy settings are because your motherboard does not support UEFI, and instead uses legacy BIOS. There is no way to fix that without upgrading your hardware, and it shouldn't be related to your issue, but it may be an issue for anticheat in certain games.

On an unrelated note, you should really upgrade your motherboard and CPU if you have the chance, as those will be massive bottlenecks to performance. Your GPU is way overpowered for those components, so you aren't getting the most out of it. But that likely isn't related to the issue you are currently facing, I just wanted to mention it if you have grievances with the performance of your current computer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah upgrading the motherboard, cpu and ram is ahead at some point. I don't really game that much so haven't wanted to invest much into that thing. I almost exlusively play DayZ which it barely runs. With the new GPU and by optimizing the settings I get decent visuals with 35 to 60 fps but there's a ton of room for improvement. I've been upgrading it piece by piece starting with an SSD and the new GPU.

Game runs now by the way. I'm not exactly sure what finally did it but I'm suspecting the new steam version and reinstalling the game itself. Huge thanks for the help. Without this community I'd be at a complete loss with this stuff.

[–] Para_lyzed 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah, snap packages have a tendency to break everything, so avoid them like the plague. You should be able to choose what repo you install from in the Ubuntu app store by clicking the dropdown in the top right of the app's page (which defaults to snap if one is available), and selecting something else. I can't remember what the options are, but for a native install you're looking for something like ".deb", or "Ubuntu repository", or "apt", something of the like. You could also install flatpak and set up flathub so you can get apps packaged as flatpaks (which are kind of like snaps, except they actually function and generally work well for most applications). Not sure if you can get flatpak working with the Ubuntu app store, but it works with Gnome software stores for any other distro out of the box (like Fedora and Nobara). Ubuntu is owned by Canonical, who manages snaps, so they have financial motivation to shove them down their user's throats (which has been met with much dismay by the Linux community).

Snaps and flatpaks are essentially meant to be portable formats that are packaged with all of their dependencies inside their own sandbox so that they function the exact same when installed on different distros. This has great applications for compatibility (you can install the same package on any distro instead of compiling your package for multiple package managers and distros), and security (the sandboxing serves as a layer of isolation from other apps. Flatpak does this pretty well, but snap has tons of problems.

If you're ever at the point where you want/need to install a new OS, I'd recommend switching away from Ubuntu to avoid the headaches. Linux Mint is a common recommendation if you want to stick to a system that's similar to Ubuntu (it's based on Ubuntu), but my personal recommendation is something Fedora-based like Fedora Workstation or Nobara. You can find tons of info in this community on what different distros are like, and you'll see that there is no one "best" distro.

If you ever run into any other problems though, this is a great place to ask for help. One of the many great things about Linux is that much of the community is very knowledgeable about how to do/fix practically anything; and many of those people are just happy to help someone so they can enjoy their switch to Linux. There's also AskUbuntu, the Arch Wiki, Fedora forums, etc. that are available for whichever distro they are tailored to.

load more comments