[BUG] SteamVR error 303, vrcompositor crashing?

[authorisation]

Describe the bug
SteamVR upon launching, hangs for 10 seconds in a black (or seethrough with a compositor enabled) window and then emits a 303 critical error.

Terminal output, when steam is run from the terminal, indicates some sort of crash and a crash dump gets generated.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open up Steam client
2. Head to SteamVR
3. Run it
4. Witness a black SteamVR window open
5. Wait 10-15 seconds
6. See error

Expected behavior
SteamVR launches successfully, vrcompositor runs and no errors get reported.

System Information (please complete the following information):
Please use the latest Steam beta client and SteamVR beta for your bug reports!

• Steam client version (build number or date): 1775525170
• SteamVR version: 2.16.1
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Gentoo GNU/Linux
• Steam runtime diagnostics: runtime-diagnostics.txt
• Steam and SteamVR logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• Minidumps: steam-minidumps.tar.gz

Screenshots

Additional context
I am running a custom configured Linux kernel on version 6.18.18.

Running vrcompositor with its launcher shell script does absolutely nothing and it results in a crash, maybe intended? Maybe not. vrcompositor-launch-log.txt
Running the binary does the same but I assume it is not intended to be ran like that anyways.

Months ago on the same exact system and install it worked absolutely fine.

[Gladox114]

Same with my setup:

Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.24.0
Qt Version: 6.11.0
Kernel Version: 6.19.10-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-8600K CPU @ 3.60GHz
Memory: 26 GB of RAM (25,1 GB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT
SteamVR version: 2.16.1

vrcompositor.log

[authorisation]

I have just discovered that killing my X compositor (picom) and trying to launch SteamVR completely segfaults my nvidia drivers and kills my complete X session.

My friend got her screen barrel projected by doing this. What is going on?

[2026-04-08 03:46:45] Backtrace:
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x54) [0x560228889864]
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 1: /usr/bin/X (0x560228747000+0x14b33f) [0x56022889233f]
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 2: /usr/lib64/libc.so.6 (0x7f115117f000+0x419e0) [0x7f11511c09e0]
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 3: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so (0x7f1150800000+0xa0d78) [0x7f11508a0d78]
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 4: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so (0x7f1150800000+0x8aa2e) [0x7f115088aa2e]
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 5: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so (0x7f1150800000+0x26d0e6) [0x7f1150a6d0e6]
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] Segmentation fault at address 0x508
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 
Fatal server error:
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 
Please consult the XLibre support: https://www.xlibre.net/
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] 
[2026-04-08 03:46:45] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

[tyzbit]

I'm getting this too, though I also have logs similar to #880

vrcompositorASSERT: "Unhandled sampler filter type!" at /data/src/common/vrcommon/vrrenderer/vulkanrenderer.cpp:2288.
vrcompositorWed Apr 08 2026 17:01:39.535824 [Error] - ASSERT: "IsDepthFormat(eVkFormat)" at /data/src/common/vrcommon/vrrenderer/vulkanrenderer.cpp:762.

I notice that after SteamVR starts up, if I go to the settings, the resolution and refresh rate are not what I expect - if I set to 72Hz it sticks at 90 and no matter what resolution I pick, it shows 800x900 as the render resolution. I'm using ALVR on Bazzite. AMD 7900XTX, Quest 3 (though this issue occurs before the headset even connects). I tried disabling direct mode but it restarted with it still enabled which is not unexpected.

[authorisation]

Replying to #879 (comment)

I get the same error when I run steam with these environment options in my terminal on Xlibre (X11): dbus-launch --exit-with-session steam

Thu Apr 09 2026 02:57:47.479269 [Error] - ASSERT: "IsDepthFormat(eVkFormat)" at /data/src/common/vrcommon/vrrenderer/vulkanrenderer.cpp:762.

Full log: steam-logs-with-envs-AND-dbus.tar.gz

---

Note: I do not run dbus globally and avoid it which is why dbus-launch was necessary, there seems to be some sort of issue with steam trying to execute a broken dbus-launch as seen here:

<3>steam-runtime-launch-client[45206]: E: Can't find session bus: Failed to execute child process ?dbus-launch? (No such file or directory)

I will create a seperate issue for this probably.

Here is a log with the same ENV vars as above but without dbus: steam-logs-with-vars-without-dbus.tar.gz