SteamVR stuck on searching

[steady dune]

Platform (Windows, Linux distribution (arch, ubuntu, fedora, etc), choose one)
Fedora 42 Kinoite
Headset (if none chosen by roles), firmware version on headset.
Quest 2 (latest firmware 7/24/25, not sure how to check)
Installation method (Windows exe, zip, Linux tar.gz, flatpak, launcher, choose one)
Flatpak. All permissions have been granted, launch options changed, and the microphone has mounted successfully
Cpu (Intel Core ... , AMD Ryzen ...) / Gpu (ex. Nvidia RTX 3060TI, AMD RX 6600 XT) and driver version if on NVIDIA (535, 545, etc)
AMD Ryzen Max+ 395
Laptop/Pc (choose one)
Laptop with 1 AMD radeon gpu
Alvr logs (Logs tab on left has copy button)

Here's what it looks like.

Another error?

Head & hand tracking started working and steamvr home is rendering in VR view on the PC once clicked identify controller, but still no picture in the headset

These symptoms seem familar to what happens when the vrmonitor is not passed but it definitely is.

[steady dune]

I did I was just messing around with things

Same issue

Is there a way to enable software encoding or can you only enable software decoding

I'm going to try to mess around with the versions of va-api

[steady dune]

1. https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
2. https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/Multimedia#Hardware_codecs_with_AMD_.28mesa.29
3. https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA

I had to use sudo rpm-ostree override remove x --install y instead of replace/swap

still seeing if this work

all-flatpak

[steady dune]

Not going to try then. Is there a way to force software encoding?

This CPU is a monster I'm not worried about performance when encoding h264

[steady dune]

It says "the device" in description like it only causes the device (in this case my quest) to fallback to a software decoder

[steady dune]

Where is the option for software encoder? I didn't find it while poking around

oh its buried in encoder config thanks

i didn't open up that page

ok let me check

I'm here now

still black in the headset but moving my head moves the vr view on the pc

so.. progress? :p

I've messed around a little more and it still gets stuck on SteamVR is restarting or the headset or steamvr doesn't see the headset until i press identify controllers

Same thing happens with firewalld completely disabled

so not a firewall thing

[steady dune]

well

getting native packages to work on ostree involves going through a couple more hoops

and i would have to either labor over selinux flags or reinstall my entire 1tb game library which probably won't make me have a fun friday night

are there any more troubleshooting steps?

i think it works its just more effort

flatpak has its games install into a container overlay mounted into .var

and has game files inherit selinux flags

"mounted"

"overlay"

the same extent as a podman container

well

not really

but it is sandboxed

ok so i was actually wrong i just checked through my steam dir with the -Z and -R flags on ls

it seems to just be unconfined

yeah

i was talking about selinux flags for files in the user data container

in my experience some tools like Darktable will set selinux flags on files inside of the .var/x.y.z/data

i was wrong steam does not do that

so can I migrate from flatpak to native just by moving it?

don't believe so because i had it installed as a system flatpak

so var only included user data

what directories do I need to move? I'm going to get KDE discover to wipe out shared files so i want to move it to the future destination before I uninstall the flatpaks

[dusky shard]

Hello @loud lodge!
Instructions bellow are applicable only to Linux version of ALVR. Ignore this message on Windows ALVR.

If you're using ALVR 20.12.1 and higher, please check your ALVR Dashboard Logs tab whenever you try to launch SteamVR through it.
If you're also using ALVR 20.12.0 and lower, check this page for the information on how to fix this issue.

[steady dune]

im just gonna move the entire folder

they are on the same filesystem

i need to move it out of flatpak anyway to get openxr to work with other apps though

so it would have been something I did anyway

as such I'm not worried about it being a waste of time

should I move .var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam to .steam

im gonna mess around

rsync -av  .var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/* ~

this worked

also had the cool side effect of pinning my IO pressure to 100% for a couple minutes

it moved it for me

i had to run fc-cache -fv after to regenerate the font cache since steam dirted it

now trying native alvr

deos the quest 2 support av1?

ok so i'm going to just do h264 with software encoding and hardware decoding

one moment

no i saw it was unsupported in the log and didn't know if it meant that the decoder or encoder didn't support it

i tried both h264 and av1

steamvr is no longer privvy to launch

other steam apps are working and alvr happily installed its driver

steamvr passes verification of integhrity

taking out ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/vrmonitor.sh %command% got it to launch

ok

so migrating out of flatpak didn't really work

stuck here now

says searching for headset and hands

the vrmonitor script has been added

at least it should (?) be easier to troubleshoot now?

and setting it as the openxr runtime did work

i think encoding did start successfully this time

[steady dune]

#1348135937388838942 message

Switching to TCP helped itr stop searching, but I still have a black screen even though all tracking appears to be working

[dusky shard]

Hello @steady dune!
Instructions bellow are applicable only to Linux version of ALVR. Ignore this message on Windows ALVR.

If you're using ALVR 20.12.1 and higher, please check your ALVR Dashboard Logs tab whenever you try to launch SteamVR through it.
If you're also using ALVR 20.12.0 and lower, check this page for the information on how to fix this issue.

[steady dune]

eureka

it works

TCP & HEVC worked

[steady dune]

had problems trying to enable va-api, had to continue to force software encoding

[steady dune]

Not sure. My setup is super typical.

It shouldn't even use the router since it's two LAN devices and my AP isn't my router

[steady dune]

so

i have a separate router

running pfsense

and then my wifi ap is a dedicated ap

since my computer is a lan device and the ap is "dumb" and only behaves as an ap it should just be shuttiling the ethernet frames along without any intervention

so there's no firewall outside of my desktop and headset

if anybody has the same issue I have a TP-Link Archer AX1800

no

it's a dedicated ap

pc is on the lan via ethernet

the dedicated ap only sits inbetween the ethernet lan and the headset/other 802.11 devices

it's on the same lan as my headset but it's not connected to my ap at all

local packets needn't be routed at all

packets from for example 10.23.0.5 to 10.23.1.4 where the network 10.23.0.0/16

this is often the case with "network in a box" products that raise their own router and ap but it doesn't have to be

a lan is just defined as the interconnection between computers

in my case ethernet

and an ap is there to allow 802.11 devices to connect to that ethernet network

my router is just the gateway to the internet

i have a separate dhcp server providing lan addresses

yes i only have one router

the two devices are on the same subnet

hence why discovery works as intended

multicasting also works

yeah idk

no

either the ax1800 ap is ossifiying the udp packets causing them to be mangled by the time they reach the headset or another link in my network (possibly an internal firewall) is not behaving as expected

but it's not the router because local packets don't touch the router at all

it could but i have no idea

it's a closed source black box

so the lesson of the day is very likely don't buy undocumented network devices that could quietly mangle packets

the term is middlebox