Ubuntu 20.04 Steam wont start STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy

Coming from this Github issue: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/7813

For me, this was a bug when using the "Remember me" checkbox option for Steam login, combined with having a large number of network interfaces (because of Docker for example).

That leaves two options:

  • Don't check the "Remember me" checkbox at account login; or
  • Resolve your large number of network interfaces (with docker network prune for example, if you're sure you don't need those).

In either case, I had to delete my ~/.steam directory in order to get the Steam login dialog to launch again. That also meant redownloading my games.