Setting up Steam Old Big Picture on Linux + fix for executable stack bug

Steam-Old-Big-Picture-Linux.md

This a quick summary for getting Steam Old Big Picture to work on linux and some tips to address a bug if you start the Big Picture mode or game overlay.

1. Install Method:

• I advise to uninstall any official steam package from your system.
• Read carefully the Steam Client Downgrades & Survival Kit and proceed with the Linux sections.
• Once you followed the installation procedure and the steam bootstrap process is done you should have steam installed at $HOME/.local/share/Steam
• To launch steam without a system package use the launcher at $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh

2. Overlay BUG:

If you are running a modern distribution with glibc > 2.40 you will encounter the following bug if you start steam and launch big picture or the steam overlay:

RegisterForAppOverview 1: 4ms
RegisterForAppOverview 2: 4ms
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1685488080)/tid(21044)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1685488080)/tid(21304)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1685488080)/tid(21414)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1685488080)/tid(21458)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1685488080)/tid(21900)
src/panorama/text/uitextlayoutpango.cpp (344) : Fatal Assertion Failed: Unable to load 'libpangoft2-1.0.so' (error info 'libpango-1.0.so: cannot enable executable stack as shared object requires: Invalid argument'), your game install may be corrupted or you may have a system conflict
src/panorama/text/uitextlayoutpango.cpp (344) : Fatal Assertion Failed: Unable to load 'libpangoft2-1.0.so' (error info 'libpango-1.0.so: cannot enable executable stack as shared object requires: Invalid argument'), your game install may be corrupted or you may have a system conflict
src/panorama/text/uitextlayoutpango.cpp (344) : Fatal assert; application exiting
src/panorama/text/uitextlayoutpango.cpp (344) : Fatal assert; application exiting
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1685488080)/tid(19894)
assert_20250401124938_36.dmp[21908]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
/tmp/dumps/assert_20250401124938_36.dmp
_ExitOnFatalAssert

PS: the log was obtained by launching from the CLI. If you start steam directly as GUI you will not see any log and will just crash to desktop when you start the overlay.

After doing some research, it seems related to this issue

2.1 Fixing the executable stack overlay bug

The fix consists in disabling the executable flag on the shared library libpango-1.0.so

• Find and install the package providing the execstack program. Available on AUR for Arch Linux.
• Assuming steam is installed at $HOME/.local/share/Steam run the following commands:

$ cd $HOME/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/panorama/
$ cp libpango-1.0.so libpango-1.0.so.backup #making a backup of the steam provided shared library.

# disabling the executable stack flag
$ execstack -c libpango-1.0.so

That's all, you should be now be able to launch Big Picture mode or start the steam overlay for your games without crash.