this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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Linux Gaming

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Steam VR: Error: Shared IPC Compositor Connect Failed (306) (feddit.org)
submitted 19 hours ago by cron@feddit.org to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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In anticipation of the Steam frame, I bought a VR headset from Pico and installed the Steam Link VR app on it.

But Steam VR on linux appears quite unstable to me. Once I initiate the connection from the headset, Steam VR crashes with this error:

SteamVR failed initialization with error code VRInitError_IPC_CompositorConnectFailed: "Shared IPC Conpositor Connect failed (306)"

It works if I try it a few times, restart steam, restart the headset, but this always takes a few minutes and isn't really fun.

I tried searching for this error, but couldn't find much about this issue except some github issues ( #623, #835).

Does anybody here know how to fix this or at least reduce the number of crashes?

My system:

  • bazzite-gnome:stable
  • Bazzite
  • linux 6.17.7-ba22.fc43.x86_64
  • B650M-HDV/M.2
  • AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (12) @ 4.76 GHz
  • AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT [Discrete]
  • 7.57 GiB / 30.92 GiB (24%)
  • Steam VR 2.14.5
  • Pico 4

I hope this community is the right place to ask this question.

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[–] Hond@piefed.social 2 points 29 minutes ago

In my(!) experience the immutable aspect of Bazzite caused more headaches than benefits especially with VR and also simracing. Its one of the reasons why i switched to CachyOS which comes with its own challenges though.

I also have a Pico 4 and use it on Linux. I never got Steam Link to work on my network though. For whatever reason it just never wants to establish a VR connection. Even though Pico Connect, Virtual Desktop, ALVR, WiVRn all just work fine.

I can point you to the Linux VR Adventure Wiki:
https://lvra.gitlab.io/
Their discord server is also pretty good and helpful.

Personally i had the most luck with WiVRn. But the documentation for a beginner is kind of ass tbh. It omits lots of details which you are expected to just know. Atleast on the arch based side of things. Last year some efforts were made to make WiVRn work on Bazzite easily. But at that time i already switched from Bazzite away so i have no personal experience with that.

ALVR would be another solution. But i cant remember if i ever had it running on Bazzite. With Cachy it was pretty easy to get going. The amount of settings in the app itself can be pretty intimidating though. Atleast on my setup it also picks up less reliably VR games. So the game just runs on my monitor and not in my headset.

VR is still a bit of a mess on Linux tbh. Back in september i got everything running in an afternoon and was just happy. 2 months later everything broke on its own. The last two weeks i started to setup everything again and it was such a huge pain. So much troubleshooting. Now if it works its fucking awesome and better than ever. In some aspects even better than on windows. But atm its way more buggy then back in september. I need to restart apps, the headset, the pc, the games, whatever sometimes several times before it works as intendet. otherwise i have just an added 30-40ms extra latency and i cant figure out why.

Anyway, good luck i guess.

[–] lath@piefed.social 2 points 4 hours ago

Don't know, but no answers here so here's a link. Might help, might not.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/0/1470840994975552750/