Steam For Linux Beta Finally Fixes Post-Login Annoyance

Valve has finally fixed an annoying bit about logging into the Steam client from the Linux desktop in recent months.

When logging into the Steam Linux client in about the past six months and also having your system set to auto-login to your user account, the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) used by the Steam client would trigger the GNOME Keyring or KDE's KWallet to prompt for a keyring password or to set one otherwise. Having hit this issue myself, it's rather annoying, and it has apparently confused some Linux desktop users about what password they should enter if any.

There has been this bug report among others about the GNOME Keyring / KWallet prompt when logging into the Steam Linux client.

With tonight's Steam Linux beta update, Valve has opted to disable the Chromium CEF keyring integration by default. Those still wanting the system keyring support can pass -enable-keying when launching the Steam Linux client.

Great to see this annoyance now tamed by default. The latest beta also has various other non-Linux-specific fixes.