Valve Anti-Cheat kicking user from the game after a while for an unknown reason

[c101vp]

Your system information

• System information: uploaded as a gist here
• Steam client version (build number or date): Version 1689034492
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Yes (but the issue persists regardless of whether I'm using the beta release or stable release)
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes
• Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• GPU: AMD (Vega 8 laptop integrated graphics)

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Whenever booting up a game running Valve Anti-Cheat (so far tested with CS:GO and TF2), I can play for 20 minutes to 2 hours, before getting randomly kicked by Valve Anti-Cheat with the error message:

"You cannot play on secure servers for one of the following reasons:

• An issue with your computer is blocking the VAC system.
• You are unable to maintain a stable connection to the VAC system.
• You are running software that is modifying the game or is incompatible with VAC.

For more information visit: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2117-ILZV-2837"

I have re-installed my entire operating system, both of those games, and steam, multiple times, and it always broke, and I've also asked multiple Linux users and none of them have this issue. Verifying game files, restarting steam, and restarting my computer didn't fix the issue either. The only other programs I'd have running at the time would, at most, be Discord, Firefox, and Spotify. I haven't tried running the game without Discord yet.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Connect to a VAC secured server
2. Play for ~20min-2h
3. The error should eventually appear NOTE: As mentioned, most people don't get this issue, so it's unlikely that the steps for reproduction would work for everyone.

[ChrisLuck]

Did you try to disable the new ingame steam overlay (in steam settings)? Just asking because I am having VAC problems with that. I cannot even start the matchmaking search with it being enabled (some VAC error message kicks me from the search queue).

[c101vp]

No, I have not, I will, though. Thanks for the suggestion

[c101vp]

Did you try to disable the new ingame steam overlay (in steam settings)? Just asking because I am having VAC problems with that. I cannot even start the matchmaking search with it being enabled (some VAC error message kicks me from the search queue).

didn't work, got kicked anyway

[ipaqmaster]

Possibly related/unrelated but I've noticed this happens to me sometimes at least once a year. No amount of rebooting/updating/troubleshooting seems to fix it and it always passes after ~30 minutes.

I have also spent time verifying with other players in my region after the fact and multiple also confirm they had issues with VAC as well before our match.

I would not be surprised if this is just a transient VAC connectivity issue. Explicitly, on Valve's side.

[FuzzyQuils]

I also get this issue, the last time I got this issue, running steam --reset fixed it. (Had to redownload Proton GE however since it nuked the compat tools dir, keep this in mind if you try this!)

If it is related to the new overlay, that's seriously not surprising; I tend to have it break right after TF2 crashes again due to gameoverlayrenderer.so messing something up.

[c101vp]

If it is related to the new overlay, that's seriously not surprising; I tend to have it break right after TF2 crashes again due to gameoverlayrenderer.so messing something up.

Turning off the overlay didn't fix anything unfortunately, as said above

[arnouxx]

am having the same problem unfortunately, guess am not the only one

[rcannizzaro]

This is happening to me on CS2 (Linux) as well. Second time I've encountered this.

[Mostafa-DE]

Any update on this, it's still happening on POP OS?

[breathless19]

This happens on any Linux distro that I use (Bazzite, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc). Once it happens, only time gets it to stop. Restarting Steam doesn't always work, rebooting doesn't always work, rebooting into a different distro doesn't always work. I'm no scumbag cheater, so it has nothing to do with modifying files or anything like that. I have no custom skins other than what CS2 gifts me from time to time, and there is nothing special about my configuration otherwise that should cause such a thing. I do have Adguard installed on my router to block nonsense, but I don't see why that should cause this...

[bjb43]

Just happened to me as well. Using opensuse tumbleweed, non-flatpack steam, rx7700xt.