Failed to load steamui.so

[Aaron]

screenshot of error message:
https://i.gyazo.com/2ce6ea5c63740c6cd48b8771e7680b94.png

I removed and purged the old package:

aaron@toph:~$ sudo apt-get remove --purge steam
[sudo] password for aaron:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  steam:i386*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
After this operation, 4,088 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 308511 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing steam:i386 (1:1.0.0.52-5ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3+16.10.20160929-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu4) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.15-1) ...
(Reading database ... 308492 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing steam:i386 (1:1.0.0.52-5ubuntu1) ...
Purging configuration files for steam:i386 (1:1.0.0.52-5ubuntu1) ...

And reinstalled it:
aaron@toph:~$ sudo apt-get install steam
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  steam-devices:i386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  steam:i386
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,320 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,088 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package steam:i386.
(Reading database ... 308493 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../steam_1%3a1.0.0.52-5ubuntu1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking steam:i386 (1:1.0.0.52-5ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up steam:i386 (1:1.0.0.52-5ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3+16.10.20160929-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu4) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.15-1) ...

and then re-ran it -- still got the error.

aaron@toph:~$ steam
Running Steam on ubuntu 16.10 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
[2017-01-31 21:48:17] Startup - updater built Jan 19 2017 01:22:13
Looks like steam didn't shutdown cleanly, scheduling immediate update check
[2017-01-31 21:48:17] Checking for update on startup
[2017-01-31 21:48:17] Checking for available updates...
[2017-01-31 21:48:18] Download skipped: /client/steam_client_ubuntu12 version 1484790260, installed version 1484790260
[2017-01-31 21:48:18] Nothing to do
[2017-01-31 21:48:18] Verifying installation...
[2017-01-31 21:48:18] Performing checksum verification of executable files
[2017-01-31 21:48:19] Verification complete

aaron@toph:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.10
Release: 16.10
Codename: yakkety

aaron@toph:~$ uname -a
Linux toph 4.8.0-34-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 21 17:24:18 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
aaron@toph:~$

[Aaron (armahillo)]

I was able to resolve this with:

aaron@toph:~/.steam/ubuntu12_32$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH ldd ./steamui.so | grep "not found"
libXtst.so.6 => not found
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 => not found
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 => not found
aaron@toph:~/.steam/ubuntu12_32$
aaron@toph:~$ sudo apt-get install libxtst6:i386
aaron@toph:~$ sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386
aaron@toph:~$ sudo apt-get install libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386

The bug here is two issues:

1) This should not have happened in the first place, as I had a working copy of Steam and this failure was the result of a routine package update

2) The failure message was unhelpful, and required lib-delving to isolate cause.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.