Something isn't quite right there. You should try reinstalling, if it still doesn't work try on a clean Windows installation (VM or something)
I have tried reinstalling, but not on a VM. EDIT: Added a screenshot showing steamwebhelper using 100% CPU.
Actually, I wonder if it just doesnt like whatever version of linux your using Sent from the 3rd galaxy from the talks of tapping
It is showing CPU% against a single CPU core, not against the total CPU available. This is really useful, because if I put it in the other mode, so it showed 25%, it would make it look like Steam is only taking up 25% CPU, because it doesn't show the number of CPU cores in my machine. Given the same "CPU hogging" application: 1 core = 100% 2 core = 50% 4 core = 25% 8 core = 12.5% The more cores that were in my machine, the lesser the problem would seem to be, despite the problem being exactly the same. It showing it against 1 core allows consistent comparison against other, different core count, setups. It is confusing if you are not expecting it though. I can toggle it, if you prefer to see it in "total CPU available"? EDIT: For example, I am currently rebuilding my old dual-core machine (for testing IDE drives). If the issue exists there too, it will also show 100% CPU, rather than it showing 25% on my desktop and 50% on this other build. EDIT #2: Added a screenshot with "of total CPU available" mode on. - - - Updated - - - Possibly, though this issue isn't limited to Linux, it is affecting Windows users too. Haven't come across any reports from Mac users though.
Not being able to play a specific game has nothing to do with "playing games" in general. I can't play BeamNG (that I know of, it might run under Wine), but I am currently playing: Sir, You Are Being Hunted Awesomenauts Guns of Icarus Online Kerbal Space Progam Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament III Frozen Synapse Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Faster Than Light Garry's Mod Overgrowth Receiver Breach & Clear Crawl Hammerfight Left 4 Dead 2 Portal 2 Space Pirates and Zombies Starbound Trine 2 Gothic 2 Sacred 2 "Linux" and "Gamer" haven't been mutually exclusive for ages.. hence why Steam moved to it.. EDIT: Oh crap, how could I forget Minecraft?!
It has been reported working under wine. A linux port of Torque3d is being worked on at the moment at which point a native linux port of BeamNG is also supposed to be coming along.
I have long known steam to be a resource hog while the main window is open but this is really intriguing and confusing to me. I want to know why this is happening to you. It could be anything from steam not liking your version of Linux to it not liking your CPU or Motherboard or something. Maybe running a windows VM and installing steam on that will show if the issue is your OS or the machine itself. Really strange issues are usually the most fun to try and fix. Although I'd much rather be able to work on it hands on. This has got me thinking though, I do remember fairly recently Steam was doing something like this to me where the webhelper was using a ton of my CPU for no reason but I closed steam and restarted it and it hasn't done it since.
Steam never hogs resources here except when playing video on the store where it likes to shoot up a little but certainly not 100% of a core. It does take about 10 minutes to start though. Across all processes steam creates right now on a 1.8ghz laptop with a steam chat open I have 0.7% cpu used.
The startup thing sounds strange (as does cpu usage) I think steam just doesnt like your version of linux or something, might I ask what distro you run? Sent from the 3rd galaxy from the talks of tapping
Arch Linux. It would be weird for it to "not like it", as it has been running on it (without hogging an entire CPU core), for the past year.
Officially steam only supports ubuntu with Unity, Gnome or KDE desktops. Sticking it on arch shouldnt cause that error though.
Please read the text in the original post: http://www.beamng.com/threads/9665-Steam-keys-available-for-alpha-testers You can purchase it here: http://beamng.com/alpha You will receive a Steam key in your e-mail.