[Linux] Crash on launch after updating the alsa-libs, so don't update them

mock · August 2016

Hej everyone.
I just ran a full system upgrade, and after that the game crashes on launch. Log doesn't say anything:

Date: 08/14/2016
Time: 02:30:48 PM:

[ 0.004] Unbound/Unknown : Filesystem initialized, cache enabled
Build 307
Linux
Steam initialized
[INVENTORY] Granting Promo Items
Num displays: 2
OpenGL 3.1.0 NVIDIA 367.35 initialized (NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2)
GLSL version 1.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
ARB_texture_storage extension present
ARB_get_program_binary extension present

But the next row in the log usually is

Sound Device: default stereo

I figured it must be the alsa-libs.
And indeed: during the system upgrade alsa-lib and lib32-alsa-lib where updated from 1.1.1-1 to 1.1.2-1. So reverting this upgrade fixes this problem, and not updating in the first place prevents it.
The question remains why once again this is only a problem for NS2 and no other game.

.trixX. · August 2016

I gave up playing NS2 on linux about a month ago... since january, it's just hopeless.
I'd take off the the Linux/SteamOS compatible tag in Steam store if I were a dev, since it's quite misleading.

mock · August 2016

Well, the game itself runs fine for me. This problem is just caused by Arch being too edgy.

I just don't understand, why every other game I have installed, many of which don't even get upgrades anymore, don't have a problem with any libs. Its always only NS2.

.trixX. · August 2016

Sure the game runs perfectly fine. Up until to the point where it crashes.
I had no problem on debian stable in the pre-january era, for about a year at least. But the last few months had been riddled with crashes.

And @AurOn2 can disagree all he wants, but since the robustness of the game is incomparable between linux and windows (hmm... devtools are not even available for linux), advertising it as supporting linux is simply misleading (and false).
Until there is only a boolean on/off in the steam store, it should be taken off.

Just imagine a new player starting it on linux and encountering the regular crashes. How preferable will his opinion be about the game?

mock · August 2016

Well, it has not crashed on me for years (except that one build, that got fixed in less than 24 hours). And I am on Arch, which means my systems configuration literally changes from day to day.

You can bash the devs all you want, but at the end of the day it is your system that is fucked up somehow. Otherwise this game would run.

.trixX. · August 2016

I'm sure that's why NS2 is the only game crashing (lately). Arch repos may be on the edge, but debian hardly falls into that category.
How come KSP never crashed for me? And how come NS2 started crashing after specific updates to it, without performing any package upgrades on the system?
Also, if NS2 needs specific package versions in the dependency tree and/or distro, where is the info about that?

The devs do deserve some bashing on this specific topic. Either fix it, or don't advertise falsehood.

Yojimbo · August 2016

.trixX. wrote: »

I'm sure that's why NS2 is the only game crashing (lately). Arch repos may be on the edge, but debian hardly falls into that category.
How come KSP never crashed for me? And how come NS2 started crashing after specific updates to it, without performing any package upgrades on the system?
Also, if NS2 needs specific package versions in the dependency tree and/or distro, where is the info about that?

The devs do deserve some bashing on this specific topic. Either fix it, or don't advertise falsehood.

I believe only @computerquip is the only guy who has real in depth knowledge regarding Linux systems for NS2, not sure if he is still around though.

mock · September 2016

Hm. In the system requirements on the store page Linux isn't even listed anymore. I guess trixX is right then.
In this case the question really is: why is it still promoted as Linux compatible, then!?

rkfg · September 2016

Happened to me as well (though I'm on Debian). It seems that the Steam Runtime has been updated recently and broke whatever fragile balance of libraries we had. After lots of trials, errors and gdb I've surprisingly found out that the game runs fine if run just from the terminal with Steam working in background. So all you need to do is disable using Steam Runtime for NS2 (you should have all other 32-bit libs installed though). Put this to the launch parameters:

env -u LD_LIBRARY_PATH %command%

It unsets the library path variable so the game relies totally on your system libs. Nowhere near as convenient as it should be, of course, but at least I can play again.

.trixX. · September 2016

Nice @rkfg, I was trying something like that before setting up dual boot, but was too lazy to carry it through

mock · September 2016

So... does this mean NS2 isn't even running on SteamOS anymore? Because THAT would be a proper reason to remove the Linux compatibility flag!

rkfg · September 2016

I'm not 100% sure. Did that command do the trick for you? I had other issues also so it might not be related. I use VPN and need a way to launch Steam and games so that they don't use it (to have regional prices and not get banned). Hence I've created a network namespace with virtual eth bridged with my eth0 and launch Steam via newpid -N newpidsteam /path/to/steam.sh

Turns out programs don't see PulseAudio as they have a separate local address. Because of that NS2 tried to launch its own pulseaudio process and probably failed as the hardware output has already been taken by another instance. Well, for it to use the main PA instance I've put this to ~/.config/pulse/client.conf :

default-server = 192.168.1.2

(that's the LAN IP of eth0)

99.99% of people won't ever need such tricks, I should admit. But anyway, inability to start an audio subsystem should never lead to a stupid segfault, there has to be a proper message shown with some debug info!

[Linux] Crash on launch after updating the alsa-libs, so don't update them

Comments