CS2 does not start, crashes or freezes constantly

[kjarosh]

Your system information

• System information from steam (Steam -> Help -> System Information) in a gist: https://gist.github.com/kjarosh/86d4105e7d02e130f4457a736ffd4251
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Played a premier match when in the middle of it I lost my audio (only in CS2, system audio worked). Restarted the game, but CS2 failed to start. Then restarted the computer, then installed the newest OS updates, then reinstalled CS2, however every time the game either crashes or freezes when starting. Even the splash screen is not being displayed.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Start CS2
2. Observe it either crash or freeze.

[KenTheWhaleGoddess]

Setting to Proton (9.0) launched CS for me, however i couldnt join any server because of VAC verification.

This started happening with yesterday's update

[benlc]

Same here, freezes right away on launch since yesterday's update. Full reinstall doesn't help. Setting things to proton launch but doesn't get past VAC verification as well

[davejab]

Same here, game "launches" but never displays. Was working fine prior to the 6/13/2024 update.

Edit: System info: https://gist.github.com/davejab/7217a3ccad4ca35585b84784cd47a071

[steve-todorov]

Having this problem as well. Can't start at all. Previous version was starting, but could not get into a server -- the loading screen just freezes. Using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with nvidia 555.52.04.

[KenTheWhaleGoddess]

Hi, In case unclear, I (and other commentors?) are unable to launch CS2 with the 6/13 update! Thanks System Information

EDIT sorry if was already prioritized/ known to be game-blocking

[Mershl]

The issue is also seen on nvidia-550.78 (tested on an RTX2070). It can't be reproduced on Intel and AMDGPU.

[thewyeoak]

Tested on 545, 550, and 550 main stable builds with RTX 3060. Issue remains. I guess we just have to wait for Valve or some temporary fix.

[steve-todorov]

For what it's worth, this is part of the /tmp/dumps/crash_20240616200108_2.dmp:

AbortMessage({CAppSystemDict:Unable to load module panorama_text_pango (Dependency of application), error 2
})
Uptime( 15.628424 )
Total frames( 18446744073709551615 )
Current Map: '(unknown)'
Addons: 

SpawnCount: 0
Command Line: "cs2" "/data/games/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/game/bin/linuxsteamrt64/cs2"
Launch path: /data/games/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/game/bin/linuxsteamrt64/cs2
Build: 10072 (revision 8972962)
OS: (Missing)
OS type: Unknown (-1)
App UI Language: english, convar english, localization english_C
Environment LC_ALL value: C
Misc: rate 786432 update 64 latency -1 msec
Net: Not Connected
Time: Sun Jun 16 08:01:08 2024
Engine thread pool: 15 thread(s)

g_pEngineServiceMgr is NULL. Display mode information unavailable
Render system:  Vulkan
Driver Name:  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Driver Version: 555.52.4.0
VendorId / DeviceId:  0x10de / 0x2782
SubSystem / Rev:  0x0 / 0x0
DXLevel:  111
Texture memory:  10,968,039,424
Vid:  Unavailable, render at 0 x 0, display at 0 x 0, refresh rate 0.00Hz (0Hz desktop)
Version:15, cpu_level:3, gpu_mem_level:3, gpu_level:3, knowndevice:0, defaultres:2560, 
defaultresheight:1440, refreshrate_numerator:0, refreshrate_denominator:0, fullscreen:0, 
coop_fullscreen:1, nowindowborder:1, mat_vsync:0, resettodefaults:1, fullscreen_min_on_focus_loss:1, 
high_dpi:0, 

System Memory:
Memory load: 44%
Total physical memory: 63302.32 MiB
Free physical memory: 35652.10 MiB
Total page file: 20476.00 MiB
Free page file: 20476.00 MiB

ConVars (non-default):

                                               var                            value                          default
                                              name                        The Devil                          unnamed

Console History (reversed)

25(15.628387):  Engine2PreBreakpadDumpFunction: Building comment.
24(15.628371):  Engine2PreBreakpadDumpFunction
23(14.620456):  CAppSystemDict:Unable to load module panorama_text_pango (Dependency of application), error 2
22(0.731547):  Sending Steam API content notification
21(0.731546):  basefilesystem.cpp (7068) : AssertMsg Failed in function MarkContentCorrupt():
false
Content being marked corrupt.  bMissingFilesOnly = false, pFile specified as 'NULL', reason: 'LoadSystemAndDependencies: nLoadError: 2, RequestModule: nullptr, RequestInterface: nullptr, Module: panorama_text_pango, Interface: PanoramaTextServices001'
20(0.731354):  WARNING: Local content might be corrupt or missing files
19(0.731344):   failed to dlopen /data/games/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/game/bin/linuxsteamrt64/libpanorama_text_pango.so error=/data/games/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/game/bin/linuxsteamrt64/libpanorama_text_pango.so: undefined symbol: fontconfig_ft2_new_face_substitute
18(0.728226):  Disabling graphics pipeline libraries for shader 'error.vfx_vs' because it has unsupported descriptor types [ STORAGE_BUFFER ].  Move them to a static descriptor set.
17(0.722596):  Failed to save video settings config to 'cfg/cs2_video.txt'
16(0.718047):  Vulkan swapchain out-of-date, suboptimal, or surface lost - recreating.  Result: (VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DATE_KHR)
15(0.718040):  CSwapChainVulkan::SwapBuffers vkAcquireNextImageKHR - completed result = VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DATE_KHR
14(0.592478):  Unable to open Vulkan pipeline cache shadercache/vulkan/shaders.cache file - might not exist yet.
13(0.410460):  Failed to save video settings config to 'cfg/cs2_video.txt'
12(0.410191):  (616): ADD setting.gpu_level = 3
11(0.410190):  Video Card dxsupport (10de : 2782)
10(0.410043):  (23): Setting setting.gpu_mem_level to 3
9(0.409925):  (28): Setting setting.cpu_level to 3
8(0.112116):  USRLOCAL path using Steam profile data folder:
/home/steve/.local/share/Steam/userdata/135109940/730/local
7(0.096253):  Visibility enabled.
6(0.015390):  CSteam3Client::Activate succeeded.  SteamID is [U:1:135109940] (76561198095375668), AppID is 730
5(0.015312):  ResetBreakpadAppId: Setting non standard break pad app id: 2347771
4(0.015311):  ResetBreakpadAppId: Universe is 1 (k_EUniversePublic)
3(0.015300):  SteamAPI_Init succeeded.  SteamID is [U:1:135109940] (76561198095375668), AppID is 730
2(0.005738):  InitSteamLogin_Internal: Initializing breakpad.
1(0.005719):  Steam AppId(730), BreakpadId(2347771)

[Levi-musleh]

Same here, game "launches" then freezes with almost full black screen. After the 6/13/2024 update, Ubuntu 24.04

[KenTheWhaleGoddess]

Fixed for me maybe?

[jakubgiesler]

Fixed for me maybe?

it was fixed for me for update yesterday, but today was another update that broke it. Edit: I thought company that big would have unit tests written against latest drivers, kernels for game they natively support.

[YonatanPerkel]

-sw in launch options fixed it for me (it starts the game in windowed mode)

[kjarosh]

-sw in launch options fixed it for me (it starts the game in windowed mode)

That's a legitimate workaround, I can switch to fullscreen after the game starts and it works :)

[SerSerg]

The problem persists for me (since the unlucky update mentioned above): cs2 freezes at valve-logo screen and does not launch further. -sw and other options did not help. Also different (up- and downgraded) nvidia-drivers brought no change. My system: Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon GeForce GTX 1060 3GB nvidia-driver 535

[Chocolate-Banana]

Don't know if is related but trying to post it anywhere I can to help. I fixed mine by disabling MANGOHUD, that seemed to crash it on startup.

[pavlokozlenko]

-sw in launch options fixed it for me (it starts the game in windowed mode)

what does -sw option mean and what does it do?

[davejab]

-sw in launch options fixed it for me (it starts the game in windowed mode)

what does -sw option mean and what does it do?

-sw (presumably short for start windowed) forces the game to launch in windowed mode, as opposed to full screen or full screen borderless. Once in game you can switch back to full screen.

[steve-todorov]

Latest update from a week ago seems to have fixed it for me. No longer experiencing the problem.