when pulseaudio is disabled, steam crashes whenever i recieve a message

[AntiSol]

I have pulseaudio installed but it's not usually running.

Steam runs fine, but as soon as anybody sends me a message, steam dies with the following

This does not happen if pulseaudio is running, but pulseaudio causes its own issues on my system, so this is not an acceptable workaround.

AL lib: pulseaudio.c:612: Context did not connect: Access denied
Failed to open digital audio driver Couldn't open OAL device.
assert_20150307211210_1.dmp[12683]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
/tmp/dumps/assert_20150307211210_1.dmp
/home/antisol/.steam/steam.sh: line 757: 11892 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$STEAMEXEPATH" "$@"
/home/antisol/.steam/steam.sh: line 765: STEAMSCRIPT_OUTOFDATE: unbound variable

To replicate:

1. configure things so that pulseaudio doesn't start automatically
2. start steam
3. recieve a message from a friend, observe nasty crash

System information:

Processor Information:
    Vendor:  GenuineIntel
    CPU Family:  0x6
    CPU Model:  0x17
    CPU Stepping:  0x6
    CPU Type:  0x0
    Speed:  3000 Mhz
    2 logical processors
    2 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Unsupported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Supported
    SSE42:  Unsupported

Network Information:
    Network Speed:  

Operating System Version:
    Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  3.13.0-43-generic
    X Server Vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server Release:  11501000
    X Window Manager:  Xfwm4
    Steam Runtime Version:  steam-runtime-release_2015-01-06

Video Card:
    Driver:  NVIDIA Corporation GeForce 8800 GT/PCIe/SSE2

    Driver Version:  3.3.0 NVIDIA 331.113
    OpenGL Version: 3.3
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
    VendorID:  0x10de
    DeviceID:  0x611
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 20.00" x 11.26"  (22.91" diag)
                                            50.8cm x 28.6cm  (58.2cm diag)
    Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
    Primary VRAM: 512 MB
    Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
    Audio device: eMicro EM28028

Memory:
    RAM:  7984 Mb

Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    LANG:  en_AU.UTF-8
    Microphone:  Not set
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  741450 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  35079 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:
    Thu Feb 12 08:10:26 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20150212191015_1176.dmp'', upload no: ''Couldn't resolve host name''
    Mon Feb 16 09:14:51 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150216031607_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-dea2549b-debd-4fa1-a5a4-7e18e2150216''
    Mon Feb 16 09:18:10 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20150216201747_28.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-4fbf9f3a-5bd6-47d9-95b3-646292150216''
    Mon Feb 16 09:23:52 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150216201701_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-696e4a64-1822-4795-acf1-6f6222150216''
    Mon Feb 16 09:33:49 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150216203201_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-0705cc1b-f02d-4249-abe6-7c60b2150216''
    Mon Feb 16 09:34:45 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150216202335_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-12ae49ba-59ec-4a5c-bb39-347d82150216''
    Mon Feb 16 09:42:47 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150216204232_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-417026fb-879e-427a-85d1-e0a782150216''
    Sat Feb 21 13:55:10 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150222003933_23.dmp'', upload no: ''Failure when receiving data from the peer''
    Sun Feb 22 02:50:15 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20150222134957_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-9c89259b-83e3-4506-bfa3-239f32150221''
    Sun Feb 22 03:04:33 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20150222140403_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-4261ae93-75fc-44a4-b66f-b17262150221''
    Mon Mar  2 11:11:22 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150302182439_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-2fffed4c-c1b9-4b9e-8f02-c71602150302''
    Fri Mar  6 03:18:23 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20150306141743_24.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-0965100f-4c7f-4638-bd51-d54922150305''
    Sat Mar  7 10:11:45 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150307142942_1.dmp'', upload no: ''Couldn't connect to server''
    Sat Mar  7 10:11:54 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150307210945_1.dmp'', upload no: ''Failure when receiving data from the peer''
    Sat Mar  7 10:14:08 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150307211210_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-9f5e2aa9-5fbe-4b7b-b4d5-cae2a2150307''
    Sat Mar  7 10:24:41 2015 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20150307211451_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-53ef0f1b-1acb-4606-9a2b-e8a4b2150307''

I'm not sure what the emicro sound card listed here is, it could be the built-in sound device, which is disabled. Or maybe it's the chip in my actual sound card - I'm actually using a Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a) (as listed by lspci)

IMHO steam should simply ignore pulseaudio entirely and just use alsa, with which pulseaudio is backwards compatible.

But it definitely shouldn't just crash because it can't play a sound!

[kisak-valve]

Hello @AntiSol, are you still experiencing this issue on an up to date system?

[AntiSol]

what happens when you try it?

[kisak-valve]

This works fine on my test box which has pulseaudio disabled, but I don't have an EMU10k1 to try off hand.

Failed to open digital audio driver Couldn't open OAL device. is the line of interest from the opening post, hinting that .alsoftrc or .asoundrc doesn't point to real hardware.

[AntiSol]

I don't have any friends online at the moment to test, if you could message me (antisol666) on steam that would help, I have steam running on that PC and have re-enabled the 'play notification sound when a message arrives' option. If I immediately go offline when you send me a messge, steam has crashed and it's still an issue.

I'm very dubious that there's any config issue. I do a lots of different audio stuff on this machine with many different programs, aand everything works perfectly fine except steam. This machine does have multiple sound devices, so it's possible that you're trying to use the wrong one (I've seen this before, hence the .asoundrc). But if that was the case I'd expect to hear the output on the other device, not have the client crash.

.asoundrc:

        type hw
        card Live
}

ctl.!default {
        type hw           
        card Live
}

.alsoftrc:

layout_STEREO = fl=-30, fr=30
format = AL_FORMAT_STEREO16
cf_level = 0
sources = 256
frequency = 44100
period_size = 1024
periods = 4
stereodup = false
excludefx = 
slots = 4
sends = 2
drivers = alsa,pulse

[alsa]
device = default
capture = default
mmap = true

[oss]
device = /dev/dsp
capture = /dev/dsp

[port]
device = -1

[solaris]
device = /dev/audio

[wave]
file = 

[AntiSol]

Looks like this has been fixed at some point in the 3 years since I raised the ticket. Thanks for the help debugging and for the quick responses.

[kisak-valve]

Thanks for retesting, closing.