Steam games crashing at launch

[Jp5243]

So, I have Steam on Linux Ubuntu 15.04 64-bit. Whenever I launch a game, it briefly appears as a blank, black window and then crashes. None of my games on Steam (Crusader Kings II, Mount and Blade: Warband and Terraria) will run. My non-Steam games (Minecraft, Triplea, Astromenace and Battle for Wesnoth) all work. I have tried to "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" at least a half dozen times, following the exact instructions given by Steam. Even after running it, it always says that I am missing some 9000+ files (for CK2, don't remember the exact number for Mount and Blade: Warband or Terraria.), it then downloads them and still won't run. If you verify the files again, the same files are missing. I was in contact with Steam Support for over a month and they were still unable to resolve the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[sizeofbool]

Post more information about your PC and configuration. Install Steam client from http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ instead of ubuntu's package. Make sure you use compatible filesystem for Steam Library such as ext4.

[Tele42]

@Jp5243 if you have an encrypted home folder, that would explain why verifying games always downloads files.

[Jp5243]

@Tele42 Would this be the cause of all of my problems or just the issue with file verification? IMy files are encrypted, would changing that help?

[Tele42]

@Jp5243 I can't speculatively guess without system information. Home folder encryption should only confuse steam, not prevent games from launching.

[Jp5243]

There you go, sorry for not including it in the first place.

Processor Information: Vendor: GenuineIntel CPU Family: 0x6 CPU Model: 0xf CPU Stepping: 0x6 CPU Type: 0x0 Speed: 2000 Mhz 2 logical processors 2 physical processors HyperThreading: Unsupported FCMOV: Supported SSE2: Supported SSE3: Supported SSSE3: Supported SSE4a: Unsupported SSE41: Unsupported SSE42: Unsupported

Network Information: Network Speed:

Operating System Version: Ubuntu 15.04 (64 bit) Kernel Name: Linux Kernel Version: 3.19.0-21-generic X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation X Server Release: 11701000 X Window Manager: Compiz Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release_2015-06-12

Video Card: Driver: Intel Open Source Technology Center Mesa DRI Intel(R) 945GM x86/MMX/SSE2

Driver Version:  1.4 Mesa 10.5.9
OpenGL Version: 1.4
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
VendorID:  0x8086
DeviceID:  0x27a2
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1280 x 800
Desktop Resolution: 1280 x 800
Primary Display Size: 11.97" x 7.48"  (14.09" diag)
                                        30.4cm x 19.0cm  (35.8cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card: Audio device: SigmaTel STAC9200

Memory: RAM: 1991 Mb

Miscellaneous: UI Language: English LANG: en_US.UTF-8 Microphone: Not set Total Hard Disk Space Available: 232352 Mb Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 192926 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:

[Tele42]

Some libraries in the steam runtime are too old for your version of mesa, please take a look at the Arch workaround.

[Jp5243]

Didn't work. Still has the same error.

[Tele42]

This is where I step aside and leave this riddle to a valve dev. Since that did not help, I'm going to assume that individual games are assuming the availability of at least OpenGL 2.1, and mesa is only exposing OpenGL 1.4 on your intel gen 3 chip.

[Jp5243]

@sizeofbool Why would I need to install Steam from where you linked rather than Ubuntu? Does the Ubuntu package have issues?

[sizeofbool]

@Jp5243 I can't tell if there is an issues with Ubuntu's Steam Client package, but official Valve repo recently got an update and I never had any problems with official Steam Client package.

There are known problems with Steam games if they are installed on uncommon filesystems like btrfs for an example. "Dead Island" had black screen and crashes on start up. Installing the game on ext4 partition solves all problems and the game works perfectly. You can test if this is your case without repartitioning your disk, just create ext4 filesystem in a file and mount it like loop device.

[ghost]

I have the same issue under Arch Linux. The cause seems to be a crash in steam overlay-- some games will just continue regardless, whereas many will crash if overlay fails to start.

[cheebsco]

@Jp5243 I would double check file permissions. Ensure the Steam Games are allowed to be executed. Is this an issue that just appeared, or is this the first time you are running them on this OS? There are many roads to travel in troubleshooting, so its definately worth the effort. Like Undeterminant mentioned, it could be as simple as turning the steam overlay off in Steam Settings. It looks like you have an integrated graphics card, could be that simple.

[Jp5243]

@cheebsco Where can I check file permissions? I have had the issue for over six months. I went to Github because Steam Support gave up on me and sent me here. I have already tried turning off Steam Overlay, doesn't fix the issue.

[cheebsco]

@Jp5243 While you are inside steam, Browse for the area where you would normally validate content. Instead, "Browse Local Files On Disc. This should show you where your game data is. First thing to do, is check the properties of the executables. Under permissions, ensure it is " Allow Executing File As A Program" is checked. You may need to do this for 3 game files. There may be a ".x86", ".x86_64", and "*.sh" file.
If you are not allowed to change permissions of the files: open terminal: sudo nautilus

then navigate to the same directory that you found the files in through steam, and change permissions.

[Jp5243]

The only executable I could find was the ck2 executable. Not sure what the file type itself was. In any case, it is/already was allowed to execute as a program.

[cheebsco]

Do you know if these programs are 32bit or 64bit?

[cheebsco]

@Jp5243 to add 32bit support for your os sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 sudo apt-get update

[Jp5243]

@cheebsco I executed the commands you posted, still does not work. I do not know if they are 32 or 64 bit.

[cheebsco]

Do you have any logs, like output_log.txt files from these games? if so, use pastebin.com and send me the link.

[Jp5243]

The only log I could find was in the folder for Mount and Blade: Warband. http://pastebin.com/EZUbkQWL

[Jp5243]

Well, the only log that might be related to the issue. There are other logs, but they are mostly changelogs.

[cheebsco]

@Jp5243 sudo apt-get install libxrandr2:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libxcursor1:i386

[Jp5243]

@cheebsco Didn't work.

[cheebsco]

@Jp5243 Ensure you have a recovery disc. Take the time to have a backup. have you tried going through the control panel in settings, and check for any proprietary drivers. After which, update the system.

[Jp5243]

@cheebsco I'm sorry, but I'm not very knowledgeable about the inner workings of these things. Could you explain that in a little more detail? How much do I need to backup, where exactly do I check for proprietary drivers and what exactly do you mean by updating the system?

[cheebsco]

@Jp5243 https://launchpad.net/systemback Read about this software and understand before doing anything major with your drivers. I recommend this, because fiddling with drivers can work magic or break stuff. It is easy to restore a system from disc, than starting terminal and fixing from command line.

To understand the nature of the issue. GLEW initialization failed. This is related to OpenGL. As mentioned by Tele42, you have an issue with Drivers not communicating properly.

[Jp5243]

@cheebsco OpenGL straight up does not work on my computer. Is this the reason my games are not working?

[cheebsco]

It appears to be the main issue.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @Jp5243, your issues were from poor hardware support. There's a chance you could get more things running with LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 %command% in the game's launch options, but regardless, anything that runs would have underwhelming performance.

Closing as this is a hardware issue.

[olgsh]

Run steam from terminal, try to launch the game that crashes, and read the terminal output. For me it was "Failed to load libSDL2_ttf-2.0 (run "sudo apt install libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0" on Ubuntu)" and it solved my problem