protonscr

Can't launch any game - stuck on "Preparing to launch (game)..."

protonclosed
ValveSoftware/Proton#6093 · opened 2022-08-14 by Mrr7782 · updated 2023-01-22 · 16 comments · github
MMrr7782 2022-08-14 github

System info:
Arch Linux, kernel 5.18.16
AMD Radeon RX 6600
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
16GB DDR4 RAM

When I try to launch any game using Proton (tried 7.0, 4.2, and a custom (GE 7.29) version), the game never launches. This is different from what happens to many other people where it says "preparing to launch", launches, and instantly stops. In my case, the window saying "Preparing to launch (game)..." just stays open forever until I close it. Proton's running iscriptevaluator.exe, if that helps.

What I've tried so far:

  • Steam Beta
  • Steam Stable
  • Completely uninstalling Steam and deleting all the files related to it and then reinstalling it
  • Verifying the integrity of the game I'm trying to launch, Proton, Steam Linux Runtime Soldier, Steamworks
  • Adding the argument for proton to log everything doesn't do anything, since the game doesn't launch - stuck on preparing to launch
  • Tried searching for other solutions on the internet on DuckDuckGo and Google, didn't help
  • Normal wine works

Also, before reinstalling Steam, Proton would launch whenever I launched Steam and run d3ddriverquery.exe and would keep running forever as well (left it running for 2 days to see if it would stop by itself). I posted this on the r/linuxquestions subreddit (this was before I found out I couldn't launch any Windows games) (https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/wg37j9/steam_running_proton_in_background_at_all_times)

Also attaching Steam system information: sysinfo.txt

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2022-08-14 github

Hello @Mrr7782, are you able to determine what Proton version is being used with d3ddriverquery,exe? This is supposed to complete fairly quickly. Maybe using htop in tree view might help find that.

MMrr7782 2022-08-14 github

Thanks for the quick reply! After reinstalling Steam for the second time and opting into Steam Beta, Proton no longer gets launched at startup, but it was Proton 7.0.

GGalcian79 2022-08-14 github

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/6093#issue-1338362557

Can you check if alt-tabbing makes the game launch?

MMrr7782 2022-08-14 github

I tried to launch the same game with Proton 7.0 again to check and it's been stuck on "Preparing to launch" for more than 5 minutes by now. Alt-tabbing out of the preparing to launch window does nothing if that's what you meant. Judging by the running processes, it's stuck installing VC Redist 2013 x86 (vcredist_x86.exe is running two times), probably launched by iscriptevaluator.exe (which is also running) from what I understand. I'd get it if it was just taking its time doing first-time setup, but it's saying just "Preparing to launch". I'm trying to launch "SCP: Containment Breach Multiplayer" because a friend wanted me to play it with him, but I don't think it's just that game.

MMrr7782 2022-08-14 github

Also closing the preparing to launch window does not kill the Proton / Wine processes.

MMrr7782 2022-08-14 github

And when trying to install a game, Steam always gets stuck at "finalizing" after the game's been downloaded and Proton 7.0 gets launched. Killing all Proton processes is the only way to finish the game installation. (Tried installing Among Us because it's small)

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2022-08-14 github

Out of mild curiosity, is there a second Steam library involved? If there is, what filesystem are you using with that Steam library folder?

MMrr7782 2022-08-14 github

No, my system, all my programs and libraries, Steam, and my Steam library are all on one ext4 partition.

Ddeathxxx123 2022-08-15 github

With Manjaro i cannot start any game that uses stable protons. Only experimental and GE-proton is working.
In Ubuntu distros all Protons are usable.
So you are using Arch and maybe you want to try with experimental proton.

MMrr7782 2022-08-15 github

Already tried Proton GE before, that didn't work. Tried Proton Experimental. Right after it installed, it ran d3ddriverquery.exe with Proton Experimental. That is still running even after about 10 minutes. Tried launching a game (Among Us) with Proton Experimental. Stuck at "Preparing to launch" (VC Redist 2019 x86 installer running in background). I let it run for 5 minutes, but nothing happened, so I closed the window.

Additional info: I'm pretty sure this isn't my system's fault because I can play non-Steam games using Wine without any problems. Also, I'm not really sure when this started happening, but probably this week as I was able to play Windows Steam games just fine before.

MMrr7782 2022-08-15 github

I completely reinstalled Python because I saw someone fixed their Lutris games not launching by doing that, and I noticed that just like when I posted about Proton launching with Steam on Reddit, Proton launched d3ddriverquery.exe again, but this time it was with Proton Experimental, even though my preferred Proton version's set to 7.0 (Steam → Settings → Steam Play) and the program itself exits after 1 or 2 seconds, but Proton doesn't exit.

MMrr7782 2022-08-17 github

After some more research, I started Steam with the STEAM_LINUX_RUNTIME_LOG=1 argument and tried launching Among Us again. PROTON_LOG=1 didn't output any logs since the game wasn't launching at all.
This line was at the end of the log file:
wine: Unhandled stack overflow at address F7D0ACD4 (thread 0114), starting debugger...
Here's the full log.

MMrr7782 2022-08-17 github

I FIXED IT
SOLUTION:
Rename or delete (SteamDirectory)/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier/_v2-entry-point and create a new file with the same name, with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
 
shift 2
exec "${@}"
TTRPB 2022-08-29 github

The above fix doesn't work for me. Bizarrely I was playing a game earlier today (Vermintide 2) it was working fine. I haven't closed steam, press play and it hangs here. I've restarted steam and rebooted the computer. This is frustrating because I have no idea how to debug it

PpackardG 2022-09-10 github

Also hitting this issue. No dice with the change to _v2-entry-point either. I've tried using both GE Proton 7-30, Proton experimental, and Proton 7.0-4

EDIT:
Just want to follow up as I was able to solve this and it may help others who find this thread. I had the exact same issue as OP. Game would be stuck on 'Preparing to launch.." screen indefinitely, and after cancelling I had a lot of hung processes still kicking. The change to _v2-entry-point didn't help me, so instead I updated some of the logging options in that script to see if I could learn anything from them.

In _v2-entry-point I enabled verbose and log_to_file, and I also changed the path of log_dir to my homedir. After sleuthing some of the logs generated it looked like vcredist install was my culprit. Did some searching online and one user who had an issue downloading vcredist fixed his issue by going to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Clear Download Cache.

After doing so and restarting steam I was able to launch the game again. I hope this helps anyone else running into this.

FFordDeckard 2023-01-22 github

After sleuthing some of the logs generated it looked like vcredist install was my culprit. Did some searching online and one user who had an issue downloading vcredist fixed his issue by going to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Clear Download Cache.

After doing so and restarting steam I was able to launch the game again. I hope this helps anyone else running into this.

This solved it for me too! Thank you so much @packardG ! Now I'm just stuck at "Processing Vulkan shaders..."

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