Proton fails to start games. Reports failure to load necessary drivers (Possible Intel ARC compatibility issue).

protonclosed

ValveSoftware/Proton#8507 · opened 2025-03-08 by Snikker24 · updated 2025-03-12 · 5 comments · github

SSnikker24 2025-03-08 github

Description

Upon trying to launch any game without native support, Proton fails to start it.

Versions tested

Proton Hotfix, Proton Experimental, Proton 9.0-4, Proton 8.0-5, Proton 7.0-6, Proton 6.3-8, Proton 5.13-6

Games Tested

Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed 2
Assassin's Creed Revelation
Doom (2016)
Dishonored
Dishonored 2
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition
Grid 2
Wreckfest

Possible cause

Proton's Wine component may fail loading drivers correctly
In a proton log generated for Assassin's Creed 2 (game chosen as testing environment) the following errors may appear (Vulkan errors not always present):

326.405:0020:00cc:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
326.405:0020:00cc:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow L"The explorer process failed to start."

0.000:0108:010c:err:module:hacks_init HACK: Simulating sched quantum in fsync.
342.603:0108:010c:err:kerberos:kerberos_LsaApInitializePackage no Kerberos support, expect problems
342.605:0108:010c:err:ntlm:ntlm_LsaApInitializePackage no NTLM support, expect problems

info:  Game: upc.exe
info:  DXVK: v2.5.3-255-ga08579e5552bcbb
info:  Build: x86 gcc 10.3.0
345.976:0108:010c:trace:loaddll:build_module Loaded L"C:\\windows\\system32\\winevulkan.dll" at 6D610000: builtin
info:  Vulkan: Found vkGetInstanceProcAddr in winevulkan.dll @ 0x6d621780
info:  Built-in extension providers:
info:    Platform WSI
info:    OpenVR
info:    OpenXR
345.977:0108:010c:err:vulkan:init_vulkan Failed to load Wine graphics driver supporting Vulkan.
345.977:0108:010c:err:vulkan:init_vulkan Failed to load Wine graphics driver supporting Vulkan.
info:  Required Vulkan extension VK_KHR_surface not supported

Full log available here.

SysInfo

GPU: Sparkle Intel ARC A770 Titan OC
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K
Memory: 32GiB DDR4
Full system info here.

Attached as requested Steam Runtime Diagnostics report

All necessary packages regarding X.org, Mesa/Vulkan, and Intel are installed as indicated by the Void Wiki.

$ sudo xbps-query -s mesa
[*] libOSMesa-24.3.4_1               Mesa Off-Screen interface library
[*] libOSMesa-32bit-24.3.4_1         Mesa Off-Screen interface library (32bit)
[*] libgbm-24.3.4_1                  Mesa Generic buffer management API - runtime
[*] libgbm-32bit-24.3.4_1            Mesa Generic buffer management API - runtime (32bit)
[*] libxatracker-24.3.4_1            Mesa XA tracker interface library
[*] mesa-24.3.4_1                    Open source implementation of OpenGL and Vulkan
[*] mesa-32bit-24.3.4_1              Open source implementation of OpenGL and Vulkan (32bit)
[*] mesa-dri-24.3.4_1                Mesa DRI drivers
[*] mesa-dri-32bit-24.3.4_1          Mesa DRI drivers (32bit)
[*] mesa-intel-dri-24.3.4_1          Mesa DRI drivers for Intel GPUs (transitional dummy package)
[*] mesa-intel-dri-32bit-24.3.4_1    Mesa DRI drivers for Intel GPUs (transitional dummy package) (32bit)
[*] mesa-libgallium-24.3.4_1         Mesa internal shared platform for building graphics drivers
[*] mesa-libgallium-32bit-24.3.4_1   Mesa internal shared platform for building graphics drivers (32bit)
[*] mesa-vulkan-intel-24.3.4_1       Mesa Intel Vulkan driver
[*] mesa-vulkan-intel-32bit-24.3.4_1 Mesa Intel Vulkan driver (32bit)

$ sudo xbps-query -s xorg
[*] libX11-1.8.11_1              Base X libraries from Xorg
[*] libX11-32bit-1.8.11_1        Base X libraries from Xorg (32bit)
[*] libXpm-3.5.17_1              X PixMap Library from modular Xorg X11
[*] libXpm-32bit-3.5.17_1        X PixMap Library from modular Xorg X11 (32bit)
[*] xf86-video-amdgpu-23.0.0_1   Xorg AMD Radeon RXXX video driver (amdgpu kernel module)
[*] xf86-video-ati-22.0.0_1      Xorg ATI Radeon video driver
[*] xf86-video-dummy-0.4.1_1     Xorg dummy video driver
[*] xf86-video-fbdev-0.5.0_2     Xorg framebuffer video driver
[*] xf86-video-nouveau-1.0.17_2  Xorg opensource NVIDIA video driver
[*] xf86-video-vesa-2.6.0_1      Xorg VESA video driver
[*] xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0_1   Modular Xorg VMware virtual video driver
[*] xorg-minimal-1.2_2           Xorg meta-package including xorg-xserver and needed tools
[*] xorg-server-21.1.16_1        X11 server from X.org
[*] xorg-server-common-21.1.16_1 X11 server from X.org- common files
[*] xorg-video-drivers-7.6_23    X.org video drivers meta-package

$ sudo xbps-query -s intel
[*] intel-gmmlib-22.5.2_1            Intel Graphics Memory Management Library
[*] intel-media-driver-24.3.4_1      Intel Media Driver for VAAPI (Broadwell+)
[*] intel-video-accel-1_2            Intel Video Acceleration meta-pkg
[*] ipw2100-firmware-1.3_6           Firmware for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 wifi cards
[*] ipw2200-firmware-3.1_6           Firmware for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG wifi cards
[*] libva-intel-driver-2.4.1_1       Video Acceleration (VA) API - Intel Graphics backend
[*] linux-firmware-intel-20250211_1  Binary firmware blobs for the Linux kernel - Intel GPU microcode
[*] mesa-intel-dri-24.3.4_1          Mesa DRI drivers for Intel GPUs (transitional dummy package)
[*] mesa-intel-dri-32bit-24.3.4_1    Mesa DRI drivers for Intel GPUs (transitional dummy package) (32bit)
[*] mesa-vulkan-intel-24.3.4_1       Mesa Intel Vulkan driver
[*] mesa-vulkan-intel-32bit-24.3.4_1 Mesa Intel Vulkan driver (32bit)
[*] oneVPL-2023.3.1_2                Intel oneAPI Video Processing Library

Using the i915 kernel driver and X.org modesetting user-space driver.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2025-03-08 github

Hello @Snikker24, this reads more like a system config issue with missing Vulkan drivers than a Proton issue. Please copy the contents of Steam Runtime Diagnostics from Steam (Steam -> Help -> Steam Runtime Diagnostics) and put it in a gist, then include a link to the gist in this issue report.

Also, please double check that you have the mesa-vulkan-intel and mesa-vulkan-intel-32bit system packages installed.

SSnikker24 2025-03-08 github

Update

So, by launching Steam using the following:
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_hasvk_icd.i686.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_hasvk_icd.x86_64.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.i686.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json steam
I was able to get rid of all but two errors, those being the initial ones from Wine reporting the driver loading failure:

326.405:0020:00cc:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
326.405:0020:00cc:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow L"The explorer process failed to start."

Still the games refuse to launch even on a fresh OS install. I will try debugging Proton's Wine binaries to see if I get anything from that. One thing I need to mention is that system's version of Wine works without any flaws.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2025-03-08 github

Maybe it's having a hard time picking between the iGPU and dGPU. I'd test setting a game's launch options to DRI_PRIME=1 %command% or DRI_PRIME=0 %command% to try to prioritize between the different Intel GPUs.

SSnikker24 2025-03-08 github

"This seems to work, it creates the game window but it's just a black screen that eventually times out, and the force quit menu appears."
Doesn't work after reboot.

SSnikker24 2025-03-12 github

FIXED: Proton failed because both the dGPU and the iGPU share the same i915 driver. The fix was disabling integrated graphics in the BIOS . Still manual configuration is needed for every game. Older games require using the PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 command else the window launches and then freezes after a few seconds while others work out of the box. Other games straight out crash on the main menu (DOOM 2016 with 162 errors in the Proton log).