I am also having this problem. The first time I hit the mic button TF2 stutters for a second and then recovers and works normally for ~1 hour. At some point after this steam will crash when I hit the mic button shortly followed by TF2.

This used to happen a lot in early beta but seemed to clear up after a few updates. Shortly before release the problem returned again.

System info:
Processor Information:
Vendor: GenuineIntel
Speed: 3300 Mhz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported

Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Linux Mint 14 Nadia (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.5.0-17-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11300000
X Window Manager: Mutter (Muffin)
Steam Runtime Version:

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

Driver Version:  4.2.0 NVIDIA 304.43
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
VendorID:  0x10de
DeviceID:  0x1244
Number of Monitors:  2
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1280 x 1024
Desktop Resolution: 2560 x 1024
Primary Display Size: 1.26" x 1.26"  (1.77" diag)
                                        3.2cm x 3.2cm  (4.5cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 1023 MB
Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
Audio device: Realtek ALC887-VD

Memory:
RAM: 3894 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_GB.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 281610 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 192917 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:
Sun Feb 17 18:10:53 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130217181047_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-f3799d0e-b0fb-4049-83b8-850f12130217''
Sun Feb 17 18:10:58 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217181054_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-5b03b2a6-80f3-4438-b1d8-2c7032130217''
Sun Feb 17 18:11:02 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217181100_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-17b2af43-d189-4a8a-a1a8-b42062130217''

Similar issue is
I will get into game use mic for 1 round and it will begin to bug out Character will lock in place looping sound if I stop using mic and than it will next time just crash to desktop and take steam with it.

Maybe a problem with pulseaudio....

Processor Information:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Speed: 2400 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 12.04.2 LTS (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.2.0-37-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11103000
X Window Manager: Compiz
Steam Runtime Version:

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+/PCIe/SSE2

Driver Version:  3.3.0 NVIDIA 310.14
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID:  0x10de
DeviceID:  0x612
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1440 x 900
Desktop Resolution: 1440 x 900
Primary Display Size: 16.06" x 10.04"  (18.94" diag)
                                        40.8cm x 25.5cm  (48.1cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 512 MB
Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Sound card:
Audio device: VIA VT1708S

Memory:
RAM: 3954 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_CA.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 41500 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 16541 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:
Mon Feb 18 06:59:23 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130217225917_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-c97bb2e0-5862-4d25-bafb-f75752130217''
Mon Feb 18 06:59:32 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217225925_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-08b02719-10ed-467d-8c6c-090b52130217''
Mon Feb 18 06:59:38 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217225936_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-88f011f4-8a6d-4e7f-9627-7c5e02130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:20:10 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130217232005_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-baff09ad-a9d5-475b-bd37-74c4f2130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:20:14 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217232012_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-0c46b224-9a6f-4db4-83a2-2734d2130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:20:14 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217232012_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-9ec124b0-94bb-4c00-ae1d-97d032130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:20:47 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217232045_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-ac83cbd6-d66b-4019-aef7-a6b132130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:20:52 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217232050_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-aed93ff3-3186-4a4b-b726-bcf912130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:41:16 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130217234112_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-343d3058-708f-4b30-8a03-8e2e62130217''
Mon Feb 18 07:41:23 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130217234117_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-8564bbd5-16a9-4400-90fc-c0cfd2130217''

This seems to be happening a lot more frequently now :(

I can confirm this is an issue related to microphone use.
Will issue #1853 be fixed in the next milestone update?

It gives me some sort of "model" error as well.

Also, it crashes everything relating to Steam, as in, once TF2 crashes, Steam dies along with it.

Is there a possibility..? Sorry for responding to this a lot, I've just been having a rough time with Steam crashing every 10 minutes because of this.

I've taken to not using the microphone at all which has had a huge effect on my ability to enjoy playing the game. It's really frustrating :(

I'm really hoping this is a top priority, as I'm a little frustrated at this bug/glitch. :/

I also REALLY want to avoid using Wine at all costs, because while it is very picky to get a game started up on Wine, it at least won't crash by using a freakin' microphone..

Oh and the Steam voice chat works perfectly when I'm in a call, so it might be something different.

I have this same issue. It occurs when playing and using the in game voice chat too frequently.
I can play for about 1 hour, more if I rarely use voice chat.
When this crash happens, it happens when the voice button is pressed, then depressed after sending voice.
Steam will crash, and tf2 notices that and blocks in loops, ant then I must kill its process.

These are my specs

Informazioni sul processore:
Produttore: GenuineIntel
Velocità: 2401 MHz
Processori logici 8
Processori fisici 4
HyperThreading: Supportato
FCMOV: Supportato
SSE2: Supportato
SSE3: Supportato
SSSE3: Supportato
SSE4a: Non supportato
SSE41: Supportato
SSE42: Supportato

Informazioni sulla rete:
Velocità rete:

Versione di Sistema Operativo:
"Arch Linux" (64 bit)
Nome del kernel: Linux
Versione del kernel: 3.7.10-1-uksm-ck
Produttore dell'X Server: The X.Org Foundation
Versione dell'X Server: 11400000
X Window Manager: Mutter (Muffin)
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release-i386_2013-03-08

Scheda video:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 560M/PCIe/SSE2

Versione driver: 4.3.0 NVIDIA 313.26
Intensità colore desktop: 24 bit per pixel
Frequenza di aggiornamento del monitor: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x1251
Numero di monitor: 1
Numero di schede video logiche: 1
Risoluzione visualizzazione primaria: 1920 x 1080
Risoluzione desktop: 1920 x 1080
Dimensioni visualizzazione primaria: 13,58" x 7,64"  (15,55" diag)
                                        34,5cm x 19,4cm  (39,5cm diag)
Bus primario: PCI Express 16x
VRAM primaria: 1536 MB
Modalità MSAA supportate: 2x 4x 8x 16x 

Scheda audio:
Periferica audio: Realtek ALC892

Memoria:
RAM: 7956 Mb

Varie:
Lingua IU: Italiano
LANG: it_IT.utf8
Microfono: Not set
Spazio totale disponibile su disco rigido: 268191 Mb
Blocco libero più ampio del disco rigido: 81741 Mb

Software installato:

I'll add that this happens to me when using a USB microphone (part of a Logitech Quickcam). The odd thing is that I can generally use voice communication several (dozen) times with no problems before the one time that causes the crash.

When the problem happens, the game will stutter (freeze up while looping the current audio frame for a few seconds), then it will become playable again for around 5 to 10 seconds (but with obvious graphical glitches in the HUD), then it will crash with an Engine Error dialog saying some model (different each time) was not found, and that error.mdl could not be loaded.

At this point, the current audio frame is looping indefinitely, and the GUI is unresponsive. I have to switch to a tty in order to kill the process.

@BHSPitMonkey

I have that exact issue, though it eventually crashes away and I can restart Steam back.

@ValveSoftware Please please please fix this bug, I'm close to literally begging on the floor for anybody to fix this extreme annoyance, I really hate it when I'm speaking to people in game about how good (or bad) the team is and it's freakin' annoying as hell to be interrupted by.. a crash.

Things have actually gotten worse for me. I caved in and got an analog headset and TF2 is still doing the same thing. I have frigged around with all of my audio settings but my game still crashes after using my microphone about a dozen times.

Has anyone tried using a microphone with alsa and seeing if it works?

Wait, don't we all use alsa by default? I mean, I use phonon-gstreamer, but I thought that used alsa by itself.

Come on guys, this bug makes games like Guns of Icarus Online completely unplayable!

Well, most people use ALSA with PulseAudio rather than just ALSA alone.

@Nokei @nake90 @MrPopinjay

Pulseaudio is ABSOLUTELY required for what I do, which is talk to people on Teamspeak, Skype, Youtube, etc. Because Alsa can only handle 1 audio stream without sacrificing the other, so ditching Pulseaudio is most certainly out of the question.

Clearly nobody suggesting it as a fix- this really needs to get fixed. It just might be interesting if the problem stems from pulseAudio or not.

Yes, I can't use alsa for my microphone without a very special configuration so I haven't been able to see whether the problem is pulseaudio related or not.

Same issue here, this is a bit of a deal breaker. I hope this gets fixed soon.

Pardon my impatience but I'll be on Wine until this bug gets resolved. I'm so sick of it.

Yeah, this sucks. TF2 and steam are too unstable to really use at the moment...

Okay, I think I found what the issue is. It seems steam crashes when tf2 has an outgoing voice stream (aka your microphone) and an incoming voice stream (aka someone else microphone) inputing into tf2 at once. For example, if you and some guy in the game both press the microphone button, and use them at the same time, steam will crash. However, if someone is already using their microphones, and you decide to use yours, it wont crash, and vice versa. It only crashes when you and someone else decide to use your microphones at once. This is my theory, because it seems like every time my steam crashed, it was because of this.

So a hot fix would be just to make sure you use your mic lightly, and becareful of when you use it. Until Valve/Linux resolves this issue, we just have to deal with it.

I'm not sure that's the case- I'm sure I've used my microphone to interrupt people without issue and I'm often crashing in servers where no one else is using a microphone.

Really? Well... damn. I guess the solution would just refrain from using mic too much, or just not use it at all. I got used to using it on this one server, but my game kept crashing, so the only way to make sure I didn't habitually use my mic was to type "unbind v" into the console xD. This sucks though, the only way I can see this getting fixed is if we shove it into Valve's face...

Until I see this bug closed (I'll be watching this bug like a hawk), I won't play TF2 natively, just use Wine for now, as sad as it is.

yeah- I'm not really playing any more. Too frustrating to crash out all the time...

The recent hardware report came out and said that 1.6% of users are on linux.

They started a real grass roots movement about getting of Microsoft dependence, and everybody went and bought games and started using linux. They are too concerned with porting new games to linux for new potential revenue streams it seems. Meanwhile there are games like CS:S and TF2 that basically require voice to play competitively, these games are completely useless now.

This is an issue tracker, not a discussion forum. Please refrain from
commenting unless you're contributing information related to the bug (i.e.
not merely making conversation or complaining).

Then, can somebody link the relevant steamforums post?

I think you guys are taking it a bit far... the game isn't completely useless, I'm very used to playing without a mic and I do fine. I'm still sticking to my theory though about the voice streams, because my game only crashed when my mic and someone else's mic were activated at once.

You cannot say "this bug isn't an issue because I don't use that feature". You are not the entire user base of this game, there are many people, such as me, to which a microphone is a vital part of a competitive FPS game.

You know that this bug affects other games that DO need a mic to play like Guns of Icarus Online?
I mean, at least playing TF2 you can not talk, but in GoIO it's just impossible, it's a 100% teamplay game and you need to talk to your crew and your team's captains.
The same with L4D2.

This bug is really harming those games.

Not sure if it affects those games, but so you know competetive CS:S absolutely requires a mic.

This is a conflict with either the microphone buffer or codec it has nothing to do with other people in the game the crash is caused by how you initialize the microphone ie, Pushing the button to activate the mic. It's for certain that if you mash the microphone button twice you are almost guaranteed a crash telling me that it has something to do with the buffer, codec, or the way the microphone is initialized from a trigger.

I find I can use the microphone on tf2 for a whole match or 2 if I play it safe so the bug consists somewhere within the input and the microphone triggering or possibly the codec.

along side this bug some other source engine games such at CSS the microphone isn't even detected once you join a server.

Well bri, I've mashed the mic button rapidly and it doesn't cause a crash.

EDIT: Also, I know this is a issue. I'm not saying it is not, I'm just saying quiting tf2 just because of this issue is a bit much. And I know it extends to more then just tf2, I'm not stupid.

I gave mashing the push-to-talk a try but it didn't seem to cause a crash. I'll try again later today.

I can confirm that removing Pulseaudio remedied my Counterstrike 1.6 crash related to voice chat.

Using voice chat for 15 minutes with Pulseaudio in a regular game, Steam will crash, and I will quickly get kicked from the server for losing connection to Steam.

After removing pulseaudio and its related packages completely, and setting Steam to use the ALSA default microphone input, I can no longer reproduce the crash.

This is using Linux Mint Nadia 14 on a Thinkpad T60, with the builtin HDA Intel microphone.

@gdrewb-valve I had a slightly different experience than the commenter above me. Rather than removing the pulseaudio packages, I:

• Created a file at ~/.pulse/client.conf with the line autospawn = no to prevent pulseaudio from starting
• Logged out and back in
• Verified that the pulseaudio process was indeed not running
• Verified that ALSA was working properly by opening Audacity, recording some audio, and playing it back (Note: I selected my USB microphone in Audacity as the input device to use, and left the default output selected)
• Opened Steam and went to Steam's Settings (the Voice tab), selected my USB microphone as the input device, and performed the echo test there (successfully; this means the Steam client itself was working properly. I also made sure I could hear IM notification sounds.)

When I launched TF2, however, there was no audio output. Audio input settings were correctly inherited from the Steam client, and people in-game were able to hear me, but the game client produced no sound of its own.

@gdrewb-valve Thanks. I fully exited both Steam and TF2 and relaunched Steam with that environment variable set, but it didn't change things.

One interesting thing I noticed is that, in the game's current state with PA disabled (playback not working), there's another little bug that somewhat allows me to cheat a bit: Whenever someone uses voice chat, the callout bubble appears over their head and their username is displayed on the lower-right part of the screen (as usual), but neither of these items are going away now. This breaks invisibility for any spy in the game who has used voice chat in the time since I connected, since the callout bubble is always visible. It seems that the code responsible for destroying the label/callout is never getting called in this broken state. Then again, not being able to hear anything helps to balance out this advantage.

On an unrelated note, if I choose the ALSA input for my microphone as opposed to the Pulseaudio one, the game no longer crashes yet if I change server, noone can hear me/mic no longer works.

So, has anyone created a bug report there?
If so, could you please post a link to it? I couldn't find it.

Sorry, where?

In the PulseAudio bug tracker.
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/Community
Isn't it a PulseAudio bug? Then it should be reported there.

There's little reason to believe it is a bug in the PulseAudio code, it's much more likely it's a bug in Steam that is related to how it interacts with PulseAudio.

Oh come on. The reason why we never get anything fixed and the reason Linux audio is complete crap is everyone blaming the "other" components. My other programs that use pulseaudio don't crash so why would tf2 crash. It's not pulseaudio anyway, I removed pulseaudio completely from my system and used ALSA and it still happens.

If you are lazy, please don't report that you have a "fix". TF2 forums are plagued by people with false "fixes". I'm expecting someone to say "I stuck my finger up my nose and it doesn't crash! Pick your nose while it loads and it solves the issue. Oh, and reinstall" Seems like everyone tries one thing, tests it, sees that it doesn't crash exactly the same way, feels good about how smart they are, and posts false information to the forum. :(

While I didn't try removing PA completely I tried using ALSA by simply selecting it in Steam quite often and the crashes still happen. How would that be different to using pure ALSA without having PA installed anyway? Honest question.
Judging from @doug65536's statement it seems like it was a false lead anyway.

Doesn't Miles support Linux through OpenAL only? In that case how could there be a difference between PA and ALSA as OpenAL would still be involved? Which version of Miles is Steam using? Because browsing through this (http://www.radgametools.com/msshist.htm) reveals some OpenAL specific improvements made late last year and a whole bunch of general crash fixes over the last few years.

Is there any known setup on which this never ever happens?

There are user reports, such as adaricmar above, that say that removing pulseaudio fixed their crashes, so why would it be a false lead?

Yet it does not fix the problem for all users so it's clearly not the entire issue here.

Just pointing out that it's not the whole issue. It certainly proves that this is not a PulseAudio bug, as someone suggested previously. :)

Is the issue also appearing with OpenAL 1.15? Ubuntu's is stuck on a version that's out of date and it seems like raring is on the same version. What do the crash reports say?
I'm really interested in what setups can't repro this issue at all.

Might be worth testing it with a fresh snapshot of OpenAL then, with some luck the issue might actually be in OpenAL and has already been dealt with in 1.15.

I assume I have to build for i386 for Steam?

Seems like it's still happening, can you verify through these crash reports that Steam actually used 1.15?

Fri Apr 19 14:45:59 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130419164546_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-9d4fccab-249e-4149-9158-91e2c2130419
''
Fri Apr 19 14:46:10 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130419164559_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-8f31cafd-c1a1-4c02-87a9-ce4652130419
''
Fri Apr 19 14:46:17 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130419164609_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-6ad9ba1e-b6c4-4b52-a4f5-ca3bc2130419
''

I will do that, I used gdb once before, though a link to a basic 101 couldn't hurt.

I'm currently testing and a bit concerned. I don't feel like joining a VAC secured server with gdb attached to steam to do my usual repro. Is that a justified concern? Can I repro the issue with just steam friends voice chat? Is that the same?

If you can reproduce the crash just by using Steam voice chat, that would
be insightful information. I haven't heard of the issue affecting Steam
chat, though.

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 1:52 PM, DerRidda [email protected] wrote:

I'm currently testing and a bit concerned. I don't feel like joining a VAC
secured server with gdb attached to steam to do my usual repro. Is that a
justified concern? Can I repro the issue with just steam friends voice
chat? Is that the same?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-16676113
.

I don't think it's happening with just Steam voice chat, had a chatty one going for over half an hour and it didn't happen. And I'm not going to test this out in-game unless I know how VAC thinks about finding gdb attached to the Steam client.

@gdrewb-valve I had suspected that the old libs were still loaded but 1.13? That is odd, I'm running Quantal which has 1.14 in it's repos and checking my backed up OpenAL libs I'm positive that I didn't have 1.13 installed.

Ok, I just checked the steam-runtime folder and there is OpenAL 1.13 in there. That would also explain why Arch users are seeing 1.13 crashes on their cutting edge distro, I will proceed and replace that lib instead.

Update:
Here is another crash report with replaced OpenAl in steam-runtime. Didn't debug yet was just a test run.
Fri Apr 19 20:33:06 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130419223300_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-6ce5a6ae-8f1d-437f-b21c-727af2130419
''
Fri Apr 19 20:33:11 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130419223306_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-6a8e35c7-d1b9-4426-b2d8-319922130419
''
Fri Apr 19 20:33:11 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130419223306_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-f341e850-7d04-4771-89ab-5ff962130419
''

Here is a gist with the bt from my latest repro of the crash https://gist.github.com/DerRidda/5423273
flibitijibibo is the person I asked to make me a clean 32bit build. I'm currently still having gdb and Steam open at that precise point if there is anything more I can do with this.

Here are the 3 lines between me killing CS:S - as it didn't recover from the client crash while gdb was still on - and actually calling bt.

Program received signal SIGABRT, Aborted.
[Switching to Thread 0xe7908b40 (LWP 5350)]
0xf7789425 in __kernel_vsyscall ()

Before that there are only normal New thread / Thread exited messages.

Actually, I am guilty of the same thing I complained about. I can confirm that with pulseaudio removed from my system, I don't get the crash. However, there is another issue with that: I have to go into steam settings every boot (once) and click "detect audio devices" OR change the device and change it back, to get the microphone to work in TF2. I had hoped that setting my USB microphone with soundrc.conf would have solved it, allowing "default" to work. This was successful but I still have to detect or change device (and change it back) before voice works. (Ubuntu 64-bit 12.10 - logitech desk microphone (AK5370), and RealTek ALC889 bigbang xpower X58 chipset motherboard audio (intel-hd-audio))

Just want to clarify since I made it confusing in my previous post: removing pulseaudio DOES fix the voice hang. I use voice a lot and I play for many hours some days so I am quite sure that pulseaudio is involved in the hangs. Sorry for adding confusion. It seems like a memory corruption because it (usually) shows "unable to load model" error dialog box if you let the hang sit for a while.

I was hoping to try this, but realized that I can't click anything on the
main menu in the Beta client. All my mouse input is just ignored. Never
had this issue in the regular client.

On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 10:48 PM, Drew Bliss [email protected]:

If you have updated to the latest beta client from today, here's another
thing to try. First, see if the problem still happens. If so, quit Steam
completely and launch with the environment variable
STEAM_OPENAL_SKIP_CAPTURE=1 set. This skips Steam's call to
alcCaptureSamples and instead fills Steam's buffer with zero. You will not
have working voice since no audio samples are being captured, but if the
crash does not occur it makes it extremely likely that the problem lies in
the audio stack below Steam. If the crash does occur then it's not the
sample capturing and is more likely a Steam bug.

If you try this and your voice is working (other people can hear you) then
the environment variable is not having an effect, so make sure that you are
heard in the crash case and are not heard after setting the environment
variable.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-16987285
.

@gdrewb-valve:

Crash still happens after Apr. 24 Update with default settings, see:

Thu Apr 25 20:28:21 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130425222815_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-a1ce2f27-168d-4e9a-b281-9e14c2130425
''
Thu Apr 25 20:28:25 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130425222821_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-d7f9a579-839c-4430-a9a6-e5fe22130425
''
Thu Apr 25 20:28:49 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130425222845_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-2c5843c6-2848-4a59-b93f-470142130425
''
Thu Apr 25 20:29:36 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130425222928_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-80245284-1af8-4578-bd08-ed7052130425
''

And it also happens with environment variable set:

Thu Apr 25 20:54:45 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20130425225434_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-997e1106-1d62-4a3a-8503-834aa2130425
''
Thu Apr 25 20:54:48 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130425225445_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-6d9e2db2-1125-4405-a8ea-0b9542130425
''

Confirmed, still crashes on me with voice, but doesn't with that set that @gdrewb-valve posted.

I'm skeptical if @NothingMuchHereToSay actually tested for long enough and would highly recommend he test again for a prolonged time. Keep in mind you actually have to keep using voice chat just as much as you would if it was still enabled and that the time it takes for it to happen is highly variable.

@DerRidda It all depends on how often the server communicates, but I thought @gdrewb-valve said that voice chat isn't possible with that environmental (or whatever that is) set. Then again, I'm not sure how to properly set it, do I put "steam" at the end of the command or do I have to set it before I launch steam?

@NothingMuchHereToSay Just open a terminal window and enter "STEAM_OPENAL_SKIP_CAPTURE=1 steam" without the quotation marks of course. To test if it worked go into the Steam settings voice tab and test the microphone, you shouldn't hear a thing and the level meter should also not be moving. When testing your microphone in your operating system's audio settings it should work as intended, though.
After that just start playing CS:S or another Source game online and make liberal use of push to talk.

To not feel like a complete fool while talking to yourself I recommend making snarky comments about other players that would normally get you kicked. ;)

@DerRidda Honestly, after spending about an hour of talking on Turbine with the "STEAM_OPENAL_SKIP_CAPTURE=1 steam" option up, I haven't experienced a crash. I don't know what it could be other than maybe Pulseaudio, but I can't live without it, as without Pulseaudio, ALSA supports only one stream out of my speakers. Which is bad for multitaskers that use Teamspeak to communicate.

EDIT: Just to let you know that nobody could hear me, so I know that the envvar was set.

on debian in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf I set:
enable-shm = no
and steam no longer crashes, only the mic stops working until steam is restarted. not great but still a vast improvement to having games completely freeze on me.

Interesting; I'll try that tonight for a while and report back. Does
something clue you in to the fact that your mic doesn't work anymore once
the event happens? Or do you just wait for someone to say "Nemoder, we
can't hear you"? :)

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:22 AM, Nemoder [email protected] wrote:

on debian in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf I set:
enable-shm = no
and steam no longer crashes, only the mic stops working until steam is
restarted. not great but still a vast improvement to having games
completely freeze on me.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-17210063
.

@Nemoder Still crashes for me dude.

@BHSPitMonkey
No indication other than it becomes apparent pretty quickly in a game like Guns of Icarus that your team can't hear you. If I tab out and look at the terminal I started steam in I'll see something like:
AL lib: pulseaudio.c:588: pa_context_new() failed

@gdrewb-valve: Bear with me on this one, please. At best the following would deliver a workaround and do nothing to actually fix the issue.

How exactly does the push-to-talk option work? Something like this? On button press: Open a new stream; Keep that stream open while button is down; On release: close stream.
What I'm asking is: Does a new "context" get created every time push-to-talk is triggered?
Because that seems to be the point at which the crash happens all the time, you press the button and it feels like a kill-switch. I never had this happen in the middle of an on-going p2t event. (Unless the rest of the people still following this issue can claim otherwise.)

If the above is somewhat accurate I would like to propose a new experiment (if it's doable): Add an option to Steam that would change the behavior of p2t so that when a server is joined the client opens a new stream/ creates a new context that stays open all the time but is not being transmitted to the server and and treat the push-to-talk event as a trigger for the transmission to the server only.

I hope my idea is clear. If the above assumptions are correct, once there is a good stream/context, it seems like this won't cause any trouble (at least regarding this issue, no idea if this won't open a whole new can of worms) and since the issue is afaik only happening after several push-to-talk events the first stream/context could be considered an "almost guaranteed good free shot". So if it doesn't cause any trouble, hold onto this stream/context and keep using it once it's established thus delivering a workaround that makes voice-chat usable for Linux users while the actual issue is being investigated further.

If my assumptions are too off the mark, sorry... look at all the letters that are totally useless! ;)

@Nemoder: I also didn't have any luck with disabling shared memory in that config file, still the very same behavior for me. Did you play around with any other option in the pulse config files by any chance?

@gdrewb-valve Even with the underlying cause of the audio/pulse failure unknown, shouldn't it be possible with the submitted crash reports to at least prevent the client from crashing when the situation arises? My impression is that PulseAudio or OpenAL is behaving in some way that the client isn't prepared for, and that it may be possible to simply bolster the client by sanity-checking what's coming in at the point of failure (and just printing some kind of error to the game console: "Error: OpenAL did something bad!"). It would be better to just lose voice communication than to get pulled out of the game entirely.

That said, things could certainly be more complicated than my first impression, and the above could be easier said than done.

The bug is still happening when running the steam beta with STEAM_OPENAL_SKIP_CAPTURE=1 steam
I spammed my mic button nonstop while playing and it happened after 10 minutes.
Going to play now without touching the mic button.

@gdrewb-valve That really sucks, but all you have to do is uninstall PulseAudio, apparently Alsa CAN handle more than one stream, sadly though, there's no sound notification on Unity (Ubuntu) anymore.

I've read the entire thread, as I have recently started playing Guns of Icarus Online, and got about 14 hangs in a period of three hours. Uninstalling PA isn't an option for me - it's really ingrained in the Ubuntu desktop, and I don't want to deal with the mess that happens without it (I also use a USB headset).

So I've went to Steams Settings, Voice, and set it to use my USB headset for voice input via ALSA - not PulseAudio like it offered. My voice still works and the game hasn't hung yet!

Setting the voice input to ALSA didn't solve the issue for TF2.

Setting the voice input to ALSA doesn't help here aswell.
Steam still uses PulseAudio for voice input and output.
And when setting SDL_AUDIODRIVER to ALSA Counter-Strike: Source uses ALSA for output but voice input is still going through steam and crashes it pretty often.
That really is starting to piss me off since it happens at least 10 times a day. I thought switching to pulse was a step forward, not behind.

Can anyone else who plays Guns of Icarus Online confirm what I've found? It could be that there's a difference between how TF2 and this game use the voice API. I really haven't had a crash since, and was getting them very regularly before.

I've been playing Guns Of Icarus today without crashing.
I'm using the beta version of Steam, under debian testing (amd64), and with the output set to use ALSA instead of the default PulseAudio as stated by vadi2 a few comments before.

However I didn't have time to test it enough to feel that the crash won't occur again. As son as I can I'll try to test it more.

I also own Guns of Icarus but haven't played it all that much yet, can anyone provide some updates to this? Are you using Pulse in your case @vadi2?

The crash bug is still persistant and it happened to me more than 10 times today and I just removed pulseaudio and switched to alsa.
Couldn't stand playing like this anymore.
Please update when you've fixed this issue so I can test it.

@DerRidda: Yes, using PulseAudio. These are my audio settings in Steam that has eliminated crashes:

35 hours played and pretty much no crashes, whereas I got 14 in the first 3 hours.

Oh and this is set in the Voice tab, and this is the mic input, not speakers output... don't confuse this.

@gdrewb-valve: This is a routine inquiry asking about any progress in tackling this issue.
It's 4 month since the first reports appeared and I would rather not have it become a two digit number.

Has any cooperation with the PulseAudio and/or OpenAL devs happened? I have been following the Steam beta client change log and the only thing I was hoping to see on there was at least an experimental fix regarding this issue. Now that the beta client has been pushed out to stable I really hope the next beta run will try to find means to at least circumvent this specific problem.

So, zero progress in 4 months...?

AKA: It works enough for people to buy games on Linux, and that's all
they care.

On 13-06-17 04:18 PM, MrPopinjay wrote:

So, zero progress in 4 months...?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-19571696.

Well it doesn't. At least not for me. I've gone from being an occasional WINE gamer, to an enthusiastic Linux gamer, to not gaming at all.

It's just too frustrating playing games that require teamwork and being mute.

I'm sad to see this problem have gone unfixed for so long. Is there any way we can help in getting the attention from the guys at PulseAudio? We probably can't file a bug report, and spamming them is not an option either, but we may be able to assist @gdrewb-valve by showing how many are affected by this. In the end, it's exactly things like these that will decide the fate of the future of gaming in Linux. @gdrewb-valve have you not received any answer at all from the PulseAudio guys?

I'll help in any way I can as well as a user.

Like I mentioned earlier in the thread, just setting the mic to an alsa
device worked for me on Guns of Icarus fairly successfully. I don't want to
screw up the audio setup in my OS either.

In the Steam settings I set my input to "ALSA Default". I thought I had fixed it, because I was able to talk with folks just fine in TF2. But unfortunately after about an hour of playing the game stuttered, I stopped being able to talk and hear people. I was able to play for maybe another 15 and then both TF2 and Steam crashed.

For those posting about success when choosing ALSA as an input source in steam: does your microphone continue to function(i.e. players can still hear you) when switching to a different server or changing a map?

I don't play TF, I play Guns of Icarus - and yeah, switching maps, matches
is fine.

I also selected my microphone via alsa specifially - not the "alsa default"
option.

@adaricmar - Yep, works fine for me. Make sure you've selected the correct device in Steam settings.

@gdrewb-valve: After all these other fine gentleman have pointed out setting the Steam voice settings to use the very specific ALSA device instead of just "ALSA default" I tried it myself in CS:S and it actually seems to work. Do you know what the difference between the two is?
Would that be a solution? Omit all the PulseAudio options and the "ALSA default" setting from just the voice options and "force" Steam/the user to pick a specific ALSA device, that is.

I'm pretty sure picking ALSA in voice won't help. It is just an illusion that pulseaudio presents to programs - pulseaudio is still in control of the audio. Can someone confirm that picking ALSA and playing for hours straight with lots of mic use doesn't crash? It crashes for me. Also, when I do that, I have to repeatedly click DETECT DEVICES then TEST MICROPHONE, until it starts working. Usually 3 or 4 times at least. If I don't, the mic doesn't work. Even with pulseaudio uninstalled it is like that.

Since I first posted here I've switched to a different distribution of Linux, I was on Ubuntu 12.10 and now I'm on Linux Mint 14 (MATE desktop) 64 bit. The crash is still essentially the same, but now, it is slightly different.

On Ubuntu, the crash resulted in an endless hang. On Linux Mint, what happens is, it freezes momentarily, then the display at the top that shows the F4 checkboxes has 2x more people (12 if there are 6 players, with the second 6 being duplicates of the first). It's definitely a memory corruption.

After the memory corruption, mic stops working, the game resumes running, and after a while, the server kicks me with a message "You must be logged in to Steam" (and I still am logged in to steam).

I've since removed pulseaudio and I don't have the problem. This is definitely not a good solution, because I can't record screencasts this way (I use ffmpeg to record games, and I need pulseaudio to be able to capture game sound).

If I were on the TF2 development team, I would find what variables would cause the players display at the top to be doubled, and set a hardware data breakpoint one of those variables. That or perhaps a variable involved with checking if the player is still logged on to steam. With a bit of luck, your machine will break into the debugger with the exact call stack that is causing the issue (right at whatever instruction is clobbering that memory).

Forget the pulseaudio people, they won't help. They will deny it and give you a list of excuses and other things to blame, like the game itself, ALSA, your audio driver, your kernel, your hardware, etc. From what I've seen, they take any criticism or issues with pulseaudio personally. All professional software developers know, all code has bugs. Usually lots of bugs.

@doug65536: Don't be too dismissive of the ALSA setting, I tried to set it to "ALSA default" plenty of times before but that didn't change a thing but for some reason that is totally beyond me selecting the device directly seems to be different and has also seemingly fixed it for me, with PulseAudio still installed of course.
So far I have played several 2+ hours sessions of CS:S with heavy voice usage, multiple map changes and not encountered the problem again while this time frame usually was enough to trigger the crash under PulseAudio.

About that DETECT DEVICES and TEST MICROPHONE behavior: Yes, when selecting the specific ALSA device it behaves the same for me, for some reason half the time the test won't work unless I click detect devices again but in-game it works all the time, seems to be more of a Steam derp than an actual ALSA problem.

I strongly recommend that you install PulseAudio again and try it this way yourself, we need more people to test this and report back as many people will just stop communicating as soon as their issue disappears for them.

Maybe you will be able to do screencasts again.

@BotoX: But is it still crashing this way?

Well, that'd require some testing but since it still relies on pulse and none of the devs said that this issue has been resolved I guess it does crash.
I tested it before and it was crashing so I'm pretty sure it'll still do so.
I can test it, though I have to learn right now and rather not play games :P

It just crashed, back to ALSA I go.

Are you absolutely certain that you explicitly selected the ALSA device that corresponds to your microphone in the Steam settings' voice tab? As was stated before "ALSA default" will not work.
I doubt because of how casually you just wrote "I've set the audio device in steam to ALSA".

I'm asking again because everyone that has tried it so far has no crashing problems anymore including people that are not following this issue.

I guess that's how you do it, isn't it?
This is after I removed pulse again.

Yes, that's what I've been mentioning - select your actual device [via
ALSA]. Not the 'ALSA Default' option.

Yes, it still uses PA technically - whatever, the point is, it really helps
mitigate the crashes.

So this actually is a steam issue?

Vadim Peretokin [email protected] wrote:

Yes, that's what I've been mentioning - select your actual device [via
ALSA]. Not the 'ALSA Default' option.

Yes, it still uses PA technically - whatever, the point is, it really helps
mitigate the crashes.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-19941346

I don't know. No information we have verifies fault on either side.
Changing the way steam gets its audio does have an effect, but it could be
a bug in PA or Steam equally.

@BotoX While it may not work for you, I am not wrong. I haven't had a single crash after doing this. I do not know exactly what effect this has on anything, as it is still using PA, but I know it makes a difference. I haven't had a single crash since I set up Steam this way.

Oh dear, is anyone else experiencing crashes again with the ALSA device work around in use since the latest Steam client updates? Because I am and it's happening in way shorter time frames than all the time I have used it before when it was still working.

Seems like false alarm but an interesting discovery came out of this:
i was using mumble before I started playing CS:S during which I saw these crashes again. Turns out Mumble didn't seem to have quit properly and there was still a speex-dispatcher process running, as soon as I killed that process manually the crashes went away again.

I don't know if anything of value can be deduced from that but i thought I'd mention it.

I am also having this problem. Sometimes when using the voice button, steam crashes and the game freezes for a while. Then it unfreezes after a while but I cant play since steam is not running.

So, now that you know what is happening and where is there anything you could do to anticipate and prevent it?

Hm, but this also happens to people on 64bit machines.

Ahh, sorry then.

Hmm, well that's the biggest amount I could find in smaps. It was taking up at least a few gigs of my RAM and leaking, I'm positive of that. Disabling shm on PulseAudio stops the crashes but voice still fails, it actually breaks my PulseAudio config.

I was unaware that the Steam runtime overrides PulseAudio, I'm running PulseAudio 4 on my system.

Removing any libraries with the name 'pulse' in them in the Steam Runtime doesn't fix this. That's on the assumption it falls back and uses my PulseAudio 4, as that patch was supposedly included in PulseAudio 3.

I'll load up a game now and try and get some information:

[jookia@jookia-arch 22297]% grep "pulse" maps
cbee7000-cfee8000 rw-s 00000000 00:10 10252441                           /dev/shm/pulse-shm-2380860766
d713d000-d71ad000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 526539                             /usr/lib32/pulseaudio/libpulsecommon-4.0.so
d71ad000-d71ae000 r--p 0006f000 08:05 526539                             /usr/lib32/pulseaudio/libpulsecommon-4.0.so
d71ae000-d71af000 rw-p 00070000 08:05 526539                             /usr/lib32/pulseaudio/libpulsecommon-4.0.so
d71af000-d71fd000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 179369                             /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0.16.2
d71fd000-d71fe000 r--p 0004d000 08:05 179369                             /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0.16.2
d71fe000-d71ff000 rw-p 0004e000 08:05 179369                             /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0.16.2
e9961000-e9964000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 179370                             /usr/lib32/libpulse-simple.so.0.0.4
e9964000-e9965000 r--p 00002000 08:05 179370                             /usr/lib32/libpulse-simple.so.0.0.4
e9965000-e9966000 rw-p 00003000 08:05 179370                             /usr/lib32/libpulse-simple.so.0.0.4

Here's the last words of Steam (the game is fine:)

warning: Unknown nb_ctl request:  4
warning: Unknown nb_ctl request:  4
warning: Unknown nb_ctl request:  4
warning: Unknown nb_ctl request:  4
warning: Unknown nb_ctl request:  4
warning: Unknown nb_ctl request:  4
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1376347961_client)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1376347961_client)
warning: The VAD has been replaced by a hack pending a complete rewrite
mmap() failed: Cannot allocate memory
mmap() failed: Cannot allocate memory
mmap() failed: Cannot allocate memory

Here's a stack trace of Steam:

#0  0xf743f200 in __memcpy_ssse3_rep () from /usr/lib32/libc.so.6
#1  0xee0d0e1f in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libopenal.so.1
#2  0xee0ef348 in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libopenal.so.1
#3  0xee0c821c in alcGetIntegerv ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libopenal.so.1
#4  0xe753f461 in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
#5  0xe752bf14 in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
#6  0xe752c6de in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
#7  0xe752d271 in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
#8  0xe779c816 in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
#9  0xe74c9749 in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
[#10](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/10) 0xe74ca4ec in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamclient.so
[#11](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/11) 0xeebef6da in SteamThreadTools::CThread::ThreadExceptionWrapper(void*) ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/libtier0_s.so
[#12](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/12) 0xeebed7cb in ?? ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/libtier0_s.so
[#13](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/13) 0xeebee0fd in CatchAndWriteMiniDumpExForVoidPtrFn ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/libtier0_s.so
[#14](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/14) 0xeebee14f in CatchAndWriteMiniDumpForVoidPtrFn ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/libtier0_s.so
[#15](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/15) 0xeebf1347 in SteamThreadTools::CThread::ThreadProc(void*) ()
   from /home/jookia/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/libtier0_s.so
[#16](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/16) 0xf74bccf0 in start_thread () from /usr/lib32/libpthread.so.0
[#17](/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/17) 0xf73f47ae in clone () from /usr/lib32/libc.so.6

Also I don't know if it's normal, but there's a ton of threads that just have this backtrace:

#0  0xf779d430 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#1  0xf73e9c0b in poll () from /usr/lib32/libc.so.6
#2  0xeafddc9d in ?? () from /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0
#3  0xeafcc5fe in pa_mainloop_poll () from /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0
#4  0xeafcce2d in pa_mainloop_iterate () from /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0
#5  0xeafccf04 in pa_mainloop_run () from /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0
#6  0xeafddc3c in ?? () from /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0
#7  0xe9b802fd in ?? () from /usr/lib32/pulseaudio/libpulsecommon-4.0.so
#8  0xf74bccf0 in start_thread () from /usr/lib32/libpthread.so.0
#9  0xf73f47ae in clone () from /usr/lib32/libc.so.6

Something triggered GDB so I assume it was a crash. If it's not, then it's odd that it closes afterwards?
The game itself is fine after mmap fails, however you can't play due to Steam auth tickets not working.

I'll go reproduce the crash again and check.

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[Switching to Thread 0xe6b2eb40 (LWP 23532)]
0xf7452200 in __memcpy_ssse3_rep () from /usr/lib32/libc.so.6

Yes, it's a segfault.

If you guys have debug symbols, .

Just to make sure, is there a beta with updated PA libs out yet? I'm seeing a tonne of crashes in GoI, so I'll be very interested in having it fixed. Alternatively, the bug referenced says it should be fixed in PA 3.0, which my distro (Mint 15) does have. Will just removing the steam runtime packaged libs be enough to make it pick up the system libpulse?

I mentioned earlier- I posted a core dump up, is that of any use? Or must the crash be sent to steam?

Ah, okay. I just ran the same test without the Steam runtime enabled, and I managed to hit the same error, as a point of interest.

Edit: It seems it is generating Breakpad dumps (but failing to upload them). There's eight in total, seven of them being asserts.

Gotcha. I've already tried removing the runtime libs, and I can indeed confirm that it's picking up the 3.0 system libs, which would normally mean I'd be testing with reckless abandon, but my internet has been too crappy to allow any kind of networked play. I have not hit Jookia's crash yet. If I do, I might try getting my hands on a copy of UndoDB, which is the nifty GDB variant that allows going back in time. The bad news is that it's not free; the good news is that they have free of charge hobbyist trials for non-commercial uses. So anyone who isn't a Valve employee can try getting an evaluation copy at http://www.undo-software.com/.

My crash takes a while to get to, even with my micspamming on empty servers.

Alright, so here are the preliminary results:

• Using ALSA (on a PA system, so still PA internally) devices I've not registered a crash in my limited playing I could do due to the internet woes; however I'm not sure I can actually get any voice to transmit during GoI matches. I know it works in the lobby, but during the matches I get the impression nobody can hear me. Will test further.
• Using PA default device, I get a segfault now. CrashID=bp-52f80875-6011-4c21-a6f1-afdf82130814. Didn't try under GDB so far.

I've been testing the glitch on Garry's Mod, but I can confirm it happens in TF2 as well. I'd say it takes 10 or so minutes for me however.

Running garrysmod, the problem seems to be related to when I start speaking
at the same time as somebody else, but I have not been able to proove or
reproduce this.
On Aug 14, 2013 11:29 PM, "Drew Bliss" [email protected] wrote:

The reported crash looks very similar, a segfault in memcpy, so you don't
need to get a gdb stack. All you did was run TF2 and talk, correct? How
long did it take, roughly the same 30 minutes?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-22668396
.

@gdrewb-valve nope, running Guns of Icarus. Other than that, nothing special, just talk. It took probably around 20 minutes.

Brilliant news, thanks for your investigations into it :)

I ran Guns of Icarus as captain (lots of voice chat) for an hour or two
after the update and didn't have any problems. Well done!

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 10:21 PM, Drew Bliss [email protected]:

The Steam beta client released tonight has the leak fix, so people can
check and see if memory usage still grows. This may also prevent some
crashes as things shouldn't run out of memory any more.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-22685762
.

Sorry, I've not been following this thread lately. Does this mean that it is fixed? Or do we need to do something to prevent crashes?

Thanks,
Louis

I've been playing Garry's Mod for the past hour or so with no crashes- It seems the leak was the source of a crash.

FWIW, about an hour of play in GoI registered no crashes either. To be perfectly clear, that was with pulse libs removed from the runtime (ie. using system-wide pulse 3.0 libs). I will test with runtime-provided 1.1 and report that.

I played team fortress 2 for about 2 hours and no crashes happened with
pulseaudio integrated.

2013/8/15 Maciej Katafiasz [email protected]

FWIW, about an hour of play in GoI registered no crashes either. To be
perfectly clear, that was with pulse libs removed from the runtime (ie.
using system-wide pulse 3.0 libs). I will test with runtime-provided 1.1
and report that.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1853#issuecomment-22708305
.

If that's the case are you finally going to enable voice chat in L4D2? ( Unless I'm mistaken and it hasn't purposefully been kept disabled to cut down on reports on this issue.)
I haven't tested this myself enough myself yet because I have no reason to touch CS:S after the latest CS:GO update hintsayhellofromthelinuxcommunitytothecsgocabalhint but as it seems it is time to say: Finally, my most often encountered and most hated bug got squished! Well done!

Never mind then, that issue exists and is assigned to Alfred who, so far, hasn't commented on it. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2390