protonscr

Invalid pointer crash on startup

steamclosed reviewed
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#4815 · opened 2017-01-16 by stertingen · updated 2019-12-20 · 11 comments · github
Sstertingen 2017-01-16 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version: 1.0.0.54
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch Linux (Yeah, I know, not offically supported.)
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

Running ldd on the binary:
https://gist.github.com/stertingen/a521f63b8371249594c82e42ce1df00d

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Launching Steam on Arch Linux does not work, creating following console output: https://gist.github.com/stertingen/84849aa4626ced88727b9f30f886fc9e
I tried both runtime enabled and disabled (disabled = load native system libraries), scroll down to see the log with runtime disabled.

Dump for the crash (runtime enabled)
assert_20170116101753_1.dmp.txt
Renamed to .txt for upload reasons.
These files contain more information about my hardware. (CPU etc.)

Dump for the crash (runtime disabled)
assert_20170116101430_1.dmp.txt

Steps for reproducing this issue:

That's hard because on my Laptop, also Arch Linux, it works fine.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2017-01-16 github

Hello @stertingen,
Your assert appears to be outside of steam, maybe related to Mesa:
https://gist.github.com/kisak-valve/860c5a2256778c10db07382440c310ef

You may be encountering a compatibility issue with steam's C/C++ libraries which is being tracked at #4768, and there is additional documentation at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Steam/Troubleshooting#Steam_runtime_issues.

Sstertingen 2017-02-02 github

Well, I tried different versions of Mesa, yesterday a new version of Mesa was released – still crashing. I'm running out ouf ideas.

Do you have any hints on debugging it by myself? (How did you process that memdump?)

Edit: How can you conclude that the bug's outside of steam? Can I reproduce the bug with a script or C program without launching steam? Maybe I can report a bug to Mesa/etc.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2017-02-02 github

Steam uses breakpad by default. I have minidump_stackwalk from chromium os, but you can use other debuggers with the DEBUGGER env variable like DEBUGGER=gdb steam. Note: you will encounter SIGTRAP breakpoints that you need to tell gdb to continue.

Sstertingen 2017-02-02 github

Thanks.

This issue seems unrelated to the video card; this looks very similar:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=219603 (and it looks like Nvidia GPU)

Bbortloff 2017-02-27 github

@stertingen: Looks like someone screwed around with how the STEAM_RUNTIME variable is handled between releases. I've updated the relevant Arch Linux forum post with the following fix that I found from another issue logged here.

@kisak-valve: was this change anywhere in the changelogs for the newer Steam Linux client releases? I've been fighting this for weeks, and I'm incredibly annoyed at the upstream breakage of something working perfectly fine.

Bbortloff 2017-02-27 github

Ah yes, can you add this to a workaround on #4768, @kisak-valve?

Also, could you please ask the Linux team to... put these changes into the changelogs?

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2017-02-27 github

@bortloff, the original issue report predates the change to prefer system libraries over the steam runtime. Also, the change you are referring to is in the changelog for the current steam stable client.

Bbortloff 2017-02-28 github

Interesting that, because I didn't see it when the client was originally released, or worse, I trusted there to be some better warning and drunkenly just let it update. Also probably relied a little too heavily on the maintainer for the Arch package to be on top of it. Play with [rolling-release] fire, bound to get burned!

#4768 does, I'm sure, but this issue comes up quite a bit, and the workarounds are virtually nowhere to be found. Considering how thin the manpage is that I have available to me, I'd gander that it'd be the perfect place to add things like the workarounds in that issue. Heck, I may just make such a thing myself.

Mmorphex 2017-09-24 github

I had the ssfn error as well, then I tried some workarounds and got different issues.

What fixed it for me was downgrading the NVIDIA graphics driver from 384.90 to 375.82.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2019-11-15 github

Hello, is anyone still experiencing this issue on an up to date system?

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2019-12-20 github

Closing as outdated. If anyone comes across this issue it will need a fresh evaluation.

Nothing extracted yet.