Serious Sam 3: BFE - segfault on startup (Ubuntu 12.04, Catalyst 12.10)

steamclosed 3rd party game

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#537 · opened 2013-01-04 by wackston · updated 2013-01-06 · 7 comments · github

Wwackston 2013-01-04 github

Serious Sam simply segfaults when launched.

CAsyncIOManager: creating I/O worker thread
CAsyncIOManager: creating I/O worker thread
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1355957371_client)
Generating new string page texture 127: 256x256, total string texture memory is 5.40 MB
CAsyncIOManager(0xd0946b40) send on fd 6 failed with errno 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable)
Game update: AppID 41070 "Serious Sam 3: BFE", ProcID 6748, IP 0.0.0.0:0
saving roaming config store to 'sharedconfig.vdf'
roaming config store 2 saved successfully
WRN: CPU Power saving is enabled and performance governor is not used.
INF: GameEnv API: Steam
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 41070
Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID: Caching Steam ID: 76561198080370422 [API loaded no]
INF: Encoded user ID = 83da2565:7472315b
INF:
INF: * Desktop settings...
INF: Color depth: 32-bit
INF: Desktop resolution: 1920 x 1200
INF: Fullscreen on primary display
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Game removed: AppID 41070 "Serious Sam 3: BFE", ProcID 6749

System Information says:

Processor Information:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Speed: 4000 Mhz
8 logical processors
8 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Unsupported

Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.2.0-35-generic
X Server vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server release: 11103000

Video Card:
Driver: ATI Technologies Inc. AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series

Driver Version:  4.2.11931 Compatibility Profile Context
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID:  0x1002
DeviceID:  0x6719
Number of Monitors:  3
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1200
Desktop Resolution: 5760 x 1200
Primary Display Size: 20.39" x 12.76"  (24.02" diag)
                                        51.8cm x 32.4cm  (61.0cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card:
Audio device: VIA VT2020

Memory:
RAM: 15967 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_GB.utf8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 100793 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 40214 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:
Fri Jan 4 21:31:20 2013 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20130104223109_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-3905934c-7f71-48ee-a00d-4202d2130104''

Jjohndrinkwater 2013-01-04 github

Are you up to date with gfx drivers? https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux lists recommended versions.
Have you had any problems with loading other games? It would be handy if you could supply your Serious\ Sam\ 3/Log/Sam3.log file too.

Ooden63 2013-01-05 github

I had the same problem. Updating the driver from 12.10 to 12.11beta fixed it for me.

Wwackston 2013-01-05 github

Ah mea culpa. Missed the bit about 'latest driver' meaning latest beta for AMD.
It now runs. But its near enough a slide-show. Will close this Issue and investigate the performance Issue.

Jjohndrinkwater 2013-01-05 github

A good start would be to look at adjusting cpu powersaving either in Linux or in the bios - I noticed from your Sam3 output that you have the ondemand governor, this will negatively affect game performance.

WRN: CPU Power saving is enabled and performance governor is not used.

Wwackston 2013-01-05 github

I would be very surprised if that is the issue. The 'up' threshold is to only 80% (i.e. clock is bumped up if a core idles less than 20%) . The game thread seemed to be buzzing along way above that. Machine works fine as-is running other reasonably demanding openGL games (Trine, Trine-2, Psychonauts etc). I'll double check though.

Wwackston 2013-01-05 github

Running the performance governor nakes no difference. However, a cross-check revealed that Trine-2 actually suffers from similar (though less marked) performance problems. For safety's sake I also tried launching the game for an XFCE desktop (no compositiing) and with eyefinity disabled. Still no joy.

For reference Team Fortress training levels seem to play tolerably well. Like SS3 load times are very looong...

Looks alarmingly like AMD's Linux drivers are showing their 'quality' once again. NVIDIA all the way next time...

MMrSchism 2013-01-06 github

@wackston : Ironically, AMD/ATI are historically more supportive than Nvidia (so much so that Torvalds himself had some choice words for Nvidia), yet both seem to be working with equal reliability (with varying results favoring one or the other).

Nothing extracted yet.