Linux installer crashes

[eribotes]

I've downloaded the PlaneShift-v0.6.3-x64.run installer from one of the mirrors listed on http://www.planeshift.it and made it executable.  Running it from a terminal displays the GTK language selection dialogue ok but then displays a GTK message saying that it has crashed and returns back to the shell when I try to progress.

There is no supplemental output to the term and there's no sign of problems in the bitrock_installer.log file,  the last thing it includes is 'Mode gtk successfully initialized'.  Apart from the xml tags themselves, the only sections of the bitrock_debug.xml file that contain human-readable content are the <installerVersion> and <platformInfo> entries.

Any ideas?

[Rigwyn]

First guess would be to check the graphics drivers and video hardware. I've had success running the game on modern Nvidia cards and on Intel's internal hd graphics 2500 chipset using the latest mesa driver.What make/model video card are you using, and is the driver proprietary?  Also, how much video ram does the video card have?

[eribotes]

Thanks for responding.  The GFX card is an nVidia GT640 with 2GB running the proprietary nVidia drivers, but as it's the installer that's crashing I seriously doubt that the problem is linked to a display/video problem - all the installer has to do is display the GTK dialogues, which it is able to do, re the successful display of language selection dialogue and subsequent crash box dialogue pointing to the installer log and debug files.

In any case, I'm able to run other OpenGL stuff without problems.

It's a pity that the debug log isn't human readable (looks like any info in it has been encrypted) but as it is, I've nothing further to go on.

[Echoes91]

I'd suggest to check the md5 checksum, a corrupted installer is the only thing i can think of.

[eribotes]

Thanks for responding.

Yes, I was wondering about a corrupted download but the md5 checksum is ok.

I'm beginning to wonder if the current installer, 0.6.3 'Azure Spirit', released in 2014, is now too old for current releases (I'm running up-to-date Debian 8 'Jessie') and recently hit a lib entry point prob with GoogleEarth following an update that replaced some lib packages and which subsequently required a new GE bin download & re-install.  Hmm... I'll try installing on one of my other systems (although it'll be in the same s/w state as my main sys - don't think I've got anything left running Wheezy).

[eribotes]

That was revealing - I tried the same installer download on another system and it seemed to work - it displayed a splash image before the language selection and then didn't crash when I confirmed the language.

The difference between the two systems were that there were a lot of extra (orphaned) libs on it, about 40 or so, that I'm not using and once I removed those I got the same sort of failure.

So it looks like there's a lib that's needed for PlaneShift, that isn't required by anything else on my system, and the problem now is identifying it (no, I didn't make a list before purging the orphans, because there were too many of them and they were orphans - oh well).

However, the fact that I got the splash image before I purged the orphan libs, but not after, suggests it might be a gui related lib.  I do a lot of graphics stuff so I doubt it's a generic graphics lib, because my graphics stuff wouldn't work, so perhaps a desktop environment related lib, such as something from Gnome?

Any ideas as to which lib I'm missing?

[Jebow]

have you tried:

ldd psclient.bin

Here is what mine looks like:

ldd psclient.bin
   linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd3e9fc000)
   libCgGL.so => libs/libCgGL.so (0x00007ff262dce000)
   libCg.so => libs/libCg.so (0x00007ff261858000)
   libXxf86vm.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXxf86vm.so.1 (0x00007ff261652000)
   libXcursor.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXcursor.so.1 (0x00007ff261447000)
   libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0x00007ff26123d000)
   libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 (0x00007ff260fc9000)
   libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00007ff260c87000)
   libasound.so.2 => /usr/lib/libasound.so.2 (0x00007ff26097f000)
   librt.so.1 => /usr/lib/librt.so.1 (0x00007ff260777000)
   libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007ff26055a000)
   libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007ff260356000)
   libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007ff260052000)
   libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007ff25fcb1000)
   /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007ff262d30000)
   libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x00007ff25fa9f000)
   libXfixes.so.3 => /usr/lib/libXfixes.so.3 (0x00007ff25f899000)
   libexpat.so.1 => /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1 (0x00007ff25f66f000)
   libxcb-dri3.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxcb-dri3.so.0 (0x00007ff25f46c000)
   libxcb-present.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxcb-present.so.0 (0x00007ff25f269000)
   libxcb-sync.so.1 => /usr/lib/libxcb-sync.so.1 (0x00007ff25f062000)
   libxshmfence.so.1 => /usr/lib/libxshmfence.so.1 (0x00007ff25ee5f000)
   libglapi.so.0 => /usr/lib/libglapi.so.0 (0x00007ff25ec30000)
   libXdamage.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXdamage.so.1 (0x00007ff25ea2d000)
   libX11-xcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/libX11-xcb.so.1 (0x00007ff25e82b000)
   libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007ff25e602000)
   libxcb-glx.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxcb-glx.so.0 (0x00007ff25e3e6000)
   libxcb-dri2.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxcb-dri2.so.0 (0x00007ff25e1e1000)
   libdrm.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdrm.so.2 (0x00007ff25dfd2000)
   libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXau.so.6 (0x00007ff25ddce000)
   libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6 (0x00007ff25dbc8000)

Maybe that will help you. You'll have to look through the list and see if there is anything labeled as 'missing'.

Regards,
Jebow

[eribotes]

Thanks for the list of libs that the client needs.

I couldn't try that because the installer doesn't get as far as installing psclient, but at least I was able to check that list against what I've already got installed and they were all ok.

[Ravna]

The build guide: https://svn.code.sf.net/p/planeshift/code/trunk/docs/compiling.html contains a Debian section which has a few libraries listed which *should* be either found by the installer or installed by it.
However, the debian guide is likely a little outdated (a year or two), I've recently updated the Ubuntu guide, and had to update one package (libglu1-xorg-dev no longer existed, and is not required either).
So you might be able to find a lib there that is missing, or something like the nvidia toolkit, or a cal3d library.
Additionally, if you can't get the installer to work, the build guide "should" work. I've only tested the Ubuntu one myself, but I think this one is fairly similar, so should probably work too.

[eribotes]

I've managed to get the installer to run, at last, but via a workaround.

I logged in as another non-root user and, in a console, su'd to the the different non-root user I use for gaming.  Then, when I invoked the installer, it ran without the GTK interface, presumably because it didn't have the permissions it needed to use the current xorg session, and completed ok.

Logging back in as my gaming user I was able to run the updater, configure the settings and create a character.  However, when I enter the game, it briefly displays my character, in what I assume is the starting location, for about 2-3 seconds, but then crashes.

I haven't found any obvious cause yet, but that's for another thread, in another section.

[eribotes]

Just an update to say that enabling VBO in graphics settings seems to have fixed the crash after entering the game.

[Ravna]

Glad to see you have it fixed.

VBO is indeed a notorious source of crashes and other graphical misbehavior. (Typically, some systems always crash with it on, others always with it off.)

Either way, hope you enjoy the game.