2mo ago

What is your first check for games that won't launch?

Just wondering the best method here. Searching doesn't always get me the answer for every game, and I keep having this issue where I launch a game and it will load then stop without ever displaying anything (liminal core and assetto corsa are 2 examples). Running mint, all AMD. protonge, wine tricks, all of that needed stuff is installed. I run steam from terminal to try and see if I can figure out where it's crashing, but I'm not totally sure. Is there a better error dump I can access ? I've tried multiple proton versions, do I need to launch it with all 50 versions to find a working one?

29 comments

ProtonDB. If there's nothing there, then I resort to running Steam in the terminal to see logs.
- I start a script instead of the Steam binary directly.
  
  #!/bin/bash exec steam "$@" >~/.steamlog -console -nobigpicture -nochatui -nofriendsui -silent 2>&1 &
  That way, I've always got a log of terminal output in a file in my home directory, and don't need to go restarting Steam, just glancing at the file. Gets overwritten the next time I start Steam.
  
  Does this have different output to the journald logs? journalctl -fex -u steam usually has what I need.
  
  I'm going to have to try this out, thanks!
- Check the Github issue tracker too, especially for games that have just released. The pyroveil fix for AC: Shadows was on the issue for that game a day or two before ProtonDB.
Run from terminal and see what went wrong.
If you’re using a launcher with built in logger, refer to that (I’ve seen one on lutris, not Bottles, unsure about heroic).
- This. It also made me genuinely hate how Steam on Linux handles library sharing on a multi user system.
  
  Is it just Linux? I keep finding games that clearly make no attempt to separate game assets from user save data.
  I've tried multiple user accounts pointing to the same library path and the file permissions keep getting screwed up. I tried one user account with steam's multi user login and the save files tend to jump between users.
  I don't think it's acceptable to duplicate a 100GB game so that two users can have different save points.
  
  It's been a while since I've been in that situation, but I used to just make a common folder /steam and create a group with access to it. I'd then grant all users access to that group. Seemed to work fine?
You have already done most of what I would do, but here is my list:
Try another Proton version (in my experience Proton 6 seems stable and sufficiently different)
Check ProtonDB if this problem is known
Read the logs in the command line output
Try both steam-native and steam-runtime (maybe this is only an Arch thing?)
First back up, then delete the entire protonprefix (~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<GAME-ID>). THIS WILL ALSO REMOVE ALL SAVEFILES OF THE GAME!
Use an Xorg desktop environment instead of Wayland
Protondb
Different proton version
Restart steam in terminal and look at what it logs (permission problems are quite frequent multi-user system)
Die
- If number 3 fixed it, do I still need to move on to number 4?
  
  I don't see how #3 would fix it, it should run the game exactly the same way.
  
  You don't have to do it now, but at some point you won't be allowed to delay it anymore.
ProtonDB.
- a possible pro-tip/what i do: organizing your library with categories matching protondb status.
  I've categorized every game i own by either borked, bronze, gold, native, platinum, or uncategorized for games not reviewed yet. Any new game I even think about getting i check protondb first. (Though now I try not to buy from steam and just go to DRM-free stores like GOG and Epic through Heroic.)
  This way you have a general idea of which games might give you trouble when you go to try to play them, and how much tinkering you might have to get into.
  You can also then target just uncategorized games if you wanna contribute to protondb with your own experiences and observations.
I go on protondb and see if people regularly have problems. If not I check to see if someone has the same GPU. Then I try whatever trick they have there. Then I try switching to an X11 session instead of wayland.
If there's a launcher like rockstar I search for that specifically.
PROTON_LOG=1 in the launch options
First I typically see if other Proton versions work, like ProtonGE or Experimental. That tends to fix quite a number of issues.
If still not, to ProtonDB I go. Often if I can't find a solution there it's hopeless.
I usually don't have to do this at all, but this is my system for the rare hiccups, in order.
ProtonDB
Are they using an incompatible anticheat?
Different proton (usually one a few versions behind esp if it's an old game, maybe GE, more than that isn't useful)
Verify installed files through steam
Make sure my mod load order isn't crap (if applicable)
.
Check if the game launcher actually points to the correctly named file + rename / change the exe if not (usually this gives an error box saying the file is not present)
Uninstall + reinstall (esp if previously worked)
Broad internet search for game + linux distro
Launch options I've used for other games (PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 often is my first tried)
.
Protontricks, tell it to use a different version of windows
Uninstall DLC, launch vanilla once, reinstall DLC (yes this has worked more than once for various weird issues, no i don't know why)
Backup personal data files, + delete all installed files / workshop files + verify installed files again
Wait for someone smarter than me to figure it out / a system update that addresses it / new proton and check in a few months
If it doesn't work with normal proton or bleeding edge proton experimental, then I refund.
More often then not it's because of an update and I reboot.
I know, I know, don't ask, it works.
Otherwise I just spam different Proton version until something magically works.
- Looks like I'm doing something right then!
- This! Always.
If it's something not on ProtonDB I will try installing common dependencies like the Visual C++ Runtime and .Net.
Proton Hotfix and Proton Experimental
Change proton and proton-ge versions. Other than that, pray that it fixes itself if a few days / weeks.
I had this issue where a game wouldn't launch at all and there weren't any useful logs. I don't know how to use wine to launch the game without steam so I didn't do that. I stead I pretty much reinstalled kernel and dependencies. I don't know what went wrong or how that fixed it but it did.
I think it had something to do with drivers.

29 comments