spring segfaults after starting a game in karmic

[kharnov]

Binary package hint: spring-engine

1) karmic koala beta
2) spring version 0.80.04
3) after clicking the start game button, a game should start
4) instead, spring will either segfault, or if the start game button is pressed many times, the game will start. sometimes, it will ask for a text editor to display a crash report with, and even after one is provided, it will continuously ask for it

ProblemType: Crash
Architecture: i386
CrashCounter: 1
Date: Mon Oct 19 17:56:55 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/games/spring
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: spring-engine 0.80.4.2-0ubuntu1
ProcCmdline: /usr/games/spring --config=/home/User Name/.springrc /home/User Name/.spring//script.txt
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SegvAnalysis:
 Segfault happened at: 0x8580b57: movl $0x0,0x14(%edx,%eax,1)
 PC (0x08580b57) ok
 source "$0x0" ok
 destination "0x14(%edx,%eax,1)" (0x0927a000) in non-writable VMA region: 0x0927a000-0x0927b000 r--p None
SegvReason: writing VMA None
Signal: 11
SourcePackage: spring-engine
StacktraceTop:
 ?? ()
 ?? ()
 _init ()
 __libc_csu_init ()
 __libc_start_main () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
Title: spring crashed with SIGSEGV in _init()
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin arb cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2793): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2843): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2816): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (nautilus:7842): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (nautilus:7879): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

[Apport retracing service (apport)]

StacktraceTop:global constructors keyed to skirmishAiCallback_Engine_handleCommand () at /build/buildd/spring-engine-0.80.4.2/rts/System/float3.h:50
__do_global_ctors_aux ()
_init ()
__libc_csu_init ()
__libc_start_main (main=0x850e050 <main>, argc=3,

[Scott Ritchie (scottritchie)]

I've uploaded the new Spring version, however it's waiting on approval to enter the archive due to the freeze: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/spring-engine/+bug/457059

Your issue may go away after that - please reconfirm then if you can. Thanks!

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

I'm also seeing these symptoms on the final version of Karmic with spring-engine 0.80.5-0ubuntu2. I also have the same problems with the Karmic binaries from the PPA.

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Upgraded to the most recent Spring engine release. Errors persist.

I think it has to due with the Spring Lobby being extremely out of date. The current version in the repositories is 23, and I think the most recent version is supposed to be 29 or higher. Spring will start normally from command line but only shows the problems when launched from the lobby.

[Scott Ritchie (scottritchie)]

There's an update to springlobby in the PPA as well, did that fix it for you?

https://edge.launchpad.net/~spring/+archive/ppa

If so we may have to SRU both for Karmic (though we should SRU the newer spring anyway)

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

Crashes persist with newest SpringLobby from PPA.

Some other observations:
- If I use the version from the stock repos (0.23) I can play single player games with bots. But it crashes if I try to start a multiplayer game with humans

- With the PPA lobby client, I can't start any game at all, be it single or multiplayer.

- Spring seems to work in test mode

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Updated to the most recent versions of both from the PPA. I can confirm that the same problems James just mentioned are still occurring.

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

Problems also happen with spring 0.80.5.1 and SpringLobby 0.34 compiled from source

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

Ok, I just did some tests and found out something very weird:

On a hunch that it might be a problem specific to our systems, I tried installing a fresh copy of Karmic in VirtualBox. I then installed Spring from the stock repos. It actually ran! Well, it ran poorly, as you might expect, but it worked, and didn't crash. I tried with both single player and multiplayer; both worked in the VM.

So, what could the problem be?

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Well, the first time I started getting these problems, I was running the Karmic beta upgraded from Jaunty. Thinking that maybe it was just because of the beta release, I waited until it was officially released, and then I did a fresh install. Still have the same problems.

James, do you use an Nvidia card?

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

Yeah, I have a GTX 280 with proprietary drivers 185, the ones that come with Karmic...

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Yeah, I use the proprietary drivers with my card too. I have a hunch that this might have something to do with us using Nvidia cards. Doesn't VirtualBox simulate its own graphics card?

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

Yes, VirtualBox uses its own simulated card (AFAICT anway.)

So I disabled the proprietary driver and switched my system to the nv driver. Similar story here: it actually ran, albeit poorly. So it seems to me that this is shaping up to be a driver bug

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

I think I may have found something that solves this for me: upgrading my drivers to the 190 series...

With these drivers I can start games again on my machine. :)

Here are the steps I went through to get this to work:

1. Install this PPA to get access to the latest stable 190 driver: https://launchpad.net/~nvidia-vdpau/+archive/ppa
2. Install nvidia-glx-190 and nvidia-190-modaliases from Synaptic.
3. Install envyng-core if you don't already have it (this is because the new drivers don't show up in Hardware Drivers)
4. Run envy in a terminal with the command envyng -t
5. Select the install NVIDIA driver option, and 190.42 should be at the top of the list

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Interesting. I wonder if this is affecting other games? Nexuiz wasn't running for a while after I upgraded to the most recent Nivida drivers, nor will Tremulous, but I just thought it was Karmic being silly. Maybe the most recent stable driver isn't a stable driver after all.

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Err, by the most recent stable driver, I mean the one that ships with Karmic. I'll test out the 190 driver in a bit.

[kharnov (kharnov)]

Confirmed. Spring, Tremulous and other 3D games work just fine now with the 190 driver. Thanks, James!

I suppose we should now figure out if anyone else is having these problems. Maybe the Ubuntu people might want to get Nvidia users to upgrade to 190.

[James Liggett (jrliggett)]

Funny you mention Nexuiz. I was having problems with it too. Multiplayer would work, but not single player. It works again with 190, just like spring...

[Tobi Vollebregt (tobivollebregt)]

Fixed in this commit: http://github.com/spring/spring/commit/fd4ecd3d47212af23fbde8a7607ddc96f09f70e0

Update of package to HEAD of 0.80.5-branch would fix it.