I:R - [Linux] Game usually fails to load from launcher when using nVidia 418 drivers

[mcphail]

Edit: It looks as if the graphics drivers in use are coincidental here, as I've had reports of crashes on various versions of nVidia, Intel and AMD graphics drivers. The consistent finding is that the game will launch if networking is disabled, but will usually crash from the launcher if it is enabled. Hopefully you can hotfix this problem.

Description of problem
[Linux] Game usually fails to load from launcher when using nVidia 418 drivers

What platform are you playing on?

Paradox Launcher

What game version are you running?
1.0.0.1

Please select any/all DLC you have enabled.

Do you have mods enabled? No

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
My setup: KDE Neon 18.04, AMD A6 6400K, nvidia GTX650, 8GB RAM.

When I first installed the game, I was using the proprietary 396-series nvidia driver. The launcher would consistently and reliably open the game. I had heard that some other nvidia-using Linux users were having difficulty in launching the game. They were on a newer driver branch.

I purged the 396 driver and installed 418 from the official Ubuntu PPA. I rebooted and used the launcher. The game window would only flicker then close when launched.

I have deleted all Paradox and Imperator files and directories, including under $HOME/.config/ and $HOME/.cache/ , reinstalled the launcher, reinstalled the game and tried again.

As before, the game would not launch from the launcher. Very occassionally the game would actually load; it was impossible to tell what had happened differently on those occasions.

Launching the binary directly from the install directory usually (but not always) works.

I have attached a zip of my Imperator directory, which has several dump files from failed launches.

Steps to reproduce the issue.
Install 418 drivers
Reboot
Install Paradox Launcher
Install game
Launch game from launcher.

Upload Attachment

 

[mcphail]

All of the exceptions in those crash dumps seem to come from network code from one of Paradox's libraries. I've noticed that if I disable my network card in Network Manager the game will launch consistently. When I reenable my network it crashes most of the time. Relevant?

 

[mcphail]

Further info: someone has confirmed on the GOG forums that disabling the network interface allows them to launch the game on an nvidia machine - https://www.gog.com/forum/imperator_rome/game_does_not_start_linux_ubuntu_18042 .

 

[eriX]

I can confirm as well that disabling/disconnecting network will launch the gog version of the game for me. As the machine I'm currently on has an older NVidia gpu, I doubt that the newest drivers are causing the issue (I have to use the 390 driver series).

Having looked into the network data exchange with wireshark, I tried to check if it may be some issue with connecting to a paradox server but so far I haven't had any luck (to be precise I added api.paradoxplaza.com, opstm.paradoxplaza.com and stun.paradox-interactive.com to /etc/hosts with localhost as destination to check if any of those did anything, but the game still crashed).

It would be interesting to check if the issue can be reproduced with Intel or AMD graphics...

 

[Kaaedus]

It would be interesting to check if the issue can be reproduced with Intel or AMD graphics...

It can be reproduced under Intel graphics at least. I tried launching using Intel graphics when I wasn't getting results using nVidia, but it still crashed during load time. As stated by mcphail above, I was able to launch the game consistently after disabling my network interface.

 

[mcphail]

This is still broken on version 1.0.3. Are Linux users ever going to get some attention here? See similar thread at https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...tart-while-wi-fi-ethernet-is-enabled.1175405/ .

 

[mcphail]

Still no sign of this working on 1.1.1, and no response from Paradox on this or similar threads. Shame on you.

 

[SnappySnapper]

I can't get the game to start on KDE via Steam too.

Strange thing is starts without a problem on Gnome and via the command line on KDE. I use Nvidia 430.
I have tried everything on KDE, checked libraries, close network, etc, etc. Tried all suggestions.