Can't manage to launch protontricks anymore. Error: 'Protontricks might not have access to the directory.' Edit: relevant error is 'invalid file magic number.'

[Ratconned]

This is what I am assuming is the problem. It was the main error displayed in terminal. Also some stuff about wrong magic number.

I've re-installed protontricks but have the same problem. I'm using the software centre version on debian bookwork stable (which is listed as .deb) and had been able to use it months ago, though I have performed some system updates after that within bookwork itself. The games it cannot access is on a secondary drive. How do I add permission? It is not the flatpak of protontricks, and even steam is not a flatpak The github states it is a package maintained by separate entity and that it is updated (debian unstable only has the newer version), and that older versions could possibly not work properly. But I'm trying to get it to work still, by trying to see what went wrong. There are a few possible causes. Something may have changed with an update to my system, is one of the possible things. Right now I'm just trying to give protontricks access to my steamgames folder, but do not really know how to do it.

protontricks (WARNING): Steam library folder /media/rtc/sdb/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/protontricks", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
             ^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 32, in cli
    main(args)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/util.py", line 149, in wrapper
    return cli_func(self, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 273, in main
    proton_app = find_proton_app(
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 796, in find_proton_app
    tool_app = find_steam_compat_tool_app(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in find_steam_compat_tool_app
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in <listcomp>
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 514, in iter_appinfo_sections
    raise SyntaxError("Invalid file magic number")
SyntaxError: Invalid file magic number

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por Zyro:

Originalmente postado por Ratconned:

The way I'd installed it was using

sudo dpkg -i "/home/ratconned/protontricks_1.12.0-1_all.deb"

Using

sudo apt-get remove protontricks_1.12.0-1_all.deb

and

sudo dpkg --remove protontricks_1.12.0-1_all.deb

both gave errors regarding package not found (apt-get remove) or not to use the file name but the paclage name (for dpkg).

Would it be fine to just use apt-get remove protontricks?

Yes, that's the right way. For installing with dpkg, you give the concrete package file name, including version number. It might also work for removing if it finds the package file? But removing via apt or apt-get is fine, then giving the package/application name.

Thank you. I still do not know how things work, a little by little goodnight I get to understand everything right from the basic level some day. Then operating things will get much easier. I'll use this command a little later when I'm able to boot up the computer.

[Ratconned]

Thanks for all the help again, grzegorz77 and Zyro.

[grzegorz77]

Sure, if it works there is no point in wasting time.

You wrote that it stopped working because of the changes, I remember.
But why did it stop working, what broke. This is what I wanted to fix. I wanted to make the non-working version work.

You wrote that it doesn't work on debian (I assumed it works on other distributions).
So why it doesn't work on Debian, it seems logical, Debian is a little more restrictive, it's not typical desktop system for gaming, like all clones derived from it (Ubuntu and all its derivatives, e.g. Mint).
So paths, permissions, access to parts of the system as a regular user, these are the differences.

And I wanted to look at it a little bit, which seemed simple. But I understand that it was overwhelming for you.

Change the disk mount to a little cleaner, maybe parameters.
And see what path protontrick now refers to.
If the path did not change, it would still be the path to the sda disk called the sdb label. Then for example, you could create a symbolic link (something like a shortcut from windows). But if the path changes, the problem lies elsewhere.
I wanted to try this simple solution yesterday.

But I understand that all this is scary and strange, I also once started my adventure with linux when I was an advanced windows user.
I quickly learned, just like you, to check every command and its parameters.
It's surprising, but linux just follows orders. Which is amazing, but also follows orders that will destroy it. Which for a user who came from windows is surprising and disastrous.
Dangerous things are beautiful, linux can be dangerous and beautiful, like a trained tiger.
That's why I love Debian, I say jump into the fire and it jumps.

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

Sure, if it works there is no point in wasting time.

You wrote that it stopped working because of the changes, I remember.
But why did it stop working, what broke. This is what I wanted to fix. I wanted to make the non-working version work.

You wrote that it doesn't work on debian (I assumed it works on other distributions).
So why it doesn't work on Debian, it seems logical, Debian is a little more restrictive, it's not typical desktop system for gaming, like all clones derived from it (Ubuntu and all its derivatives, e.g. Mint).
So paths, permissions, access to parts of the system as a regular user, these are the differences.

And I wanted to look at it a little bit, which seemed simple. But I understand that it was overwhelming for you.

Change the disk mount to a little cleaner, maybe parameters.
And see what path protontrick now refers to.
If the path did not change, it would still be the path to the sda disk called the sdb label. Then for example, you could create a symbolic link (something like a shortcut from windows). But if the path changes, the problem lies elsewhere.
I wanted to try this simple solution yesterday.

But I understand that all this is scary and strange, I also once started my adventure with linux when I was an advanced windows user.
I quickly learned, just like you, to check every command and its parameters.
It's surprising, but linux just follows orders. Which is amazing, but also follows orders that will destroy it. Which for a user who came from windows is surprising and disastrous.
Dangerous things are beautiful, linux can be dangerous and beautiful, like a trained tiger.
That's why I love Debian, I say jump into the fire and it jumps. :p2chell:

Ah yes. The problem is, on the github, most complaints of breakage are from debian and forks like mint. That is because, to go in order...

Steam releases an update which changes something protontricks needs.

Protontricks breaks on all distributions.

Protontricks coder Matoking states

There have been several changes to the ~/.steam/steam/appcache/appinfo.vdf file in the Steam beta:

• The file header is 8 bytes longer.
  
• The binary VDF segment for each app entry in appinfo.vdf is different and the vdf Python library that Protontricks uses doesn't seem to be able to parse it. Each segment is preceded by a SHA1 checksum; calculating the checksum for the VDF segment ourselves results in the same checksum. So it's not that we're trying to parse the wrong data, the data itself seems to now use a different format that the library can't parse (yet).
  
• The contents of the binary segments also seem to have changed radically, with things like redundant appinfo.appid fields having been removed. This is a bit hard to determine since I can't parse the file to a more human readable format yet. But for comparison's sake, the appinfo.vdf from 2023 is 15.6 MiB in size, while the current appinfo.vdf in Steam beta is 12.9 MiB.

Protontricks needs to read this file since it contains app compatibility mappings (or at least used to, I'll have to double check), such as what Proton versions to use by default. Cyberpunk 2077 was previously set to use Proton Experimental by default due to DualSense support. These app compatibility mappings aren't very commonplace, though, so if push comes to shove we can skip parsing the newer appinfo.vdf file. I'll try working on a proper solution first, though.

A fix is released in new version.

New version is not added to debian stable and a few forks' repositories.

The github is full of complaints from debian and fork users for whom proton tricks does not work. I assumed it was possible that an update to debian could've been one of the potential causes which could have caused the problem (it was not, steam changing some things was the problem).

The way to fix this would be for steam to correct the changes it made (which would, in turn, probably break the new version of protontricks), or for debian stable, testing and affected forks to add the new version to the repository, which is going to happen eventually.

I hope this clarifies the problem. I'll make an edit to my old comment which caused the confusion.

[grzegorz77]

We did not understand each other.

The app is broken because it tries to hit the target. But the target is now elsewhere.
You and the app developer want to make the app hit the target in a new place.
I say, let's move debian a bit so that it stands where the application shoots.

Maybe now you will see my point.

edit:
But that's a thing of the past, it doesn't matter anymore.

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

...

Further, the error which was relevant here was 'invalid file magic number'. That goes down inteirely to my inexperience, not focussing on that.

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

We did not understand each other.

The app is broken because it tries to hit the target. But the target is now elsewhere.
You and the app developer want to make the app hit the target in a new place.
I say, let's move debian a bit so that it stands where the application shoots.

Maybe now you will see my point.

Until steam changes the target again. Then you have a changed target location which is separate from both steam and the developer, making it even more of a problem to troubleshoot. This is just a guess though, correct or incorrect?

[grzegorz77]

Wrong.
Because then what you do is... nothing. The symbolic link remains, it just doesn't use it anymore. The original path remains, because we did not change it.

edit:
Install mc (#4) and try symlinks in a simple way.
It is easy to fall in love with them.
Of course, you can create symlinks from the terminal:
man ln

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

Wrong. :p2chell:
Because then what you do is... nothing. The symbolic link remains, it just doesn't use it anymore. The original path remains, because we did not change it.

I get the significance of this. I don't understand it fully because I do not understand symbolic links, so I wouldn't be able to change things around myself, but more or less the concept I understand.

That also alleviates any concerns I had about if I had to undo anything.

However, we're left in the situation where I followed the steps mentioned and it still gave the invalid file magic error, I believe. I'll need to verify that. I'll install the repository old version of protontricks again and check.

Edit: confirmed, invalid file magic number error comes up.

Inconsequential to me since, as stated, I've needed protontricks twice in 1.5 years and unlikely to need it again for perhaps a year or more, going by what I have installed. The repository will probably get the new version by then.

[grzegorz77]

And what path is in the error message. Of course, if you want. You can add a symbolic link and see what happens.
But if you use it 2 times a year, it will probably work in six months

edit
Maybe it's a waste of time.

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

And what path is in the error message. Of course, if you want. You can add a symbolic link and see what happens.

For Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition

Protontricks was closed due to the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/util.py", line 149, in wrapper
    return cli_func(self, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 273, in main
    proton_app = find_proton_app(
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 796, in find_proton_app
    tool_app = find_steam_compat_tool_app(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in find_steam_compat_tool_app
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in <listcomp>
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 514, in iter_appinfo_sections
    raise SyntaxError("Invalid file magic number")
SyntaxError: Invalid file magic number

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

But if you use it 2 times a year, it will probably work in six months

Once in some years, more like :P I'm good here.

[grzegorz77]

Originalmente postado por Ratconned:

....

protontricks (WARNING): Steam library folder /media/rtc/sdb/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.

....

So this warning is no longer there.
But it doesn't change anything.

The rest does not seem like a possibility of such a trivial solution, if the lack of this warning does not change anything.
So if it is not needed today, it is a waste of time to look for a solution.

[Ratconned]

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

So if it is not needed today, it is a waste of time to look for a solution.

Agreed. The game works, and protontricks is no longer needed.

For the record

Originalmente postado por grzegorz77:

Originalmente postado por Ratconned:

....

protontricks (WARNING): Steam library folder /media/rtc/sdb/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.

....

So this warning is no longer there.
But it doesn't change anything.

The rest does not seem like a possibility of such a trivial solution, if the lack of this warning does not change anything.

No, the earlier entry was from terminal. This is from GUI.I'll put both complete sets here, the comment you replied to only had a section of the output.

GUI

Protontricks was closed due to the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/util.py", line 149, in wrapper
    return cli_func(self, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 273, in main
    proton_app = find_proton_app(
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 796, in find_proton_app
    tool_app = find_steam_compat_tool_app(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in find_steam_compat_tool_app
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in <listcomp>
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 514, in iter_appinfo_sections
    raise SyntaxError("Invalid file magic number")
SyntaxError: Invalid file magic number


=============

Please include this entire error message when making a bug report.
Log messages:

Found Steam directory at /home/wendell/.steam/debian-installation
Using default Steam Runtime at /home/wendell/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime
WINETRICKS environment variable is not available. Searching from $PATH.
Found 4 Steam library folders
Multiple compatdata directories found for app 200710
Steam library folder /media/wendell/sdb/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.
Steam library folder /mnt/311d743f-5338-4dcb-bf56-0650dd792a8f/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.
Currently logged-in Steam user: wendellds819
Shortcut Battle Isle (3839646104) does not have a prefix. It's either not a Proton app or it hasn't been launched yet.
Shortcut Might and Magic Book One: Secret of the Inner Sanctum (2831997669) does not have a prefix. It's either not a Proton app or it hasn't been launched yet.
Shortcut Disciples: Sacred Lands Gold (3950947215) does not have a prefix. It's either not a Proton app or it hasn't been launched yet.
Shortcut Daggerfall Unity (3734015701) does not have a prefix. It's either not a Proton app or it hasn't been launched yet.
Found 0 Steam shortcuts running using Steam compatibility tools
Using 'zenity' as GUI provider

terminnal, for protontricks 35140 mdx d3dx9 d3dcompiler_43

protontricks (WARNING): Steam library folder /mnt/311d743f-5338-4dcb-bf56-0650dd792a8f/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.
protontricks (WARNING): Steam library folder /media/wendell/sdb/SteamLibrary not found. Protontricks might not have access to the directory.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/protontricks", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
             ^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 32, in cli
    main(args)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/util.py", line 149, in wrapper
    return cli_func(self, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 328, in main
    proton_app = find_proton_app(
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 796, in find_proton_app
    tool_app = find_steam_compat_tool_app(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in find_steam_compat_tool_app
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 584, in <listcomp>
    appinfo_sections = [
                       ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 514, in iter_appinfo_sections
    raise SyntaxError("Invalid file magic number")
SyntaxError: Invalid file magic number

[grzegorz77]

lsblk -o name,model,size,mountpoint,fstype,label
what does it write now ??