Civ iV on Linux won't start anymore

[inste]

I've been occasionally playing this Game on two different Linux machines, one running Ubuntu 20.04 and the other 22.04. Since some update released in the last ~1 month I'm unable to start the game: the "Play" Button in the Steam UI pretends to start the game for a few seconds while nothing happens and then the game is stopped again. There is no launcher or anything to be seen.

I started steam on the commandline to get some more infos. The only error message I see is:

ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/<myname>/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.

Searching for this error brings me to games where recording or steam overlay doesn't work, but the game itself works. So I assume this is not the main issue here.

Any hints or places where I can debug?

FYI: I can start other games, only this one fails

[Copernicus]

Hmm. My first question would be whether you are using Proton to run the game. The "native" port stopped receiving support years ago, so might be missing necessary updates.

The missing 32-bit library message is a Steam error, not a Civ one. It can be caused by either the appropriate libraries not being installed, or the path to reach them changing, or a permissions problem. That usually causes issues across all games, though...

[inste]

I'm trying to run the "native" version, not Proton. It has worked for >1 Year for me but stopped working a few weeks ago. As I have the same situation on two different machines I assume it's some update.

Is there any place where I can find more debugging messages from the game itself?

btw.: I tried running it with Proton. The game started (which is a step better then the "native" version), but halted with an DirectX error message.

[SLG]

Are you in the correct game hub: This one is for 6, not 4?

4: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3900/discussions/

The 2K launcher was removed. Did you have any work around for the launcher? If yes, remove it.

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by inste:

btw.: I tried running it with Proton. The game started (which is a step better then the "native" version), but halted with an DirectX error message.

Ah, that is probably good debugging info for both versions. Can I ask what GPU you are using on these machines? Odds are some update has caused the game to try to use a mode that the OS does not support. (Ubuntu is a very conservative distribution, and as such doesn't publish the most recent GPU drivers until they have been tested. They can be months or even years behind due to this.)

There are ways around this. You can manually update the GPU drivers yourself. Also, you can try running the game under DX11, or use an older version of Proton, both of which should avoid more recent DirectX features.