PSA to LINUX users, the game is broken right now

[Kenny]

Valve has been accidentaly delivering bugs from the new big picture beta to stable Linux for quite some time now. The other issues (such as broken overlay after taking a screenshot) could be fixed with simple workarounds such as disabling the screenshot sound, and valve usually fix those in around 3 or 4 days.

This time however they actually managed to break the linux version of l4d2. Pressing the pause menu freezes the game and makes the sound go in a loop, it looks like the game crashed but in reality it's just frozen. If you keep moving the cursor the freeze is gone and comes back as soon as you stop moving it. To indefinitely remove it for that instance without having to move the cursor, you must press shift+tab.

This exact problem also happens during map change. It looks like the loading is stuck but if you press shift+tab one time the freeze is gone.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/3/3763353492971995877/

I reported the issue here and also in bug reports.

Oh by the way, that's not the only thing that's broken. The old picture mode is crashing on stable and if you are on nvidia, you must enter the steam beta to use the new big picture to change your controller setting as that's currently completely broken in stable.

So don't worry about it, it's not an issue on your end. Valve will fix that in approximately less than a week if things go right.

[Volkov]

I've also been having insane stuttering / freezing issues completely at random. For example, when applying a medkit to myself, it freezes to the point of canceling the medkit so I have to apply it all over again. Is this also related to these bugs?

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Volkov:

I've also been having insane stuttering / freezing issues completely at random. For example, when applying a medkit to myself, it freezes to the point of canceling the medkit so I have to apply it all over again. Is this also related to these bugs?

No I am not having that. The game is completely smooth during gameplay as it usually is. It just freezes in the pause menu and in the loadings.

What you are describing sounds more like shaders process not being completed or an issue with mods. You will need to provide more information for me to be able to help you more.

For the freezing bug, unfreeze your game using Shift+Tab, basically just open the overlay. And remember to do that everytime you are transitioning between saferooms.

[Volkov]

Here are the details:
- running Arch linux with kernel 6.1.4-zen2-1-zen
- graphics platform is X11
- Nvidia GTX 980M with latest proprietary driver. Have 24 GB of RAM, no swap space. No browser was running at any point.
- I do not run any mods.
L4D2 native stutters and freezes at random. Running L4D2 with any GE-Proton, Proton or Proton Next variant acts the same, except Proton Experimental. Experimental makes it run flawlessly but I have no access to VAC servers.

I have tried running native L4D2 with and without Vsync, with several command line options, same result. Running it in dedicated full screen seems to make it behave even worse, while borderless windowed seems slightly better. In either case I have to use raw mouse input or else I can't do anything. Disabling multicore rendering has no effect. Let me know if you need any more details.

I did encounter the freezing bug once when trying to load a new map after a safe room on a multiplayer game however.

Edit: Noticed some freezes only go away after keyboard/mouse input. Wtf?

Edit2: Fixed.

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

[Mrr7782]

Originally posted by Volkov:

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

Thank you so much! That fixed it for me as well, not a single freeze!

[Volkov]

Originally posted by Mrr7782:

Originally posted by Volkov:

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

Thank you so much! That fixed it for me as well, not a single freeze!

I'm glad. This is affecting many other games, including source games. Spread the word if you can and if you know anyone using X window manager.

[Sharpie The Dragon]

Hi cousin, this seems like a major problem. Hopefully the team and Tsuey can fix this.

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Volkov:

Here are the details:
- running Arch linux with kernel 6.1.4-zen2-1-zen
- graphics platform is X11
- Nvidia GTX 980M with latest proprietary driver. Have 24 GB of RAM, no swap space. No browser was running at any point.
- I do not run any mods.
L4D2 native stutters and freezes at random. Running L4D2 with any GE-Proton, Proton or Proton Next variant acts the same, except Proton Experimental. Experimental makes it run flawlessly but I have no access to VAC servers.

I have tried running native L4D2 with and without Vsync, with several command line options, same result. Running it in dedicated full screen seems to make it behave even worse, while borderless windowed seems slightly better. In either case I have to use raw mouse input or else I can't do anything. Disabling multicore rendering has no effect. Let me know if you need any more details.

I did encounter the freezing bug once when trying to load a new map after a safe room on a multiplayer game however.

Edit: Noticed some freezes only go away after keyboard/mouse input. Wtf?

Edit2: Fixed.

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

Which version of the library are you referring to? I have version 1.8.3.5 for 64 bit and 1.8.3.1 for lib32. It's the latest and I don't really have any issues. I might be because I am running an RTX card though.

But it's good that it's fixed for you. By the way, are you running the game on vulkan through -vulkan? The original opengl implementation is old and valve added vulkan a while ago to increase performance. A must to use on any valve game.

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Sharpie The Dergun:

Hi cousin, this seems like a major problem. Hopefully the team and Tsuey can fix this.

Yes it is cousin. I will talk to him if this isn't fixed soon.

[Volkov]

Originally posted by Kenny:

Originally posted by Volkov:

Here are the details:
- running Arch linux with kernel 6.1.4-zen2-1-zen
- graphics platform is X11
- Nvidia GTX 980M with latest proprietary driver. Have 24 GB of RAM, no swap space. No browser was running at any point.
- I do not run any mods.
L4D2 native stutters and freezes at random. Running L4D2 with any GE-Proton, Proton or Proton Next variant acts the same, except Proton Experimental. Experimental makes it run flawlessly but I have no access to VAC servers.

I have tried running native L4D2 with and without Vsync, with several command line options, same result. Running it in dedicated full screen seems to make it behave even worse, while borderless windowed seems slightly better. In either case I have to use raw mouse input or else I can't do anything. Disabling multicore rendering has no effect. Let me know if you need any more details.

I did encounter the freezing bug once when trying to load a new map after a safe room on a multiplayer game however.

Edit: Noticed some freezes only go away after keyboard/mouse input. Wtf?

Edit2: Fixed.

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

Which version of the library are you referring to? I have version 1.8.3.5 for 64 bit and 1.8.3.1 for lib32. It's the latest and I don't really have any issues. I might be because I am running an RTX card though.

But it's good that it's fixed for you. By the way, are you running the game on vulkan through -vulkan? The original opengl implementation is old and valve added vulkan a while ago to increase performance. A must to use on any valve game.

I use the -vulkan option. No issues on your end probably because you use an older libx11 version for 32 bit. Both 32bit and 64bit versions for me were the latest 1.8.3 versions. I did not test to see which of the 1.8.3 versions didn't have this issue, I just went straight for the latest 1.8.2 when downgrading. There might be 1.8.3 versions that are unaffected.

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Volkov:

Originally posted by Kenny:

Which version of the library are you referring to? I have version 1.8.3.5 for 64 bit and 1.8.3.1 for lib32. It's the latest and I don't really have any issues. I might be because I am running an RTX card though.

But it's good that it's fixed for you. By the way, are you running the game on vulkan through -vulkan? The original opengl implementation is old and valve added vulkan a while ago to increase performance. A must to use on any valve game.

I use the -vulkan option. No issues on your end probably because you use an older libx11 version for 32 bit. Both 32bit and 64bit versions for me were the latest 1.8.3 versions. I did not test to see which of the 1.8.3 versions didn't have this issue, I just went straight for the latest 1.8.2 when downgrading. There might be 1.8.3 versions that are unaffected.

What I don't understand here is why I didn't receive the new versions when updating. I update regularly and these libraries stayed the same. Did you manually install them or something? Or maybe you have been running arch for longer than me and these libraries were downloaded before january?

[Volkov]

Originally posted by Kenny:

Originally posted by Volkov:

I use the -vulkan option. No issues on your end probably because you use an older libx11 version for 32 bit. Both 32bit and 64bit versions for me were the latest 1.8.3 versions. I did not test to see which of the 1.8.3 versions didn't have this issue, I just went straight for the latest 1.8.2 when downgrading. There might be 1.8.3 versions that are unaffected.

What I don't understand here is why I didn't receive the new versions when updating. I update regularly and these libraries stayed the same. Did you manually install them or something? Or maybe you have been running arch for longer than me and these libraries were downloaded before january?

I am not entirely sure either myself. :/ I've been using Arch for over a year now. Anyway, thanks for offering to help. Without your thread to prompt me to dig deeper I would have probably just given up.

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Volkov:

Originally posted by Kenny:

What I don't understand here is why I didn't receive the new versions when updating. I update regularly and these libraries stayed the same. Did you manually install them or something? Or maybe you have been running arch for longer than me and these libraries were downloaded before january?

I am not entirely sure either myself. :/ I've been using Arch for over a year now. Anyway, thanks for offering to help. Without your thread to prompt me to dig deeper I would have probably just given up.

Sure don't mention it. Now here's hoping the l4d2 issue is fixed soon.

[Skunky]

Originally posted by Volkov:

Here are the details:
- running Arch linux with kernel 6.1.4-zen2-1-zen
- graphics platform is X11
- Nvidia GTX 980M with latest proprietary driver. Have 24 GB of RAM, no swap space. No browser was running at any point.
- I do not run any mods.
L4D2 native stutters and freezes at random. Running L4D2 with any GE-Proton, Proton or Proton Next variant acts the same, except Proton Experimental. Experimental makes it run flawlessly but I have no access to VAC servers.

I have tried running native L4D2 with and without Vsync, with several command line options, same result. Running it in dedicated full screen seems to make it behave even worse, while borderless windowed seems slightly better. In either case I have to use raw mouse input or else I can't do anything. Disabling multicore rendering has no effect. Let me know if you need any more details.

I did encounter the freezing bug once when trying to load a new map after a safe room on a multiplayer game however.

Edit: Noticed some freezes only go away after keyboard/mouse input. Wtf?

Edit2: Fixed.

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

downgrading libx11 fixed stuttering for me aswell very nice, how did you find out it was libx11 fault?

[Volkov]

Originally posted by Skunky:

Originally posted by Volkov:

Here are the details:
- running Arch linux with kernel 6.1.4-zen2-1-zen
- graphics platform is X11
- Nvidia GTX 980M with latest proprietary driver. Have 24 GB of RAM, no swap space. No browser was running at any point.
- I do not run any mods.
L4D2 native stutters and freezes at random. Running L4D2 with any GE-Proton, Proton or Proton Next variant acts the same, except Proton Experimental. Experimental makes it run flawlessly but I have no access to VAC servers.

I have tried running native L4D2 with and without Vsync, with several command line options, same result. Running it in dedicated full screen seems to make it behave even worse, while borderless windowed seems slightly better. In either case I have to use raw mouse input or else I can't do anything. Disabling multicore rendering has no effect. Let me know if you need any more details.

I did encounter the freezing bug once when trying to load a new map after a safe room on a multiplayer game however.

Edit: Noticed some freezes only go away after keyboard/mouse input. Wtf?

Edit2: Fixed.

To anyone running arch linux and encountering this weird stutter and freeze issue:

There is an upstream bug in libx11 version 1.8.3+. Downgrade to version 1.8.2. This fixed it for me.

downgrading libx11 fixed stuttering for me aswell very nice, how did you find out it was libx11 fault?

A lot of digging and googling. The main clue was when I noticed that it wasn't actually stuttering but the game downright froze until it detected input from mouse or keyboard only for that particular window. I think I also saw people discussing the same symptoms for Dota 2 and counter-strike global offensive. Eventually it lead me to an issue tracker related to the X window server.

Apparently, certain versions of libx11 1.8.3 do not have this bug. But I haven't tested which.

[Skunky]

Thanks for your help!