Steam - fatal error - missing 32 bit libraries:

[kfws12]

Hello on behalf of my son who plays Terraria via Steam on a computer installed with Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. Neither of us are very strong computer users in a programming sense, but can understand and follow most instruction.

Yesterday an error showed up:

You are missing the following 32-bit libraries, and Steam may not run:
libbz2.so.1.0
libvdpau.so.1
libva-x11.so.2

and following that the next window says:

Steam - Fatal Error
Fatal Error: Failed to load steamui.so

We were thinking perhaps to uninstall then re-install but he is concerned that he will lose the worlds and characters that he has been using. If those concerns could be addressed as well it would be much appreciated.

With thanks,

B

[Blaquicat]

Why dont you guys just install windows?

Anyway, looks like you are using 64bits linux without the 32bits library,
I think you can find a solution here:
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/202759400-Installing-32-bit-libs-on-a-64-bit-Linux-system

[Metal_Warrior]

Because Windows is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ OS.

OK, guys, you probably have downloaded Steam from the internet, which is a f*cking bad idea for Linux users who don't know what they're doing. Your OS is no Windows, it's providing everything for you, so don't ever do that again. Instead open a terminal and type

sudo apt-get install steam

If there's no such packet, you haven't installed the i386 (32bit) libraries, which is easy to do:

sudo dkpg --add-architechture i386
sudo apt-get update

Then try the first command again, and everything will work. Just don't download ♥♥♥♥ from the internet again - we Linux people have repositories, and us Debianoid users have about 3 TB of software in them.

[Bloo Alien]

So, this guy made some good suggestions to check, as did the guy before him:

Originally posted by Metal_Warrior:

sudo dkpg --add-architechture i386
sudo apt-get update

However, once you're sure you're all good on that bit, you still need to install the libraries the error message mentions, or you won't make any progress on solving things to the point of your game actually running...

To finish up, you may need to type one more command (assuming that's all the missing libraries, and assuming they don't get automatically installed as dependencies of Steam while following earlier advice)...

sudo apt install libbz2-1.0 libvdpau1 libva-x11-2

After those install, you can try the game again. If it complains about a new list of libraries, install those too, then retry the game. Keep repeating until the game runs properly.

[kfws12]

Thank you all for the quick replies. I have gone through the above steps but the problem remains with the same error message. Any other suggestions?

[Bloo Alien]

Originally posted by kfws12:

Thank you all for the quick replies. I have gone through the above steps but the problem remains with the same error message. Any other suggestions?

I may have screwed up my suggested apt install command. Once the i386 architecture has been added, that command would still install the 64 bit versions. Repeat the exact same command with :i386 appended to each package name and try the game again. Example:

sudo apt install libbz2-1.0:i386 libvdpau1:i386 libva-x11-2:i386

This would install the 32 bit versions of those same exact libraries. (You may find this leads to other related dependencies needing installed as well. No worries, just install anything else it complains about related to those missing libs.)

Now, one possible problem in such case would be that the game launch script may be imposing it's own libs folder on the launch process, so if installing those libraries does not get the game running, then one must check if there's a libs folder being used ahead of the system libs, and do some symlinking to work around that issue if it does turn out to be the problem, but always try the simpler possibility first. (In this case, the "simpler" being try installing the libraries first and try the game.)

[Metal_Warrior]

That's why I suggested you should install steam from the repos - that way the system already knows what libraries are needed and installs those, so you don't run into any problems with missing libraries.

But Bloo Alien is right, you have to install the libs with an appended :i386, or your system will rightfully assume you want the 64bit versions.

[kfws12]

thank you for the help... after following the above advice a new error came up which I didn't have time to deal with that morning, but the subsequent day Steam updated and now we're back gaming! much appreciate the help and advice...

[Bloo Alien]

Originally posted by kfws12:

thank you for the help... after following the above advice a new error came up which I didn't have time to deal with that morning, but the subsequent day Steam updated and now we're back gaming! much appreciate the help and advice...

Good news. Glad to hear it. Congrats.