Left 4 Dead 2 Beta Surfaces For Linux Gamers

[Naib]

This only happens when launching Steam with STEAM_RUNTIME=1. It was fine with STEAM_RUNTIME=0, until that stopped working altogether on Gentoo. Now STEAM_RUNTIME=1 is required.

Ah, the wonders of bundled libs that are obviously only configured for Ubuntu :-/ Why didn't Valve use proper libraries, and FDO standards? For example why use Ubuntu-specific systray libraries? FDO has a proper standard for this, that works everywhere. Makes zero sense to me. This would work everywhere, including Ubuntu. They chose to use Ubuntu-only stuff instead, which doesn't work correctly (or not all) on other systems. This is extremely bad design. I thought Valve had actually done their homework about Linux development.

Valve do use proper libs... The issue here isn't with respect to building "for Ubuntu" its that Valve are using libSDL2 the moment it got released (in fact they are using release candidates) since part of source require SDL2 calls.

http://wiki.libsdl.org/moin.fcg/FAQGeneral#What.27s_up_with_SDL_2.0.3F_Can_I_help.3F

Gentoo will not put into the tree applications/libraries that are not released and hence there is no libSDL2. What they can do is do live ebuilds (the 9999 variants) but that is a herd call.
Once SDL2 is released then the ebuilds will be updated and the new ABI make variable can be used.

Until then this is an SDL issue not a gentoo or a ubuntu issue. Valve took the decision to release sourcegames prebuild against beta software to get the features they need.

[deanjo]

Works surprisingly well on the intel HD4000 @ 1366x768 in openSUSE.

[n3wu53r]

Valve do use proper libs... The issue here isn't with respect to building "for Ubuntu" its that Valve are using libSDL2 the moment it got released (in fact they are using release candidates) since part of source require SDL2 calls.

http://wiki.libsdl.org/moin.fcg/FAQGeneral#What.27s_up_with_SDL_2.0.3F_Can_I_help.3F

Gentoo will not put into the tree applications/libraries that are not released and hence there is no libSDL2. What they can do is do live ebuilds (the 9999 variants) but that is a herd call.
Once SDL2 is released then the ebuilds will be updated and the new ABI make variable can be used.

Until then this is an SDL issue not a gentoo or a ubuntu issue. Valve took the decision to release sourcegames prebuild against beta software to get the features they need.

The issue has has is with the steam client, not games.

[fkdod]

Works surprisingly well on the intel HD4000 @ 1366x768 in openSUSE.

Nice! What framerate do you get? what are the settings?

Cheers

[RealNC]

Valve do use proper libs... The issue here isn't with respect to building "for Ubuntu" its that Valve are using libSDL2 the moment it got released (in fact they are using release candidates) since part of source require SDL2 calls.

http://wiki.libsdl.org/moin.fcg/FAQGeneral#What.27s_up_with_SDL_2.0.3F_Can_I_help.3F

Gentoo will not put into the tree applications/libraries that are not released and hence there is no libSDL2. What they can do is do live ebuilds (the 9999 variants) but that is a herd call.
Once SDL2 is released then the ebuilds will be updated and the new ABI make variable can be used.

Until then this is an SDL issue not a gentoo or a ubuntu issue. Valve took the decision to release sourcegames prebuild against beta software to get the features they need.

Gentoo has SDL2 in the Steam overlay. It was working fine before the last Steam update. Now something else is going on that makes Steam abort at startup, and it's not SDL2.

But you didn't understand my point. I specifically mentioned the system tray, for example. Valve is Ubuntu-specific with it, since it uses some Ubuntu Unity library instead of an FDO one. That is the definition of "Ubuntu-specific". It doesn't work on other distros, or it doesn't work correctly. And the mouse cursor issue; there are FDO standards on this too, which Valve seems to be ignoring.

[jockinator]

I've tested with a core i7 3770, and the integrated HD4000 at 1680x1050, and it's not really playable. I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 64bits.
If I lower all settings, I can get 30-40fps, but there is a very high latency when I move the mouse, which makes the game difficult to play.
also when there is a horde, or an event fps drops to 10-15 during a few seconds.

I have also a radeon HD 7950 on this computer, but I use it with a windows7 Xen VM with PCI passthrough, and I didn't manage to make it work with a Linux VM.

[ChrisXY]

I specifically mentioned the system tray, for example. Valve is Ubuntu-specific with it, since it uses some Ubuntu Unity library instead of an FDO one. That is the definition of "Ubuntu-specific". It doesn't work on other distros, or it doesn't work correctly.

Some time back when steam for linux was still beta at some update a tray menu started appearing in KDE on Archlinux.

Currently it looks like a normal tray menu:

http://i.imgur.com/UN1wNqe.png

[deanjo]

Nice! What framerate do you get? what are the settings?

Cheers

Framerate smacks against the 60 fps vsync.

[ext73]

Steam needs 32bit flash
If using 64bit you need to follow this https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...1493-GHZB-7612
After adding this steam no longer crashes or freezes when trying to view videos or purchase games from steam .

Thanks, but that's not it ... the MSi X370 where I have 64 bit system [here additionally Catalyst 13.3 beta3 + my kernel 3.9.0-ext73-f1-24.0-brazos-ags-cfs) everything works perfectly. At the desktop where I have an Athlon II X4 + Nvidia GeForce 560 [driver 313.30 + 3.9.0-ext73-f1-24.0-brazos-ags-cfs) unfortunately steam crashes when trying to play video [when I come to a title game and tries to auto playback]. Errors of this type, as indicated on the Steam gitthub ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/453 # issuecomment-12016013 - but I can not give you link = because again my comment will not appear;/. For me there are errors like these:

ExecSteamURL: "steam://open/driverhelperready"
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1367621987_client)
[0505/195920:WARNING:backend_impl.cc(1930)] Destroying invalid entry.
[0505/195920:WARNING:backend_impl.cc(1930)] Destroying invalid entry.
[0505/195920:ERROR:reference_audio_renderer.cc(45)] Not implemented reached in virtual void media::ReferenceAudioRenderer::OnCreated(media::AudioOutputController*)
[0505/195920:ERROR:reference_audio_renderer.cc(49)] Not implemented reached in virtual void media::ReferenceAudioRenderer::OnPlaying(media::AudioOutputController*)
[0505/195920:ERROR:alsa_output.cc(684)] Failed querying delay: Błąd wejścia/wyjścia
[0505/195920:ERROR:alsa_output.cc(684)] Failed querying delay: Błąd wejścia/wyjścia
Uploading dump (out-of-process) [proxy '']
/tmp/dumps/crash_20130505195920_1.dmp
/home/ext73/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 704:  3128 Błędna instrukcja     $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$PLATFORM/$STEAMEXE" "$@"

[RealNC]

Some time back when steam for linux was still beta at some update a tray menu started appearing in KDE on Archlinux.

Currently it looks like a normal tray menu:
http://i.imgur.com/UN1wNqe.png

Yes, that's because Arch (and now Gentoo) install the Ubuntu Unity tray libraries when installing Steam. Which is ridiculous (and doesn't work correctly anyway; it takes ages for the menu to pop up.) Again: FDO has a standard for the systray. Use it, goddammit :-P