*Solved* Ubuntu 64-bit: Text distorted, game & X start freezing.

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*Solved* Ubuntu 64-bit: Text distorted, game & X start freezing.gakkun03/12/2009 - 15:06

I have been having several issues with the full version of World of Goo that I never had at all with the demo, nor do I have these issues with any other games on Ubuntu.

I have an Intel Q6600 with 8GB RAM and a NVidia 8800GT.

The game starts, but the opening text, and a lot of the text in game are mostly unreadable. Usually I can make it as far as starting a level and then the game will start freezing. Sometimes this only lasts a few seconds, sometimes 30+ seconds. Other times it will lock up the system completely.

The times when I manage to get out of the game either through exiting, or through killing it through the console X becomes very flaky afterward... This is somewhat hard to explain, but one of the more common problems after this is that Firefox will start 'dropping' blocks of pixels which are replaced with the background image. X also tends to lock up the same as it was in the game afterwards as well. Sometimes even just restarting X will not fix it and the system requires a full reboot. Also worth noting is that I have also had the same results when turning off Compiz.

I also run Vista on this system, and have no problems with anything. I have run memtest86 on my memory and that also appears to be okay.

Also, just to be sure, I manually upgraded my NVidia drivers from Ubuntu's default (177.xx) to the latest 180.xx drivers.

The last thing I tried is to reset the game's resolution and run it in Windowed mode. When I did this, I actually was able to play through a couple of levels before once again the game started to freeze on me.

Below is my WorldofGoo.log from that last attempt, please let me know if there is anymore useful information I can provide:
[tt]
[t=0.00] Loading persistent data...
[t=0.00] Locale en_CA.UTF-8 matched to language en.
[t=0.00] Primary language: en
[t=0.00] Created 800x600 (32 bpp) graphics surface.
[t=0.00] Created virtual viewport of size 800(+0)x600(+0)
[t=0.00] Using audio driver: pulse
[t=0.00] resized from 800x600 to 800x600
[t=0.00] loading game (version 1.40linux)...
[t=0.31] could not load image "res/images/flags/xx"
[t=0.99] Game paused...
[t=0.99] FileOpen("res/levels/MapWorldView/newmail.anim.binltl", 17, 0xf3411f54) failed!
[t=0.99] FileOpen("res/levels/MapWorldView/MapWorldView/rot_1rps.anim.binltl", 17, 0xf3411f54) failed!
[t=0.99] Game resumed after 0.456 seconds
[t=4.22] loading game complete.
[t=4.22] FileOpen("res/levels/IslandUi/newmail.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23c44) failed!
[t=4.24] STATE TRANSITION: INIT --> WORLD (after 4 sec)
[t=5.00] fps=49.8 ups=50.0
[t=10.00] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=13.54] STATE TRANSITION: WORLD --> LOADING (after 9 sec)
[t=13.54] Game paused...
[t=13.54] warning: duplicate ids in scene file (gooWaterRight)
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/island1/ocdFlagWave.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_OdeToBridgeBuilder.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_ImpaleSticky.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_FlyingMachine.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_EconomicDivide.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_HangLow.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_Tumbler.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_Chain.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_FistyReachesOut.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_TowerOfGoo.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] FileOpen("res/levels/island1/levelpipe_RegurgitationPumpingStation.anim.binltl", 17, 0xffd23a24) failed!
[t=13.54] warning: duplicate ids in scene file (gooWaterRight)
[t=13.54] Game resumed after 0.345 seconds
[t=13.54] STATE TRANSITION: LOADING --> ISLAND_MAP (after 0 sec)
[t=15.00] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=20.02] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=20.36] STATE TRANSITION: ISLAND_MAP --> LOADING (after 7 sec)
[t=20.36] Game paused...
[t=20.36] Game resumed after 0.149 seconds
[t=20.36] STATE TRANSITION: LOADING --> LEVEL (after 0 sec)
[t=20.36] playing level 'EconomicDivide'
[t=25.02] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=30.02] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=35.04] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=40.04] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=45.04] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=50.04] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=55.04] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=60.04] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=65.06] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=70.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=75.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=80.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=85.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=87.58] scale=1.00   xscale=1.00   yscale=1.00   baseZoom=1.00
[t=90.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=93.58] ---> continue button clicked
[t=93.58] balls stat: old=0 new=14
[t=93.58] moves stat: old=0 new=10
[t=93.58] time  stat: old=0 new=67
[t=93.58] finished level 'EconomicDivide': balls=14, moves=10, time=68
[t=93.58] Saving persistent data...
[t=95.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=100.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=105.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=110.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=115.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=120.08] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=125.10] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=130.12] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=135.14] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=140.14] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=145.14] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=146.50] STATE TRANSITION: LEVEL --> ISLAND_MAP (after 126 sec)
[t=150.14] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=155.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=155.24] STATE TRANSITION: ISLAND_MAP --> LOADING (after 9 sec)
[t=155.24] Game paused...
[t=155.24] Game resumed after 0.477 seconds
[t=155.24] STATE TRANSITION: LOADING --> LEVEL (after 0 sec)
[t=155.24] playing level 'HangLow'
[t=160.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=165.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=170.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=175.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=180.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=185.16] fps=50.0 ups=50.0
[t=189.37] WARNING: skipping 36 simulation frames!
[t=201.70] fps=10.5 ups=11.4
[t=201.70] WARNING: skipping 588 simulation frames!
[t=205.33] WARNING: skipping 35 simulation frames!
[t=206.84] fps=30.5 ups=36.3
[t=206.84] WARNING: skipping 36 simulation frames!
[t=210.25] WARNING: skipping 35 simulation frames!
[t=211.86] fps=40.1 ups=45.8
[t=216.51] WARNING: skipping 35 simulation frames!
[t=217.57] fps=32.6 ups=35.2
[t=217.57] WARNING: skipping 35 simulation frames!
[t=219.00] WARNING: skipping 36 simulation frames!
[t=222.58] fps=39.9 ups=45.7[/tt]


Last modified Thu, 03/19/2009 - 17:58 by gakkun
Re: Ubuntu 64-bit: Text distorted, game & X start freezing.Soultaker03/12/2009 - 17:58

Quote:
I have been having several issues with the full version of World of Goo that I never had at all with the demo...

The demo executable is exactly equal to the full version, so if you're experiencing problems with the first Chapter with the full version while you didn't have those problems with the demo, it must be something that changed on your system.

All the symptoms you describe sounds like the video card overheating to me, although then it's likely you would experience similar problems on Vista. Have you ever run a graphics-intensive benchmark on Vista, for example a full run of a recent version of 3D Mark? If Vista works, then it might be a driver-related issue. You could try enabling CoolBits in Linux and underclocking your GPU; if that solves the problem, then it's definitely a hardware problem.

Running World of Goo on Windows for comparison isn't a very good benchmark, because as I understand the Windows implementation is less GPU intensive.

Re: Ubuntu 64-bit: Text distorted, game & X start freezing.gakkun03/13/2009 - 10:05

Thank you for your reply, and after having looked into it even deeper, I believe you are absolutely correct. Coincidentally, just before I purchased the game, I had opened my case for dusting. I must not have dusted well enough, and/or the fan on the video card is starting to lose its effectiveness. But it led me to some interesting discoveries.

It would appear that the NVidia Linux drivers run the fan at a set speed. I installed nvclock and forced the fan to auto (I also noticed that there are differences in what Nvidia Settings and nvclock report for temperature, but I believe the former to be correct as it shows higher temps), and that started cooling down the core right away. It wasn't quite enough though, which is why I'm thinking the fan might be failing now. In order to play WoG or even use OpenGL screensavers without problem, I'm having to manually set the fan speed to a higher speed to keep the temperature down.

After work tonight, I'm gonna pull the card right out and give it a more thorough dusting and hopefully that will prevent these issues again. As well, I plan to add another inbound case fan to hopefully draw in more cool air.

Thanks for the advice Soultaker!

Re: *Solved* Ubuntu 64-bit: Text distorted, game & X start freezing.gakkun03/19/2009 - 18:16

Okay, so I've been fighting with things for the last week, and FINALLY have everything working correctly.

After all this work, it appears I wasn't suffering from one issue but many (none of them the fault of World of Goo).

In fact what appeared to be an overheating card, was not. In the end what helped were a couple of settings.

First things first, at first I wasn't properly switching from Compiz to Metacity for troubleshooting which really does help. So, for Ubuntu users, install fusion-icon (sudo apt-get install fusion-icon) and use that to switch back to metacity.

Under fusion-icon, open the Settings Manger, and under General: Unredirect Fullscreen Windows. (I read a bug report that suggested turning this off, in my case I had to turn it on.)

The second thing I did which also helped came from this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24/+bug/151382 and specifically this post: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24/+bug/151382/comments/21

The bug report suggests setting /sys/devices/system/cpu/sched_mc_power_savings to 1. Once again, in my case, things were different. This file was null, and what worked for me was to set the value to 0. This has to do with conflicts in IRQ Management between the Linux Nvidia drivers and the Linux kernel from what I understand. A couple comments below the one I posted, there is instructions on how to add a line to your rc.local file to make the change happen upon every boot.

Since this, I have torture tested OpenGL with World of Goo, Chromium B.S.U. and Oblivion and Guild Wars under WINE and not suffered a single problem, even with Compiz running.

Also I must have made a mistake when building my own AMD64 .deb because when I just used dpkg -i --force-architecture to re-install World of Goo, my font rendering problem also disappeared.

Re: *Solved* Ubuntu 64-bit: Text distorted, game & X start freezing.Soultaker03/19/2009 - 19:17

That's a lot of stuff you had to go through! Good to hear you were able to figure it all out in the end.

Quote:
Also I must have made a mistake when building my own AMD64 .deb because when I just used dpkg -i --force-architecture to re-install World of Goo, my font rendering problem also disappeared.

If you really want to use a 64-bit Debian package (which still uses 32-bit binaries, though) there are some instructions (and a small script) in this thread. In practice the --force-architecture thing should work just as well, although I hear not all 64-bit package managers like to work with packages installed this way.