NVidia 535.x VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED on Debian

[davidsl118]

Dota failing to launch after the most recent update (Major update with compendium)

[kisak-valve]

Hello @davidsl118, please copy the contents of Steam Runtime Diagnostics from Steam (Steam -> Help -> Steam Runtime Diagnostics) and put it in a gist, then include a link to the gist in this issue report.

[davidsl118]

Diagnostic gist

[kagmole]

Same issue here on Debian Unstable.
It looks like it's trying to start on the integrated graphics and not the discrete graphic card.

[TormenTeDx]

Same here... Debian (bookworm), can't start the game since the ringmaster update...

[pavel-garmatyuk]

Similar problem, after updates there is no initialization of Vulcan, then it crashes with an error

[TormenTeDx]

any workaround for this?

[kagmole]

I tried some solutions like DRI_PRIME=1 %command% or using Proton but no chance.
Looks like it's not working right now with Proton as well : https://www.protondb.com/app/570#EtQd9pA3uB

[TormenTeDx]

I tried with proton too, I have the same problem. It opens for like 5-10 seconds and then closes

[TTimo]

There was a problem earlier this week which could cause a system crash running out of descriptors shortly after startup. This has been fixed now, and OP's report is a different issue.

If you are not crashing on startup with a Failed to initialize Vulkan error, please consider opening a separate issue.

@davidsl118 can you go through the following steps to help diagnosing this:

• Set a launch option of -consolelog $HOME/.steam/steam/logs/dota2.log on Dota 2, e.g.
  
• Attempt to launch to reproduce the Vulkan init error again
• Send in your logs, which you can grab by running tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs

[kagmole]

I ain't davids118 but here goes my own logs:

08/31 09:33:20 [RenderSystem] Loaded video settings config from 'cfg/video.txt'
08/31 09:33:20 [RenderSystem] vkCreateDevice failed with error VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, unable to create Vulkan device.

[TormenTeDx]

Same here
[logs]$ cat dota2.log
08/31 12:14:08 [RenderSystem] Loaded video settings config from 'cfg/video.txt' 08/31 12:14:08 [RenderSystem] vkCreateDevice failed with error VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, unable to create Vulkan device.

[kagmole]

Tried to remove the file cfg/video.txt and launch (bad config maybe?) but it still doesn't work.

[TTimo]

Thanks but I would prefer to look at the entire set of logs, not just the error line.

[TormenTeDx]

Here I zipped all logs.
steam-logs.tar.gz

[TormenTeDx]

@kagmole You should just run tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs to grab all the logs

[kagmole]

And here's mine. Removed all files from logs then did a Steam launch and Dota 2 launch.
steam-logs.tar.gz

[kagmole]

Tried to disable the iGPU (dGPU only) in the UEFI settings but no chance. :)

[davidsl118]

@TTimo Here are the compressed logs.
steam-logs.tar.gz

[TTimo]

Thanks @davidsl118, I appreciate your patience. The logs didn't reveal anything unfortunately.

It looks like you are on an Optimus laptop, so let's try a few things:

• Try to run vkcube in the sniper runtime and validate that it initializes over the eGPU (your nvidia card):
  __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper/run-in-sniper -- vkcube

On my Optimus system this reports Selected GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, type: DiscreteGpu indicating it picked the eGPU over the iGPU.

If you don't specify the __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 I expect it'll report your software vulkan backend instead (llvmpipe).

• If this works, you can try to launch dota directly from the terminal like this (while the steam client is running):

timo@eta-carinae ~/.s/s/s/c/dota 2 beta> cd ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/dota\ 2\ beta/game/
timo@eta-carinae ~/.s/s/s/c/d/game> __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper/run-in-sniper -- ./dota.sh

You can find more information about Optimus at https://wiki.debian.org/NVIDIA%20Optimus

[kagmole]

The Steam Linux runtime folder may be here for Debian, if you used the Steam installer from the Debian repository:

~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper/run-in-sniper

[TormenTeDx]

I ran these __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper/run-in-sniper -- vkcube and with or without the argument I still get in both cases the same gpu nvidia rtx3080. and running dota through sniper gives the same vulkan error as it does via steam.

Sadly it didn't help for me

[kagmole]

Same as @TormenTeDx, except graphic card is:

Selected GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, type: DiscreteGpu

[davidsl118]

Hi @TTimo. I get the vkcube rendered with or without the argument, and in both cases the same discrete GPU is selected. Since this was not what you expected, I did not test the next step.

[TTimo]

Ok .. so next thing to try, enabling verbose in the Vulkan loader:

VK_LOADER_DEBUG=all __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper/run-in-sniper -- ./dota.sh 2>&1 | tee ~/verbose-loader.txt

That will save out a log to ~/verbose-loader.txt which you can attach and we'll see if it reveals anything.

[TormenTeDx]

Here you go:
verbose-loader.txt

[TTimo]

I'll have to pour over the logs some more tomorrow, but can you also try setting NODEVICE_SELECT=1 and capturing another? Just in case an issue in the llvmpipe layer is collapsing the whole init for some reason.

[TormenTeDx]

You mean like this? NODEVICE_SELECT=1 VK_LOADER_DEBUG=all /home/ryszard/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper/run-in-sniper -- ./dota.sh 2>&1 | tee ~/verbose-loader-nodevice-select.txt
Here, still getting vulkan error:
verbose-loader-nodevice-select.txt

[TTimo]

Ok that makes the whole loading business cleaner, and at least removes that possibility of a problem.

At this point we're starting to suspect the combo of 535 drivers and recent NVidia hardware (3080 and up). We may be requesting extensions in the recent Dota2 update that the drivers are unhappy about. It'll take a few days but we'll add some options to test that out.

Corollary is that you should try with newer drivers, 550 or ideally 560 but it seems Debian is lagging behind, we've asked for those to be added in experimental.

[TormenTeDx]

cool, thanks. 535 are the newest one right now on stable debian afaik.

[kagmole]

Same for Debian Unstable. Version 535.183.06-1.
But a friend on Ubuntu doesn't have the problem with an older version, 535.183.01.
#2807 (comment)

[smcv]

a friend on Ubuntu doesn't have the problem with an older version, 535.183.01

535.183.01 happens to still be available in the Debian 12 repositories (versioned 535.183.01-1~deb12u1), so you could try downgrading to that and see whether it helps?

[TormenTeDx]

I have 535.183.01, so it won't help.

[kagmole]

I tried to downgrade but the DKMS build fails with Linux kernel 6.10.9-amd64.

[smcv]

I have 535.183.01, so it won't help

If that's the case, then there must be some other factor in why you see this but @kagmole's friend does not. Everyone here seems to have mentioned dual-GPU (Nvidia + other), so perhaps that's part of it.

[TormenTeDx]

I have single gpu, 3080 rtx, its probably because of debian. I've heard it works on ubuntu fine

[kagmole]

I tried to disable the iGPU to only have one dGPU but no luck on this as well.

[smcv]

Do you have libnvidia-rtcore installed? If not, try installing that, at the same version as your Vulkan drivers?

As packaged in Debian, it's a Recommends (weak dependency, installed by default but possible to turn off), but there are indications that it should perhaps be a required dependency.

[smcv]

Or, more generally, if any of the dependencies of nvidia-driver-full are missing, try installing them, again with their version matching the parts of the driver that you already have installed.

[kagmole]

libnvidia-rtcore was indeed missing, no idea why. I installed it and now it works! Thanks a lot. :)
I will reinstall all recommended packages as well, just to be sure. I didn't disable the installation of recommended packages though.

[smcv]

I didn't disable the installation of recommended packages though

Hmm, something must have gone wrong during installation or upgrade of your drivers: normally Recommends are selected for installation automatically, unless either (a) you explicitly turned them off (in which case you're accepting the risk that some things will not work), or (b) they were temporarily impossible to install for some reason.

[kagmole]

Must be option (b) since I'm on Unstable. I do admit I neglect to check on packages starting with lib.

[TormenTeDx]

I can't believe it, I installed libnvidia-rtcore and it works too. I think it wasn't installed since beggining and it just wasn't required for dota before... cause it basically stopped working after the ringmaster update

[smcv]

I think it wasn't installed since beggining and it just wasn't required for dota before

Perhaps it's actually only required for games that use particular Vulkan features, and Dota started using those features recently?

[TTimo]

Perhaps it's actually only required for games that use particular Vulkan features, and Dota started using those features recently?

Yep we do try to enable some raytracing extensions since recently.

[davidsl118]

After installing libnvidia-rtcore the game launches fine. Many thanks!

[smcv]

Reported as https://bugs.debian.org/1081314