GLib critical crash on previously-working games [Resolved]

[Yakkmeister]

Hello Friends,

I have a strange situation which, I hope, is something simple.

Specs
OS: Debian 11
FS-UAE: FS-UAE 3.0.5 (Built for Linux x86-64)

Error
(fs-uae:6413): GLib-CRITICAL **: 11:58:03.527: g_strchug: assertion 'string != NULL' failed
(fs-uae:6413): GLib-CRITICAL **: 11:58:03.527: g_strchomp: assertion 'string != NULL' failed
Segmentation fault

Log attached

Story:
I recently re-installed FS-UAE and played Agony via WHDLoad file (Agony_v2.1_0960.lha) without any problems whatsoever. I did have some trouble getting the games to show but that ended up being a missing library (lhafile).
I was also able to play the first Alien Breed game (AlienBreed_v2.3a_0998.lha) without any issues ... other than my lack of skill.

Later the same day, without any changes in my OS, I decided to play something else via the FS-UAE Arcade GUI. After waiting a bunch of time for box art to load up, I picked another Alien Breed game - Alien Breed Tower Assault but I don't know what file - and this simply crashed silently and returned me back to the Arcade GUI. This happened for every game I tried.

I initially figured I might have dodgey files ... so I tried those 2 which previously worked.
In attempting to figure out what was going wrong, I searched logs for errors and wound up using CLI invocation to get error messages:
$ fs-uae Agony_v2.1_0960.lha

The first time I ran this, there was a mention about missing a gamemode library. I installed that but, while it was able to run in performance mode, nothing else changed.
Now, it looks like every file is getting this same error and crashes.

I have deleted the log and rerun a few times to make sure it was shorter and easier to find the error messages.

[FrodeSolheim]

Hi, a few questions to get started:

1. Is it only when running games via FS-UAE Arcade that FS-UAE crashes silently?
2. Are you sure FS-UAE crashes, or is it possible that FS-UAE does not even start (as in FS-UAE Arcade itself fails?). Can you tell the difference?
3. If you run only

fs-uae

from a terminal - without arguments - does that work without crashing (and result in a kickstart or AROS boot screen)?

Btw. FS-UAE itself cannot run .lha files directly, so

fs-uae Agony_v2.1_0960.lha

won't work.

[FrodeSolheim]

Also, to get more useful information from logging, try running fs-uae in a terminal with the

--stdout

parameter. Alternatively, use the option

log_flush = 1

to make sure that the last log lines are included in the log file before FS-UAE crashes.

If you know to run fs-uae trough

gdb

you can also get a stack trace from the crash, it you can make it crash when running fs-uae directly:

gdb --args fs-uae [arguments]

And when inside gdb, type run + enter to start fs-uae:

For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from ./fs-uae...
(gdb) run

Once it crashes, type bt + enter to get a backtrace (might be useful).

[Yakkmeister]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Hi, a few questions to get started:

1. Is it only when running games via FS-UAE Arcade that FS-UAE crashes silently?
2. Are you sure FS-UAE crashes, or is it possible that FS-UAE does not even start (as in FS-UAE Arcade itself fails?). Can you tell the difference?
3. If you run only

fs-uae

from a terminal - without arguments - does that work without crashing (and result in a kickstart or AROS boot screen)?

Btw. FS-UAE itself cannot run .lha files directly, so

fs-uae Agony_v2.1_0960.lha

won't work.

Hi Frode,

I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1: It crashes both in FS-UAE Arcade and FS-UAE launcher
2: I am sure FS-UAE definitely start - it shows a window and also creates a log as if it started - and it crashes the same way when nothing is applied. I Tried all the different "Amiga Model" options with no floppy, CD or HDD and everything else set to default.

Thanks for letting me know about the .lha thing - that makes sense

[Yakkmeister]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Also, to get more useful information from logging, try running fs-uae in a terminal with the

--stdout

parameter. Alternatively, use the option

log_flush = 1

to make sure that the last log lines are included in the log file before FS-UAE crashes.

If you know to run fs-uae trough

gdb

you can also get a stack trace from the crash, it you can make it crash when running fs-uae directly:

gdb --args fs-uae [arguments]

And when inside gdb, type run + enter to start fs-uae:

For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from ./fs-uae...
(gdb) run

Once it crashes, type bt + enter to get a backtrace (might be useful).

I ran fs-uae with

$ fs-uae --stdout

and got the following error:

(fs-uae:5839): GLib-CRITICAL **: 10:44:35.082: g_strchug: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

(fs-uae:5839): GLib-CRITICAL **: 10:44:35.082: g_strchomp: assertion 'string != NULL' failed
Segmentation fault

Running fs-uae in GDB hung the system/my DE - I had to log in a virtual terminal and kill -9 the fs-uae process. I was then able to check the GDB backtrace ... but it's not looking very useful:

#0  0x0000000000c52cde in ?? ()
#1  0x0000000000c53381 in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: Cannot access memory at address 0x7fffffffd608

GDB also shows the same/similar error message:

(fs-uae:5950): GLib-CRITICAL **: 10:49:02.449: g_strchug: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

(fs-uae:5950): GLib-CRITICAL **: 10:49:02.449: g_strchomp: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

Thread 1 "fs-uae" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x0000000000c52cde in ?? ()

Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to try

[Yakkmeister]

I tried FS-UAE launcher again to try my luck.
There were several packages upgraded between the issue and now but none of which appeared to be related to FS-UAE.
I am now able to play these games as before - the same which were failing above are now working.

Not sure what changed or what info would help others with similar issues

[FrodeSolheim]

Weird, but thanks for the update!