Can't load savefile on linux.

[Modeco]

Hello

I have a weird problem playing (or rather trying to play) v3.0.9b (and also 3.1.1.1626) on Ubuntu 9.04. The game always starts with new character creation, no matter what I do.
As far as I know, the game should load ~/.angband/Angband/save/<uid>.<username> by default. It doesn't. I can save the game and the savefile exists in correct location, but loading simply doesn't work.

At first I thought that it's a bug in beta, so I compiled stable version. Still didn't work, so I thought that probably just my compilation sucks, I removed everything and installed angband package, the one which comes in Ubuntu repository. This one doesn't work either.
Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, I haven't play on Linux for a while, but I clearly remember that older version loaded savefile without doing anything special

I'd appreciate any help or suggestions on what I may be doing wrong.

[Magnate]

Have you tried explicitly loading the savefile with the -u option?

[Modeco]

Yep, I did. Of course it doesn't work, but the option itself works - if I use it, the savefile is created with the name specified.

[Magnate]

Yep, I did. Of course it doesn't work, but the option itself works - if I use it, the savefile is created with the name specified.

Is it just a duff saveile? Or if you create a savefile with that method, it's not read back in??

[Modeco]

Well, I have no idea if it's read or not. It just doesn't work if I restart the game with -u<name> again.

[Nick]

That's odd, and annoying. I have played successfully on Ubuntu 9.04 for some time (although I've gone to 9.10 now). From you description, I can't see what is going wrong. The fact that multiple versions fail makes it sound like something to do with your system setup. A few random thoughts:

• Did you compile with './configure', 'make'. 'sudo make install' ?
• Does 'which angband' tell you /usr/local/bin/angband ?
• Are your permissions set up unusually?
• If all else fails, does faangband work?

[Modeco]

• Did you compile with './configure', 'make'. 'sudo make install' ?
• Does 'which angband' tell you /usr/local/bin/angband ?
• Are your permissions set up unusually?
• If all else fails, does faangband work?

I compiled with ./configure --enable-gtk, make, sudo make install.
Executable location is correct, nothing unusual with permissions.
And I've just compiled Faangband the same way - it works. Now I also noticed that Angband is missing the startup screen, everytime I run it, it jumps directly to character creation.

[d_m]

And you are sure that the mtime of the new angband install is consistent with it being installed correctly? You might want to try a custom install prefix (e.g. ./configure --prefix ~/angtest) and then run ~/angtest/bin/angband explicitly.

Is your system 32-bit? 64-bit? I assume it's x86 or compatible?

It's good news that faangband works at least.

[Modeco]

Ups, i forgot to add that I use amd64 version of Ubuntu.
I did some additional tests, it looks like gtk build is breaking all loading options. I tried building the ncurses and x11 versions, both worked just fine. As soon as I add --enable-gtk, it breaks the executable, it won't load saves anymore, even if I run it as x11 from the commandline.
I'm upgrading Ubuntu to the latest version right now, to see if that will help. At least now I can play while waiting

[PowerDiver]

Ups, i forgot to add that I use amd64 version of Ubuntu.
I did some additional tests, it looks like gtk build is breaking all loading options. I tried building the ncurses and x11 versions, both worked just fine. As soon as I add --enable-gtk, it breaks the executable, it won't load saves anymore, even if I run it as x11 from the commandline.
I'm upgrading Ubuntu to the latest version right now, to see if that will help. At least now I can play while waiting

Is there any setuid or setgid going on? ISTR one of the packages, perhaps gtk but I am not sure, not allowing setuid processes to work properly.

[Nick]

I did some additional tests, it looks like gtk build is breaking all loading options. I tried building the ncurses and x11 versions, both worked just fine. As soon as I add --enable-gtk, it breaks the executable, it won't load saves anymore, even if I run it as x11 from the commandline.

I avoid the gtk version, I must say - partly from aesthetics and partly because I can't get extended character encodings working in it. I recommend using --enable-sdl and angband -msdl - the SDL port is IMHO the best by a long way. You may need to install some extra sdl libraries - I can't recall exactly which, but can give more detail if you need it.

I'm upgrading Ubuntu to the latest version right now, to see if that will help. At least now I can play while waiting

My upgrade to Karmic was the cleanest I've had. Enjoy.

[Magnate]

Ups, i forgot to add that I use amd64 version of Ubuntu.
I did some additional tests, it looks like gtk build is breaking all loading options. I tried building the ncurses and x11 versions, both worked just fine. As soon as I add --enable-gtk, it breaks the executable, it won't load saves anymore, even if I run it as x11 from the commandline.
I'm upgrading Ubuntu to the latest version right now, to see if that will help. At least now I can play while waiting

Ah, now this is interesting - someone mentioned this on #angband-dev, and I can't reproduce it at all - the gtk port works fine for me (x86 Debian Squeeze). But at least you know you're not alone.

Sadly we don't have an active maintainer for the gtk port at the moment, so my advice is the same as Nick's - switch to SDL.

[Modeco]

It looks like there is a bug in the gtk, or at least some incompatibility with Angband code. I upgraded Ubuntu all the way to 9.10 and now gtk version works.

EDIT: well, the new build load saves, but after a while I found out that it's broken anyway. Crashes randomly with gtk errors on entering dungeons, stores, or even casting spells.
I installed all the required SDL libraries and build the SDL version, have been playing for around 15 minutes so far and everything seems to be fine. Just one minor problem: the graphics (old tiles) seems a bit too dark and I have no idea how to adjust brightness.