Arch Linux User Repository

0.95.1a_RC6-2 changed a bunch things that might need manual corrections after upgrading from earlier version:

1. I dropped the java dependency and instead included the JRE that is bundled with the game for better compatibility
2. I moved the user state directory ($HOME/.starsector) to the appropriate XDG directory $HOME/.local/share/starsector. the actual contents have not changed, so a simple mv "$HOME/.starsector" "$HOME/.local/share/starsector" should do the trick
3. The start script now supports customizing JVM arguments by creating a the script $HOME/.config/starsector/startup.sh which supports two variables (bash arrays): jvm_args and program_args. So e.g. if you customized the memory settings in the start script, you might want to move the changes to either of these variables (e.g. like this: jvm_args=(-Xms1536m -Xmx1536m -Xss2048k)).

@2M1R unfortunately their cloudflare protection blocks the download of the PDF. If you want you can report this in their forums, in the meantime I've dropped the file from the package.

I have 403 error on pdf download:

==> Tworzenie pakietu: starsector 0.98a_RC8-2 (nie, 10 sie 2025, 16:07:01)
==> Sprawdzanie zależności potrzebnych do uruchomienia...
==> Sprawdzanie zależności potrzebnych do budowy...
==> Pobieranie źródeł...
  -> Znaleziono starsector_linux-0.98a-RC8.zip
  -> Pobieranie starsector.pdf...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 403
==> BŁĄD: Błąd podczas pobierania http://www.fractalsoftworks.com/starfarer/docs/StarfarerManual.pdf
    Przerywam...
 -> error making: starsector-exit status 1
 -> Failed to install the following packages. Manual intervention is required:
starsector - exit status 1
[tumir@arch ~]$ exit

xorg-xrandr is a dependency otherwise one gets:

...
Caused by: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 0 out of bounds for length 0
    at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.getAvailableDisplayModes(LinuxDisplay.java:951)
    at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.init(LinuxDisplay.java:738)
    at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.<clinit>(Display.java:138)
...

@pschichtel I got it working. Per this thread: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=32191.msg471587#msg471587

__GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=0 starsector and it works!

There's other problems unfortunately, but it is running:

1. I recently switched to Gnome. I can't get the game to open on the correct monitor. And when I attempt to move it to the other monitor, it just freezes up when in full screen mode. Windowed mode chops off a portion of the bottom. This is probably a Gnome thing, as I imagine I wouldn't have this issue with Plasma.
2. The "fullscreen" option is reversed for some reason. Full screen checked goes to Windowed and vice versa. Again, maybe a Gnome thing.
3. I can't enable over 8x antialiasing (which I believe would be useful for increased UI scale, which I need on my 1440p monitors). Throws an error and resets everything.

But it looks like it is running.

@JamesMowery: Can you try running the game with its included JRE? It looks like it's crashing in the nvidia driver, maybe there is an issue in the game or the driver.

@pschichtel

I actually did a fresh install of CachyOS two days ago (was using EndeavourOS prior). I tried a fresh install, and I'm getting the same (if not very similar) error:

OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: Options -Xverify:none and -noverify were deprecated in JDK 13 and will likely be removed in a future release.
-XX:AVX3Threshold=0 -XX:-AlignVector -XX:+AlwaysAtomicAccesses -XX:+AlwaysCompileLoopMethods -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -XX:-BytecodeVerificationLocal -XX:-BytecodeVerificationRemote -XX:CompilerDirectivesFile=./compiler_directives.txt -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:-DontCompileHugeMethods -XX:-EnableThreadSMRStatistics -XX:+EnableVectorAggressiveReboxing -XX:+EnableVectorReboxing -XX:+EnableVectorSupport -XX:+ExtensiveErrorReports -XX:IncreaseFirstTierCompileThresholdAt=99 -XX:InitialHeapSize=2147483648 -XX:InterpreterProfilePercentage=99 -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=10 -XX:MaxHeapSize=2147483648 -XX:MinHeapSize=2147483648 -XX:NmethodSweepActivity=1 -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:PerMethodRecompilationCutoff=100000 -XX:+PrintCodeCache -XX:+PrintCommandLineFlags -XX:ProfileMaturityPercentage=100 -XX:ReferencesPerThread=0 -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=268435456 -XX:+SegmentedCodeCache -XX:ShenandoahAllocationThreshold=85 -XX:ShenandoahGCHeuristics=compact -XX:ShenandoahGCMode=iu -XX:ShenandoahGuaranteedGCInterval=0 -XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages -XX:+ShowMessageBoxOnError -XX:SweeperThreshold=0.468750 -XX:ThreadPriorityPolicy=1 -XX:ThreadStackSize=4096 -XX:Tier0Delay=1 -XX:Tier0ProfilingStartPercentage=2000 -XX:+TieredCompilation -XX:TieredOldPercentage=10000 -XX:TieredStopAtLevel=4 -XX:TrimNativeHeapInterval=60000 -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:UseAVX=3 -XX:+UseBMI1Instructions -XX:+UseBMI2Instructions -XX:+UseCLMUL -XX:+UseCompressedClassPointers -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:-UseCondCardMark -XX:+UseCriticalCompilerThreadPriority -XX:+UseCriticalJavaThreadPriority -XX:-UseDynamicNumberOfCompilerThreads -XX:+UseFMA -XX:+UseFPUForSpilling -XX:+UseFastStosb -XX:+UseFastUnorderedTimeStamps -XX:UseSSE=4 -XX:+UseSSE42Intrinsics -XX:+UseShenandoahGC -XX:+UseStringDeduplication -XX:+UseUnalignedAccesses -XX:+UseUnalignedLoadStores -XX:+UseVectorCmov -XX:+UseVectorStubs -XX:+UseXMMForArrayCopy -XX:+UseXMMForObjInit -XX:+UseXmmI2D -XX:+UseXmmI2F -XX:+ZeroTLAB 
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: -XX:ThreadPriorityPolicy=1 may require system level permission, e.g., being the root user. If the necessary permission is not possessed, changes to priority will be silently ignored.
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: UseXMMForObjInit requires SSE2 and unaligned load/stores. Feature is switched off.
2 compiler directives added
WARNING: package java.nio.Buffer.UNSAFE not in java.base
WARNING: package java.awt.Rectangle not in java.desktop
0    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher  - Starting Starsector 0.98a-RC7 launcher
0    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher  - Running in /usr/share/starsector
0    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher  - OS: Linux 6.14.0-4-cachyos
0    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher  - Java version: 17.0.14 (64-bit)
0    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher  - Max memory: 2048MB
1    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.settings.StarfarerSettings  - Loading settings
2    [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.loading.LoadingUtils  - Loading JSON from [ABSOLUTE_AND_CWD: null (data/config/settings.json)]
Apr 06, 2025 1:27:40 PM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences$1 run
INFO: Created user preferences directory.
76   [main] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.launcher.opengl.GLLauncher  - Found display mode: 320x240, 142Hz, 24bpp
...
...
...
325  [Thread-2] INFO  com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader  - Cleaned buffer for texture graphics/fonts/orbitron12_0.png (using reflection)
==============================================================================
Unexpected Error
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007398c665949c, pid=43269, tid=43330

Do you want to debug the problem?

To debug, run 'gdb /proc/43269/exe 43269'; then switch to thread 43330 (0x000000000000a942)
Enter 'yes' to launch gdb automatically (PATH must include gdb)
Otherwise, press RETURN to abort...
==============================================================================

#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
#  SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007398c665949c, pid=43269, tid=43330
#
# JRE version: OpenJDK Runtime Environment (17.0.14+7) (build 17.0.14+7)
# Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (17.0.14+7, mixed mode, sharing, tiered, compressed oops, compressed class ptrs, shenandoah gc, linux-amd64)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [libnvidia-glcore.so.570.133.07+0xa5949c]
...

@JamesMowery does the new RC release work better?

@Jako21530 Nice one. I gave it a shot and it shows the initial launcher screen.

But yet another error:

==============================================================================
Unexpected Error
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x000076af4985949c, pid=512595, tid=512657

Do you want to debug the problem?

To debug, run 'gdb /proc/512595/exe 512595'; then switch to thread 512657 (0x000000000007d291)
Enter 'yes' to launch gdb automatically (PATH must include gdb)
Otherwise, press RETURN to abort...
==============================================================================

#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
#  SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x000076af4985949c, pid=512595, tid=512657
#
# JRE version: OpenJDK Runtime Environment (17.0.14+7) (build 17.0.14+7)
# Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (17.0.14+7, mixed mode, sharing, tiered, compressed oops, compressed class ptrs, shenandoah gc, linux-amd64)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [libnvidia-glcore.so.570.133.07+0xa5949c]
#
# Core dump will be written. Default location: Core dumps may be processed with "/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump %P %u %g %s %t %c %h" (or dumping to /usr/share/starsector/core.512595)
#
# An error report file with more information is saved as:
# /tmp/hs_err_pid512595.log
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
#   https://bugreport.java.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
# See problematic frame for where to report the bug.
#
fish: Job 1, 'starsector' terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

I can't catch a break! lol.