Quake3's "awaiting snapshot" problem

onesandzeros · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 108

Hello all,

I posted a few weeks ago about forthcoming Quake3 patches, but after plenty more (unsuccessful) attempts, I don't think it's the patch.

Basically, my problem is that when I try to connect to a server, the system hangs at the "awaiting snapshot" stage. When this happens, I can hear the q3 audio begin to loop. It doesn't freeze the whole system, but I've got to ctrl+alt+Fx to a console and killall -9 quake3.x86. Frequently the mouse is no longer responsive, so X has got to be restarted.

System details: up to date gentoo box (no ~x86, though), plain 2.6.7 as well as Nvidia's 6106 and a generic FX5700Ultra card. I install quake3 from the cdrom and then apply the lastest patch, linuxq3apoint-1.32b-3.x86.run which I grabbed off of id's ftp server.

I've tried it with various firewall configs, including no firewall at all. I've tried it running my standard KDE 3.2 desktop, as well as with fluxbox. The game does it both in window mode and fullscreen. It does it when running as user or as root.

The latest development is that I was playing the basic one-player game, and after loading a level, it froze. I could hear the audio looping, and I took the same steps to get back to my desktop.

I've tried several things to remedy this, like setting com_hunkmegs fairly high (as high as 256) and also changing geometric detail to the lowest setting. I've reinstalled and tried to run the game with the default config file. I am not using an old config. I've also tried with and without the patch (and two different versions of the patch, I think).

Unfortunately I'm not sure when this problem started. Until about February of '03, I had gentoo system powerful enough to run the game. No problems. Then, for a year, I had no such system. In the last 3 months, I built the system I have now, which exhibits this problem. So, where exactly the change took place, I don't know.

As there's no news about a Doom3 box or Doom3 demo for linux, I'd really like to get this running.

Thanks,

badpenguin · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 2:02 am Post subject:

does this happen on local games? such as single player dms?
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onesandzeros · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 108

badpenguin,

I started it up, chose single player and then skirmish. Chose three bots in addition to myself, and as soon as I 'materialized,' that is as soon as I could see the level in front of me and my gun at the bottom of the screen, it froze. So, yeah, it does happen in local games.

Thanks for your quick reply.

badpenguin · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:53 am Post subject:

could It be a driver problem? maby the load of the new level make the game freeze, i remember in quake that it was a heft load once you got into the game
_________________
Gentoo Linux 2004.2 - gentoo-sources (2.4.26-gentoo-r6)
AMD XP-M 2400+ @ 2761 Ghz
512x2Mb(1Gb) PC3200 Ultra Geil Ram - Dual Channel
DFI Lan Party
ATI Radeon 9500@9700 Pro
120Gb WD 7200 RPM Drive
Custom Watercooling System - Pics Soon

onesandzeros · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 108

I had nvidia 5336 around, so I just tried that. Same results in local games and network games.

In the past, I had compiled the kernel with the 4kb stacks. I just went back to check, and I am not using that option in my current setup.

Thanks,

badpenguin · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:11 am Post subject:

is this the only game you can play? or do other games work fine?
_________________
Gentoo Linux 2004.2 - gentoo-sources (2.4.26-gentoo-r6)
AMD XP-M 2400+ @ 2761 Ghz
512x2Mb(1Gb) PC3200 Ultra Geil Ram - Dual Channel
DFI Lan Party
ATI Radeon 9500@9700 Pro
120Gb WD 7200 RPM Drive
Custom Watercooling System - Pics Soon

onesandzeros · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 108

Although I don't have them installed at the moment, I had no problems with the full version of ut2003, or the demo of ut2004.

badpenguin · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:24 am Post subject:

im jw, how do you install quake 3 on linux, is it an insalll, or do you winex it or something?
_________________
Gentoo Linux 2004.2 - gentoo-sources (2.4.26-gentoo-r6)
AMD XP-M 2400+ @ 2761 Ghz
512x2Mb(1Gb) PC3200 Ultra Geil Ram - Dual Channel
DFI Lan Party
ATI Radeon 9500@9700 Pro
120Gb WD 7200 RPM Drive
Custom Watercooling System - Pics Soon

onesandzeros · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 108

It's the Loki port. Proper linux install, no wine.

m33p · Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:10 am Post subject:

I had this problem as well. I found that when I disabled sound (using "./quake3 +set s_initsound 0") it worked, I suspect it has something to do with sound cards with support for only one sound at a time. I was using onboard alc850 chipset sound, and when I put in my emu10k1 it also worked fine, even with sound. Hope this helps you.

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MaxDamage · Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 12:15 am Post subject:

Confirmed, disabling sound fixes the hangs.
The problem started some weeks ago, with an alsa version bump.

I use the via82xx alsa driver. This soundcard is shit in Linux, but in Windows plays nicely. What's the problem with the alsa guys? I'm fed up, always geting crackled/too fast sound in UT/UT2003!!
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onesandzeros · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 108

Yeah, confirmed. Killing the sound works. Although, MaxDamage, I'm not using Alsa, just regular OSS. Thanks m33p. Now if that Doom3 demo is released...