Blender crashes at startup

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1

Blender was running fine (or not, but that’s unrelated) until a few days ago it consistently crashes upon startup. Run straight from the command line, it says:
connect failed: No such file or directory
then writes a crash text file in /tmp, which contains:

Blender 2.69 (sub 0), Revision: 60991

backtrace

blender269() [0xf84687]
blender269() [0xf848c5]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0xfcb0) [0x7f2f18303cb0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0xa04d4) [0x7f2f179d84d4]
blender269(GPU_extensions_init+0xf2) [0x1359462]
blender269(wm_window_add_ghostwindows+0x19c) [0xf8871c]
blender269(WM_check+0x4d) [0xf8b87d]
blender269(wm_homefile_read+0xe6) [0xf8c886]
blender269(WM_init+0xca) [0xf88bda]
blender269(main+0x18d) [0xf86a99]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xed) [0x7f2f1795976d]
blender269() [0xec38d5]

This happens for 2.67, 2.68, 2.69, 2.70. It’d be nice to know the name of the file or directory it says there’s no such of.

When I run blender in GDB, it gives this:
darewn:bash> gdb /home/darenw/SW/bin/blender268

(gdb) r
Starting program: /home/darenw/SW/bin/blender268
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library “/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1”.
[New Thread 0x7ffff17ff700 (LWP 27715)]
[New Thread 0x7ffff0ffe700 (LWP 27716)]
[New Thread 0x7ffff07fd700 (LWP 27717)]
[New Thread 0x7fffefffc700 (LWP 27718)]
connect failed: No such file or directory
[New Thread 0x7fffeebff700 (LWP 27719)]
[Thread 0x7fffeebff700 (LWP 27719) exited]
[New Thread 0x7fffeebff700 (LWP 27720)]
[New Thread 0x7fffe9bff700 (LWP 27721)]
[New Thread 0x7fffe93fe700 (LWP 27722)]
[Thread 0x7fffe93fe700 (LWP 27722) exited]

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
__strstr_sse2 (haystack_start=0x0, needle_start=0x405e696 “ATI”) at …/string/strstr.c:63
63 …/string/strstr.c: No such file or directory.
(gdb)

Is Blender or GDB looking for a source file? Just what is strstr_sse2, and why is segfaulting?

This is on Ubuntu Linux, 64-bit with 16GB RAM. I don’t know of anything I changed, on purpose or accidentally, to cause Blender to act different.

2

Hi
“connect failed: No such file or directory” this text appear when Blender is compiled with NDOF - devices support (Spacenavigator etc.) by default in builds from blender.org.

Which verssion you have.
Do you upgraded system, or libs???
Try some builds from graphicall.org

This is my output when i start blender 2.70 from blender.org

“connect failed: No such file or directory
Read new prefs: /home/blendermaniac/BLENDERY/blender-2.70-linux-glibc211-x86_64/2.70/config/userpref.blend”
Which dont appear when i’m build blender from source with NDOF=OFF
I have Xubuntu x64 4GB RAM and i have nvidia graphic card. -

Mayby try to delete the config folder (make copy first)

I’m not a programer, or it tech… Just trying to help…
Regards

3

Moving .blender out of the way had no effect. I haven’t tried building Blender from source in a long time. Last time was a mess, but then I was new to Blender. Right now I’ve got a huge physics software build going, but will try making Blender from source soon.

4

Building Blender from source shouldn’t be necessary…
The segfault error message refers to “ATI” - so maybe it’s a problem with the graphics driver?

5

A new clue: When I close the Chromium browser, Blender now starts up. Not starts up fine, but starts up, at least.

Another problem has been haunting me for a while, before this startup crash, which is that for 2.69, 2.70 clicking Viewport Shading to Rendered causes an instant lock-up, that even ctrl-C on the command line can’t kill. So I use 2.68. Except half the times I run it, many of the buttons such as in Properties, are just black squares. There’s plenty of RAM. These could be some sort of OpenGL-related troubles.

So maybe I will have to power down this machine sometime this year and update all software, drivers, etc.

6

I’ve wiped my disk to install a fresh Arch Linux. No Chromium. It is blacklisted forever :slight_smile: So far, all versions of Blender run fine, even the Viewport Shading Rendered. I have yet to run Youtube or Flash a lot to see if they have any detrimental effect. Or to use Blender on something complex with plenty of fancy nodes, animation and compositing.

As the absent-minded parachutist said when half-way down, “so far so good…”