./steam segmentation fault!

[Knappster]

Hi,

I recently had the dreaded seg fault error when trying to update my l4d install using the steam binary.

I don't know if this is common knowledge but after using strace to see what was going on it appeared that the ClientRegistry.blob was the file causing this error. So I deleted it (i've had to do this in the past to get steam to work properly again, different error though) and hey presto steam was working.

I've seen threads in other forums going on about changing kernels and re-install glibc etc.. I would make a point to try this hack first.

I'm making this post only because it took me ages to find the solution and it turned out to be something so simple yet never found anything on my searches to even hint at removing the ClientRegistry.blob file.

I'm making a note that if in the future steam craps out again delete the .blob file first before anything else.

For those that don't know .steam is hidden on /home/username/.steam simply type username@servername:~$ rm /home/username/.steam/ClientRegistry.blob

and re-run your ./steam command.

[eet_1024]

Ok, I rescind what I stated earlier.

I didn't ready the original post closely enough, to see that ClientRegistry.blob is in its own directory (~/.steam).

I saw InstallRecord.blob in the srcds directory and thought that was to be the offending file.

This explains why when I tried to install a new server into an empty directory, it still crashed.