Game freezes on Linux Mint

[ajhmain]

To reproduce:

1. Run the jar file either double clicking from file manager, or using eg: "java -Xmx4096m -jar rotp-Fusion-2024-06-07.jar arg1" from terminal (makes no difference to outcome).
2. Game starts in window mode, main menu works perfectly, music playing, tooltips working.
3. Select New Game.
4. Select Humans, click Next button
5. Leave Rivals and Galaxy settings on default (3 rivals, Star field, Small, Normal difficulty)
6. Click Start button.
7. Nothing happens for from about 10 to 60 seconds. Select Opponents screen is still visible.
8. Eventually Race background screen is displayed (eg The Human Triumvirate).
9. Click Begin button
10. Sometimes the main game display appears (with home planet, eg Earth etc).. But display either remains partially visible (50% alpha over previous screen) or fully displays. But in both cases absolutely no buttons can be clicked and no keyboard keys work.
11. In either case within about 10-20 seconds the music stops playing. No other sounds when moving mouse over buttons etc.
12. Game seems to have fully frozen and I have to kill the process to close the window.

Other points:

1. Changing in game settings such as Fullscreen, borderless, low graphics quality make no difference.
2. I see the same problem with the original game from Ray fowler (jar from itchi.io), your mini and full jar across releases from rotp-Fusion-2025-12-05.jar back to java rotp-Fusion-2024-06-07.jar
3. I have tried both Nvidia 535 driver (recommended in Driver manager) and the latest 580 driver, makes no difference. Other games, applications do not have any graphics driver related issues on either version.
4. Other java games such as Minecraft work without issue.

I am wondering if it is something to do with the OpenGL/Vulkan library ROTPC uses? Perhaps there is some versioning issue, i.e. my system has a newer/older version then required?

I enjoyed the base game years ago on a windows 10 PC but read fusion is the version to play now as it is still being updated.

Thanks

My system information:

java --version
openjdk 21.0.9 2025-10-21
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.9+10-Ubuntu-124.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.9+10-Ubuntu-124.04, mixed mode, sharing)


System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-53250128-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.4.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 22.1 Xia base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: STRIX Z270E GAMING v: Rev 1.xx
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-7700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Kaby Lake
    rev: 9 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3513 high: 3903 min/max: 800/4500 cores: 1: 3902 2: 3900 3: 3900 4: 3903
    5: 3900 6: 3900 7: 3901 8: 800 bogomips: 67200
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 535.274.02
    arch: Pascal pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none off: DP-1,DVI-D-1
    empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1b80 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 4480x1440 s-dpi: 93 s-size: 1224x385mm (48.19x15.16")
    s-diag: 1283mm (50.52")
  Monitor-1: DP-0 pos: right res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 92 size: 708x399mm (27.87x15.71")
    diag: 813mm (32") modes: N/A
  Monitor-2: DVI-D-0 pos: primary,left res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94
    size: 518x324mm (20.39x12.76") diag: 611mm (24.05") modes: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: gbm: drv: nvidia
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 535.274.02 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA
    GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 layers: 8 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A
    device-ID: 10de:1b80 device: 1 type: cpu driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Creative Labs EMU20k2 [Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Series] driver: snd_ctxfi
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1102:000b class-ID: 0403
    API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-53250128-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 8.19 TiB used: 4.77 TiB (58.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 960 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 2B7QCXE7 temp: 37.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB size: 1.82 TiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 2B2QEXM7 temp: 38.9 C scheme: MBR
  ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM005-2DP166 size: 3.64 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 5980 serial: <filter> fw-rev: 0001 scheme: GPT
  ID-4: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1ER164 size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> fw-rev: CC25 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 116.78 GiB used: 74.88 GiB (64.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 486 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.3%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 798.01 GiB used: 295.84 GiB (37.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 55 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Repos:
  Packages: 3258 pm: dpkg pkgs: 3234 pm: flatpak pkgs: 24
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/christian-boxdoerfer-fsearch-stable-noble.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/christian-boxdoerfer-fsearch-stable-noble.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/christian-boxdoerfer/fsearch-stable/ubuntu noble main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/git-core-ppa-noble.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/git-core-ppa-noble.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/git-core/ppa/ubuntu noble main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/inkscape_dev-stable-noble.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/inkscape_dev-stable-noble.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/inkscape.dev/stable/ubuntu noble main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com xia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-noble.sources
    1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu noble main
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.28 GiB used: 4.9 GiB (15.7%)
  Processes: 318 Power: uptime: 1h 57m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep wakeups: 0
    hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Client: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 inxi: 3.3.34

[BrokenRegistry]

Your PC clearly has enough power to run RotP-Fusion.
I'm not a Linux expert, but it seems to be mainly a display issue. So I assume you installed the “Headless JRE.” Try installing the “Full JRE” or even the JDK.

[ajhmain]

Thanks for responding. Yeah definitely not a system performance/power issue, system is older now but still happily runs everything smoothly but absolute latest games.

I have both the full and headless JRE installed. I run other java software with user interfaces so I don't think that's the issue either.

apt list --installed *jre*
Listing... Done
default-jre-headless/noble,now 2:1.21-75+exp1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
default-jre/noble,now 2:1.21-75+exp1 amd64 [installed]
openjdk-21-jre-headless/noble-updates,noble-security,now 21.0.9+10-1~24.04 amd64 [installed,automatic]
openjdk-21-jre/noble-updates,noble-security,now 21.0.9+10-1~24.04 amd64 [installed,automatic]

As this is Linux I am guessing it might be an incorrect graphics library version that Rotp-fusion depends on.

What graphics library does Rotp-fusion use? I assume it is some OpenGL/Vulkan bindings?. JOGL, LWJGL LibGd, SDL etc. If so I could check my installed libraries version.

[BrokenRegistry]

When programming in Java, you can only use the available java libraries. (It's awt for the GUI.)
The full Java JRE should provide everything that is needed.
In your system, it's probably that the RotP jar file still start with the headless JRE.

Try to explicitly start it with the full JRE:
<path_to_fulljre>/bin/java.exe -jar Executable.jar

Otherwise, I found somewhere that in headless mode, Java rely on Xorg X11 libraries.
Debian / Ubuntu - Install the libxp6, libxt6, libxtst6, and libx11-6 packages.
From: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/297367/libraries-required-when-setting-the-java.html

I can also add a test for headless mode, but this will only result in preventing the game from starting... So not a big improvement.