Recent Portal Update Causes Crash

[mrmoon01000010]

The recent Portal update released on May 19th causes a game crash when trying to start a new game on chapter 0. When the bar finishes loading, a small console appears and the background goes black, shortly after, it closes.

The command line output for the Steam app (starting from the part that says Console initialized.) says the following (the username was replaced with "<username>"):

Console initialized.
[CWorkshop] Querying for subscribed files...
[CWorkshop] Subscribed item count: 0
'modsettings_default.cfg' not present; not executing.
--- Missing Vgui material vgui/servers/icon_replay
--- Missing Vgui material vgui/servers/icon_replay_column
Unknown command "#=====================This option is not available. Please see --help for all possible usages.
Adding process 998300 for gameID 400
Adding process 998301 for gameID 400
crash_20250519230038_2.dmp[998311]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
/tmp/dumps/crash_20250519230038_2.dmp
Adding process 998310 for gameID 400
crash_20250519230038_2.dmp[998311]: Finished uploading minidump (out-of-process): success = yes
crash_20250519230038_2.dmp[998311]: response: CrashID=bp-f395d7f4-990b-4edd-a8bd-75eca2250519
crash_20250519230038_2.dmp[998311]: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20250519230038_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-f395d7f4-990b-4edd-a8bd-75eca2250519''
pid 998311 != 998310, skipping destruction (fork without exec?)
/home/<username>/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Portal/hl2.sh: line 87: 997915 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) ${GAME_DEBUGGER} "${GAMEROOT}"/${GAMEEXE} "$@"
Game Recording - game stopped [gameid=400]
Removing process 998310 for gameID 400
Removing process 998301 for gameID 400
Removing process 998300 for gameID 400
Removing process 997915 for gameID 400
Removing process 997914 for gameID 400
Removing process 997876 for gameID 400
Removing process 997758 for gameID 400
Removing process 997751 for gameID 400
Removing process 997749 for gameID 400

(process:997925): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:01:11.869: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
reaping pid: 997925 -- gameoverlayui

My system information is the following:

Computer Information:
Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Model: 198F
Form Factor: Laptop
No Touch Input Detected
Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4600U CPU @ 2.10GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x45
CPU Stepping: 0x1
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3300 MHz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
Hyper-threading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Supported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Unsupported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported
BMI1: Supported
BMI2: Supported
F16C: Supported
FMA: Supported
Operating System Version:
"Arch Linux" (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 6.14.6-arch1-1
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 12401006
X Window Manager: wlroots wm
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime_1.0.20250307.120442
Client Information:
Version: 1745876290
Browser GPU Acceleration Status: Enabled
Browser Canvas: Enabled
Browser Canvas out-of-process rasterization: Enabled
Browser Direct Rendering Display Compositor: Disabled
Browser Compositing: Enabled
Browser Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Browser OpenGL: Enabled
Browser Rasterization: Enabled
Browser Raw Draw: Disabled
Browser Skia Graphite: Disabled
Browser Video Decode: Enabled
Browser Video Encode: Disabled
Browser Vulkan: Disabled
Browser WebGL: Enabled
Browser WebGL2: Enabled
Browser WebGPU: Disabled
Browser WebNN: Disabled
Video Card:
Driver: Intel Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
Driver Version: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.0.5-arch1.1
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x1002
DeviceID: 0x6601
Revision Not Detected
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 2
Primary Display Resolution: 1366 x 768
Desktop Resolution: 1366 x 768
Primary Display Size: 12.20" x 6.69" (13.90" diag), 31.0cm x 17.0cm (35.3cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected
Sound card:
Audio device: Intel Haswell HDMI
Memory:
RAM: 11853 Mb
VR Hardware:
VR Headset: None detected
Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_CA.UTF-8
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 453416 MB
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 273158 MB
Storage:
Number of SSDs: 0
Number of HDDs: 0
Number of removable drives: 0

[mrmoon01000010]

It seems as if the problem may affect all levels, as the same problems occurs when trying to load a game or starting a challenge map (which is all I've tested so far). The main differences is that the first frame and sound can be heard in those cases, also the console doesn't appear when loading a game. I haven't seen any noticable difference in the command line output error messages.

[OstojaOfficial]

Related to the recent update. I don't know if its just issue on my end but UI looks a bit weird. Can anyone confirm if they are also experiencing this issue?

[brunorurz]

Can confirm, the same stuff is happening on my end, alongside other weird issues. Looks like a repeat of the last update that also broke the game in general, although this one doesn't seem as severe.

[NULLYUKI]

(process:997925): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:01:11.869: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
reaping pid: 997925 -- gameoverlayui

Can you check if the crash also occurs after disabling the InGame Steam Overlay?

[mrmoon01000010]

The crash also occurs when disabling the InGame Steam Overlay. Though the line indicated disappeared.

[kisak-valve]

Hello, it looks like this issue can be avoided by using the Vulkan render path by adding -vulkan to the game's launch options. @mrmoon01000010, unfortunately, your hardware generation doesn't provide a spec-compliant Vulkan implementation, so there's a decent chance your system will have a harder time with that render path.

[mrmoon01000010]

Adding the -vulkan flag did prevent the error, I had to change the drivers acording to this forum that allowed my architechture to work. I'm not sure if it's related, but I did notice a significant decrease in frame rate. Also when loading test chamber 18 or 19 (I don't remember which) I had to wait about 30 seconds and the message Redownloading all lightmaps appeared in the command line output.

[Misat11]

I can confirm the crash as well. When I start a new game, the game hangs, a multiplayer chat window appears (which is strange in itself), and then it crashes. If I start a bonus map instead, the game hangs for a moment, but it eventually loads the level and I'm able to play. Interestingly, if I load any map directly from the console (e.g. map testchmb_a_00), it just works—unlike the new game dialog.

The Steam overlay is completely unusable: only red boxes are visible where windows or notifications should appear. This seems related to the same bug affecting Half-Life 2 (issues #6764, #6792, and #6903), which has been present in HL2 since the update released on Nov 26, 2024.

Oddly, if I launch the game directly using ./hl2.sh -game portal instead of using the Steam UI, the crash doesn’t happen—regardless of whether it's within the Steam Runtime (scout) or not. The ingame overlay doesn't work when launched this way, but disabling the overlay in Steam doesn't prevent the crash from happening when launching through Steam.

This issue only occurs when using OpenGL (which as you know is the default for this game). Switching to Vulkan avoids the crashes and makes the UI functional, but I have to also launch it with either -windowed or -freq 60, or else it crashes my entire desktop. (This is a broader issue with Source 2013 games and has been reported multiple times in this bug tracker.)

As for the multiplayer chat: every time a level is loading, the chat window flashes for a split second. I don’t remember any Source single-player game doing this. The console outputs lines like Not playing a local game and Can't use cheat cvar c_** in multiplayer, but since HL2 also prints similar messages without showing the chat window, it’s probably unrelated.