$ ./start.sh
Running Renowned Explorers: International Society
./x86_64/abbeycore: error while loading shared libraries: libsndio.so.6.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This isn't listed as dependency and appears to be a somewhat outdated version of sndio (1.2 while 1.5 is current).

I could start the game after removing game/x86_64/libSDL2-2.0.so.0 and thus using the system SDL.

I have experimented some more and got the game to start semi-reliably.

There is a default config file: "GOG Games/Renowned Explorers International Society/game/settings.ini"

There is another config file: "GOG Games/Renowned Explorers International Society/game/userdata/Renowned Explorers International Society/userdata/settings.ini"

The second one gets re-created if it is missing, but without the line:

r_renderConfig = "rendering\/renderer"

What I did was linking that file to the default and making it read-only so the r_renderConfig doesn't disappear, but it may break in-game graphics settings.

Another thing to note is to only remove the shipped SDL library, not the libc++ ones as the game behaves weirdly with the system libraries. Loading times increase etc.

Even with all these hacks the game starts unreliably, but it seems entirely random. Sometimes abbeyCore keeps hanging around and then the game won't start at all, but otherwise just try a few times until it loads.

I know that my system isn't supported but I'd still say this game has some issues.

My apologies if this post is weirdly formatted, but the forum's editor is really horrible.

I haven't encountered any problems with this game on my Arch Linux system and I don't remember modifying anything. I've modified start.sh and added an ldd before the /"x86_64/abbeycore". It uses the bundled version of SDL, but it does not use libsndio.so.6.1.

I just downloaded snd 1.2 from the sndio website, compiled (./configure, make) it, copied it to the game folder and then preloaded the library: LD_PRELOAD=$PWD/libsndio.so.6.1 ./start.sh - seems to work great.

Ubuntu 19.10

# wget www.sndio.org/sndio-1.2.0.tar.gz
# tar xvf sndio-1.2.0.tar.gz
# cd sndio-1.2.0 && ./configure && make && cd ..
# git clone -b OpenSSL_1_0_2-stable --single-branch github.com/openssl/openssl.git
# cd openssl && ./config shared && make && cd ..
# LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD/sndio-1.2.0/libsndio/:$PWD/openssl/" LD_PRELOAD="libsndio.so.6.1 libssl.so.1.0.0" ./start.sh

Unfortunately, neither of your suggestions helped me run the game. Can you please elaborate from which path you issued the LD_PRELOAD command?

I have tried different things.
1) I went to the directory to which I downloaded and built snd (and openssl), then issued the LD_PRELOAD command, then went to the game install location and tried to "sh start.sh" - which didnt work.
1a) I went to the snd directory, did LD_PRELOAD, went to the game install location and tried "sh start.sh" - which didnt work.
2) I tried the whole LD_PRELOAD ./start shebang from the game install location, which didnt work either.

What am I doing wrong?

Other than that, is it working smoothly? Because I tried via installing the "./play.it", which made it possible to run the game, but it crashed like all the time.

greetings labuvettaducampus

That's not for fixing the problem, but to see which libSDL the game uses. If you use ldd on a binary you get a list of dynamically linked resources that are loaded including their location.

What's the message if you run start.sh in a terminal? It would be easier to debug if you sent me a PM.

So I spent hours again tonight to try and get this game to work.
What I found:
1. From GOG Games//Renowned Explorers International Society/game/settings.ini delete everything except:

r_renderConfig = "rendering\/renderer"

Without this line the game will fail to actually load an adventure. Got stuck for me on 79% when starting an adventure.

2. From GOG Games/Renowned Explorers International Society/game/x86_64 move or delete libSDL2-2.0.so.0

Not sure whether 2. is necessary. I had other days where it only seemed to work with libSDL2 from the Steam runtime.

Here's what I did on my Ubuntu 20.10 :
- apt install libc++1 libsdl2-2.0-0
- Remove/rename the following libraries that are bundled with the game (in the "GOG Games/Renowned Explorers International Society/game/x86_64" directory or wherever else you decided to place it on installation) : libc++abi.so.1, libc++.so.1 and libSDL2-2.0.so.0

If you want to launch the game from the command line, type :
$ cd 'GOG Games/Renowned Explorers International Society/game'
$ x86_64/abbeycore

(Do not cd inside x86_64 then run ./abbeycore, it will fail since the program needs to start with the parent directory as the working directory)

As a general rule, using the bundled libraries should not be necessary if they're provided with your OS. The ones from your OS are probably more up to date, and more consistent with your OS' policy, in particular when it comes to compilation options.

It works very well for me, and I had nothing else to change (my Nvidia GPU being dead, I use Intel HD Graphics 4600 on my old i7-4710MQ).

To start Dead Cells (update 24) you have to remove libopenal.so.1 if you have this error:

"Running Dead Cells
** ERROR ** Missing library libsndio.so.7.0
** ERROR ** Missing library libsndio.so.7.0
src/module.c(321) : FATAL ERROR : Failed to load library openal.hdll"

It start if you rename libopenal.so.1 but whit error:

"Running Dead Cells
** ERROR ** Missing library libsndio.so.7.0
Loading assets... Loading pak assets... done.
297 shaders loaded in 0.08747s"


Works on SOLUS OS.