Hi,

I'm running Ubuntu 16.10 64-bit, AMD R9 390 with default/open source video drivers. The libz1:i386, libGL1:i386 and libopenal1:i386 packages are installed.

When I run the game from the terminal:

$ ./start.sh
Running SteamWorld Heist
AL lib: (WW) alc_initconfig: Failed to initialize backend "jack"

The result is the same if I cd into 'game' and run the Heist executable directly.

A window seems to be opened, but not visible or focused. When I click on the Steamworld Heist icon in the Unity launcher on the left, the screen goes entirely black and I have to Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to a terminal, htop to kill the game and Ctrl+Alt+F7 back to the desktop environment.

I'm not sure if the "jack" error is actually the problem. I did search for info on the message and tried installing packages and executing commands but managed to stop all sound working and so I uninstalled the packages I'd installed and did a reinstall of pulseaudio.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

I second that.

I've found that if you'll run heist from the console you'll get the message about some x86 libraries missing. I've install them and got the game working but all that I get was sounds of a start movie and (I suppose) a bacground music of a main menu but totally black screen and the only thing that can be seen is the pointer.

Same here in Gentoo, built all the 32bit libraries to get it to start, but its just shows a black screen. If I run it via `xinit ./start.sh -- :1` it comes up in a new xserver and shows the intro movie, but the screen resolution is not set correctly.

This is with the modesetting driver and an intel video card.

I had a similar problem on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. When I ran the ./Heist from the command line I got a full black screen and would have to alt+tab away to kill it.

I read somewhere that the game had some problems running in full screen (in Linux? I don't remember) and that instead you should run it in windowed mode. This is apparently stored in a settings.xml file. According to PCGamingWiki (I can't post the link), that should be located in "$XDG_DATA_HOME/SteamWorld Heist/settings.xml" which in Ubuntu translates to "~/.local/share/SteamWorld Heist/settings.xml"

I looked, and while there were control config files there, I didn't have a settings.xml. I was able to make a barebones one configured to run in a window by piecing together snippets online. It now works.

Specifically, I added
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Settings>
<Setting Key="Screen.Borderless" Value="0"/>
<Setting Key="Screen.WindowSize" Value="1280;720"/> <!-- your resolution -->
<Setting Key="Screen.Fullscreen" Value="0"/>
<Setting Key="Screen.WindowResizable" Value="1"/>
</Settings>

in the new file:
~/.local/share/SteamWorld\ Heist/settings.xml



Hope this helps someone.

The 'run in window mode' solution mentioned here worked for me in ubuntu 17.10

thanks, whis works on ubuntu 18 too

I'm having the same issue with the black screen, but running the Heist file directly results in a window that says "Unexpected runtime error: Could not read settings definition Definitions/settings.xml, reason: Could not read file Definitions.settings.xml"

I've tried searching the error, to no avail and I can't figure out where Definitions/settings.xml would be stored. I've tried the suggested fix, as my config folder also didn't have settings.xml, but this has made no difference.

I'm running Debian 12 bookworm x86_64 if that's helpful.

UPDATE!!!!!!
I followed the instructions from the PCGamingWiki on SteamWorldHeist (apologies for the text, it wont let me post a hyperlink at the moment) under the section Widescreen Resolution and used these values in place of the suggested values for FullscreenSize and WindowSize, and this completely fixed the issue!

<Setting Key="Screen.FullscreenSize" Value="desktop" /> <!-- Fullscreen resolution -->
<Setting Key="Screen.WindowSize" Value="960;540" /> <!-- Windowed resolution -->

Just leaving this here in case some poor person also decides to pick up this game and is struggling with getting it working. Anyway, happy gaming!!

Here's that link (you'll be able to post links after making some more posts on the forum):
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/SteamWorld_Heist

Thanks for updating with how you fixed it. It's an excellent game, have fun!

Replying to this again as I've done nothing at all (as far as I'm aware) to my Steamworld Heist install, and it's having the same issue again. All I've done on my computer is install Kerbal Space Program and do some completely unrelated java programming, and now it doesn't work. Its having the exact same error as last time.

And yes, I have tried turning it off and on again.

Update once again, in case anyone is interested in the fickle nature of my computer:

I tried using the supplied fix, which did not work, so after a slight amount of panic, I attempted to use the PC Gaming Wiki supplied XML for a borderless fullscreen window, hoping that this wouldn't break everything further. Miraculously, it didn't. You will need to set the resolution to your actual screen size though. My resolution is nowhere near as good as the example value unfortunately.

<Setting Key="Screen.Borderless" Value="1"/>
<Setting Key="Screen.WindowSize" Value="1920;1080"/> <!-- your resolution -->
<Setting Key="Screen.Fullscreen" Value="0"/>
<Setting Key="Screen.WindowResizable" Value="0"/>