UE4Editor doesn't launch: Could not initialize SDL

Hello I have an issue when I launch UE4Editor-Linux-Debug (and UE4Editor) after to have compiled Unreal Engine 4.8 from GitHub.

Here’s the logs: (which appear on the terminal where I launch UE4Editor-Linux-Debug).

Using binned.
Increasing per-process limit of core file size to infinity.
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit:Display: Running engine without a game
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit:Display: RandInit(1382129551) SRandInit(1382129556).
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogTaskGraph: Started task graph with 4 named threads and 7 total threads.
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogStats: Stats thread started
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Version: 4.8.3-0+++depot+UE4-Releases+4.8
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: API Version: 0
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Compiled (64-bit): Aug 18 2015 10:28:12
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Compiled with Clang: 3.5.0 (tags/RELEASE_350/final)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Build Configuration: Debug
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Branch Name: ++depot+UE4-Releases+4.8
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Command line: 
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Base directory: /ramdisk/UnrealEngine/Engine/Binaries/Linux/
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:161][  0]LogInit: Rocket: 0
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit: Using libcurl 7.38.0
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:  - built for x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:  - supports SSL with OpenSSL/1.0.1i
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:  - supports HTTP deflate (compression) using libz 1.2.5
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:  - other features:
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:      CURL_VERSION_SSL
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:      CURL_VERSION_LIBZ
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:      CURL_VERSION_IPV6
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:      CURL_VERSION_ASYNCHDNS
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:      CURL_VERSION_LARGEFILE
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:191][  0]LogInit:      CURL_VERSION_TLSAUTH_SRP
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:192][  0]LogInit:  Libcurl: checking if '/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt' exists
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:192][  0]LogInit:  Libcurl: checking if '/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt' exists
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:193][  0]LogInit:  CurlRequestOptions (configurable via config and command line):
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:193][  0]LogInit:  - bVerifyPeer = true  - Libcurl will verify peer certificate
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:193][  0]LogInit:  - bUseHttpProxy = false  - Libcurl will NOT use HTTP proxy
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:193][  0]LogInit:  - bDontReuseConnections = false  - Libcurl will reuse connections
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:193][  0]LogInit:  - CertBundlePath = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt  - Libcurl will set CURLOPT_CAINFO to it
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:213][  0]LogOnline:Warning: No default platform service specified for OnlineSubsystem
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:335][  0]LogInit: Presizing for 0 objects not considered by GC, pre-allocating 0 bytes.
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:374][  0]LogInit: Object subsystem initialized
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:381][  0]LogInit: Initializing SDL.
No protocol specified
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:389][  0]LogInit:Warning: Could not initialize SDL: No available video device
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:389][  0]LogInit:Warning: FDisplayMetrics::GetDisplayMetrics: PlatformInitMultimedia() failed, cannot get display metrics
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:392][  0]LogInit: Selected Device Profile: [Linux]
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:392][  0]LogInit: Applying CVar settings loaded from the selected device profile: [Linux]
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit: Linux hardware info:
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit:  - this process' id (pid) is 2541, parent process' id (ppid) is 2496
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit:  - we are not running under debugger
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit:  - machine network name is 'DebianAdmin-PC'
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit:  - we're logged in locally
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit:  - Number of physical cores available for the process: 4
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:420][  0]LogInit:  - Number of logical cores available for the process: 8
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  - Memory allocator used: binned
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit: Linux-specific commandline switches:
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -nodwarf (currently OFF): suppress parsing of DWARF debug info (callstacks will be generated faster, but won't have line numbers)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -ansimalloc - use malloc()/free() from libc (useful for tools like valgrind and electric fence)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -jemalloc - use jemalloc for all memory allocation
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -binnedmalloc - use binned malloc  for all memory allocation
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -httpproxy=ADDRESS:PORT - redirects HTTP requests to a proxy (only supported if compiled with libcurl)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -reuseconn - allow libcurl to reuse HTTP connections (only matters if compiled with libcurl)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit:  -virtmemkb=NUMBER - sets process virtual memory (address space) limit (overrides VirtualMemoryLimitInKB value from .ini)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit: Setting LC_NUMERIC to en_US
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:421][  0]LogInit: Initializing SDL.
No protocol specified
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:427][  0]LogInit:Warning: Could not initialize SDL: No available video device
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:427][  0]LogInit:  - Physical RAM available (not considering process quota): 20 GB (20074 MB, 20556104 KB, 21049450496 bytes)
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:457][  0]LogTextLocalizationManager: The requested culture ('fr_FR') has no localization data; falling back to 'en' for localization and internationalization data.
[2015.08.21-08.26.55:876][  0]LogTextLocalizationManager:Warning: Loaded localization resources contain conflicting entries for (Namespace:ContentBrowser, Key:ImportAssetToolTip):
Localization Resource: (/ramdisk/UnrealEngine/Engine/Content/Localization/Editor/en/Editor.locres) Source String Hash: (-630476809) Localized String: (Import to {0}...)
Localization Resource: (/ramdisk/UnrealEngine/Engine/Content/Localization/Editor/en/Editor.locres) Source String Hash: (1271782899) Localized String: (Imports an asset from file to this folder.)
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:156][  0]LogInit: Initializing SDL.
No protocol specified
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:166][  0]LogInit:Warning: Could not initialize SDL: No available video device
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:166][  0]LogInit:Warning: LinuxSplash_InitSplashResources() : PlatformInitMultimedia() failed, there will be no splash.
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:166][  0]LogInit: Initializing SDL.
No protocol specified
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:175][  0]LogInit:Warning: Could not initialize SDL: No available video device
Fatal error: [File:/ramdisk/UnrealEngine/Engine/Source/Runtime/Core/Private/Linux/LinuxApplication.cpp] [Line: 36] 
FLinuxApplication::CreateLinuxApplication() : PlatformInitMultimedia() failed, cannot create application instance.
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:175][  0]LogLinux:Error: appError called: Assertion failed: Assertion failed:  [File:/ramdisk/UnrealEngine/Engine/Source/Runtime/Core/Private/Linux/LinuxApplication.cpp] [Line: 36] 
FLinuxApplication::CreateLinuxApplication() : PlatformInitMultimedia() failed, cannot create application instance.

Signal 11 caught.
EngineCrashHandler: Signal=11
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:391][  0]LogLinux: === Critical error: ===
Unhandled Exception: SIGSEGV: invalid attempt to access memory at address 0x00000003

[2015.08.21-08.26.56:391][  0]LogLinux: Assertion failed: Assertion failed:  [File:/ramdisk/UnrealEngine/Engine/Source/Runtime/Core/Private/Linux/LinuxApplication.cpp] [Line: 36] 
FLinuxApplication::CreateLinuxApplication() : PlatformInitMultimedia() failed, cannot create application instance.


[Callstack]  02  0x00007f9966baad03  ReportCrash(FLinuxCrashContext const&)
[Callstack]  03  0x00000000004af00b  EngineCrashHandler(FGenericCrashContext const&) [Runtime/Core/Public/Math/UnrealMathSSE.h, line 0]
[Callstack]  04  0x00007f9966bb4638  PlatformCrashHandler(int, siginfo_t*, void*)
[Callstack]  05  0x00007f9967a348d0  /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0xf8d0) [0x7f9967a348d0]
[Callstack]  06  0x00007f9966bc78bf  FOutputDeviceLinuxError::Serialize(wchar_t const*, ELogVerbosity::Type, FName const&)
[Callstack]  07  0x00007f9966e1e62c  FOutputDevice::Logf(wchar_t const*, ...)
[Callstack]  08  0x00007f9966db22eb  FDebug::AssertFailed(char const*, char const*, int, wchar_t const*, ...)
[Callstack]  09  [2015.08.21-08.26.56:391][  0]LogExit: Executing StaticShutdownAfterError
Starting ../../../engine/binaries/linux/crashreportclient
[2015.08.21-08.26.56:398][  0]LogGenericPlatformMisc: FPlatformMisc::RequestExit(1)
Abandon (core dumped)

If I’m right it doesn’t detect my video card or my monitor.
I have the driver 355.06 installed but I tried before with 340.65 and 352.30.

My rig:
CPU: I7 3770K, GTX 770, GT 530, 20GB RAM, 25GB SSD, 3 monitors.
I tried with only one single video card and one monitor but it didn’t work.

thank for any help

oh I forgot to say I’m running on Debian Jessie 8.1

Hello I have completely solved my issue. I install the new release (4.9) from the sources and the only new difference was that I wasn’t logged in root and everything worked on Debian Jessie KDE. I don’t know if the 4.8 version had worked without root privileges but it’s possible what blocked me for 2 months and more, taken me almost seventy hours of debug was just that.

How did you install 4.9 while the version is 4.17 in GitHub?

I have this same issue when trying to connect to a display-less instance with an NVIDIA GPU. Any advise? We are trying to access the instance using VNC

1 Like