Elite Dangerous crashes on preparing planet generation system

[martinpawlak]

Hello

I have a problem starting Elite Dangerous in the STEAM client. When starting the game, the shader is calculated first and then the Frontier Launcher opens. Then i click on Start with Steam. The game starts with preparing shader which is calculated to 100% and then preparing planet generation. As soon as preparing planet generation system comes up the game crashes at 0% without error message. I contacted Frontier support and after 4 emails they told me they can't help me with my problem.
So I am now contacting Intel with my problem. This game is very important to me so I hope to find help here.

Here are the details of my system:

Computer information:
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Model: X670 GAMING X AX V2
Form factor: Desktop
Touch input not recognized

Processor Information:
CPU Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
CPU Brand: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor
CPU Family: 0x19
CPU Model: 0x61
CPU Stepping: 0x2
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 5171 MHz
12 logical processors
6 physical processors
Hyper-Threading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Supported
AVX512F: Supported
AVX512PF: Not supported
AVX512ER: Not supported
AVX512CD: Supported
AVX512VNNI: Supported
SHA: Supported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Not supported
BMI1: Supported
BMI2: Supported
F16C: Supported
FMA: Supported

Operating system:
"CachyOS" (64 Bit)
Kernel name: Linux
Kernel version: 6.14.8-2-cachyos
X-Server provider: The X.Org Foundation
X server release: 12101016
X window manager: KWin
Steam runtime version: <Runtime disabled>

Client information:
Version: 1747701111
Browser GPU acceleration status: Enabled
Canvas (browser): Enabled
Canvas out-of-process rasterization (Browser): Enabled
Direct Rendering Display Compositor (Browser): Disables
Compositing (Browser): Enables
Multiple Raster Threads (Browser): Enabled
OpenGL (Browser): Activates
Rasterization (Browser): Activates
RawDraw (Browser): Disabled
Skia Graphite (Browser): Disabled
Video decoding (browser): Activates
Video encoding (browser): Disabled
Vulkan (Browser): Disabled
WebGL (Browser): Enabled
WebGL2 (Browser): Enabled
WebGPU (Browser): Disabled
WebNN (Browser): Disabled

Graphics card:
Driver: Intel Mesa Intel(R) Graphics (BMG G21)
Driver version: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.1.1-cachyos1.2
Desktop color depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor refresh rate: 59 Hz
Vendor ID: 0x8086
Device ID: 0xe20b
Revision not found
Number of monitors: 1
Number of logical graphics cards: 1
Prim. Display resolution: 2560 x 1440
Desktop resolution: 2560 x 1440
Primary display size: 23.62" x 13.39" (27.13" diag), 60.0cm x 34.0cm (68.9cm diag)
Primary VRAM: 12216 MB

Sound card:
Audio device: USB Mixer

Memory:
RAM: 15592 MB

VR hardware:
VR headset: Not found

Miscellaneous:
UI language: German
LANGUAGE: de_DE.UTF-8
Total available hard disk space: 474889 MB
Largest free hard disk space block: 374071 MB

Storage space:
Number of SSDs: 7
SSD sizes: 1000G,500G,240G,128G,0B,0B,0B
Number of hard disks: 0
Number of removable disks: 0

[martinpawlak]

Hello Ernesto,

thank u for your post. I will be happy if you all at Intel Team will find a solution so i activly watch this thread

Thank You all,

best regards

[martinpawlak]

up to keep alive

[martinpawlak]

up to keep alive

[Ernesto_C_Intel1]

Hi @martinpawlak, 

Thank you for your patience. I wanted to assure you that the investigation into the issue you raised is still ongoing. I’m currently looking into it further to ensure we identify the root cause and provide the most accurate resolution.

I appreciate your understanding and will provide you with an update as soon as possible.

Regards, 

Ernesto C. 

Intel Customer Support Engineer

[martinpawlak]

Hello Ernesto,

thank you very much for the information.

I look forward to hearing from you

Best Regards

Martin Pawlak

[martinpawlak]

up

[martinpawlak]

up to keep alive

[Ernesto_C_Intel1]

Hi @martinpawlak, 

No worries, I'm still investigating the root cause of the issue.

I'll post an update as soon as possible. 

Regards,

Ernesto C. 

Intel Customer Support Engineer

[martinpawlak]

Hello Ernesto,

I would like to inform you that a new system update was installed by Arch yesterday.

intel-media-driver (25.2.3-1.2 -> 25.2.5-1.1)
linux-cachyos (6.15.3-3 -> 6.15.4-3)
linux-cachyos-headers (6.15.3-3 -> 6.15.4-3)
proton-cachyos (1:10.0.20250605-1 -> 1:10.0.20250623-3)

There were a lot more files updated but in my opinion, these are the most relevant files that perform driver management for the Intel ARC B580 on Linux. Every time after linux-cachyos-kernel updates came, I tried to start the game in Steam without success. But this time the start worked!!!
The game starts with the preloading shader cache and then preloading planet generation system. It just ran through and then you are in the main menu of the game.

I have created a new SSU file of my system for comparison and attached it below this message. Maybe you can see what has changed in the system that makes the game start normally?

Best regards

Martin Pawlak

[Ernesto_C_Intel1]

Hi @martinpawlak,

Thank you for reaching out. After thorough testing and investigation regarding the installation of Elite Dangerous on Linux systems using Intel Arc, I have concluded that the SSU log will not be necessary for further troubleshooting.

I have tested the installation of Steam across all supported Linux platforms, including Ubuntu versions 25.04, 24.10, 24.04, and 22.04. Consistently, the Steam client indicates that Elite Dangerous is only available for Windows, with the Install button grayed out. This behavior aligns with the design choice by Frontier Developments to restrict the game to Windows platforms.

During my investigation, I have managed to run the game by leveraging a Windows system on the same network, this workaround does not install the game on the Linux system but rather initiates streaming from the Windows system. This indicates that Steam has implemented a mechanism to prevent installation of Elite Dangerous on non-Windows systems, respecting the game's intended platform compatibility.

Given these findings, it appears that Elite Dangerous is not natively supported on Linux, and any attempts to run it on such systems may lead to unforeseen issues. I recommend consulting Frontier Developments for further guidance on running the game outside its intended environment.

I am unable to provide further assistance with this matter. Consequently, I will be closing this case, and this thread will no longer be monitored.

Should you have any additional questions or require clarification, please feel free to initiate a new thread or contact Intel Customer Support directly.

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards, 

Ernesto C. 

Intel Customer Support Engineer

[martinpawlak]

Hello Ernesto,

it sounds to me that you are not familiar with Steam. Steam has a so-called compatibility mode. This mode was developed for the Steamdeck, which is based on Arch Linux. The compatibility mode starts a layer called Proton. This allows all Steam applications to be installed with Linux as if it were a Windows client.
I hope that the developers of the ARC driver are more competent, otherwise the Intel ARC division will die off.

For all other users who are still reading this post I have the following tip:

If you are on Arch Linux, then download the following Proton version:

https://aur.archlinux.org/proton-cachyos.git

In the Steam client, go to Elite Dangerous in the library and click on the cogwheel on the right where you can activate the compatibility mode and then select “Proton Cachyos”.

Then start the game normally. If you have any questions, just reply to this post.

Many thanks and all the best