Valve's changelog for the Steam client dated January 19 includes the fix for the Linux-related screwup.
Silviu Stahie notes at Softpedia
it might have deserved more than just an entry in a changelog, but we'll have to settle with just that.
"Fixed a rare bug where Steam could delete user files when failing to start"
Related Stories
If you're a Steam user — beware, even slight modifications of your system may result in the nuking of your home directory, and more!
Fortunately, as the entry point for the user is a shell script (bash, but that's another story), it's been quite easy to find the source of the problem, the lack of sanitising shell variables before passing them to potentially dangerous commands — in this case, “rm -rf "$STEAMROOT/"*'”. The commit that introduced the bug also seems to have contained a remarkably apt comment ``#Scary!'' (it's not clear that the repo being pointed to, and its commits, mirror exactly the same commits as Steam themselves would have added them.)
It seems that even on MS Windows, Steam gets a bit over-eager about deleting files it doesn't own.
As a software engineer, who's also been a package maintainer on huge projects with up to 70 engineers wanting to force patches into my tree, I've become hyper-attuned to the concept of asking "what could possibly go wrong" (and having a mindset like Bob the Bastard from the animated Dilbert series), and consequently for demanding small readable patches which do just one small thing that's trivial to review. Would the patch have passed review? How confident are you about the quality of the rest of the code if things like this can slip through?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 23 2015, @03:57PM
I knew there was a reason I was waiting to switch...
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Troll) by Hairyfeet on Friday January 23 2015, @04:01PM
Not trying to be a smartass, but why? last I checked the only games there were ones that could be bought DRM free from the publishers and last I checked nobody on Linux liked DRM in pretty much ANY form* so there were people using Steam on Linux? I'd love to see THOSE figures, bet it wasn't even 0.2%!
* - I personally have no problem with Steam DRM, because it gives you matchmaking, chat, updates for all your games, achievements and time in game centralized, in short it gives you something in return for your putting up with its mild DRM.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday January 23 2015, @04:19PM
Linux is at 1.16%, OSX at 3.46%, Windows at 95.28%
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=combined [steampowered.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Friday January 23 2015, @04:21PM
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @09:04PM
will likely increase more rapidly when steam boxes are officially released
Since computers became commodity items, the vast majority of folks who use them simply want them to Just Work(tm) out of the box.
Just do the tasks I'm trying to accomplish and I don't mind if you aren't the brand I used to use.[1]
Chromebooks eating M$'s lunch last Christmas demonstrates this point well.
[1] Now throw in no infections, no crashes, no blue screens, no reboots for absolutely no good reason and you quickly realize that the non-M$ OS is not just equal but is now superior.
(A lot of folks have never reached the point where the EULA was a restriction on what they were trying to do, but for whose who have, that's another plus.)
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by MrNemesis on Friday January 23 2015, @05:07PM
Hairyfeet - I know you're no fan of linux on the desktop (and to be honest, neither am I but that's another story) but I've put steam on both of my linux HTPCs. True, the selection of games that you can install on linux is small and many of them are of the simple 2D-type, but the Steam client also allows pretty effective screen-sharing from games running on your full-fat windows PC. It was a feature I wasn't even aware of when I installed Steam but I saw it lurking in the options and decided to give it a whirl. It... well, it actually works really well, especially if you have a wired network (and a quicksync-enabled CPU helps too).
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3629-RIAV-1617 [steampowered.com]
"To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Hairyfeet on Friday January 23 2015, @05:30PM
Dude you need to take those figures with a BIG grain of salt as I think their detection sucks, especially when it comes to Linux. I mean they have something like 23% playing games on sub 2Ghz CPUs? And they have triple core double that of hexacore? The only one that ever made triples was AMD and not only was most of those easily unlocked to a quad but they only sold them for like 2 years whereas the Phenom II X6 was followed by the FX6 and they still sell the hexacores, not to mention several OEMs sold and do sell the Hexa while the only one I ever saw sell the triple was a very limited run HP did for Worst Buy. And more folks playing on 3GB than 2GB? The numbers just don't look right.
Anyway glad Linux worked out for your HTPC, I personally got tired of updates crapping on the OS to mess with it anymore, after the last Hairyfeet challenge had yet again zero distros pass I just washed my hands of the broken mess.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @05:54PM
Everything you just said is wrong. The numbers are right there.
I know you will not likely see this as it won't get to +2, but please, step out of your self-imposed bubble and enrich your world.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday January 23 2015, @06:12PM
The hardware survey is voluntary and random. I get it 2-3 times a year and always accept. It will figure out your hardware and show you the results before uploading. Those stats are completely correct for all randomly selected users that clicked upload instead of cancel (which may qualify as your grain of salt).
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday January 23 2015, @09:51PM
I personally got tired of updates crapping on the OS to mess with it anymore, after the last Hairyfeet challenge had yet again zero distros pass I just washed my hands of the broken mess.
Once again, Oh Hairyfoot, thou hast made sad for thee.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Hairyfeet on Saturday January 24 2015, @12:51AM
Then quit fucking babbling and nut up or shut up. Step right up folks and watch another FOSSie fail by refusing to take the simple, easy, and free Hairyfeet Challenge! The reason why they refuse is simple, they know that thanks to Torvalds and co treating Linux like their own playtoy something as simple as updating the OS will cause the OS to SHIT ON ITS OWN DRIVERS, something not seen on the Windows side since...drumroll...windows ME! So if you actually have some balls instead of just a big fat mouth, step up and prove to the world your OS is "ready for the desktop" by taking the challenge!
Take ANY mainstream consumer oriented (not LTS, because even Ubuntu advises against mainstream users using LTS) from FIVE years ago, this simulates a 5 year typical lifecycle. This BTW is less than HALF a windows support cycle, so I'm cutting linux a break. Lets say you use Ubuntu, that would be Ubuntu 9.10 and can be downloaded from their archive. Install it on ANY PC, desktop or laptop (NOT VM as that isn't real hardware and comes with special drivers) that has a wireless card. Wireless is required because more and more mainstream users are ditching wires and nobody wants a laptop that doesn't have wireless, do they?
During this phase you are the system builder so CLI (which is usually required because Linux driver support is poor) IS ALLOWED. Once its installed you are no longer the system builder but THE USER, so like a windows user you are ONLY allowed to use the GUI. You then get to "enjoy the freedom" of using nothing but the GUI (because if you can't even update the thing without CLI you're no match for windows are you) of updating to current...with ubuntu that is EIGHT RELEASES, just FYI. You will film this and post it to youtube, you only have to upload the final install process of each release and a pic of the device manager showing working hardware complete with wireless showing WPA V2 connection, but the complete video should be hosted on dropbox to prove you aren't faking it.
BTW in case it isn't clear working hardware means WORKING HARDWARE, it does NOT mean wireless that can't use WPA, it does NOT mean a PC with no sound or VESA video, it means FULLY WORKING HARDWARE and again if you are unclear please see the highlighted areas as completing the challenge REQUIRES vids of the final install of each upgrade (last I checked that would be EIGHT for Ubuntu, and around SIX for most others, be sure to have room on your SD Card!) along with a 5 minute video of the end of each install showing that upon completion you could go to hardware manager and had 100% functional hardware with NO FUTZING. After all if you have to futz with the thing just to have functional drivers it isn't on the same level as Windows now is it? BTW the first Windows that passed the challenge was Win2K (RTM to EOL with ZERO failed drivers, 10 years of support) WinXP (14 years, ZERO fails) and both Vista and 7 can go from RTM to current with ZERO failures. So lets see them snappies, otherwise you are just throwing yet more bullshit, which if you want bullshit see "many eyes" (which gave us such well vetted code the world lost billions on heartbleed and will probably lose billions more on stopping the current BASHing...what quality!) or again what all the anecdotes guys like you throw around lead to, the ever popular lies [tmrepository.com], damn lies [tmrepository.com], and the tao of bullshittery. [tmrepository.com]
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday January 24 2015, @04:39AM
I would love to install windows, drivers, and updates without restarting 18 times. 2K and XP required floppies to install on raided system. It was silly to keep a functioning floppy drive until 2010 (or whenever you upgraded to Vista/7). Vista shipped with terrible standard hardware support. Just plugging in a standard usb optical mouse would result in errors. Windows is still fragmented into 32bit and 64bit binaries. Even windows 7 shipped two dvds, one for 64bit and one for 32bit. You can't update the default web browser (IE) without upgrading the whole OS (service packs). You haven't mentioned windows 8 so i'm guessing you've side-stepped this latest version. Hopefully 10 is more to your liking if that is the case.
In regards to CLI, i would also love a windows server that didn't require a graphics card to run. Why does my web server need a graphical user interface at all? Because they never cared for nor designed a proper CLI. Every time i have to log into a production machine that is borked and some run-away process is consuming 100% of the CPU is a lesson in patience. The windows process scheduler doesn't seem to care and dedicates only a sliver of CPU to the freaking admin who is trying to navigate the painfully slow rendering UI to fix a problem. Windows might be perfect for you but it is far from perfect. But you're right, i've never had an issue with wifi on windows.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 24 2015, @04:41AM
Install, sit back and go. Worked fine on my Dell laptop, no command prompt.
Maybe you're just not as good with computers as you think you are.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 24 2015, @06:33AM
I didn't bother to read any of your response, since it is obvious that you have set up you challenge to prove what you want it to prove. I am sad that you can not look beyond your corporate masters to a life without slavery. It is somewhat worse that your livelihood depends on the slavery of others to your masters. I weep for you, Hairyfeet, seriously and sincerely. Software is a new thing, it is a disruptive technology in the best sense, and if it surpasses your test, well, okay, But just because you are economically tied to the horse-buggy economy that does not mean that we have to be. And besides, you have a rep here now. It is not my fault, it is yours. I suggest you attempt to remedy it.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Hairyfeet on Saturday January 24 2015, @06:55PM
ROFLCopter, you are saying that having your fucking Operating System UPDATE is beyond the capabilities of Linux? Because THAT IS ALL the test shows, that simply updating the system causes Linux to shit on itgs own drivers thanks to Torvalds using a shitty 70s throwback drivers model.
So there ya have it folks, asking Linux to fucking UPDATE is "rigging a test" because hey, Linux don't need no stinking security right? And folks wonder why Linux is getting bitchslapped with Heartbleed and Shellshock, LOL!
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday January 25 2015, @08:28AM
Could you repeat this, perhaps using different words? I am not sure I understand what your point is. Thank you, in advance!
(Score: 1, Troll) by Hairyfeet on Sunday February 01 2015, @12:47AM
I'll spell it out, okay? 1.- Linux CANNOT update itself without shitting on its own drivers, something Windows has not had to deal with since Win9x, 2.- The Hairyfeet Challenge is a test which simulates 5 years of ownership, 3.- A typical Linux distro will go through between 6- 8 releases in that time, shitting on itself all the way, Windows does not require a biannual deathmarch just to get security patches so this doesn't happen, 4.- At the end of the challenge, which again does NOTHING but simulate the average 5 year PC lifecycle, Windows will be running with 100% functionality while Linux will be a broken pile of shit that will be lucky if it has anything above VESA, working sound and wireless will be nothing but a fairytale.
Clear enough? A modern version of Linux is more brittle, buggy, and fucked up than ANY OS made by MSFT in the last 14 years, in fact I can take a copy of Windows XP RTM and take it all the way through to EOL, that is FOURTEEN YEARS of security patches and SPs and it will STILL have 100% working drivers, while your average Linux distro falls apart less than a third into the way. Just try to take Ubuntu from the first release to last without having to do multiple reinstalls and see what a broken pile of shit you get. the test proves this beyond ANY doubt, FOSSies get their panties in a wad because I refuse to buy their bullshit and drink their koolaid so rather than admit this is a serious issue that requires fixing? They accuse me of "rigging the test" like I can somehow magically get into every repo on the planet and break their precious disk ISOs.
So if you wanna buy cultish bullshit based on lies? Go right ahead, delude yourself all you want but the last OS by MSFT which Linux could legitimately say it was a contender was Windows ME, everything since then can update without dropping a load in its pants, linux cannot.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday February 01 2015, @03:48AM
Sorry, I still don't see it, Hairy! What are you on about? Life-cycles of PCs? I have the same tower case I have had for fifteen years, but I would hardly say it is the same PC. And comparing Linux to what MS has produced in the last fourteen years? Hardly fair, since I have not used Windows for the past twenty. Not saying I am still using a 1.9 version Linux kernel, but you know, my machine works. I have no problems with any drivers, although I have in the past, wait a minute, my ancient first generation AMD 64-bit Athlon laptop does have a card reader in it that I have never been able to use! I have been waiting more than a decade for the manufacturer of that to release some specs so there could be a Linux driver, but this is the point: Linux driver problems are not the fault of the free software community, they are the fault of companies claiming proprietary hardware and firmware, whom I suspect are often on the payroll of (or being threatened by) Micro$oft. I don't think that anyone thinks that you are rigging your "challenge" in the way you seem to think that someone thinks you are. In fact, you sound rather paranoid and desperate! I hope things work out for you. Windows 10 being free should be a great help, since you will have a lot of people needing help. Of course, they may not want to pay so much for it, when they can just get another copy of Windows.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Hairyfeet on Monday February 02 2015, @02:53AM
Then step right up and do the challenge and post it to dropbox, of course you won't because you can claim works for me [tmrepository.com] which in reality always ends up if you actually talk to the person for awhile to be works for me (but not really) [tmrepository.com] but when rubber actually meets the road and you offer an actual test? All you get is anecdotes and bullshit.
You see if I claimed that an Intel Atom beats a core i5 would YOU just take my word for it, especially when I refused to offer a single shred of proof other than "I say so"? Of course not, you would want some kind of evidence to back up my claim...that is ALL the Hairyfeet Challenge does, it simply simulates a 5 years lifecycle of your average PC. The reason I chose 5 years if I got fucking tired of FOSSies whining "Its not fair to hold Linux to a Windows lifecycle (even though we claim its a Windows replacement), Fuckbuntu/Minty Mouthwash/Elementary dear watson wasn't out 10 years ago and THAT isn't fair!" so I simply split the test in half, if your OS can't even do HALF of what Windows can it really isn't in any way compatible, is it?
But I bet my last dollar that you are looking through rose colored glasses and if you were to be REALLY HONEST with yourself there has been plenty of times that the biannual forced deathmarch [tmrepository.com] which is REQUIRED by every distro just to get the latest security patches BTW, have taken a big steaming dump on the drivers and you've had to "Google for fixes" or "Open up bash and type" a bunch of bullshit that had to be tweaked because it was written for rev foo, update bar and Linux is soooo damned brittle that if its rev foo, update bar+1 the damned driver won't work (a consequence of using the 40+ year old Bash GUI as a crutch by bad coders) which Windows users? They just do not have to deal with that horseshit. I can grab a box out the pile, install XP RTM and the drivers and then update it aaaaalllll the way to the last patch, that is THIRTEEN YEARS worth of security patches...know how many drivers will be broken at the end? NONE, that is how many will be broken, not a damned one.
So if you aren't just blowing smoke? Quit posting the same anecdotes and bullshit and lets see the video. Takes less than 3 hours start to stop, 100% free, and will provide undeniable proof of whether your distro of choice can do what you say or not. the info is below, I look forward to seeing the proof which I know you won't do because the few that have tried have all had to admit defeat, which is why the challenge is celebrating its eighth year unbeaten.
Take ANY mainstream consumer oriented (not LTS, because even Ubuntu advises against mainstream users using LTS) from FIVE years ago, this simulates a 5 year typical lifecycle. This BTW is less than HALF a windows support cycle, so I'm cutting linux a break. Lets say you use Ubuntu, that would be Ubuntu 9.10 and can be downloaded from their archive. Install it on ANY PC, desktop or laptop (NOT VM as that isn't real hardware and comes with special drivers) that has a wireless card. Wireless is required because more and more mainstream users are ditching wires and nobody wants a laptop that doesn't have wireless, do they?
During this phase you are the system builder so CLI (which is usually required because Linux driver support is poor) IS ALLOWED. Once its installed you are no longer the system builder but THE USER, so like a windows user you are ONLY allowed to use the GUI. You then get to "enjoy the freedom" of using nothing but the GUI (because if you can't even update the thing without CLI you're no match for windows are you) of updating to current...with ubuntu that is SEVEN RELEASES, just FYI. You will film this and post it to youtube, you only have to upload the final install process of each release and a pic of the device manager showing working hardware complete with wireless showing WPA V2 connection, but the complete video should be hosted on dropbox to prove you aren't faking it.
BTW in case it isn't clear working hardware means WORKING HARDWARE, it does NOT mean wireless that can't use WPA, it does NOT mean a PC with no sound or VESA video, it means FULLY WORKING HARDWARE and again if you are unclear please see the highlighted areas as completing the challenge REQUIRES vids of the final install of each upgrade (last I checked that would be EIGHT for Ubuntu, and around SIX for most others, be sure to have room on your SD Card!) along with a 5 minute video of the end of each install showing that upon completion you could go to hardware manager and had 100% functional hardware with NO FUTZING. After all if you have to futz with the thing just to have functional drivers it isn't on the same level as Windows now is it? BTW the first Windows that passed the challenge was Win2K (RTM to EOL with ZERO failed drivers, 10 years of support) WinXP (14 years, ZERO fails) and both Vista and 7 can go from RTM to current with ZERO failures. So lets see them snappies, otherwise you are just throwing yet more bullshit, which if you want bullshit see "many eyes" (which gave us such well vetted code the world lost billions on heartbleed and will probably lose billions more on stopping the current BASHing...what quality!) or again what all the anecdotes guys like you throw around lead to, the ever popular lies [tmrepository.com], damn lies [tmrepository.com], and the tao of bullshittery. [tmrepository.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @09:36PM
He sells hardware with pre-installed EULAware.
For many folks, a computer is a black box that does magic.
When it stops doing that, they call somebody and pay him to make it work again.
Supporting something that is bound to have problems or that has purposely-included complications keeps those suckers^W poorly-informed consumers coming back and spending money.
Free Software is a threat to his business model.
It's why Bill Gates (M$'s largest stockholder) is constantly trying to buy off FUDsters/propagandists in the tech media (as well as monkeywrenchers in the coding community).
Sadly, too often Gates is successful at that.
...and, just as sadly, too many folks don't spend enough time at TechRights.org seeing the efforts of those shills exposed|debunked. [techrights.org]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by kaganar on Friday January 23 2015, @07:30PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @11:12PM
I'm an anti-DRM Linux user. I have a small Steam library. Some are from Humble Bundles so I could also download them without Steam, but Steam handles game updating and sync'ing save files between computers. I've also bought a few games where no-DRM wasn't an option (a few of these are early access games so they have frequent updates) or I bought them in a Steam sale for much less than the non-Steam price.
(Score: 2) by hash14 on Saturday January 24 2015, @02:30AM
Not everyone uses Linux for software freedom. I do personally, but I and others I know who use it choose to do so for many other reasons as well:
* Linux is free
* it's what we use at work (in fact, pretty much everyone I know professionally couldn't imagine using anything else for their work)
* it simply works better for what we want to do (faster or more powerful, stable, secure, whatever you like)
* it has better security (assuming you're not using systemd)
* it's more fun to use
* it gives us more choice and control over what I really want to do
* there's no point having Windows around (anecdotally, the last machine I bought a machine that had Windows, I kept the recovery partition around for a while, and then when that was getting in the way, I obliterated it because why waste hard disk space. I might have a bootable USB restoration image to reinstall it backed up somewhere, but have no idea if it would even work anymore).
I could go on.
At risk of stumbling into a flamewar, most/all of these above reasons are primarily opinion-based so anyone could argue whether they're valid points, and each is welcome to come to his/her own opinion.
On the point of using Steam for Linux, it works quite well honestly. I have no idea how it compares to versions on other platforms, but games would crash perhaps once every month or so and the bugs and glitches would tend to get fixed pretty reasonably. Yes, the catalogue of games is not as large for Linux as it is for other platforms, but I don't feel so entitled to complain about that... I was happy playing the ones that I did for the while that I did.
(Score: 2) by ticho on Friday January 23 2015, @04:40PM
" it might have deserved more than just an entry in a changelog, but we'll have to settle with just that."
What more, exactly? Did you expect flashing lights, music, and a special weekend sale to commemorate fixing one of many software bugs? This bug was no different from others, which also only get a mention in changelog, except that bloggers and civilized media were needlessly up in arms over it.
Business as usual in software development.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday January 23 2015, @08:10PM
Well, they've had weekend sales for less reason...
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @09:50PM
Perhaps folks were looking for a response proportional to the amount of ink (bytes?) the 1st story got in the "tech press".
**Oh, look how easy it is to totally bork Linux!** [computerhope.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @09:03PM
I don't see physicians obsessing over bad physicians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @09:55PM
...nor cops re: bad cops.
-- gewg_