Why Steam fails

[Stefan Dösinger]

Hello,
> It doesn't seem to check the retval of the first alloc, which fails
> about half of the time in
> wine_anon_mmap (mmap() call) with ENOMEM. If the allocation succeeds,
> Steam proceeds to run.
> If it fails, Steam dies with the message above.
I just started Steam 5 times without a single failure. I can't reproduce the 
problem.

> This is a machine with 1G memory. How much memory does one need to run
> Steam?
I have 512 MB, but I think 128 should be enought for Steam alone.

> Isn't this supposed to be a Virtual allocation...Why does it work one
> time, and not the other...
> The manpage for mmap() says ENOMEM can occur if the process exceeds its
> allowed number of mappings.
> Is this relevant?
Maybe you should check your /etc/limits file. Your distro might have limited 
the amount of memory a user may allocate.
If you don't mind security risks, you could try to run Steam as root, and see 
if the problem continues. But back up your MBR first ;)

Stefan