Steam: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

After Nvidia driver installation when I try to run Steam I am getting this error:

steam: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

I found this question and one of the answers that suggest installing:

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx:i386

I have already installed libgl1-mesa-glx:i386. Than I found this. It suggests making a symlink to 32bit libGL. How can do that? Do you have any other suggestions?

Solution 1:

This problem on 64-bits systems is caused by /usr/lib being earlier in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH than /usr/lib32. Steam tries the 64-bit libraries and complains, without looking any further.

It can be fixed however by in ~/Steam/steam.sh but that file seems to be restored to the original version every time steam is ran.

I fixed it by creating a script that does this:

#!/bin/bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
steam $*

This prepends /usr/lib32 to the library path, then starts steam (with the script's original arguments). Now /usr/lib32 is found in the path before /usr/lib, and steam will successfully use the 32-bit libraries.

You may also want to add the line

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

to /usr/bin/steam, it will have the same effect, as long as you add it before the very last line. You'll need to sudo to edit /usr/lib/steam.

This has the added bonus that it's a better fix, since everything that starts steam (the application menu entry, file type associations, URI associations) will work correctly.
The disadvantage is that /usr/bin/steam is likely to be overwritten when steam is updated.

I use the latter method, while keeping the script as a backup. That way, if /usr/bin/steam gets overwritten, I can simply copy paste the line again from the script to fix it.

Solution 2:

Fixed this in raring ringtail (xubuntu 13.04) with nVidia 319.17 drivers by adding /usr/lib32 to a new file:

$ sudo nano /etc/ld.so.conf.d/lib32.conf

then running:

$ sudo ldconfig

Since the file /etc/ld.so.conf contains include /etc/ld.so.conf.d/*.conf, any file in that directory with the extension .conf gets parsed.

Solution 3:

From: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/321

I got the same issue and solved it by doing this:

$ cd ~/.steam/bin
$ ln -s /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1 .

This worked for me as well.

Solution 4:

I ran into the same problem, but with skype. All the solutions above (creating symlinks, configuring LD_LIBRARY_PATH) didn't work for me.

I finally found help in the post already mentioned above - but with a different solution.

It seems that the nvidia updater (when asking for permission to install OpenGL 32-bit compatibility libraries) messed up and removed /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1 and /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.

Reinstalling the libgl1 library did help:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx:i386

Solution 5:

Fixed this for Mint 14 with the newest 64 bit Nvidia drivers 310.32 with the 32bit driver support installed in

/emul/ia32-linux/usr/lib

by adding

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/emul/ia32-linux/usr/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

After the first "export" in the beginning of the /usr/bin/steam file.