Troubleshooting Sober

If there are any undocumented issues, feel free to create an issue to update the documentation!

Obtaining logs

You should know what error you are getting before asking for any help. Logs usually give out signs of what the error is.

There are two ways of obtaining logs when running Sober:

  • Run Sober on the terminal (flatpak run org.vinegarhq.Sober)
  • Get the log file at ~/.var/app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/data/sober/appData/logs

Known General Issues

It says Roblox is out of date (Error 280), but Sober isn't updating!

It means that the Roblox build Sober is in has reached it's end of the lifespan. If you are reading this, and Sober hasn't been updated, please wait until they do. Otherwise, you will have to run flatpak update.

This is actually an uncommon issue, since it only happens once every approximate two weeks to a month if Sober is left without an update to a newer Roblox build, but this is just here in case it happens. Sober uses a fixed-point release system, which means only one Roblox build is supported at a time per Sober update and there are no automatic updates to the next build. Manually attempting to update Roblox will not work since it requires a specific build version in order to install.

RBXCRASH: OutOfMemory (Failed to allocate memory. size = [x], alignment = [y])

That means your graphics card ran out of video memory that Sober is trying to load on. This is especially problematic for NVIDIA users because the drivers have terrible written Linux drivers for VRAM handling. (There has been reports of Intel Haswell and earlier iGPU users facing issues like this too)

The main culprit behind this is basically due to textures being loaded at the highest quality possible, which is the default setting.

Solution

The solution below should be applied automatically once the crash is first detected.

If it doesn't, append the following FFlags into the "fflags" section at ~/.var/app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/config/sober/config.json

"DFIntTextureQualityOverride": 2,
"DFFlagTextureQualityOverrideEnabled": true

If it doesn't work, set the "DFIntTextureQualityOverride" FFlag to 1 instead. Otherwise, you might be out of luck.

Essentially, to avoid this problem without downscaling textures, you would need an NVIDIA GPU that has 4 GB or greater VRAM. Alternatively, you could also use a Mesa capable GPU (AMD/Intel).

I was kicked due to "Unexpected client behavior" (Error 268)

There has been recent reports after Sober was recently updated. (Commit 0.0.0-379b6ec) It is suspected that Roblox is slowly enabling Hyperion onto its Android builds, but it is not fully confirmed and only applies to some games. While it is unlikely you will be banned for using Sober, the software cannot guarantee the support statuses of some games.

Known games affected

  • Anime Vanguards

Sober just randomly crashes

Depends on if the logs actually provided something useful.

Chances are if you're using Linux in another primary language, Sober crashes since the locale for Sober is primarily English.

Otherwise, we cannot give a definite answer.

Solution

If you are sure your primary language is set anything but English, launch Sober using this command:

$ flatpak override --user --env=LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 org.vinegarhq.Sober

It says Sober couldn't launch because my card does not support Vulkan

Please see question #3 on the FAQ. Otherwise, you will have to use OpenGL.

Sober does not launch on my outdated system

Sober only supports Linux kernel version 5.11 and above. If you are on an outdated version of your distro, your kernel might be too outdated to run Sober.

Solution

Update your distro to a newer version by following a distro-specific guide.

Sober does not launch to my dedicated GPU

GPUs using Mesa should be fine as long as it's recent. If you're using an NVIDIA card, the driver version installed on your system must match with the Flatpak NVIDIA drivers that is installed on the system. (For example, the installed 560 system drivers cannot run with NVIDIA Flatpak 555 drivers)

Solution

You can update by typing flatpak update on your terminal.

I'm running a virtual machine, but I cannot launch Sober!

Virtual machines are not generally supported. Unless you can passthrough the GPU, it's advised against so to try and run Sober on a virtual machine.

It kinda does have support, depending if the VM host you're running has OpenGL support, but you're going to get terrible performance out of it.

I cannot install Sober on an ARM64 machine

That's because there isn't any support for ARM devices at the moment. There is no solution to this at the moment, but you're free to try box64 and see if that works.

I launched Sober through the browser. It says I cannot join a game because I don't have the permission to do so! (Error 524)

If you haven't logged into Sober, you should do it now. Afterwards you will be able to join from the browser for future sessions. (Please see question #4 on the FAQ for more information) Otherwise, it could be just a generic 524.

Sober does not launch the same way as it usually does on Windows or macOS. Sober will only carry over the join game request, not including login.

Automatic download isn't working (Long hang time; falls back to manual install)

Installing Sober gives me a 403 error

  • Three out of ten chances is that your ISP is blocking access to Google Play's APIs, which is what Sober is attempting to contact in order to download the correct APK file. Otherwise, either you should check your internet connection or the API is down.
  • Three out of ten chances is that your ISP is blocking access to Sober's repo server in Cloudflare, which is what Flatpak is attempting to contact in order to obtain the Flatpak remote in order to download Sober. Otherwise, two out of ten could be that since the repo is a private web page, it cannot be accessed either way.

There have also been reports of being unable to copy the apk to a directory

Solution

Use a VPN

Attempting to manually install the Roblox APK goes straight to "Invalid Bundle" screen

Sober wasn't able to find or open a file picker because it was invalid and does not know what to do, so it displays "Invalid Bundle" without prompting to choose an APK file. This is sometimes problematic for several DEs that don't come with their own file pickers.

DEs affected

  • Hyprland

Solution

Make sure that the file picker for your DE is installed and set correctly.

I don't have a shortcut for Sober after installing

Either your DE does not know that it exists, Flatpak failed to create one when you install it, or it is yet to be indexed by the DE.

Solution

Wait for the DE to index the shortcut first.

If it doesn't index, make sure that there are both .desktop entries in ~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications and /home/[user]/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/current/active/export/share/applications. If there isn't you should create one at /home/[user]/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/current/active/export/share/applications with the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Sober
Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=master --arch=x86_64 --command=sober --file-forwarding org.vinegarhq.Sober --@@u %u @@
Terminal=false
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/roblox;x-scheme-handler/roblox-player
Categories=Game
Icon=org.vinegarhq.Sober
X-Flatpak=org.vinegarhq.Sober

then/or create a symlink of that .desktop entry to ~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications. Afterwards, follow the instructions for your DE to add the entry.

Sober cannot detect a supported graphics card!

Several scenarios could lead to this error:

  • You installed the graphics drivers from the source (installing from the AMD/NVIDIA website)
  • Drivers were not installed properly
  • Your drivers need to be updated
  • GPU acceleration for Crostini (Linux on ChromeOS) is not enabled

Solution

Following the order as listed above:

  • Just don't install drivers straight from the source (since drivers are either already installed from the kernel or it's available from the package manager)
  • Follow instructions for your distro to correctly install the drivers
  • Run the applicable update command on your terminal in your distro AND run flatpak update
  • Open Chrome and type chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support into the search bar. Enable it and reboot.

If all else fails, use OpenGL instead by enabling it through the config file.

I can't use slash (/) to enter chat!

Roblox broke the keybind to enter chat on Android builds, specifically on games with legacy chat. Only Roblox themselves can fix this, there is nothing the Sober developers can do. Games that use the modern chat system should work fine.

Roblox plans to remove legacy chat by April 30, 2025 and force all games to the new chat system.