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SyntaxError: Unknown data type at offset 1752: b'3'

Open ThePartyGoat224 opened this issue 4 months ago • 1 comments

Describe the bug A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

protontricks is unable to read the steamlibrary

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Run command protontricks
  2. Command fails and error is displayed

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/app/bin/protontricks", line 8, in sys.exit(cli()) ^^^^^ File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 32, in cli main(args) File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/protontricks/cli/util.py", line 180, in wrapper return cli_func(self, *args, **kwargs) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/protontricks/cli/main.py", line 298, in main steam_apps = get_steam_apps( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 1452, in get_steam_apps steam_apps += get_custom_windows_shortcuts( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/protontricks/steam.py", line 1288, in get_custom_windows_shortcuts vdf.binary_loads(content, raise_on_remaining=False) File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/vdf/init.py", line 314, in binary_loads return binary_load(BytesIO(b), mapper, merge_duplicate_keys, alt_format, raise_on_remaining) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/vdf/init.py", line 414, in binary_load raise SyntaxError("Unknown data type at offset %d: %s" % (fp.tell() - 1, repr(t))) SyntaxError: Unknown data type at offset 1752: b'3'

Expected behavior A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

protontricks read the steam library and launch normally

System (please complete the following information):

  • Distro: Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon
  • Protontricks installation method: Flatpak AND Apt
  • Protontricks version: 1.13.0
  • Steam version: latest main

Additional context

steamtinkerlaunch is installed

If the error happens when trying to run a Protontricks command, run the command again using the -vv flag and copy the output!

For example, if the command that causes the error is protontricks 42 faudio, run protontricks -vv 42 faudio instead and copy the output here.

If the output is very long, consider creating a gist using gist.github.com.

ThePartyGoat224 avatar Aug 18 '25 21:08 ThePartyGoat224

Have you modified shortcuts (eg. custom non-Steam games?) using SteamTinkerLaunch, and if so, is Steam able to read them correctly? The vdf Python library is crashing when attempting to read the shortcuts.vdf file. SteamTinkerLaunch has its own routines for modifying that file which might have introduced problems.

The file in question is located at ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<steam user id>/config/shortcuts.vdf. SteamTinkerLaunch appears to create a backup of that file in the same directory, so you could try closing Steam, replacing the original file with the backup and then reopening Steam.

Matoking avatar Aug 24 '25 17:08 Matoking