I’ve recently bought Crusader Kings 3. Currently I cannot play it as it crashes. I launch the game through Steam (as i bought it there) and it launches the game ok. But as soon as I click start game (even just the tutorial) I get the following message:
The background service app-org.chromium.Chromium-12404.scope has been terminated by the Linux kernel because the system is low on memory. Consider closing unused applications or browser tabs.
I don’t have anything else open besides the game and Steam, and I have the recommended 16gb ram.
This is a mechanism that is called the OOM killer. Basically whenever your system runs out of memory the linux kernel selects a process (by a certain ruleset) and kills that process so that your system stability is not affected by the lack of memory.
You find lots of information on the net regarding the mechanisms and rules and causes.
It is possible that on a loaded machine memory will be exhausted and the kernel will be unable to reclaim enough memory to continue to operate. In order to save the rest of the system, it invokes the OOM killer.
The OOM killer selects a task to sacrifice for the sake of the overall system health. The selected task is killed in a hope that after it exits enough memory will be freed to continue normal operation.