1.20.1 Release candidate doesn't even load

How many people can actually load the new release candidate? When I try it just crashes and I notice that several other Linux users have made comments on the linden blog saying they have had the same experience.

It seems to me that the version has been released without anybody even checking if it loads. Even Microsoft can usually manage to do that!

And of course, against all guidelines, the lindens won't allow users to run a deprecated version. Is the grid really going to collapse if people run a version behind? The whole thing beggars belief.

[UPDATE 3:47 pm PST] Linux viewer crashes: We’re investigating a problem that causes the Linux 1.20 RC1 to crash on startup. Linux users are encouraged not to upgrade at this time. In order to prevent the viewer from forcing you to download an update, run the secondlife command as:
secondlife --channel "skipRC1"

We’ll post an update here when a more suitable Linux release candidate exists.

I am having the same issue, I posted the command output at /333/86/253537/1.html (Probably in the wrong forums).

I tried running the command:
./secondlife --channel "skipRC1"

With the SecondLife_i686_1_20_0_84432_RELEASECANDIDATE viewer, however it still asks me to "Download" or "Quit"... Am I running the command incorrectly?

The same thing happened to me. I think I'm going to be patient and wait for the Lindens to sort out this cock-up. Hopefully it'll be sorted out today.

[added]
I have just found out that the option should not be added to the command line, as implied above, but should be placed in gridargs.dat. You'll find this file in the secondlife directory.

You need to replace the string "Second Life Release Candidate" with "skipRC1". It's obvous to find, sicne there is only one line in gridargs.dat. Once you do this, the viewer will load.
[/added]

Used it to problems here...........

Ronnie, thanks, I have dazzle and windlight again!

*sigh of relief*

odd, it was supposed to be parsed from the command line...

I notice that the corrected instructions now appear on the Second Life blog.

more than anything this is the part that bugs me most. That means they're planning on taking out the channel commandline arg so we CAN'T circumvent the mandadory updates somewhere in the near furture. Even tho there are clearly good reasons to do so.

EDIT:
OK, I'm really confused now. My gridargs.dat didn't start with "secondlife" it starts with "settings" tho otherwise looks similar. But changing "Release..." to "skipRC1" didn't help. However, running
sh ./secondlife --channel "skipRC1" from the COMMAND LINE did!!!

So try both, maybe it's distro/shell dependent???
for what it's worth I have Sabayon 3.4F and SL 1.20.0.84432