After downloading a fresh new Vendetta (default config), I could not play until I put dovertexbuffers=0 in my .vendetta/config.ini. You will find all details below. I hope this could help people playing, and developpers debugging :-)

Platform :
Redhat Linux 9.0
Geforce 4 MX 440
Driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363

Problem :
I can login, and select a player. Then when I click "Select Ship...", I see the normal interface, but instead of the 3D ship turning, there is an empty space. After 3 seconds, the game crashes.

The .vendetta/errors.log says :
caught SIGABRT; generating stack trace
fault address 00001231, 080aa0f9
...

The .vendetta/config.ini contains :
[refgl]
illummap=1
envmap=1
bumpmap=1
tc=0
minfilter=9987
maxfilter=9729
specular=1
windowmode=0
textureresolution=1
texturequality=32
gamma=8
def_freq=0
tfactor_hack=0
doshaders=1
dovertexbuffers=1
do_compiled_vertex_array=1
do_env_combine=1
do_extensions=1

.vendetta/openglerr.log is empty

.vendetta/openglinfo.log contains :
[Sat Oct 25 19:50:31 2003]
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Renderer: GeForce4 MX 440/AGP/3DNOW!
Version: 1.4.0 NVIDIA 43.63
Extensions: GL_ARB_imaging GL_ARB_multitexture GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_window_pos GL_S3_s3tc GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_paletted_texture GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_cube_map GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_lod GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_KTX_buffer_region GL_NV_blend_square GL_NV_fence GL_NV_fog_distance GL_NV_light_max_exponent GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil GL_NV_pixel_data_range GL_NV_point_sprite GL_NV_register_combiners GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_NV_texture_env_combine4 GL_NV_texture_rectangle GL_NV_vertex_array_range GL_NV_vertex_array_range2 GL_NV_vertex_program GL_NV_vertex_program1_1 GL_NVX_ycrcb GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_multitexture GL_SGIS_texture_lod
GLU Version: 1.3
GLU Extensions: GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator GLU_EXT_object_space_tess
glx Extensions: GLX_EXT_visual_info GLX_EXT_visual_rating GLX_SGIX_fbconfig GLX_SGIX_pbuffer GLX_ARB_get_proc_address
glx Version: 1.3
glx server Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
glx server Version: 1.3
glx server Extensions: GLX_EXT_visual_info GLX_EXT_visual_rating GLX_SGIX_fbconfig GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
glx client Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
glx client Version: 1.3
glx client Extensions: GLX_ARB_get_proc_address GLX_ARB_multisample GLX_EXT_visual_info GLX_EXT_visual_rating GLX_EXT_import_context GLX_SGI_video_sync GLX_SGIX_swap_group GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier GLX_SGIX_fbconfig GLX_SGIX_pbuffer GLX_NV_float_buffer
GL_MAX_LIGHTS: 8
GL_MAX_CLIP_PLANES: 6
GL_MAX_MODELVIEW_STACK_DEPTH: 32
GL_MAX_PROJECTION_STACK_DEPTH: 4
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_STACK_DEPTH: 10
GL_SUBPIXEL_BITS: 4
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE: 2048
GL_MAX_PIXEL_MAP_TABLE: 65536
GL_MAX_NAME_STACK_DEPTH: 128
GL_MAX_LIST_NESTING: 64
GL_MAX_EVAL_ORDER: 8
GL_MAX_VIEWPORT_DIMS: 4096
GL_MAX_ATTRIB_STACK_DEPTH: 16
GL_AUX_BUFFERS: 0
GL_RGBA_MODE: 1
GL_INDEX_MODE: 0
GL_DOUBLEBUFFER: 1
GL_STEREO: 0
GL_POINT_SIZE_RANGE: 1.000000 - 63.375000
GL_POINT_SIZE_GRANULARITY: 0.125000
GL_LINE_WIDTH_RANGE: 0.500000 - 10.000000
GL_LINE_WIDTH_GRANULARITY: 0.125000
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS: 2
GL_MAX_CUBE_MAP_TEXTURE_SIZE: 512
GL_MAX_ELEMENTS_VERTICES: 4096
GL_MAX_ELEMENTS_INDICES: 4096
GL_POINT_SIZE_MIN: 0.000000
GL_POINT_SIZE_MAX: 63.375000
GL_POINT_FADE_THRESHOLD_SIZE: 1.000000
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_MAX_ANISOTROPY: 2.000000

Solution :
In file .vendetta/config.ini, put :
dovertexbuffers=0
instead of :
dovertexbuffers=1

Update : this bug does not happen with NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run

Yep, 4496 seems to have fixed NVidia's SIGABRTs.