SC4D, Mint 13, Wont start

[Rufus T. Firefly 1]

Hello everyone, I know linux and SC4 have been discussed before, and i'll detail what i've tried from those posts. Hopefully i've just missed something somewhere (brainfarts happen, i swear!)

SC4 Deluxe from the Big Box, with the EP1 patch.

I'm on Linux Mint 13 with Cinnamon 1.4, wine 1.4 (XP decor), fresh install, all updates installed. 2gigs of ram, GeForce 8400 512meg version 173 driver, tripple core AMD processor. I've used ubuntu almost exclusively since Hardy, but switched to Mint as soon as Unity/Gnome 3 hit. I'm no power user, but I can start a terminal. Not affraid of command line, i use cisco CLI at work quite a bit, and have done some with Linux, but the damn thing works so well for normal useage that i've not had to press it too far

I got it to install, but the installation program just kind of goes away even before the DX9 install begins. It appears to finish, but I can't swear to it. If I try to start it, either from command line, or from the C: drive, nothing happens. If I try to start from the gui the cursor acts like it is thinking, but ends up doing nothing. If I try from terminal, it just gives a fresh prompt without seeming to think about it. Here's the funny bit, if I try to use the gui to restart the setup, it brings up the start graphic with options to Play, Uninstall, etc, but the window just goes away if i choose to play. It will act like it is unstalling if I go that route.

I've tried many of the switches i've seen around (-d:software/-d:opengl -intro:off -music:off -audio:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 and several other resolutions, with virtual desktop set to matching resolution). Even tried forcing a single core.

Is it possible that Gnome3/Cinnamon is causing a foible somewhere, or is this a layer 8/wetware issue? If I had to hazzard a guess, which is shaky at best, i'd point the finger at my graphics driver.

Again, sorry to rehash something old, but I've tried what i can find, and am suspicious of that graphics driver/cinnamon combo.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, you have to be a bit of a console user to use wine, but here is what I am using to run with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Since Mint is based on Ubuntu, it should run. I have run with Mint, but didn't care for the décor. Here is my script.

#!/bin/bash

date

env WINEPREFIX="/home/john/.wine" \

wine "C:/Program Files/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" \

-intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software \

-f -CPUcount:1 &>~/sc4.log

date

The two date commands are just for my own information to tell me how long I've played. The redirection to the log file gives me the wine console output in case of an error or crash. If you've been running from a launcher (the shortcut installed by Maxis) you should really be running with a script like this. Just lift the command out of the launcher and put it in a script with the appropriate surroundings. Feel free to lift what you need from mine. I used this identical script on Mint.

Generally, SC4 doesn't run in hardware mode on wine because wine can't handle the buffer switching properly. I am using wine 1.4.1 which is the last solid release. I've tried some of the 1.5 betas, but they are getting worse.

You are running what amounts to a beta release, even though it is "officially released". The wine developers have to run ever so fast to keep up with the idiots who write games for Microshaft.

If you don't know, to run a script automatically by name from the command line it needs to be in a directory /home/<you>/bin and have execute permission (chmod +x bin/<target>) to run. Do not get confused between your bin directory (~/bin) and the system /bin.

I actually think that you would run OK, if you just added -d:software to your target as supplied, but you need to understand the syntax of the command. Remember that each -option needs a space in front of it.

Oh, an additional thought. If you have never used an editor on Linux, I recommend gedit. It is far more understandable than vim or emacs.

  Edited September 21, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Rufus T. Firefly 1]

Thanks for the reply Nonny. And thank you for all the replys i've seen you give on here. I got alot of what i did to try and make it run from your previous posts. (yay search function!)

I have tried the -d:software switch, with the space in front. both by itself, and with other switches in all kinds of combinations. In fact, tried to copy/paste several versions of the switches from several posts on forums and blog posts.

Wine was installed from the repos, so i trusted it to be at least stable. I did try the 1.5.3 I believe it was, hoping that any changes made with Cinnamon were corrected for, tho i believe cinnamon is just gnome 3 with a different shell, so it shouldnt have made a difference, but i tried it anyway and came back to the repo version before posting here.

From what i can tell from your posts, and others, it should be goin' like a flyin' mammal outta hades.

I did try some bash scripting back when i first started with linux, so scripts are no problem, i just dont remember alot of the guts of it off the top of my noggin.

I've taken your script, changed "john" to my username, changed the program files directory name to include (x86), and saved it in SimCityStart.sh, applied chmod+x and run it with ./SimCityStart.sh

I left it on the desktop so its easy to get to until i get it all worked out. Opened terminal to desktop directory, run the script and it just gives the date twice.

If i'm right, It appears your script is creating a log file, would that contain information useful for this? if so, where does it store that?

(I have used gedit since day one on linux, and i love it. the guys at work who are stuck with windows are quite jealous over that. a tabbed editor is the greatest thing since cherry jello)

[Rufus T. Firefly 1]

I updated the driver to the one called "current with updates", and now i get a default wine desktop in blue, but nothing happens for several minutes and it disappears. On the terminal I see:

fixme:service:scmdatabase_autostart_services Auto-start service L"SecDrv" failed to start: 2

I'm going to play with the drivers, i know the nvidia drivers have had some problems lately.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The log file is in your home directory. At your main level just type

less sc4.log

and stand well back. It may page a lot of stuff.

On your wine configuration, do you have a virtual desktop set up? I do not.

To run the wine configurator just type in

wine winecfg

Make sure your sound is working. You should step through all the tabs, and if you change anything press the apply button.

BTW, an extension (.sh) is not necessary on shell files. It is a Microsoftism. Linux doesn't depend on extensions at all, but some apps and compilers do.

  Edited September 22, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Rufus T. Firefly 1]

Yeah, i know linux doesn't need extensions, it just helps me keep everything straight like a post-it note

I've tried with and without a virtual desktop. and i've added -music:off and -audio:off to rule out sound drivers and so forth being an issue.

The log file says:

"fixme:service:scmdatabase_autostart_services Auto-start service L"SecDrv" failed to start: 2'"

I have no idea what that means, but google seems to think it has to do with a database not starting up.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Take a look at the wine wiki for information on this. If you don't find anything, the wine forum is pretty responsive. http://forum.winehq.org/

[Rufus T. Firefly 1]

Ok, i will.

thanks for your efforts Nonny!