Run The Sims 3 under Linux

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Note: August 6, 2012, This has become the second most popular article on Zylblog.

Is it possible to run The Sims 3 under Ubuntu Linux? (or any version of Linux, really)
In order to play, you must meet system hardware requirements

Yes, it is. In fact, it’s not as complicated as you might think it would be.

Just a pre-note: This is not a refined article. Information might be written incorrectly, or entirely missing. Do let us know by commenting, or emailing. Thank you.

Preparation:

Be sure to enable your 3d graphics drivers. Click System> Administration> “Hardware Drivers”.
This can take a moment to open.

Look for your video driver. If you see multiple drivers, select the one with “Recommended” next to it. If you do not see “Recommended” next to anything, just select the newest version. Click the driver and then click the “Activate” button. This requires Internet access, and can take a while for the installation to complete.

Now you need to install PlayOnLinux. I recommend installing from their website using the DEB installer, or by using the provided commands. Select your distribution for installation instructions: http://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html

The Installation

Open PlayOnLinux under Applications> Games> “Play On Linux”

On the first run of Play On Linux, you will have to install a few things before it will actually work. The program will walk you through this, you will need Internet to install these additions. They are critical to the proper operation of PlayOnLinux.

Once PlayOnLinux is done doing it’s own setup, click the “Install” button. At this time, if you have not already, you should insert your legal Sims 3 disc. A mounted ISO will most likely not work, you need the actual DVD.

Select your drive. Normally, it will start with cdrom, or cdrom0. Try all that are listed if neither of these exist or they do not work.

Fun Fact! When I use things such as bold italic underlined text to point out important things, it makes it easier for the reader to keep track of where they are and makes the blog visually look better.

Installing a No-CD Patch for The Sims 3

In order to run The Sims 3 under Linux, you must install a No-CD patch. These are often heavily debated patches, and some people consider them program cracks as well. An important point to make:
1. No one has legally declared No-CD Patches to be “Illegal”.
2. Yes, many of the patches of these types will contain viruses. Don’t worry, I know of a few valid ones.
3. Don’t feel bad. You already bought the software, there is no reason why you should have to keep the CD.
4. Using drive virtualization software will not work for this program in particular in Linux.

Okay? Feel morally able to do it now? Great!

Go to http://m0008.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_the_sims_3.shtml
(I warn you, I have seen some pretty inappropriate ads on this website… not complete nudity but pretty darn close. Still, I haven’t had virus problems with this website)

and scroll down to:

The Sims 3 v1.2.7 [MULTI] No-DVD/Fixed EXE 26-06-2009
Razor 1911
File Archive [3.7 MB] – Removes DVD-Checks Only!

And click the floppy-disk icon next to it. (I don’t agree with direct links, despite how much easier it would make it for you)
Select a random mirror. It’s not a large file, don’t worry about getting the “slow” server.

Right click the downloaded file, and click “Extract To… Here” (do this in a folder where you can extract and be able to get back to it…)

Two files will be located within. TS3.exe, and TSLHost.dll.

Before copying the game patch over, run the game once without the patch through PlayOnLinux.

Copying the CD Patch

Open your home folder. Press CTRL+H to view hidden files, and navigate to a folder called:

.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/TheSims3/drive_c/program files/electronic arts/the sims 3/game/bin

Copy the files in this folder called TS3.exe and TSLHost.dll so as to make a backup. Just copy them to your desktop for now, until you know if it works or not. Once you have those backed up, delete them from the game folder, then go ahead and copy the no-cd versions that you downloaded and extracted earlier to the game folder.

That’s all. Start up the game and see how it all went.

Important Notes

Do not go to the Sims 3 website and install their patches. PlayOnLinux will patch your system for you.

Legal notice:

I am not responsible for any damage.
The information in this article is no provided for illegal use, it is assumed that you legally own the game; furthermore, you must abide by your terms of service.

The following was added August 6th, 2012:

Need assistance? 

While you are welcome to comment asking others for help, I (the author) really do not have much that I can provide in assistance. If you run across an issue, try the PlayOnLinux forums:
http://www.playonlinux.com/en/forums.html
To report and debug issues with WINE specifically, check out their forums or Bugzilla (but please search their database for the same issue first, they are short-tempered when it comes to repeated requests).
http://www.winehq.org/
Issues with the game can be resolved at The Sims 3 official website forum, here:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/

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Messenger Alternatives for Windows Mobile

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Getting tired of Windows Live Messenger for your mobile phone?
A while back, I found the default messenger program included with Windows Mobile 5 and 6 to be a pain. In search of a new program, I found Nimbuzz, a great little program for Windows Mobile that is easy enough to use and supports multiple protocols.

From the Nimbuzz website:

Nimbuzz Mobile lets you call, chat, message, and send files on the go, for free. It combines all your buddies from Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Google Talk and more. One login, one contact list, all accounts.

More information about features is available here: http://www.nimbuzz.com/en/mobile/

Nimbuzz even supports voice chat that works fine with a phone’s WiFi connection.

http://www.nimbuzz.com/en/

The program is small enough to be installed on your phone’s main memory, and in general: It’s absolutely lovable. I especially enjoy the fact that it does support multiple messenger protocols, allowing you to use more than just MSN.

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Server Downtime

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

It is a professional thing to do: When a website experiences downtime, the administrator should explain to the users what happened.

In this case, we do not know what really happened, but we shall try and explain what we know:

At around 12:20PM (PST) this afternoon (Friday, October 30, 2009) our website became inaccessible. Events went down as listed:

First, the Internet cut out due to a failing router (still in the works of being replaced). This was the initial problem that made the site inaccessible.

Second, all services provided by MySQL ceased proper function — MySQL reported on the physical server’s main terminal that MySQL ran out of memory. This caused MySQL to quit.

Third, unexpectedly, the server “froze up” completely. MySQL may have been doing some sort of redundant processing resulting in the server running out of memory, but this is only speculation.

Server functions resumed around 4:30PM the same afternoon, with approximately 4 hours 10 minutes of downtime.

Future changes to prevent such issues:
Router replacement. This was not entirely a programming issue.

Other changes:
Forum removed.

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Quick Kudos to our new theme

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

We’d like to give a quick kudos to the new theme we are using on our blog, to Devolux.

The theme we are now using is called “JQ”, and it seems to work with our setup just fine. Unfortunately, if we have a spike in users, it’ll have to either be modified or removed altogether due to the images in the page.

It brings back a few rather scary Mac memories, but it’s a clean interface and well organized. Thank you, Devolux.

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PlayOnLinux: A whole new way to game

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I think, back a while ago, I said that a major part of my website would be software reviews..
I lied, I never kept that focus. But, here comes a great Review for you Linux users (or those considering)!

PlayOnLinux: a program that works with WINE to create a better gaming experience for Linux users.
PlayOnLinux is a very easy way to install various programs and games.
How so, you may ask? PlayOnLinux (PoL) is not a Wine  Replacement, it is more like an extension of Wine. For programs (namely Games) that will not run natively on Linux with Wine installed, PlayOnLinux provides installer scrips and other modifications to assist your games and other programs.

Though games are it’s main focus, it also supports many other programs, such as: Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer 6/7/8, WinAmp, Windows Media Player, and much more.

A few of PoL’s games and programs can be seen here:
http://www.playonlinux.com/repository/

Granted, many games work natively with Wine  installed properly, you can check out the Wine Database to see if your game may work with Wine. If Wine mentions PoL in your game’s description, or in the installation instructions, then you need to install it using PlayOnLinux.

We hope you will check out Wine and PlayOnLinux, and that your games will be available within them as well.

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Ubuntu 9.10 BETA: Final Remarks

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Ubuntu makes its final release in 6 days (as of this post, October 23, 2009).
I think I, in my personal opinion, can call it “pretty much stable”.
Still, in this currently release (working off of nightly builds), I had a problem installing Ubuntu 9.10 on a newer Dell, due to the network configuration — the base OS worked and I am sure that the final release of 9.10 will fix the driver issue. (The disc I installed off was not the final release disc).

It seems the Ubuntu team has been avidly working out all of the various bugs, and the issues with Empathy crashing constantly on many systems has also been largely resolved. The beta of Ubuntu 8.10 was not this stable at its actual release, and I see quite an improvement over the last builds.

I think most people (even newbies) will be safe installing Ubuntu 9.10 BETA before it’s actual release, without any problems. This brings an end to our stability outlook series. Thank you for sticking with us. As always, you can subscribe to us via. RSS (click the RSS button in your address bar).

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Radio Shows

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

The oldest form of electronic entertainment, the radio show, still lives on.

Unfortunately, due to the furthered technological inventions in our rapidly moving world, radio is being buried underneath various forms of entertainment. Personally, I enjoy radio shows. Don’t tell me you don’t, since chances are you have never actually listened to one.

I have three radio shows that I subscribe to via. Podcast, each has very limited commercial interruption (one short 15 second ad at the beginning of a 1 hour show? That’s fine with me.)

Shows that I personally, and frequently recommend:

“Wait Wait! Don’t Tell Me!” – The NPR Newsquiz.
A radio game-show where everyone wins (and where everyone gets made fun of).
On this radio show, recent news items are covered in sections such as:
“Who’s Carl This Time” where you (the caller) must identify or explain three quotes from this last weeks news
“Bluff the Listener” where three panellists have very exuberant, unlikely stories, but one is true and you (the caller) must identify which one.
“Not My Job” where the caller (usually a famous person, such as a Senator or member of congress as well as movie and television personalities) must answer three questions about a topic which they [most likely] know nothing about.

Website: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=35 (podcast available there as well as regular MP3 download)

Weekly Episodes, during the off season, episodes are available over the web as well (webisodes…)

“RadioLab” – From WNCY Public Radio
Think of RadioLab as a combination of Nova, Nature, Mr. Wizard, and Bill Nye.
Advise listening with relatively good headphones, as sound is treated as a king in this show. Some content is controversial, and some is graphically inappropriate for children (they give a good heads-up, usually a few minutes before anything happens).
It is indescribable, since this show covers so much all at once. You must listen for yourself.

Website: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/ (Podcasts available there as well)

“A Prairie Home Companion” – The News from Lake Wobagon
A Prairie Home Companion is a story show telling many good lessons. Kid safe, though adults will be required to understand most of the jokes. One can learn quite a lot listening to these [often tall] tales.

Website: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/ (podcast available there as well)

“Science Friday” – NRP Weekely show
Science Friday is a weekly show from NPR, going through various scientific topics with interviews from professionals on the topic. It is a wonderful show for learning.

Website: http://www.sciencefriday.com/ (Podcast available there as well)

One other show that I have not looked into yet, but others have suggested is Car Talk.
Two brothers run this show, full of humour and car information. Callers are able to ask about their own car questions, providing they know what kind of car and the year… as described by a listener: “These guys know everything!”

Website: http://www.cartalk.com/ (podcasts available there as well)

Feel more than free to comment about radio shows, even your own radio shows if you happen to run one.

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Server Updates

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I like telling my users what I have changed on my website, and what I will be changing.

First, I have decided that the forums are utterly useless and that they do not benefit the website in the least bit. Out of sheer curiosity, I may change it into a spam-trap for a temporary amount of time, I advise not visiting it during that period… (I get around 10 spammers in one hour, think of how it would be if the forums were entirely opened up and most spam-prevention disabled?)

Second, we are now using WP-Supercache on the blog. Users who choose to use the WordPress comment system instead of IntenseDebate will find that their comments may not update for up to 10 minutes.
We changed this since it is much less stressful on the server.

Check out WP-Super-cache. It may work wonders for your own server.

Third, we are now using WordPress Sitemaps so as to improve the efficiency of Google crawling our website, and reduce the amount of unnecessary visits from Google.

Right? All Good? Great. Both of those tools listed work flawlessly, and we hope that you may try them as well.

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Ubuntu 9.10 Progress Updates

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

The Sims 3 now works under Ubuntu 9.10 with PlayOnLinux (PoL)

After installing nightly updates, I reinstalled The Sims 3 and it’s working like a charm. I had a few unexpected quits on the game, but after fidgeting with it a bit (kept trying and trying a few times, and saving as well to re-write the save file) it started to work without a problem.

Later (hopefully by the end of the week), I will publish the final revision of my article: “How to install The Sims 3 in Ubuntu Linux”
So, if you are having problems figuring out how to install it, keep yourself subscribe and we’ll keep you posted.

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Blog stats — Last 30 days

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

User visits increasing (partially because we fixed an issue that was occurring with the way we had Analytics set up…)
Anyways, here’s the results of the last 30 days.

Visits Over the Past 30 Days

Site Usage
137 Visits 67.15% Bounce Rate
299 Pageviews 00:02:33 Avg. Time on Site
2.18 Pages/Visit 86.86% % New Visits

Top Pages

1. The Sims 3 Future EP’s « ZylstraBlog – 82 Views
2. ZylstraBlog – 38 Views
3. (not set) – 32 Views
4. Accordion Fingering Chart (bass) « ZylstraBlog – 19 Views
5. (not set) – 15 Views

Top Referrers

1. zylstrablog.co.nr – 62 Visits (*We use a domain redirect, so when people visit us via www.zylstrablog.co.nr, this increases by one)
2. blogs.icerocket.com – 2 Visits
3. computerhope.com – 1 Visits
4. linuxaffinity.com – 1 Visits
5. metacrawler.com – 1 Visits

Top Searches

1. accordion bass chart – 6 Visits
2. accordian fingering chart – 1 Visits
3. accordion bass button chart – 1 Visits
4. accordion bass fingering – 1 Visits
5. accordion finger chart – 1 Visits

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