SimCity 2013

What works

Nothing

What does not

After starting the game shows a black screen

Workarounds

What was not tested

Almost everything

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Intel
• Driver: proprietary

Additional Comments

1. Download and install Origin:

   cd ~ wget download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe wine OriginSetup.exe

   ... and follow the graphical Origin installer process.

2. Do not login, yet.

   Just click away the login window.

3. Only for wine version 1.7.34 or older: Patch Origin's Qt5Network.dll to buffer the QTcpSocket again

   This is needed for a smooth download. Otherwise the download rate will drop to zero within a few seconds, or even hang on "Preparing ...". See bug #31438, which was fixed in wine 1.7.35.
   Use the python patch script from this bug report (first it makes a backup of the dll, then patches one byte in it, and finally shows the files' md5sum).

   cd ~ wget -O patch_qt5network_wine.py https://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=49988 chmod +x patch_qt5network_wine.py cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Origin/ ~/patch_qt5network_wine.py

   Above commands download the python patch script to your home directory, make it executable and then execute it in the correct folder. In case the lines are wrapped on your display: the lines start with "cd", "wget", "chmod", "cd" and the last line with "~/patch_qt5network_wine.py".
   

   This script is quite flexible in finding the correct byte to patch, even if Origin comes with a new version of the dll. If it fails anyway check the bug report for news.
   

4. Start Origin:

   cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Origin wine Origin.exe

   ... and download & install SimCity in there.

5. Force the installation to finish:

   If the SimCity installer gets stuck after downloading on "Installing..." for more than 5 minutes do a
   

   killall EAProxyInstaller.exe

   See bug #33723 (this symptom was described in its duplicate #29876).

6. Disable Origin in Game:

   Otherwise SimCity.exe will crash shortly after starting it.

   In the Origin window go to "Origin - Application Settings - Origin In Game" and untick "Enable Origin In Game".
   (In the past it was recommended to remove IGO32.dll instead. But this doesn't work anymore.)

   See bugs #36863, #33141 and probably more (TODO).
   

7. Start SimCity in Origin:

   cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Origin wine Origin.exe

   In Origin hover over SimCity and click "Play".

• If SimCity freezes in fullscreen and you can't get back to your desktop hit "Control" + "Alt" + "F1", this will bring you to a text terminal. There login and type:
  

  killall SimCity.exe

  After that get back to your graphical session by hitting "Control" + "Alt" + "F7" (or sometimes "F8"). This might be necessary e.g. with Intel graphics and a broken driver, see bug #37475.
  

• If you started the game, can hear the sounds of the intro, but the actual SimCity game is not visible, then try to bring it to the foreground by cycling through your windows with "Alt" + "Tab" several times. If this doesn't work, quit everything, start winecfg, choose the "Graphics" rider and select "Emulate a virtual desktop" (choose a resolution just a littlebit smaller than your display's resolution). Then start SimCity again.

• If you get an error message in the login prompt of Origin that the EA servers are currently not available, enable the insecure GTE CyberTrust Global Root certificate. (See bug #35828). Note that this certificate is not secure because its key length is only 1024 bits. Check in /etc/ca-certificates.conf which certificates are installed.
  Check your distribution's help to learn how to enable this cerificate. E.g. in Debian do a
  

  sudo dpkg-reconfigure ca-certificates

  ... and check the "mozilla/GTE_CyberTrust_Global_Root.crt".

• Origin is not aware of what is happening in SimCity.

  After quitting SimCity it will complain that it is still running. Further the "Last Played" is not updated. Just ignore it. Or use a patched version of wine, see bug #33723.