Attempting to install Simcity 3000 Unlimited. again. w/ stupid Loki glibc problems

[Limitlesschannels]

Alright, I have ran searches throughout this forum and come up with mixed results all over about attempting to install old Loki games and running into glibc issues. None of these threads have really helped me at all and are just really confusing. This link seems to have the closest thing to an answer for what I am trying to do, but I still have no idea what it is talking about; plus, it is for gentoo and i don't know if the command syntax should be different.
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Running...#Sim_City_3000

I am attempting to install Simcity 3000 Unlimited. when i mount it and run

 sh setup.sh

in the working directory, i get

This installation doesn't support glibc-2.1 on Linux / x86

Please contact Loki Technical Support at support@lokigames.com

So, apparently I need to trick the system into using an old version of glibc with "LD_LIBRARY_PATH"...? I heard mentions of using "LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.26" to run it as an old kernel version.

I thought myself to be fairly competent with Linux but it is just one of those annoying things about Linux that if you are infamiliar with a command, then you are totally screwed unless there are some ubuntu-gurus around to help out. So, if anyone can shed some light on LD_ASSUME_KERNEL or let me know if that's even the right way to go about this, then please let me know.

[Stephen Howard]

You're on the right track according to this Gentoo wiki on running old loki games.

Basically you need to install the old libraries, and then point LD_LIBRARY_PATH to that directory. If you have any luck, please post because I'd be interested.

[Limitlesschannels]

I'm sorry, could you be more specific? What libraries do i need to install and how do i use LD_LIBRARY_PATH?

[Stephen Howard]

I can't help much as I've not tried it myself - I'm just passing on the gist of the gentoo link. It seems that you need to get the pre-packaged old libraries that the author of the gentoo site has put together; then drop those files in a local directory; then each time you run the loki game define the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable to point at the old libraries directory. The website has the specific instructions for each loki game - including simcity.

[Limitlesschannels]

Hm, well, i downloaded the prepackaged libraries and all that, followed the onsite instructions and ran:

the site says to use:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/Loki_Compat/ /path/Loki_Compat/ld-linux.so.2 /path/SimCity3000/sc3u.dynamic

for the game, so i tried:

limitlesschannels@Compy:~/Desktop$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/Desktop/Loki_Compat/ ~/Desktop/Loki_Compat/ld-linux.so.2 /media/cdrom0/setup.sh
/media/cdrom0/setup.sh: error while loading shared libraries: /media/cdrom0/setup.sh: invalid ELF header

substituting the "path" for whichever path is required. I have no idea what an "invalid ELF header" error is and google wasn't much help. I assume the main problem is that I am attempting an install while the page says at the top that the installation and patching of the games is not covered and these commands are for actually running the game. But i can't even seem to get it installed properly to try running it. ugh.

[Stephen Howard]

Okay, I did some research and the following works on my Feisty installation (thanks to uth at the Fedora forum):

Step 1: Grab this bundle of loki compatibility files: http://www.linuxrising.org/files/lokicompat.tar.bz2. Note that the gentoo loki compatibility files won't work, but these FC5 versions do work.

Step 2: Extract the files into your loki compatiblilty directory (I have mine at /usr/local/games/loki_compat_libs/).

Step 3: Bring up a terminal and type the following:

export COMPAT=/usr/local/games/loki_compat_libs/ # your path will probably be different
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$COMPAT

Step 4: Then to run the game type:

LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 $COMPAT/ld-linux.so.2 sc3u

Step 5: Once you exit the game, you'll need to reset the LIBRARY PATH (this is important):

unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Step 6: Presumably you could put the above in a script once you verify that its working.

[Stephen Howard]

Oops, I just noticed that you're actually trying to install simcity - maybe try Iculus' installer.

[Limitlesschannels]

I try and download the various loki-installer/patches/setups off icculus' site, but it just drops me to a CVS listing and either the files are no longer there or are deep down in the bowels. I tried http://www.liflg.org/?catid=4 but the simcity game looks like it is the only loki game without an installer on that site. Any other suggestions?

[seditiousmonkey]

I too am having trouble with Sc3u and this annoying glibc thingy. Stephen i followed your hints which must have done somthing but on executing

joe@joe-desktop:/usr/local/games/SC3U$ LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.4 $COMPAT/ld-linux.so.2 sc3u

i now get

SC3U: error while loading shared libraries: SC3U: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
now the error reads

any ideas what this means?

[Slammer64]

Are you using x86_64, if so, that could be the cause of your problem? If that's so use the command "linux32 ./setup.sh". It's how I have got it running. I have lots of Loki games already installed and am willing to help anyone who plays these old classics.