If you’ve been looking for a step-by-step guide on how to download and play The Sims 4 on your Linux computer, your quest is over now. If you follow the instructions below in the right order, you’ll be able to install Sims 4 on Linux without any problem.
Can you play Sims on Linux? While there is currently no official Linux version of The Sims 4, you can install and play the game on your Linux computer using Lutris.
How can I Install The Sims 4 on Linux?
Step 1 – Get the latest display drivers
The first step is to make sure you’ve got the latest display drivers installed on your device. Update the pre-installed drivers on your Linux computer.
Usually, the Update Manager automatically checks for updates.
How to update your display drivers on Linux
- Open the Update Manager
- Hit the Check button to check for updates
- You’ll see the list of all the pending updates
- Select the display driver update and hit the Install Updates button
- Restart your computer.
Step 2 – Install the latest Vulkan libraries
This is to make sure you’re getting excellent graphics quality when running Sims 4 on Linux. Make sure your Linux distribution is properly installed and running.
Then run the following commands to install Vulkan (select the command appropriate for your current distribution:
Debian
- AMD: # apt install libvulkan1 mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-utils
- NVIDIA: # apt install vulkan-utils
Ubuntu
- AMD:
- $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
- $ sudo apt update
- $ sudo apt upgrade
- # apt install libvulkan1 mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-utils
- NVIDIA:
- $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
- $ sudo apt upgrade
- $ sudo apt install nvidia-graphics-drivers-396 nvidia-settings vulkan vulkan-utils
Fedora
- AMD: # dnf install vulkan vulkan-info
- NVIDIA:
- # dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
- # dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia akmod-nvidia vulkan vulkan-tools
OpenSUSE
- AMD: # zypper in vulkan libvulkan1 vulkan-utils mesa-vulkan-drivers
- NVIDIA: # zypper in vulkan libvulkan1 vulkan-utils
Arch Linux
- AMD:# pacman -S vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon
- NVIDIA:# pacman -S nvidia lib32-nvidia-utils
Step 3 – Install Lutris
Lutris is a free game manager for Linux that allows you to install hundreds of games with a single click making gaming on Linux much simpler.
⇒ Download Lutris on your Linux computer
To install Lutris, run these commands:
- sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install lutris
Use these commands for installing Lutris on other distributions:
- Fedora Linux: sudo dnf install lutris
- Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S lutris
- OpenSuse: sudo zypper in lutris
Step 4 -Install Origin Dependencies
The following dependencies are currently available
- Arch Linux: lib32-gnutls lib32-libldap lib32-libgpg-error lib32-libxml2 lib32-alsa-plugins lib32-sdl2 lib32-freetype2 lib32-dbus lib32-libgcrypt libgcrypt
- Ubuntu: libgnutls30:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libxml2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libsdl
Don’t forget to add the wine-stable command at the end (Origin uses wine).
Other dependencies may be added to the list later on. For more information, check the Lutris page on GutHub from time to time.
Step 5 – Install Origin via Lutris
⇒ Use the Lutris installer to install Origin on Linux
These are the steps to follow:
- Launch Lutris
- Search for Origin
- Select Origin
- Hit the Install button
- Restart your computer
- Open Origin from Lutris
- Enter your credentials
Can you download Origin on Linux? Origin does not officially support Linux, but you can download the program on your Linux computer using Lutris.
Step 6 – Install Sims 4
After you launched Origin, download the Sims 4 from Lutris. Install the game and launch it to check if everything is running properly.
Troubleshooting The Sims 4 on Linux
If The Sims 4 doesn’t work as intended, follow the troubleshooting steps below. Video card errors are pretty common on Linux.
- Disable Origin In-Game: open the Origin settings menu and disable this feature. It is currently not supported on Linux and keeping it enabled could cause plenty of glitches.
- Tweak the game resolution: lower your resolution settings if you’re experiencing performance issues.
- Disable demanding graphics settings such as Post Processing, reduce Edge Smoothing, Reflections, and View Distance.
- Disable automatic updates for Origin. In this manner, you’ll avoid incompatibility issues between the latest Origin version and your current Linux setup.
References:
- Lutris, an Open gaming platform for Linux, retrieved from GitHub.
- Updating Linux Video Drivers, Steam Support.