[Wine]The Sims won't run with debugger

david gnome at hawaii.rr.com
Thu Jun 16 17:22:17 CDT 2005


I understand that the Intel processors (and probably every other 
Intel-compatible processor around) has a special register bit that can 
be set, something related to debugging? With debugging, you're running 
the app "under" another app that is monitoring what is going on and can 
stop the app being debugged. Maybe part of the copy protection is 
checking that bit, to avoid someone reverse engineering the game by 
running it under a debugger? And maybe WINE is functioning the same way?

(Sorry, don't ask me, the last time I spent programming any chip at 
machine code level was with the 6510 processor in my old Commodore 64!)

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community

Holly Bostick wrote:
> david schreef:
> 
>>Joshua Crawford wrote:
>>
>>
>>>* Joshua Crawford <mortarn_lists at yahoo.com.au> [2005-06-10 10:10 +1000]:
>>>
>>>
>>>>G'day,
>>>>
>>>>I'm using a cvs version from a few days ago, and I've just installed The
>>>>Sims and its Livin' Large and House Party extensions with minimal
>>>>fuss (the
>>>>icons were missing in the first setup/autorun screens).
>>>>
>>>>Trying to run the program, it displays a dialog with the title "A
>>>>debugger
>>>>has been detected" and the text "Unload the debugger and try again".
>>>>
>>>>So, how can I disable/hide the debugger?
>>>
>>>
>>IIRC, the "debugger" that the program is reporting is WINE itself. Now
>>WHY that is happening, someone who knows WINE will have to explain.
>>
> 
> 
> The short version is that Wine is not able to fool all copy protection
> schemes in existence (as yet).
> 
> Basically, the game's copy protection is looking to confirm the
> legitimacy of the game CD, but some of them apparently do this by
> confirming the legitimacy of Windows in some way as well (I'm not a
> programmer, so I don't know any further technical details; this is what
> I've gleaned from observation and eavesdropping on people who do know
> further technical details). Since Wine does not always succeed in
> convincing the copy protection that it is in fact Windows (not
> surprising, since it isn't), the copy protection does what it was
> designed to do and refuses to run the game.
> 
> However, since what is perceived as illegitimate is Windows, not the
> game-- and the game is what really concerns the makers, after all-- you
> get a "second chance" via a friendly warning to "stop the debugger" (or
> whatever else is causing Windows to be percieved as something other than
> "normal" Windows), and try again.
> 
> This is why a no-cd crack usually solves the problem; they are designed
> to disable the copy protection entirely, which in this case works in our
> favor, as annoying as it is to have to use a crack on a store-bought
> retail game.



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