How to use the Chime plug-in on Linux

Chime is a powerful browser plug-in that enables you to view three-dimensional molecular structures, rotate them with your mouse, etc. Unfortunately, it is only available for the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. This document describes how to use this plug-in under Linux (Intel x86 only).

Note: there are various ways to achieve this. However, none of the alternatives allows as seamless integration as the method described below, which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been documented elsewhere.
One of the alternatives is to run a Windows environment within your Linux installation, e.g., by using VMware. This works flawlessly, but requires you to run your browser within this emulator. Also, it might be possible to run a Windows browser on Linux using Wine, although I haven't tested this. Possibly, the Chime plug-in then works within this browser.

Disclaimer: all information in this document is provided without any warranty whatsoever. I make this information available in the hope that it will be useful to others, but cannot be held responsible for any problems that you encounter. Thus, if you buy the Crossover Plug-in and find out that you cannot get Chime to work with it, or if you experience any data loss in the process: do not blame me. I am not affiliated in any way with MDL (the manufacturer of Chime) or Codeweavers (the manufacturer of the Crossover Plug-in), nor is this web page intended as an endorsement of their products.

Please note also that I simply do not have the time to assist with installation problems, and may not be able to give individual feedback. However, if you find that this information was useful to you, feel free to drop me a note!

Summary: a recently released commercial (but inexpensive) product enables the use of Windows plug-ins within native Linux browsers. Chime is not among the explicitly supported plug-ins, nor can arbitrary plug-ins be expected to work with this product, according to the manufacturer. While the standard installation of Chime indeed seems not to work, it actually turns out to be simple to get it working. This is described in the following.

The following instructions were tested on a Linux box running SuSE 7.2 (kernel 2.4.4), with Netscape 4.77:

  1. Acquire Codeweavers' Crossover Plug-in.
  2. Quit your browser and install the Crossover Plug-in using the installation script. Note that I did not have any version of Wine installed on my system. I do not know whether there is any risk of interference between such an installation and the Crossover Plug-in.
  3. In the installation process, it doesn't matter which Windows plug-ins you choose to install. In any case, it seems that you cannot install Chime here (using the Other option): Chime's setup program hangs when trying to detect the browser, no matter which of the three detection options you choose. So select Finish.
  4. Now copy from an existing Windows machine on which Chime has been installed the file npchime.dll. For a typical Netscape installation on Windows, you can find this file in \Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Plugins. It doesn't matter whether you copy the file from the plug-in directory of Netscape or Internet Explorer: it is the same file (file size 1552384 bytes for Chime 2.6SP3). Copy this file to the following directory on your Linux installation: CCC/crossover/support/dotwine/fake_windows/Netscape/Communicator/Program/plugins, where "CCC" stands for the directory you chose for the Crossover Plug-in.
  5. Start CCC/crossover/bin/pluginsetup (again, replace "CCC" with your installation directory) and choose the tab "Netscape". There you should see the npchime.dll file listed. Activate it by clicking on the appropriate button and then choose Finish. This step is essential!
  6. Everything should be working now. Start Netscape and choose "Help|About Plug-ins". Among the list of plug-ins, you should see explicit mention of Chemscape Chime 2.6 SP3 (CrossOver - npchime.dll). Click here for a screenshot of the plug-in list.
  7. You can test the installation by going to http://ariadne.mse.uiuc.edu/rpm.html. Click on the figure to activate Chime. The configuration should be rotating, and you can also drag it using your mouse. Even the toggle buttons on the right-hand side should work fine. Please note that there may be web sites that refuse to serve you Chime-enabled pages, claiming that you cannot view their pages since you're running Linux...
  8. Good luck!

Added notes: If you use Chime's menu and select "File|Save Molecule As...", it takes a few moments for the file menu to pop up. Also, this pop-up menu might be hidden behind your browser, making it appear as if the browser has frozen. Furthermore, there are some sophisticated pages where not all toggle buttons work properly (e.g., the "End", "2X", "1/2" and "Replicate" buttons on http://www.umass.edu/microbio/chime/dna/fs_code.htm). I do not know whether this indicates a problem with the Crossover plug-in or with the Chime script on the web page.

This write-up © Copyright 2001 Erik Luijten --- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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This page was created on October 13, 2001. Added notes on October 15, 2001.