Running RP on Ubuntu machine with Wine

[pete_c]

just finished installing ubuntu 14.04. It has wine 1.6.2. Let us know if u do a write up

 
Removing Wine Completely
 
1 - sudo apt-get --purge remove wine --purge
2 - If you're installed wine from their official PPA:
sudo apt-get remove wine-1.7 --purge
3 - rm -rf $HOME/.wine
     rm -f $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged/wine*
     rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/applications/wine
     rm -f $HOME/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine*
     rm -f $HOME/.local/share/icons/????_*.xpm
     rm $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged/wine*
     rm -r $HOME/.local/share/applications/wine
     rm $HOME/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine*
4 - sudo apt-get remove --purge wine
5 - sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get autoclean
     sudo apt-get clean
     sudo apt-get autoremove
 
 
Most current Wine is 1.7.  Here installed it on Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit.  Here is a copy and paste.  You will see some errors with Wine 64 bit.
 
1 - sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine
 
2 - Type winetricks
 
3 -

 
4 - Select Install a windows DLL or component
 

 
5 - Install all that I have marked (and any additional you need). This covers many apps:
 

 

 

 

6 - winetricks vcrun2010
 
7 - winetricks xna40
 
8 - When troubleshooting an App, always run the app in an emulated Desktop Window. Open winecfg go to Graphics and enable Emulate a Virtual Desktop. Then set the resolution for it. This way, if the app freezes, hijacks the keyboard and/or mouse focus, at least you have a way to eliminate the app instead of having it fullscreen where you have few choices:
 

 
9 - Wine and 64 bit Ubuntu
 
Yes, having Ubuntu 64 Bit will also set Wine as 64 bit. This will create several problems for many Windows apps that only work on 32 Bit. To solve this you need to do the following after having succesfully installed the PPA version as I mentioned above. Immediately afer installing the PPA wine package and before opening winecfg open the terminal (Make sure you are at your home folder by typing cd ~) and type the following:

rm -fr ~/.wine
export WINEARCH=win32
export WINEPREFIX="/home/USER/.wine"
winecfg

Change USER with your user account. For example in My case, that line would read export WINEPREFIX="/home/pete/.wine"
With this method you have changed the Wine architecture to 32 bit and on the moment you open Winecfg, it will configure all the Windows versions available to 32 Bit.

 

[pete_c]

BTW as W2P mentions above you can take some of the hassle of this out by using a VM inside of Ubuntu. 
 
Wine gets a bit convoluted. 
 
You only really need to install what is needed; well there is why I threw the kitchen sink at my MS SAPI stuff and applications.
 
I had issues here getting MS SAPI to run in Linux but I liked the SAPI voice fonts I had versus the Linux robot sounding voice fonts (from the 80's).
 
Personally here went to using it and just placing the same WIntel desktop icons on my Ubuntu 64bit desktop cuz it looks nice?

 

[BaduFamily]

( another vote for Virtual Box. I run RP from a windows VM on my MacPro, works fine. )

 

[pete_c]

Here I have switched two laptops to  Ubuntu 64bit . 
 
Mostly liked running Wintel applications in Wine cuz its light.
 
That said today installed virtual box on same two laptops for the heck of it.
 
Easy to do.
 
How to install Virtualbox on Ubuntu 14.04
 
 
1 - from Ubuntu repository
 
sudo apt-get install virtualbox
 
2 - from Oracle repository
 
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb hxxp://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian
'$(lsb_release -cs)' contrib non-free' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list" &&
wget -q hxxp://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-
key add - && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3 dkms

 

[newalarm]

So i was doing a bit of reading on virtualbox. it seems like you need to have a copy of windows to make it work? Whereas Wine has OS built in? I actually installed it on the Mac last night.
 
Also, I set up my Ubuntu 14.04 as 32bit. I assume I can follow your instruction for Wine 64 above?
 
I am still figuring my way around Linux/Ubuntu and OSX. It is really different than windows machines. So apologies if my questions are too basic.
 
Thanks.

 

[pete_c]

Also, I set up my Ubuntu 14.04 as 32bit. I assume I can follow your instruction for Wine 64 above?

 
The default install for Wine is whatever base you are using for Ubuntu whether it is 32 bit or 64 bit.
 
You can force a 32bit Wine installation on a 64bit Ubuntu installation.
 
IE: sudo apt-get install wine1.7:i386
 
Some of my tabletop tablet consoles run Ubuntu 14.04 32 bit and I have installed MS SAPI and Wine Wintel 32bit speech programs on it.  (well and touchscreen stuff).
 
Once you have configured Wine for whatever WIndows application is running then it is lite. 
 
Way lighter than a Virtualbox / Wintel application running.
 
I have not had to deal with licensing stuff in Wine except when installing stuff like Office.  You do not run the entire Wintel OS when running Wine.  You only run the pieces you need to run a Wintel Program.
 
I am not sure if this makes sense to you?
 
Yes you need a license of the Wintel OS for installation in Virtualbox.
 
It is a PITA to get some Wintel programs running in Wine and the Wine folks have created a database of Wintel programs running in Wine.  RP is not in that database right now.
 
That said I will put it in the Wine DB if I get it working while I document the pieces.  I have only participated a bit with the Wine DB stuff over the last year or so.

 

[pete_c]

Playing with one Laptop installed Windows Server (very light tweaked version).  I have done this before with my desktop and other Linux machines.  It is easy and it does work fine and it is portable.  IE: you can move it to just about any laptop or desktop today.
 
My preference is still using Wine and configuring it to run your specific windows applications. 
 
So here I am back to figuring out the configuration in Wine to run RP.  It is time conuming and a learning experience.
 
Relating to using Wine in 64/32 bit more it is just configuring the prefix or running the application with a 32 bit or 64 bit prefix off a stock Ubuntu 64 bit build.  Get's a bit wordy but it is basic.

 

[newalarm]

Thanks Pete, I will try when i get a chance. I finally bought a new HD to replace failing one in laptop and am trying to get it formatted. Don't do this everyday so it takes me much longer
 
I found a version of Vista so was going to try to load that up, but eventually, I want to do the wine set up Since I want to stick to Ubuntu.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah here tested VB on 4 machines that were running Ubuntu.  It worked fine with XP, 2003, W7 and W81. (and wintel servers).
 
Personally here Vista didn't ever exist for me...that is me though.

 

[newalarm]

So I just finished installing wine following your incredibly well written instructions. ThANK YOU.
 
Only time i got hung up is when it was installing the windows fonts i think and there was a stupid window with <OK> and i could not click or do anything and it was hung up. Read online that you have to hit TAB to highlight, then hit enter. Not very clear. Maybe good to slip that in to your description.
 
I am going to try to install RP now.

 

[newalarm]

I right clicked and installed with wine installer and it seemed to have installed, but gave me the 'modules not found' list that i think i posted prior. It placed the ElkRP icon on desktop. When i click on it, nothing happens.

 

[pete_c]

Yup here ordered more memory for one laptop as testing this stuff on other machines here work way better with 8 Gb of base memory.  The added memory will be here in 2 days.  Just noticed that Amazon has two day and Sunday delivery.
 
Well updated another one to 16Gb. 
 
I am guessing you are using the 32bit wine prefix when doing this via a terminal session eh?
 
 
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32 your_32bit_executable.exe

 

[newalarm]

crap. I have 1gig with both slots filled... I can upgrade to 2 but that is max. I have an old mx6426 gateway that I am working off of.
 
Is that problem?

 

[pete_c]

No here its just one laptop that I was already doing the Wine thing and had loaded up the programs and they were running fine and decided to start from scratch on it; tinkering with it a 2AM decided to up the memory and noticed it was really cheap.
 
This dinged my efforts on the laptop I am typing on to wait to up the memory and do more stuff with it on Sunday.
 
You should be fine. 
 
It's just the more memory you have the better it is...all my tabletop touchscreens (> 20) though are running on an Atom with 512Mb of memory / Ubuntu just fine for one application.
 
What is the Gateway computer?  All of the newer ones are 2-4 core and the older ones are single core. 
 
When running wine in the terminal session it is very chatty and you can see the files required.  Well its best to look at the chatter.

 

[newalarm]

I added RP to list of programs in config.
 
I am tried both. just double clicking on the RP icon on desktop and the virtual desktop. When double clicking, it starts thinking as if it is going to open, and nothing happens.
 
With virtual desktop, a desktop opens up with rp icon at upper left, then it goes away. Seems like it is failing to open.