Wine 101

thebatgranny · 10-13-2003, 07:33 AM

I've just installed Wine and it seems to be working fine (I got notepad up and running) but I have a few questions about the general use of wine:

1. Is there a graphic interface or can you just use it from the terminal?
2. Do you have to have the .exe files on your Linux partition or can you run them from an existing installation on a Windows partition?
3. Do you have to install windows in wine to use windows programmes?

Many thanks for any help

Chris Batgranny

Mega Man X · 10-13-2003, 08:03 AM

Hi thebatgranny and Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org

1 - There's one called winetools, if I'm not mistaken. It helps installing and removing programs through wine, as well as configuring it as creating directories and updating the "registries". graphically. But I don't think it's practical. Wine works cool under command line.

2 - You can run some problem directly from Windows Directory. In fact, sometimes it will run when installed from Windows directory only. In my case, I read some subjects at distance courses and one program, called FirstClass, cannot be installed with Wine. The installer is the problem. So running from a pre-installed Windows partitions fixed the problem.

3 - I'm not sure if I've understood it, but if you mean that you have to have Windows installed to use wine, no, you don't have to, but it may help as I stated above. Wine is 100% MS code free and has it's own set of dll's, so it really is not necessary to have Windows at all.

Remember that, although Wine has been doing great steps forward lately, it's still far from perfect. Try looking only for native Linux applications instead. I'm sure you can find almost everything you need from the OpenSource world and, oftenly, better

Baldrick65 · 10-13-2003, 08:09 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by thebatgranny
1. Is there a graphic interface or can you just use it from the terminal?
You can use winesetuptk (check rpmfind.net) to setup the environment. To use wine, use the command:

Code:

wine /path/to/someprogram.exe

from a terminal.

2. Do you have to have the .exe files on your Linux partition or can you run them from an existing installation on a Windows partition?
No, BUT, if you have WinXP on NTFS, you will not be able to write to the Windows drive.

3. Do you have to install windows in wine to use windows programmes?
No, but not all win progs work.

Many thanks for any help
No probs ... I hope I did

Baldrick

thebatgranny · 10-13-2003, 08:38 AM

Thanks a lot guys. I know these are no brainer questions but I have read the documentation and I came out more confused than when I went in!

I do have a NTFS drive, so will I move the .exe files to my linux parition or install from CD to my Linux drive?

I know I can find Linux versions of most Windows software, but I need an office suite that can read and write Microsoft Office files, and my version of OpenOffice doesnt work, and I'm only on dial up so I cant download it. I can use KOffice for docs at home but for when I have to hand stuff in at uni it needs to be an MS Office format.

And one more thing, can anyone reccomend a good web site builder?

Thanks again

Chris Batgranny
"The more you teach me the more I can teach others"

Baldrick65 · 10-13-2003, 09:20 AM

There is no need to move the exe's from the windows drive, just when you have to save stuff, don't do it on the windows drive. You should consider creating a FAT32 partition on your windows drive for this purpose.

OpenOffice.org ver 1.01 (that's my version as shipped with Mandrake 9) can read and write to MS formats, although its native format is XML. You can find OOo on many "cover CD's" from computer mags (look for Linux Format or similar). The latest version is 1.1.

Or you can try these links which list many distributors in lots of countries that have OpenOffice.org CD's

As for a web editor, I use Dreamweaver 3 under wine, or you can try Bluefish, Screem or Quanta Plus (probably the best of the 3), all of which are free.

Baldrick

thebatgranny · 10-13-2003, 09:42 AM

The thing is though, when I try to open Word through Wine I get the following:

I type this to load Word:

[chris@localhost chris]$ wine /mnt/win_c/Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office/winword.exe

This is the reply, along with a box that says "This application requires Windows installer to run":

fixme:reg:_nt_dump_lf unknown Win XP node id 0x686c: do we need to add support for it ?
fixme:reg:_nt_dump_lf unknown Win XP node id 0x686c: do we need to add support for it ?
fixme:reg:_nt_dump_lf unknown Win XP node id 0x686c: do we need to add support for it ?

Am I doing something wrong?

Mega Man X · 10-13-2003, 10:02 AM

Here it's how to use OpenOffice under Wine:

http://frankscorner.org/modules.php?...rtid=20&page=1

It's not always an easy task... The best is still OpenOffice. As stated above, it writes in MS Office 97/2000 format. If you tell us the problem you are having with OpenOffice we may try to help you (version, distribution, error messages running from a terminal and etc)

thebatgranny · 10-13-2003, 11:52 AM

Ok, I give up with Office under Wine. I got as far as the installation and after the "Choose a directory" screen I got a message saying "Office was not installed correctly." Grrr!

With regards to my open office problem, I'm running the version that comes with Mandrake 9.1 and when I start it up from the terminal I get the splash screen and the follwing error message:

Application ErrorAborted

I think I may have to get another copy from somewhere

Mega Man X · 10-13-2003, 11:58 AM

yeah, wine is pretty nasty sometimes. I've done about 5 different tutorials about getting Kazaa under wine. From Kazaa homepage, from Frank homepage and two swedish pages and others. None worked :S.

Try uninstalling and installing OpenOffice again from your CD's

. It's worthy a try