Linux - GeneralThis Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I installed MSN Messenger using wine under the root account.
i can not access the root folder from the main user account that i want to run messenger from.
So i have to "su" in a terminal to become root, then navigate to /root/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/MSN Messenger
and from there "wine msnmsgr.exe" to launch the program.
I just need an icon in my user desktop that can take care of all this..
You should install the Windows application under your /home directory, and execute it from there. Wine is not supposed to be run as root, since it gives the Windows application full access to the file system.
If installed properly by the user, an icon for the installed program should come up in your GNOME/KDE desktop.
Notice the backslashes in the path; it seems that Linux doesn't parse the spaces in filenames in a manner you'd expect, so using those backslashes helps with that issue. If you were to type the path as "/root/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/MSN Messenger", this is what Linux sees:
/root/.wine/drive_c/Program
...and you'll probably get an error like, "Can't find file '/root/.wine/drive_c/Program'". Using the backslashes should help.
You should install the Windows application under your /home directory, and execute it from there. Wine is not supposed to be run as root, since it gives the Windows application full access to the file system.
I disagree; yes, you don't want to run your apps as root, but you can choose to install them where ever (provided you have write access to the chosen dir). For example, I run Half-Life 2 (Steam) out of a dir in my data partition which is mounted up as /data. If you wanted to, you could install the app as root and run it as yourself to put it in /usr/share with other Linuxy apps.
In my config, Z:\ is "/" so I just put the app in z: somewhere e.g.
Z:\data\Steam
or
Z:\usr\share\Steam
That will allow the app to be used by other users which it would seem is your goal. Otherwise ~/.wine is a great place if only you will be running the app.
Use visudo and add a line like this : "%users ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL"
-This will ad you to the sudo list, and allow you to use root commands as user.-
Place "sudo wine /root/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/MSN Messenger/msnmsgr.exe" in your link.
I have started IE6 on root as user using this method ...
(GAIM works very well, so why don't you use this program as messenger ?)
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.