Short version:

I have a windows app I run under wine that always displays a blank dos window first when I run it directly from a link to application on my desktop.

I wrote a bash script to run it and put that in a link to application and that works without the blank dos window. Why doesn't the first way work?

Long version:

I have a small old windows application that stores all my passwords. I like it because it's simple and I can access it (dual boot) from Windows or Linux. It just displays a very simple window with a list of accounts and clicking on one of those opens a child window with the details. It has no graphics or anything fancy. On the windows side, installing it
was as simple as unzipping it and creating a desktop shortcut for it - no setup at all.

On the Linux side (kubuntu hardy), I created a link to application on my desktop with Command set to
wineconsole /media/windoze/Program Files/Passkeeper/pass32.exe
and work path set to
/media/windoze/Program Files/Passkeeper

It works fine, but when I start it up, I always get a blank dos window on the screen first and then the application window appears. I have to manually minimize the dos window to get it out of the way. It does nothing useful by itself. But, if I close it, it closes the application with it.

I tried to run it as as wine instead of wineconsole, but that does nothing at all - at least on the screen and dmesg.

Running under wineconsole, ps shows:

bigbird 18404 6477 0 13:29 ? 00:00:00 wineconsole.exe
/media/windoze/Program Files/Passkeeper/pass32.exe
bigbird 18408 1 0 13:29 ? 00:00:00
/usr/bin/../lib/../bin/wineserver
bigbird 18411 1 0 13:29 ? 00:00:00
c:\windows\system32\services.exe
bigbird 18413 18411 0 13:29 ? 00:00:00
c:\windows\system32\winedevice.exe MountMgr
bigbird 18420 1 0 13:29 ? 00:00:00
c:\windows\system32\explorer.exe /desktop
bigbird 18421 18404 0 13:29 ? 00:00:00 /media/windoze/Program
Files/Passkeeper/pass32.exe
bigbird 18587 6658 0 13:31 pts/0 00:00:00 ps -aef
bigbird@sananda:~/pq$

On my old desktop (Mandrake 9.1), the same app runs fine with no dos window. I'm not in front of it right now, but I think it works with wine - doesn't need wineconsole.

I wrote the following script and used it as a link to application on my desktop and it works without specifying the application path and doesn't create the dos window.

#!/bin/bash
## Start my password safe application
cd "/media/windoze/Program Files/Passkeeper"
wine ./pass32.exe

Any ideas on why the original approach doesn't work? I'd like to understand what's going on.

Thanks.

Joe

Maybe you need to adjust the command for your startup link. Something like the command below should actually be able to do it.

env WINEPREFIX="/home/user/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\some_directory\some_app.exe"

On the other hand your problem could also be caused by the application itself. Some Windows application (rather products from small vendors, older stuff or gaming apps) sometimes start with a MSDOS-console even on Windows itself. How long the console is visible can also depend on system speed and if shared libraries have to be loaded or are in memory already.

Linux Archive

Thanks for your input.

The application is installed in the real windows partition in my machine, not in the one created by wine. That way I can access the same data whether I'm booted into Linux or Windows. Doesn't your first suggestion apply to applications which were installed by wine under Linux? I did not do that for this one.

I have very little experience with wine. Since the application was already installed in actual windows, I just tried it that way and it seemed to work. Does that relate to the problem? I did set the working directory to where it is installed in the link to application so it would be able to find its data files.

Your second suggestion about how applications may create a dos window themselves is interesting, but how does that address the fact that running the application from the shell script (listed in my original post) doesn't create any dos window - at least that is visible on the screen or in the taskbar?

Joe