HI people!here i found some information about the subject . well i want to ask questions (not regarding slackware directly, but i don't want to switch to another distro):

1 - Why most of the software industry that supports linux :

Novell, Oracle, Vmware, among others mostly support only suse,redhat and mandrake or any other distro and slackware is always left out? I saw some folks that claim to have installed vmware under slackware tough! :-)

2 - I work with Autocad (autodesk) frequently and wine and vmware or even winlin are very tempting to try, especially vmware! Well on the thread i link you to, there is this reverse engeneering problem, the .DWG format and so on. Does anybody know of an emulator software that actually reads .DWG format ? I am going to be straight with you, autocad cd can be found for US$5 in certain "markets" and it really costs a fortune (>US$ 5000). I am not interested in any type of linux based CAD (even tough it "only" costs US$ 300) if you get my meanning.

3 - I was asking myself, what happens with the drivers ? Do emulators manage in some way the drivers needed to make hardaware work ?
like i use win_xp professional and found an emulator that supports it, does that mean that all my hardware is going to work under linux?
The reason i am asking this is because i have several hardware that don't work under linux (slackware), ok maybe i am dumb but don't say i am not losing nights of sleep over it !

4 - These programs have limitations, i heard wine , is very problematic, but what about other emulation software? they work ok? I only need a couple of microsoft based software (autocad and a few games) what are your opinion on this? are they not reverse engeneering too ?

5 - I am going to push a litlle but i have a question regarding micosoft dumping win98 and 95!
In what way could this help linux community ? can you make programs run under a different OS (linux) just by knowing another OS source code ?



thank you for any reply!

There is a discussion of CAD on Linux here:

http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue54/frost.html

I am not sure how uptodate it is, the Microstation link was no good.

Most likely you will not be able to run Autocad under Linux, you will
have to dual boot.

I found a wine how-to looking very promissing what do you think ?


"AutoCAD R14



Homepage

Tested Wine Version: 20020710

Type wine setup.exe to install AutoCAD.
After installation copy the following files to the fake windows system directory:
shell.dll
shell32.dll
comctl32.dll
commctrl.dll
comdlg32.dll
oledlg.dll

Add the following lines to the config file:
[AppDefaults\\acad.exe\\DllOverrides]
"commctrl" = "native"
"comdlg32" = "native"
"comctl32" = "native"
"shell" = "native"
"shell32" = "native"

Type wine acad.exe in the installation directory to run AutoCAD.

Notes:
Only use dlls from windows 95/98/Me"

it could even be R13 or R12 for all i care!

Can anyone check here and comment, please?

I got Autocad R14 working under Wine without any modifications. Wine is really easy to install as long as you follow the relatively few directions they give you. After that, just pop in the CD and run "wine /mnt/cdrom/setup.exe" or whatever it is. Personally, though, I have a few programs that I use to do development on other platforms (handheld) that don't work with Wine so I keep and old Pentium 2 system around with Windows on it.

jamaso,
did you look at qcad?
http://www.qcad.org
the latest version looks pretty good. you can buy it pretty cheap for single user. or build it yourself (you probably will have to upgrade Qt and will not have scripting supported but still...).

thanks, i think i will give wine a try! if autocad works it's really great! thnks once again

You might give Turbocad a try. I purchased the "designer" version for under 40 bucks at Staples. I used to do CD work for a living, and I found it an awesome value. It is 3D as well as 2D (unlike the Qcad)
I tried awhile back to get it running in Wine, and I was not successful. But going to give it another try.. but be warned it is not that easy. Apparently tied into IE6 (for doing net stuff with your drawings I guess) There is a script out there, that gets IE6 installed into wine (and I did get that going "kinda") and my install of Turbocad did try hard to get through it all.. but something was missing... some dll that I didn't have I suppose.
Regardless... be a good guy, don't use a Warez Autocad .. for 40 bucks Turbocad designer will do the job you want I am sure.
Regards,
dbcad7

dbcad7, thank you for your reply, i will look all the tips you guys gave, but firstly i think i will try R14 (i have a old cd i wise man gave me once), now i have two acad (Arquitectural Desktop (latest)) and R14, its really the same thing (work with 2D (arquitectural projects)) and faster too . If i manage to do it ? That 'll mean kicking windows for GOOD !

Why not install VMware under slackware? (yes it DOES work and install under Slackware 9.1 and current)

to get it to install as root make an initd folder inside /etc/rc.d/
now inside initd make folders rc.0 to rc.6

kernel 2.4.22 users:
now install VMware as normal and put the vmware script in rc.local like this
/etc/rc.d/initd/vmware -start

and your set.



kernel 2.6x users:
Install the vmware package but when it asks you to compile the drivers say no
and get the patch from here:
http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/vmware-any...pdate67.tar.gz

ungzip and untar that and allow it to compile the driver for vmware it will also contenue the rest of the setup process.

now install VMware as normal and put the vmware script in rc.local like this
/etc/rc.d/initd/vmware -start

and bingo Vmware is now on linux... happy crashing .. I mean windowsing! hehehe

First off, as a person responsible for CAD licensing and management at work, do us all a favor and either buy a legit copy of AutoCAD or use something else.

Secondly, if you even get it running, I have serious doubts whether your print drivers would work. R14 and older are so tied to the CAD print drivers that you may just be creating an unsolvable headache for yourself.

Check this out !Autodesk
isn't even woried about folks like me (and sad to tell, they can't do nothing about it!). Probably every single important building, bridge, spaceship are made in autocad software around the world.
ghight, back at my work we have engineers and arquitects that are finding ways to disguise autocad (changing names or icons, stupid things like that to trick an eventual inspector that comes and see if everything is ok), because, public departements can't have pirated software running and we just can't afford to buy a license.
I am broke and have not intention of buying officially certificated copies of autocad, sorry about that! thanks a lot for your tip tough.


regards

ProtoformX i forgot to say that the problem with vmware is that it costs money, i am trying to make everything without spending. I guess wine is the "solution" for me .

jamaso wrote:
" Probably every single important building, bridge, spaceship are made in autocad software around the world. "

Not really am vast majority of things that have been around predates CAD wares. They were designed by Engineers like me who where taught how to really design something and use an eazel and drafting tools to layout in 3D.
I still do it that way...
I have seen many a CAD "Engineers" who could not even use overlay features of the CAD they where suppose to be "has-been-drips on (Xspert) let alone design anything without a computer...

There are freebees out there check out the foundry...