Wine & Update Manager

[barriebarry]

So to extend this discussion with a specific example, I am about to install Wine and currently 4.0 is the available option from Software Manager (SM). Then, when 5.0 is available from SM, will I get informed and given the option to update to 5.0 through the Update Manager? On a side note, I am trying to understand when Wine 5.0 will become available (through the SM). How does this happen?

[Moem]

Mod note: Split off from a previous discussion. Please do not piggyback on existing topics; rather, post new ones instead, and link to existing ones where needed. Thanks!

[gm10]

I would not expect it to become available in the official LM 19.x repos at all, for Linux Mint is a long term support release distro, i.e. outside of bug fixes, software versions generally remain stable for the support duration. If you want it Wine 5, there are installation instructions at winehq.org.

[kc1di]

Another way to get wine 5.0 is to install playonlinux you can install it from there.

[barriebarry]

Thanks for the responses and sorry for the piggy-back.

Now something is very weird is happening with Software Manager (SM). I was about to install wine using wine installer as everyone recommends, but just now, from the SM, instead of the green "install" button, I get the grayed out "Not Available" button. Now even more weird is that I then checked the other Wine options in the SM and did get the option for Wine-Stable and Wine-Staging, both for version 5.0.0~bionic and 5.1~bionic respectively. That's not the weird part... in the short time I needed to log into this forum, the options for Wine-Stable and -Staging also turned gray "Not Available". Oddly, Winetricks shows "Install".

I did do updates from Update Manager somewhere this evening but I don't think any of them had to do with Wine or the SM. Can a update make a package no longer available? I don't understand.

UPDATE: I did a timeshift to before the last Update Manager updates and still "Not Available" for Wine options.

[kc1di]

I just check Software manager and no wine 5.0 The 5 on the presentation is how many stars it has from reviews of the soft ware.
Try this go to menu>Administration>synaptic do a search for wine-installer there and install from there.
Or Go to a teminal and do these commands

Code: Select all

sudo apt update

then

Code: Select all

sudo apt install wine-installer

Post back any error messages you get.

[barriebarry]

Here is what I got:

****
$ sudo apt install wine-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
wine-installer : Depends: winehq-stable but it is not going to be installed or
winehq-devel but it is not going to be installed or
winehq-staging but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

****
This looks sort of familiar from another post I saw a few days ago.

A bit of history: I did have wine installed using wrong instructions geared towards Ubuntu and have since attempt to clean off all evidence of it. The only thing I see left on the system is in the Update Manager under "Additional Repositories" where I see listed:

Winehq/bionic
deb https://dt.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list

There's a little check mark beside it... should I uncheck it?

UPDATE: I just unchecked it and now the Software Manager gives me the green "Install" button. The interesting thing is that now it shows version 4.0.5 and for Wine-Stable, it shows 4.0~bionic (previously showed 5.0~bionic).

[kc1di]

yes you should uncheck it and run update again.
At this point I would uninstall any wine programs with this command

Code: Select all

sudo apt purge wine

Then reinstall with wine-installer.

[barriebarry]

Hi kc1di, thanks for confirming the actions I need to take and indeed I have purged all I could find related to my previous attempts at installing wine. I used instructions from other posts (viewtopic.php?f=47&t=308861) and others and including deleting the .wine folder in my home directory. The last thing remaining was that "Additional Repositories" for Winehq and I'm too knew with linux to understand what the implications were so I left it. So I think I'm all set to go and it will likely be days before I get back to it.

BTW, how do I link to existing posts? Try as I may, I cannot find the forum Post instructions and I don't think I did it correctly above.

73, Barry (VE3KAX)

[gm10]

The last thing remaining was that "Additional Repositories" for Winehq and I'm too knew with linux to understand what the implications were so I left it. So I think I'm all set to go and it will likely be days before I get back to it.

If you want to go with wine-installer (which will install Wine 4.0), then you should disable or remove the WineHQ repository as well. On the other hand, if you want Wine 5.0, then that repository is needed, but in that case don't install wine-installer.

BTW, how do I link to existing posts? Try as I may, I cannot find the forum Post instructions and I don't think I did it correctly above.

Either quote the post in question, or right-click the icon in the upper left of a post and select to copy link address, then paste that into your post.

[barriebarry]

I managed to get Wine 4.0 installed using Wine-Installer, then Winetricks, both using the Software Manager. I then installed my particular app (StudioTax) and it worked! Mostly. The Arial fonts were reported missing (by StudioTax) and so I then used Winetricks (my first time with this tool) and installed the MS Core fonts. However, it did give warning to the effect that my (default?) prefix is 64bit but most winetricks require 32 bit. I don’t recall the wording but it did suggest I create a 32 bit version (prefix?) and repeat my app install if I were to experience troubles. Furthermore, Winetricks kept giving me some sort of “incomplete” message/window and would not stop unless I killed winetricks. I’m guessing this is related to the 64 vs 32 bit thing and maybe next time I’ll manually install the missing fonts.

The fonts were installed and StudioTax started up without an issue about fonts and it appears to be functional. However, it didn’t take much to lock it up so I think I’ll start over but this time in a 32 bit environment. I think I understand but I would appreciate confirmation if I am on the right track.

First, I believe I can start over by simply deleting the .wine folder in my home directory. This will also wipe out my StudioTax install but that’s okay, it was easy enough to install. I think I’ve read that I could add a 32bit prefix but I haven’t got my head around managing the use of prefixes so I’d rather just keep it simple and stick to 32 bits only.

Now if I understand the process, deleting the .wine folder leaves wine 4.0 still on my computer and so I can run winecfg to re-create the .wine folder, which is what I did the first time. However, I don’t think that winecfg gave me an option to select 32 or 64 install and probably defaults to the 64 bit option based on my host pc. I believe I must first issue some command like arc32 but I don’t quite understand the syntax and which application is actually responding to it. I don’t really need to understand but would like to. So if someone can clarify what that command looks like, I’ll give it another try

[barriebarry]

It's not going very well... I've tried so many times now to create a 32 bit environment and nothing works. I've purged my system from wine many times and started over and each time the same results. The very first time I ran winecfg, it did the install of mono and gecko but that's not happening any more. Does that make sense? In the end, I can get my Studio Tax app to launch but it doesn't take much to make it lock up. I still think it's something to do with the 64 vs 32 bit setup but every attempt at making a 32 bit prefix ends with a 64 (based on the warnings I get from winetricks). I'm about to give up unless someone can point me in the right directions (instructions).

[kc1di]

You may have to end up installing windows 7 in a virtual box session to get that app working. All 32 bit libs are installed if you installed wine with wine installer.
so I don't believe that is the problem. Just to make sure try install playonlinux with this command

Code: Select all

sudo apt install playonlinux

once it's finishes you'll find it in the Accessories section of the menu. Playonlinux is a wine front end and it makes it easy to install different versions of wine. It itstalls programs in their own virtual folders so they do not interact with other programs. so you can have several versions of wine installed at the same time.

You can learn more about it on this page. https://www.playonlinux.com/en/
Once you have Playonlinux up and running go to tools and manage wine versions install the 32 bit wine version 5.0 or newer The try install your app via planonlinux you will see a note on the botton left of the app install page it says install non-listed app use that.

Good Luck.