My whine about Wine and Mint 19

[a60man]

Hi All, been an infrequent user of Mint (several versions) for several years on a spare machine. Generally impressed, and not had to use the terminal for anything.

Thought I have a go with Mint 19, put 64 Bit Cinnamon and Mate and separate hard drives, both SSHD types.

Everything worked well, installed a fair bit of stuff from Software Manager, however I didn't see Wine there.

Went to Wine site and followed the installation using the Terminal, and cant get Wine installed. I think I did it correctly, but I'm no good at using Terminal and hate it.

Can't Wine be put in Software Manager?

An easy solution?

Best regards

[gm10]

Everything worked well, installed a fair bit of stuff from Software Manager, however I didn't see Wine there.
[...]
Can't Wine be put in Software Manager?

It already is. Type "wine" into the search box, there it is.

I think I did it correctly, but I'm no good at using Terminal and hate it.

An easy solution?

For what? If you did it correctly, that's that. wine is a terminal application, it has no GUI (although you can find third-party helper GUIs for it in Software Manager as well).

[karlchen]

wine is a terminal application, it has no GUI

winecfg perhaps? Looks like a GUI to me.

[Pierre]

if you do search in Software Manager for ./wine
then you will actually get three results:
- Wine
- PlayonLinux
- Wine tricks
you could install all three of them, as they are all quite useful,
in getting some Windows Programs to work .. ..

[gm10]

wine is a terminal application, it has no GUI

winecfg perhaps? Looks like a GUI to me.

touché

[a60man]

Everything worked well, installed a fair bit of stuff from Software Manager, however I didn't see Wine there.
[...]
Can't Wine be put in Software Manager?

It already is. Type "wine" into the search box, there it is.

I think I did it correctly, but I'm no good at using Terminal and hate it.

An easy solution?

For what? If you did it correctly, that's that. wine is a terminal application, it has no GUI (although you can find third-party helper GUIs for it in Software Manager as well).

Hi there, thanks for the reply, I should have said, although some Wine stuff is there, nothing seemed to work.

[a60man]

if you do search in Software Manager for ./wine
then you will actually get three results:
- Wine
- PlayonLinux
- Wine tricks
you could install all three of them, as they are all quite useful,
in getting some Windows Programs to work .. ..

Hi, thanks for the reply, only PlayonLinux and Wine tricks worked, and I don't believe they are suitable for a couple of my obscure Windows programs.

[Pierre]

Yeah - - only some Windows Programs will work on ./wine
and YMMV as well, as it is very limited in nature.

[a60man]

Yeah - - only some Windows Programs will work on ./wine
and YMMV as well, as it is very limited in nature.

Hi there, thanks for the reply, my two obscure Windows programs did work on earlier version of Mint using Wine, but I don't think they work using PlayonLinux and Winetricks

[karlchen]

Hi.

The only unfriendly change in Wine, which I have noticed is this:

• Ubuntu 16.04 / Mint 18.x installed Wine 1.6.2 from the official Ubuntu repos. Installing Wine 1.6.2 would create an application submenu "Wine", which held the items "Wine Configuration" (winecfg), "Editor" (notepad), "Wine browser" (which invoked the system default browser), "Winetricks" and 1 or 2 other items.
• Ubuntu 18.04 / Mint 19 installed Wine 3.0 from the official Ubuntu repos. Installing Wine 3.0 does no longer create the submenu "Wine".
  I have found on the WineHQ page the statement that the creation of the Wine submenu has been dropped in recent Wine versions. I have not found out what the smart logic behind this change might be. (None very likely.)

Apart from that, the Windows applications, which worked on Mint 18.1 Wine 1.6.2, still work on Ubuntu 18.04 / Mint 19 Wine 3.0 as well. No new issues encountered with the applications which I use: Total Commander 9.21a, Notepad2 4.2.25, PDF Xchange Viewer 2.5.317.

Best regards,
Karl

[a60man]

Hi.

The only unfriendly change in Wine, which I have noticed is this:

• Ubuntu 16.04 / Mint 18.x installed Wine 1.6.2 from the official Ubuntu repos. Installing Wine 1.6.2 would create an application submenu "Wine", which held the items "Wine Configuration" (winecfg), "Editor" (notepad), "Wine browser" (which invoked the system default browser), "Winetricks" and 1 or 2 other items.
• Ubuntu 18.04 / Mint 19 installed Wine 3.0 from the official Ubuntu repos. Installing Wine 3.0 does no longer create the submenu "Wine".
  I have found on the WineHQ page the statement that the creation of the Wine submenu has been dropped in recent Wine versions. I have not found out what the smart logic behind this change might be. (None very likely.)

Apart from that, the Windows applications, which worked on Mint 18.1 Wine 1.6.2, still work on Ubuntu 18.04 / Mint 19 Wine 3.0 as well. No new issues encountered with the applications which I use: Total Commander 9.21a, Notepad2 4.2.25, PDF Xchange Viewer 2.5.317.

Best regards,
Karl

Hi there, thanks for the reply, a bit too technical for me to understand though.

I'm trying something simple, see below!

[gm10]

Hi there, thanks for the reply, a bit too technical for me to understand though.

He's saying the only difference about Wine in Mint 19 is that menu entries are not created (due to a change Wine made, not Mint). Everything else works the same.

[a60man]

Right, I wiped one of the hard drives with Mint 19 on and installed Mint 18.3 Mate 64 Bit.

Installed Wine from Software Manager, Ah Ha! Wine works fine.

I next did a system update, that was successful.

Now, can I update 18.3 to 19 through system update?

[a60man]

Hi there, thanks for the reply, a bit too technical for me to understand though.

He's saying the only difference about Wine in Mint 19 is that menu entries are not created (due to a change Wine made, not Mint). Everything else works the same.

Hi there, you can see above that Wine works in 18.3 as above, so perhaps the software sources for 19 can be changed to use the sources for 18.3?

[gm10]

Hi there, you can see above that Wine works in 18.3 as above, so perhaps the software sources for 19 can be changed to use the sources for 18.3?

Not going to happen, users want the most recent version, not an old one. If the missing menu entries bother you, you can just create them yourself in LM19.

[a60man]

Hi there, you can see above that Wine works in 18.3 as above, so perhaps the software sources for 19 can be changed to use the sources for 18.3?

Not going to happen, users want the most recent version, not an old one. If the missing menu entries bother you, you can just create them yourself in LM19.

Thanks, but would not have a clue how to do that.

[karlchen]

Hello, a60man.

Now, can I update 18.3 to 19 through system update?

No, you cannot upgrade from Mint 18.3 to Mint 19 with the help of Update Manager.
Clem's official step by step instruction on how to upgrade in-place from Mint 18.3 to Mint 19 can be found here: How to upgrade to Linux Mint 19
It has to be followed very strictly; else trouble can be expected.

Best regards,
Karl

[a60man]

Hello, a60man.

Now, can I update 18.3 to 19 through system update?

No, you cannot upgrade from Mint 18.3 to Mint 19 with the help of Update Manager.
Clem's official step by step instruction on how to upgrade in-place from Mint 18.3 to Mint 19 can be found here: How to upgrade to Linux Mint 19
It has to be followed very strictly; else trouble can be expected.

Best regards,
Karl

Hi Karl

Yes, I looked in Update Manager, nothing there. Thanks for the link on how to upgrade, I had just found something similar, I'll consider trying it!

There is something wrong with using Software Manager in 19 to install Wine, it doesn't work. Works in 18.3 and many previous iterations of Mint over the years.

[karlchen]

Hello, a60man.

On Mint 18.3 you might use winecfg from the Wine submenu and find out which Windows version Wine tries to mimick.

I just remembered this:
On Mint 18.x Wine 1.6.2 is told to pretend to be Windows XP SP3. No trouble with my (Windows) applications.
On Mint 19 Wine 3.0 defaulted to pretend to be Windows7. Result: Trouble with my Total Commander.
Used winecfg and configured it to pretend this is still Windows XP; and Total Commander worked correctly again on Wine.
(On genuine Windows, the same Commander works on any Windows up to Windows 2016.)

So checking the winecfg preferences on Mint 19 / Wine 3.0 as opposed to Mint 18.3 / Wine 1.6.2 might reveal the culprit, which prevents your Windows software from working on wine 3.0.

Best regards,
Karl

[a60man]

Hello, a60man.

On Mint 18.3 you might use winecfg from the Wine submenu and find out which Windows version Wine tries to mimick.

I just remembered this:
On Mint 18.x Wine 1.6.2 is told to pretend to be Windows XP SP3. No trouble with my (Windows) applications.
On Mint 19 Wine 3.0 defaulted to pretend to be Windows7. Result: Trouble with my Total Commander.
Used winecfg and configured it to pretend this is still Windows XP; and Total Commander worked correctly again on Wine.
(On genuine Windows, the same Commander works on any Windows up to Windows 2016.)

So checking the winecfg preferences on Mint 19 / Wine 3.0 as opposed to Mint 18.3 / Wine 1.6.2 might reveal the culprit, which prevents your Windows software from working on wine 3.0.

Best regards,
Karl

Hi Karl, Using Mint 19, it's not that Wine won't work with my windows software, the problem is, I believe in installing Wine.