[Solved]Wine 32bit on 64bit system

[Guid00B]

I had to dig out the net quite a bit to run an app with wine, this is just a report for general knowledge.
It was running fine except for a 3D view that popped up a complaint message regarding missing DirectX

I searched for reports on identical issue (mainly gamers are involved). It turned out that some 32bit lib couldn't be accessed when wine is running on a 64bit (in my case LMDE2)

I made many test running dxdiag.exe (in ~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/whateverYouNamedYourPrefix/drive_c/windows/system32) and read the playonlinux.log contained in the ~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/whateverYouNamedYourPrefix/playonlinux.log, and then isolated libGL.so.1 as the missing lib.

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locate libGL.so.1

reported it to be in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu so effectively no 32bit available.

Finally I found [url=https://www.codeweavers.com/support/wik ... ssinglibgl]
As LMDE2 is debian 8 and I am running intel video chipset I first simulated the suggested apt-get, and decided to run it.

The app runs now flawlessly with a basic winePrefix (32bit) straight out of the playonLinux setup wizard.

Config note :
LMDE2 Cinnamon 64/ intel i3/intel integrated Graphic controller
wine 4.0 (system)
PlayOnLinux 4.2.5

[BrunoMiranda]

Sometimes winetricks can be helpful to configure the wine subsystem to 32 bits and also thinker the Windows version.

And PlayOnLinux can be good as it can install alongside within himself a lot of wine versions, 32 and 64 bits, and test between all of them.

Yeah wine can be chaotic as all the GUIs tools don't do everything yet in just one place. It can get you a long time to get things working and it can be frustrating but once you have everything working , it works like a charm!

[natchezjohn]

I think Wine 4 does it all and directly with it's right click on 64 or 32 bit .exe files. Install with directions at https://kifarunix.com/how-to-install-wi ... ebian-9-8/

[BrunoMiranda]

I'm still on LMDE2 (Debian 8 Jessie) and I'm only getting security updates until June next year. Backports are kinda broken (and I didn't see any update for wine to version 4.0),

I followed the link above but couldn't install Wine4.0 properly. That tutorial is for Wheezy and not for Jessie. I could find the one for it, but it didn't work well.

Wine-hq brakes dependencies (and it wanted to uninstall bluetooth ), I could install wine 4.0 stable 64bits but it didn't install properly. Even with wine 4.0 stable 64bits installed, wine itself isn't and I can't run anything. I have to install V. 1.6.2 all the same.
V 4-0 stable uninstalled PlayOnLinux and winetricks. After reinstalling them, I copied it's folder from /opt to inside the PlayOnLinux's wine version's folders. It is identified but does not configure well and stalls. WinRAR works fine but Sketchup doesn't.

So at the moment the most I can get is Wine 3.20 through PlayOnLinux and the fossil 1.6.2 from the repos. But it works

(so now I'll try to teak some more things as a test and then the easiest way to clean the mess is spit this OS out and restore from backup )

[dakshina44]

yes, this is what my doubt was - 64bit or 32 bit.

But this is my experience: I have really reached end of my patience with playonlinux + MS office 2010. this morning I upgraded my OS to 19.04 [precisely lubuntu 19.04] and installed playonlinux; and then added i386 architecture; and then installed wine32 and then MS office 2010. All went smoothly; and everything is working fine.

But I did not like lxQT on lubuntu; as it had lxde earlier. shortcuts, cosmetics, simplicity and ease of operating - all made lxde my fav for long. but now this lxqt is making the life difficult, though not very difficult.

Not sure how Mint will be when compared to (lower requirements of) lubuntu?

[BrunoMiranda]

I upgraded my OS to 19.04 [precisely lubuntu 19.04] and installed playonlinux; and then added i386 architecture; and then installed wine32 and then MS office 2010. All went smoothly; and everything is working fine.

I'm glad that upgrading went smoothly. Things are much much better than old times, no doubt, but sometimes we still cut ourselves in some sharp edge...

Just asking: What MS Office 2010 does that LibreOffice wouldn't do for you? Just curious.

And digressing from the original topic,

But I did not like lxQT on lubuntu; as it had lxde earlier. shortcuts, cosmetics, simplicity and ease of operating - all made lxde my fav for long. but now this lxqt is making the life difficult, though not very difficult.

I've used LXDE on a previous machine and, for the simple straight light fast system it was, I liked it a lot.
When I knew LXDE would die for LxQT, my feelings were kind of the same regarding the death of Gnome 2 and the heavy, incomplete, Fugly indescribable non-backwards compatible thing that is Gnome 3 and all the chaos (and momentary stepback) it initiated on desktop environments. The good thing we got out of this was Cinnamon (still needs more keyboard shortcuts and easier theme configurability) and MATE which I like a lot.

Not sure how Mint will be when compared to (lower requirements of) lubuntu?

Each of them is aimed at different users and machines.
Lubuntu is very light and low powered, aiming more at low end or older hardware. I recommend Lubuntu for, for example, having a secure and stable Linux OS just light enough for the basics and them you set VMWare on top of it and run Windows, aiming for people who still want to use old or unsupported versions of Windows within a safe environment. That way, Lubuntu the main OS, is there but much out of the way of the main machine's resources, leaving them for the VM (what actually needs to be running).

On the other hand, Mint is the full loaded out of the box desktop experience, aiming for new users, as a Windows replacement, or for people who want a stable up to date OS with a trustable transparent team behind it.
Some claim it is becoming heavy (although Cinnamon has been very much oiled and it's much lighter and faster now) and cluttered. I personally install Mint Cinnamon, get rid of those flat 'modern' (puke) themes with saturated childish colors, get a more traditional look&feel, spend a few hours decluttering the thing, reaching <4GB without Wine, ~4.5GB with Wine and Windows software, and then make a backup. From there on, I don't install anymore, I just restore. Personal data set aside on another partition, the OS is like a gum to chew and spit out. LMDE2 is rock solid, if it breaks, yep, that was me...

[dakshina44]

Hi Bruno,
Thanks for your response.
As it can be observed, this was my previous post was my first and this is my second. Primarily I posted this as I struggled a lot to get MSoffice installed on Lubuntu; problems started with 18.04 onwards. There are many questions and posts across the internet on this topic, suggesting that Wine/ Playonlinux etc are not working out of box. First of all, the Playonlinux/Wine menus appear very tiny (stay close to left top corner of the screen) and most folks get confused. Programmers need to take a note of this serious issues, though it may be miinor bug to fix. Then numerous POL errors spoil the party as well.

Just asking: What MS Office 2010 does that LibreOffice wouldn't do for you? Just curious.

I am now 50 and recently (semi) retired from my busy executive job. My office uses MS-Office and emails over last 20 years are in Outlook 2016 (PST files), documents are in MS-Word 2016. Outlook PST files cannot be opened (unless I pay to some third party solution, actually I did in the past; but not 100% satisfied). Word files can be opened, but equations, figures and tables are not very well treated by Libre or WPS. Luckily Office 2010 can still open office 2016 content. This is the primary reason why I need MS office (and hence wine/playonlinux)

Lubuntu is very light and low powered, aiming more at low end or older hardware. I recommend Lubuntu for, for example, having a secure and stable Linux OS just light enough for the basics and them you set VMWare on top of it and run Windows,

For me, I have been using Ubuntu for many years at home, about 4 years back I switched to Lubuntu as I found it more stable even under intense work loads. Never really had any Windows laptop; each time I buy a new one, I just remove everything and install Linux in one go. Present laptop is - Dell 18.4inch / Touch screen / Intel core i7 / 16GB etc

I am not sure, if this is really high/low end, but it is what it is. On top of that, lubuntu is very very stable. Usually I don't switch off my laptop; just leave it on up to 8pm - my bedtime. I tried other flavors kubuntu, cinnamon mate etc about 4 or 5 years back; but have had issues. So gave up. I know most flavors are fine these days, but I need to put my hands on to them.

Thanks again!!

[BrunoMiranda]

Hi dakshina44,

Well, you're pretty damned locked on Microsoft Office, now I understand your context and it is a real life one.

An i7 (don't know how old it is but) with 16 Gigs of RAM is already a hi-end computer, it does whatever you want pretty quickly, specially if you have a light distro like Lubuntu.

If you feel like it, start distro-hopping. It can be both fun and frustrated but it should be done every once in a while because we get stuck on our happy I.T. comfort zone (er... projection and note to self )
Sometimes things may evolve on our favor and get some issues solved, but we never know until we actually try it.

All the best for you, dakshina44. Cheers.

[dakshina44]

Well, you're pretty damned locked on Microsoft Office, now I understand your context and it is a real life one.

Yes Bruno, I have to deal with a lot of files created or edited by clients / colleagues. They like to use all kinds of templates and features in MS-office, which may not work in other office products. Outlook is another major source of documents and information, including the calendar. When I create documents, I will do in a plain and simple manner, as for me content is more important than cosmetics. In any case, we need to have MS office and hence Wine/ Playonlinux.

I have juked Windows many years ago, when I saw the merits in using Ubuntu. Never looked back. I should say, I owe a lot to creators of Ubuntu and various apps. I could do my job and earn money because those great guys. All that is possible, without paying any money for OS or apps! For me, Ubuntu (or any stable flavor) is a clear winner, especially if the work is executive (I do data analytics and consulting for banks and travel all over extensively) in nature and productivity is expected. Less we talk about MS Windows, more better.

That said, I never realy had the time to play or experiment with different flavors due to my engaging work schedules. On MS Windows, I have always had machine crashes and loss of data at work place. But never on my personal machines, as they are all on Linux. Even in office what I do is - from 7am to 11am in the morning - I use MS Windows - as this is the time my secretaries also come and help me in work. After that it is me alone mostly, so I would put my USB stick with Linux and boot it up; and I am in LInux world - business as usual. I would prefer ext4 to NTFS, I can say this with all my 30 years of professional experience. Linux is like a granite rock, it is solid but there are a few issues as listed below:

1. Getting pinch, multi-touch on the screen for zoom / scroll can be bit tricky. I have two different laptops. Multi-Touch works fine on Dell 18.4inch laptop, but
does not work on 17.3ch LG Gram laptop. And this LG Gram is my travel laptop, I badly need touch on this and that feature never worked, despite my efforts to fix. But I never tried Mint or Kubuntu in last 5 years. May be I should?

2. I really never understood how to restore from IMG file? I can take backup of entire system (OS+data+programs) using dd command, but always had problems when I try to restore on a new machine. Something with grub or efi - I am not sure; this img thing always failed me. Someone should write a solution in a step-by-step manner for this considering the combinations of efi settings in the bios, partitions on the HDD (or USB). For example, if I have a IMG file from linux system that was installed on a USB; can I put this IMG file on new laptop HDD that has efi? what I should do for this? Also, if i have to do the reverse - How to restore IMG file of a laptop on to USB?

3. I have a lot of questions (may be very silly) on 'how to fix this or how to manage' etc. Usually I just google and try fix; and can get away on most occassions. Once the OS and environment stabilizes, I would'nt experiment at all until the new version is released.

It can be both fun and frustrated but it should be done every once in a while because we get stuck on our happy I.T. comfort zone (er... projection and note to self )
Sometimes things may evolve on our favor and get some issues solved, but we never know until we actually try it.

I completely agree. If we don't do this experimentation, we may forget usual processes of fixing the system and hence will not be able to use the machine. Or may be forced to use old versions for ever.

[BrunoMiranda]

Hi Dakshina,

Thank you for your real life testimony on using Linux in a professional world. This is what we need because at home, just to browse and multimedia things mostly work, but when on a professional setting things may change and when time equals money there is no time to fool around when people are expected to be productive.
This is one of the things that need to be addressed if we want the mythical "Linux year on the desktop".

(...)this LG Gram is my travel laptop, I badly need touch on this and that feature never worked, despite my efforts to fix. But I never tried Mint or Kubuntu in last 5 years. May be I should?

I think you should, at least, try to boot from an USB ISO live session and see if things have improved and became more likable. 5 years, on IT, is a lot of time and progress with new kernels, firmware and stuff. (LMDE2 does not support my newest laptop's touchpad, LMDE3 does [and I copied the file and it works now on LMDE2]). You can install newest kernels on old systems anyway.
But be ready for facing the new trend on touch and feel aesthetics: flat user interfaces where it's hard to distinguish buttons and active windows, LSD-friendly colors... It's easy to change theming but it might be hard to customize it according to your needs (mine, eyes getting old needing dark blackgrounds with green text the way we used to have eons ago )

2. I really never understood how to restore from IMG file?
Something with grub or efi

At least here on LMDE2 fossil-land on newer hardware, grub-efi is needed.

In my opinion, UEFI is something that had too much push from Micro$oft and is not well implemented. If you're away from Windows, it can be a PITA.
Things were not well implemented and it needs a ~1MB partition on the hard disk to store the OS keys instead of a hardware chip on the motherboard. That partition has to be updated with new keys for Linux and that can be a PITA. If you lose that partition (and it's even in FAT with no journal!) your system might not boot and you'll have a little nightmare to get it to work back again and I believe it can even be harder in Windows.
I can't get GRUB from LMDE2 to boot on my newest laptop, I need an updated OS installed and it's grub works and allows me to boot into LMDE2. Days and days were lost around this...

Someone should write a solution in a step-by-step manner for this considering the combinations of efi settings in the bios, partitions on the HDD (or USB).

I'm sorry but we seem to be doomed here. There is not a proper UEFI standard followed across all the industry, so each vendor implements its one.
On my newest laptop it's implementation is chaotic. As I said, GRUB from LMDE2 doesn't work, and there are inclusively BIOS settings that will turn the screen and the keyboard off, bricking the laptop. After sending it to repair under the warranty and bricking it again just after receiving it I called customer support and I was lucky the told me you need to boot with an external USB keyboard and blindly press a combination of keys so you can load the BIOS default settings and turn your screen and keyboard back on...

(by the way, the term BIOS is obsolete and deprecared, now it is UEFI but we get along with the old language.
The Portuguese say it right, BIOS 'stands' for Bicho Ignorante que Opera o Sistema (Ignorant Bug that Operates the System )


My approach to backup and restore is copying files to hard drives using grsync (because copy can fail leaving incomplete and corrupt files!) and then mirror those hard drives. I've had quite a few of them dying out of nothing and luckily I have lost no important data.
Regarding a backup of the OS, I use fsarchiver on the terminal. There if a GUI for it that supports GRUB and UEFI, I think, but I do not use it).
Beware that when manually restoring a partition, you have to be REALLY careful when selecting the destination partition, because if you use another partition by mistake (your documents!) that partition is wiped out for good faster than you can panic......
But fsarchiver, when dominated, is quick and easy. It compresses well (my backup files are between 900MB without wine and 1,5GB with) and they restore faster than going to the bathroom for a pee and washing hands
You may need to install or reinstall GRUB again, but if it's entries haven't changed it just boots (mine changes all the time because I use Liquorix bleeding edge kernel).
If I have to update GRUB it takes more time than restoring the OS, I have to boot from a USB live session (I always have one for recovery with the backup files on it) and then have to chroot inside the restored system (you hack inside your installation from the live session and you enter a root terminal where you can do whatever you want, in this case updating GRUB).

3. I have a lot of questions (may be very silly) on 'how to fix this or how to manage' etc.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people. We all have our learning curve and that personal mountain to climb. This forum is the best place for help for Linux Mint. It's it's home, after all! I've been learning a lot here all these years!

Stupid people do stupid things. Smart people outsmart each other, than themselves!

(System Of A Down, DDevil)


You have fsarchiver's quick start guide here:
http://www.fsarchiver.org/quickstart/

and to install it all you have to do is

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sudo apt install fsarchiver

PM me if you decide to try fsarchiver and need a hand. Cheers!