Using Wine

[amasa]

I am a very new newbie, so please excuse my ignorance. I often waste considerable time playing MS Spider Solitare and the like on my Windows machine and having installed Mint on this machine I thought to install these games programs as well. Someone said use Wine, so I went to the Software Manager and installed it then transferred the .exe files from the Windows machine into a folder here (called Windows Games in a spasm of originality). Then, and my recollections might be a little hazy here, I attempted to run the first using Wine and the system said I needed an extra file (I think), which I did not have, and it could search for it if I wished, using gecko(?), though that might not be the best approach. So I clicked on no and went to look for the extra bit which I could not find. So then I went back to the folder and tried running the game again but this time I was not asked the question and the whirring circle went round and round and eventually stopped, all with no effect. So, several questions:

Has Wine worked and put the "executable" version of the game file somewhere, and if so where?

What was Wine looking for?

Are only certain applications amenable to WIne?

Where is the best place (on the web) to get a Wine education?

I would much appreciate any help anyone can give me.

[Flemur]

MS Spider Solitare

Install 'aisleriot', the rather poorly named solitaire package with a few dozen games, including Spider. (The executable is named 'sol'...)

Before trying to use wine with a windows program, you should check out the linux versions of the same thing...there's a (Mint?) page with lists of equivalents, or you can search, e.g. for 'solitaire' in synaptic or whatever software manager your linux system has.

then transferred the .exe files from the Windows machine into a folder here

I'm not sure which .exe files you mean - installer files or program executables - but usually you'll need to install the software into wine rather than just copying from windows ('portable' apps are OK to copy), like this:

$ wine installer.exe
or
$ wine installer.msi

Are only certain applications amenable to WIne?

Yes. I run quite a few, most work almost perfectly, some have minor glitches that I can live with.

Where is the best place (on the web) to get a Wine education?

www.winehq.org

To check compatibility: https://appdb.winehq.org/

FWIW, I put wine programs into
"~/.wine/drive_c/pgms" (directory I created).
rather than
"~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files"
‎because it's REALLY STUPID AND LAME to have spaces in a filename.

Edit: Here's a couple of ways of starting programs with wine if they don't show up or work right in your System Menu -> Wine:

This is /home/myusername/bin/iview:

Code: Select all

 #!/bin/sh
QUICKPARLOCATION="c:\\pgms\\IrfanView\\i_view32.exe"
PARAM=`winepath -w "$*"`
wine "$QUICKPARLOCATION" "$PARAM"
exit 0

It launches irfan-view:
$ iview
or
$ iview filename.jpg

Another, /home/myusername/bin/foobar"

Code: Select all

 #!/bin/sh
cd /home/lemur/.wine/drive_c/pgms/foobar2000/
wine foobar2000.exe &

I use the more complicated format, like the iview script, in the 'foobaropen' one, where I can pass a filename.

Your ~/bin (=/home/myusername/bin/) will be added to your path if it exists. Make the scripts be execuble:
$ cd ~/bin
$ chmod +x foobar
$ chmod +x iview

You can then just run these scripts from a terminal, special key-bindings or stick them in a menu, without having to go to ~/.wine/etc/etc...

[amasa]

Thank you Flemur for your comments.

Yes, I had checked out Linus versions, and installed 'aisleriot' but I wanted to run the MS version. And I also wanted to use this exercise as a test exercise with Wine.

The files that I transferred were executables: SpiderSolitaire.exe and Hearts.exe.

When I said Are only certain applications amenable to WIne? I should have said Are there only certain applications that are amenable to Wine, as I had read somewhere that some apps would not work. By apps I mean programs such as the above.

Are you saying that you put programs that you want to "translate" into a sub-directory (folder?) of Wine? Rather than trying to run them from another location? Is that the way to go will all Wine'd applications? Not that I think I will have many.

You said because it's REALLY STUPID AND LAME to have spaces in a filename. Why is this so? A space is, after all, just another character. Does Linux/Mint ignore spaces? Parse "file name" into "file" and "name" as opposed to parsing "file_name" into "file_name"?

And thanks for the code snippets - I'll see if I can get them to work: early practice in using the terminal.

[Mark Phelps]

A space is, after all, just another character.

Actually, NO, it's not. Linux uses spaces (actually, blanks) as parameter delimiters, thus "the file" will be treated as two parameters: "the" and "file".

So, if you want to run a command on that file, you would enter

Code: Select all

command "the file"

[Flemur]

The files that I transferred were executables: SpiderSolitaire.exe and Hearts.exe.

Generally that won't work because the full program consists of those files plus other files in other locations, which the installer puts there.

I should have said Are there only certain applications that are amenable to Wine, as I had read somewhere that some apps would not work.

Yes, some won't work. Hardly any will work if you just copy the .exe files without running a windows installer.

Are you saying that you put programs that you want to "translate" into a sub-directory (folder?) of Wine? Rather than trying to run them from another location?

The wine directory ~/.wine/drive_c is set up like a windows installation (with 'users', 'Program Files' and 'Windows' sub-directories); when you run an installer it'll put files in the same relative places that they'd go in a windows system, though usually you can pick the main installation directory, namely the 'pgms' directory (I did the same thing with real windows installations; besides not have the dumb name of 'Program Files', it keeps programs you installed separate from Windows system programs.

E.g., for Photoshop, it puts its settings in .wine/drive_c/users/username/Application Data/Adobe/Photoshop; you don't get to pick where, unfortunately (Adobe is really bad about putting their settings files all over the place, and using names with spaces, like "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings/Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp"; somebody @Adobe should be fired and, when I become King, fined and jailed or perhaps executed).

[Flemur]

So, if you want to run a command on that file, you would enter
command "the file"

or
$ command the\ file

Both are kludgey and ugly workarounds for the stupid and lame - but common! - practice of putting spaces or other special characters in file names.

[amasa]

Thanks Mark, Flemur

Slowly I acrete knowledge ... (I hope)

So if I want to distinguish two words in a name I should use the_name or something equivalent? What is considered good practice here? Or, more efficiently, where should I go to read up on good practice?

[Jerry N]

I run Spider and Freecell from Windows XP with no problem at all using WINE. To me, the Linux versions of these simple games have ugly graphics, as do the Windows 7 versions.
One of the games asks for something called "gecko" the first time it is run and then it either installs "gecko" or decides to forget about it.

Jerry

[SandsOfArrakis]

If ugly graphics are a problem. Have you tried Kpatience? Nice amount of card games, and the graphics are really nice. It includes Spider.

Edit: If the default background / card set are not to your liking. You can install a bunch of new ones from Settings -> Change Appearance (F10) from within the game.

[Mark Phelps]

So if I want to distinguish two words in a name I should use the_name or something equivalent?

Unfortunately, yes. Linux comes from a command line origin, not from a Windows origin, and in the command line world, spaces are considered delimiters.

So, folks who grew up in the Unix world (like me), which is also based on the command line, got used to naming things like this-file-name.

Also, in Linux, letter case matters, such that "Downloads" is a different folder name than "downloads". In the Windows world, they would be treated the same.

[dupek]

I installed the Virtual Box and winxp32, but the graphics are so slow, come uselles. I,too, have the exe from win7, but could not make it work in Wine.

[amasa]

Hi Jerry N

Interesting that you have been able to get it to work. What file did you start with? Was it something like SpiderSolitaire.exe? Can you remember the steps you took to get Wine to work?

Appreciate your help.

[Jerry N]

Hi Jerry N

Interesting that you have been able to get it to work. What file did you start with? Was it something like SpiderSolitaire.exe? Can you remember the steps you took to get Wine to work?

Appreciate your help.

I'm using Mint 17 Mate 64 bit. I copied spider.exe and freecell.exe from the System32 folder in Windows XP and put them in the Mint home directory, /home/jn in my case.
I installed Wine using "Software Manager". You will probably need to right click on the spider.exe and freecell.exe icons, select "properties", select "Open With", and select "Wine Windows Program Loader".
After that, I just double click on the spider or freecell icon and the programs run just fine. The first time with Spider you might get a message about needing something called "gecko". Just let it do its thing and you won't be bothered by that message again.

Jerry

[amasa]

Jerry, thanks for that advice.

But, still doesn't work. I am using Mint XFCE 32 bit, but the Spider executable comes from a 64 bit Windows 7 system, so I am wondering if that's the reason it won't work. Any thoughts?

[amasa]

Hi again Jerry

comments about 32 bit and 64 bit made me think - I installed Mint as 32 bit thinking this was a 32 bit machine but I see now that it is a 64 bit machine, so I guess the question is should I re-install. But that's not a question for this forum. I'll repost.

[Jerry N]

Hi again Jerry

comments about 32 bit and 64 bit made me think - I installed Mint as 32 bit thinking this was a 32 bit machine but I see now that it is a 64 bit machine, so I guess the question is should I re-install. But that's not a question for this forum. I'll repost.

I copied Spider and Freecell from a 32 bit installation of Windows XP (Windows XP was installed on my own computer, if anyone cares).
I don't know if Spider.exe on 64 bit Windows 7 is 64 bit or 32 bit. I don't have any 64 bit Windows 7 installs to check.

Jerry

[amasa]

That's a good point Jerry. I guess I just assumed a program running in, and provided as part of, a 64 bit system would be 64 bit. In any event I have ordered extra memory and will install XFCE as 64 bit when it arrives and then check. I'll post the result of this experiment in a few days.