Installing and Configuring Wine


A version of Wine comes on the SUSE Linux DVD and, if you selected the default options when installing SUSE Linux, it should already be installed. You can test this by opening a Konsole window and typing wine.

This will also have the effect of automatically setting up Wine, such as writing its initial configuration file (no user input is required, and defaults are automatically selected). If you receive an error message to the effect that Wine isn't present, use the Install and Remove Software component of YaST2 to install it (select K menu ® Control Center, click YaST2 Modules, click Software, and then click Install and Remove Software).

Wine aims to re-create the Windows API layer within Linux. Although it's extremely successful in this task, the constantly updating nature of the Windows core software, as well as a few other technical issues, mean that some preparatory work is necessary before you attempt to install Windows programs.

Note 

Not all Windows software works under Wine. Alternatively, some software might work partially and suffer from bugs in certain circumstances. There are no hard-and-fast rules about what works and what doesn't. In most cases, it's best to simply try to install the software to see if it works.

Installing DCOM95

The first task is to install the Windows DCOM95 package. This installs a handful of vital Microsoft system files necessary for running other Windows software. Technically speaking, installing Microsoft system files might seem to defeat the purpose of using Wine, which is to re-create the Windows files as free software, but installing and using the DCOM95 software simply saves a lot of time and effort. In some cases, it's the only way to get certain Windows programs to work.

At the time of writing, this file can be downloaded from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/dcom95.exe?download. If you find this URL doesn't work, try using a search engine to look for the file.

After you've downloaded DCOM95, you must run the program via Wine with the following command:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ole32=n" wine dcom95.exe

You might then be surprised to see a Windows dialog box asking you to confirm the installing of DCOM95. Click Yes. The program will then work its way through setup.

Note 

Don't worry about feedback on the console that appears during and after the DCOM95 installation. Wine is automatically set to debug mode, which means it feeds back a lot of information to the user, even if it doesn't encounter any genuine errors.

Editing the Wine Configuration File

Next, within Wine you must set the version of Windows you wish to emulate. Windows 98 is the best choice, because it's the most mature in terms of Wine emulation and also the lowest specification demanded by most recent Windows software (very few modern software titles install on Windows 95). To do this, you need to edit the Wine configuration file. This is contained within a hidden directory within your home directory, and can be accessed by typing the following:

vi ~/.wine/config

Alternatively, you can use any text editor, such as Kate. You can start Kate by selecting K menu ® Utilities ® Editor, or via the command line, by typing kate ~/.wine/config.

Once the file is loaded into your editor, scroll down to the section headed [Version]. In that section, remove the semicolon before the following line:

;"Windows" = "win98"

So you're left with:

"Windows" = "win98"

Figure 28-1 shows the file after the change.

image from book
Figure 28-1. To get Windows programs working under Wine, some configuration is necessary.

In addition, if you have a DVD-ROM drive rather than a CD-ROM drive, you should edit the lines that refer to where Wine should look for its virtual drive mappings. On my test system, this is under the [Drive M] heading. I replaced these lines:

"Path" = "/media/cdrom" "Label" = "/media/cdrom"

with these:

"Path" = "/media/dvd" "Label" = "/media/dvd"

After you've made the necessary changes, save the file and quit vi or Kate.

Editing the fstab File

It's also necessary to edit your fstab file so that hidden files on Windows CDs can be seen when the disc is mounted. Start by switching to root user and opening fstab in vi:

su  [enter root password]  vi /etc/fstab

Alternatively, you can edit the file in Kate, as described in the previous section.

Within the file, edit the line pertaining to your CD/DVD-ROM drive, adding nohide to the end of the list of options, before the 0 0 section. On my test system, this meant the line ended up looking like this (split over two lines here to fit on the page):

/dev/dvd     /media/dvd      subfs         fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec, iocharset=utf8,nohide      0 0 




Beginning SUSE Linux from Novice to Professional
Beginning SUSE Linux: From Novice to Professional
ISBN: 1590594584
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 293
Authors: Keir Thomas

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