Anyone used wine?

Hi, I want to give Wine a try. I am not sure were to start, I have downloaded wine via automatix2 but do not know how to run it. I want to try some old games to start with(simpler to setup perhaps?) like wolfenstien or something like that. Any one know how to do it?

 

Once you have Wine installed, just go to the game or program you want to install. When you click on the .exe file, Wine will request to open the file. Accept the request and you will get an emulated Windows installer screen.

Keep in mind that Wine cannot do everything. In fact, I would guess that most modern games cannot be played via Wine. Check the App DB out at

http://winehq.com

 

will because it is a Dos program make wine not work with it? reason I ask is I have been trying to run the game under wine but I cannot even get it to start the install. I am starting to wonder if there is something wrong with the Wine install.

 

After installation, try running winecfg.

It is a 'windows-looking' dialog that allows you to set up virtual windows directories, etc. that you may need for wine to find the applications you want to run, CD-ROM etc.

 

ah, wine... I prefer a Shiraz myself.

 

LOL, while I do not drink liquor myself I am starting to think Wine (emulator or whatever it is) needs a lot of work before it is ready for average-or or even slightly educated-people.

anyway I am getting this whenever I try to run the wineconfig command. anyone know whats wrong?

laptop:~$ winecfg
Warning: the specified Windows directory L"c:\\windows" is not accessible.
Warning: the specified System directory L"c:\\windows\\system32" is not accessible.
Warning: the specified Windows directory L"c:\\windows" is not accessible.
Warning: the specified System directory L"c:\\windows\\system32" is not accessible.

 

How recent is your version of wine? Is it as recent as the www.winehq.com repository for Ubuntu?

Google offers the following dated 2004 http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:TNohHtQdBNAJ:www.winehq.com/hypermail/wine-devel/2004/07/0433.html+winecfg+L%22c:%5C%5Cwindows%22&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1

Sorry, I can't help directly as I am using a Debian Wine package installed (and held back) from Sarge "Testing" i.e. before Jul 2005.

 

@TimberWolf - I think its the same thing, since Ubuntu is basically Debian.

@RefinedPower - when you $winecfg, you should not get error messages ! You should get a box that is windows-like with different tabs and settings to choose from.

 

Sorry gautam3, I know for certain that I have a very old version as shown by apt-cache command.

Code:

#apt-cache policy wine
wine:
  Installed: 0.0.20041201-1
  Candidate: 0.0.20050310-1.2
  Version Table:
     0.9.25-1~bpo.1 0
        200 [url]http://www.backports.org[/url] sarge-backports/main Packages
     0.0.20050310-1.2 0
        500 file: sarge/main Packages
        500 [url]http://security.debian.org[/url] sarge/updates/main Packages
 *** 0.0.20041201-1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

 

If you're trying a DOS-based game, DosBox runs on Linux.

And, as far as compatibility goes, Wine can't do games written using .NET. And Oblivion is only known to work with the Oldblivion patch, because Wine has issues with SM3.0.

I can get Steam games running perfectly under wine. Along with WoW. A game like Wolfenstein has it's own native port.

 

Some things just won't run under wine. I used wine for IE6 but it wouldn't work with another program I tried. Seems like some of the one's that have problems running are those that search for a "windows" directory under c without giving you the option to change to a linux directory. I never had a problem getting it to work though with the programs it could run. Most of the time it will give you the option to run with wine or you can go out to the folder in terminal and "wine games.exe"

 

So I have Wine working how it should now (no error messages) and I have the exe file on the desktop. So the question is, how do I get the exe file to open with wine? I have heard of cd-ing to the desktop but am not sure how to do it.

 

you're on an ubuntu variant, right? I'm guessing you don't know the basic terminal commands?

open a terminal, type:

Code:

cd /home/[i]username[/i]/Desktop

then type:

Code:

ls

that'll give you a listing of files on your desktop

after that, you'll have to follow whatever documentation comes with WINE to run the file correctly. I don't use it myself. So you know, if you have a long filename that you don't want to type out completely, type in the first 3 or 4 letters and then press the tab key, it will auto-complete the filename.

You might want to check out https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BasicCommands for a basic terminal lesson.

 

You don't actually have to give the whole path. Just type "cd Desktop." Then you can just type "wine -----.exe." And it's case sensitive remember.

 

Ok, so I checked to see if everything was case sensitive. Every thing seems to work initially but then I get this. can you tell me whats wrong? Maybe something I need to configure in Wine?

mansfield@mansfield-laptop:~$ cd Desktop
mansfield@mansfield-laptop:~/Desktop$ wine Bstone.EXE
Warning: unprotecting memory to allow real-mode calls.
NULL pointer accesses will no longer be caught.
fixme:int OSVM_Int10Handler Get Font Information - Not Supported
fixme:int OSVM_Int10Handler Get Font Information - Not Supported
fixme:int OSVM_Int10Handler Select Active Display Page (0) - Not Supported
fixme:int OSVM_Int10Handler Toggle Intensity/Blinking Bit - Not Supported
fixme:int OSVM_Int10Handler Toggle Intensity/Blinking Bit - Not Supported

 

what program are you trying to run?

 

I'd love to get steam games working but steam itself always seems to crash pretty much right after launch.

 

So far, it's best if you run source games in DX7 mode. Wine can't do DX9 100% yet.

 

hmmmm never thought of that. But how do I get steam to work?

 

I am trying to run the EXE file for Blake Stone (a old game). The EXE file is the installer so I have to run that first, right? There is also a SHR file but I am not sure what that is for.

 

You would have better luck running that through DosBox. A DOS emulator.

 

hhhhhhhhhh... yea you are probably right, I think I am going to the library to get a book on the DOS and Linux commands so I can learn how to use them. O well I guess there is no way around it.

 

DosBox, when run, tells you exactly how to use it. You don't need to do any research. It's a great little program, I play Tie Fighter through it.

 

Wine is pretty good, but if you want to play games, I think it would be wise to pay the $5 a month for Cedega, since it's made especially for games.

 

You will indeed have better luck running Windows DirectX games with Cedega (WineX), but some people (such as myself) take issue with the fact that Cedega is not free. $5 a month is cheap, but I don't like how the development team essentially forked from the main Wine project and decided not to make contributions back to the Wine source.

I say use Wine as much as you can, and if you absolutely need a certain Windows game to run in Linux, then think about screwing with Cedega. FYI, both Wine and Cedega can be installed at the same time.

 

And you can always install Cedega from source.

 

You can certainly try, but the source code checked into CVS is outdated, broken, and mysteriously incomplete. Given Cedega's history, I wouldn't be surprised if they did that on purpose.

You really need to subscribe to get the most up-to-date Cedega (as precompiled binaries).

 

Yeah, you dont get the Cedega GUI, which is fairly flashy. But it works for some programs that WINE doesn't like.