New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Questions about Wine on Linux
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semint
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New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Post by semint »

Hello, I hadn't installed Linux in quite a while and recently I installed Linux Mint 12 in a VMware VM and I really like it, especially the font rendering which is much closer to Mac OS X and far from the terrible font smoothing on Windows.

In fact I like it so much that I'm contemplating the idea of installing as my primary OS and using Wine for some Windows apps, only switching to native Windows for heavy things like video editing.

But I have no clue how Wine works. What I would do is keep Windows where it's at right now, and free one of the three hard drives in my PC and install Mint 12 there. So if I do it that way, can I run the Windows apps from the current Windows installation, or will I have to install another Windows in a VM environment within Linux and run them from there? That would be a deal breaker because I wouldn't buy another copy of Windows to be able to run Wine.
Martin Gregorie

New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Post by Martin Gregorie »

On Mon, 2012-01-09 at 16:40 -0600, semint wrote:
But I have no clue how Wine works. What I would do is keep Windows
where it's at right now, and free one of the three hard drives in my
PC and install Mint 12 there. So if I do it that way, can I run the
Windows apps from the current Windows installation, or will I have to
install another Windows in a VM environment within Linux and run them
from there? That would be a deal breaker because I wouldn't buy
another copy of Windows to be able to run Wine.
That's easy enough. You can leave Windows where it is and install Linux
on a different drive. Mint uses the GRUB bootloader, which can be set up
to run Windows. Once the Mint installation is complete and running you
can configure it to boot Windows as well by logging in as root (or
becoming root with the "su -" command) and editing /boot/grub/grub.conf

Read and/or print off the GRUB documentation before you start because,
unless the Mint install offers to include Windows as a bootable OS, you
won't be able to use Windows until you've amended the GRUB
configuration.

I can't remember how to boot Windows from GRUB offhand because I last
set that up several years ago and don't have dual boot box running right
now, but I do know that Windows must be chain loaded - that will mean
something once you've read the GRUB documentation.

Another tip: by default all current Linux distros hide the GRUB boot
screen, which you need to see in order to choose which OS to boot. To
make this visible, become root and edit /boot/grub/grub.conf:

- comment out the 'hiddenmenu' statement by putting a '#' in front
of it.

- add 'timeout=5' on the line after '# hiddenmenu'. On booting, this
causes the GRUB menu to appear for 5 seconds, which gives you time
to select which OS you want to boot. If you do nothing, the default
OS boots after 5 seconds. The 'default=0' statement controls this:
menu items are numbered from zero, which it the top of the list.

If 5 seconds is wrong for you, just change the 'timeout' value.
It sets the delay time in seconds.

Its best to add the Windows boot line to the end of the list because
Mint updates that install a new kernel will add the new kernel's boot
line to the front of the list. By leaving the 'default' line unchanged
you'll always boot into the latest Mint version by default.


Martin
doug

New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Post by doug »

On 01/09/2012 05:40 PM, semint wrote:
Hello, I hadn't installed Linux in quite a while and recently I installed Linux Mint 12 in a VMware VM and I really like it, especially the font rendering which is much closer to Mac OS X and far from the terrible font smoothing on Windows.

In fact I like it so much that I'm contemplating the idea of installing as my primary OS and using Wine for some Windows apps, only switching to native Windows for heavy things like video editing.

But I have no clue how Wine works. What I would do is keep Windows where it's at right now, and free one of the three hard drives in my PC and install Mint 12 there. So if I do it that way, can I run the Windows apps from the current Windows installation, or will I have to install another Windows in a VM environment within Linux and run them from there? That would be a deal breaker because I wouldn't buy another copy of Windows to be able to run Wine.

Wine will allow you to install Windows aps directly--you don't need a
Virtual installation for most of the Windows aps.
And since you intend to keep Windows, whatever won't run or install in
Wine, just run it in Windows. Best of both worlds. . . .

--doug
semint
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Post by semint »

Sorry, I think I didn't explain myself well. What I meant to ask is how Wine runs Windows apps within Linux? Do you need to install a second copy of Windows within a virtual disc in a virtual machine, or does it read the Windows installation that is on the other physical disc and launches the apps from there?

Also, can it run 64 bit apps, like Photoshop and After Effects CS5?
doug

New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Post by doug »

On 01/09/2012 06:38 PM, semint wrote:
Sorry, I think I didn't explain myself well. What I meant to ask is how Wine runs Windows apps within Linux? Do you need to install a second copy of Windows within a virtual disc in a virtual machine, or does it read the Windows installation that is on the other physical disc and launches the apps from there?

Also, can it run 64 bit apps, like Photoshop and After Effects CS5?

You install Wine with the package manager that comes with your Linux
distro. Then you download the win ap, or put it in
CD/DVD reader, and just install it, as if you were in Windows. Go get
the .exe file, snap on it, and it will install. There are only
a few programs that need something special, in the way of previously
installed versions, or something exotic, that won't
install this way. (If it's zipped, you can unzip it in Linux.) There
is a program called Winetricks, that I don't know about,
that is supposed to help ith "difficult" installs.

I can't answer the 64-bit $64 question, except to say that you would
almost surely have to be running a 64-bit Linux version.

Good luck--doug
semint
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Re: New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Post by semint »

doug wrote:You install Wine with the package manager that comes with your Linux distro. Then you download the win ap, or put it in
CD/DVD reader, and just install it, as if you were in Windows. Go get
the .exe file, snap on it, and it will install.
So what you're saying is that Wine works on its own as a Windows installation, it doesn't need a real Windows to run, just software that runs under Windows?
doug

New to Linux and Wine, need to know a few things

Post by doug »

On 01/09/2012 07:43 PM, semint wrote:
doug wrote:
You install Wine with the package manager that comes with your Linux distro. Then you download the win ap, or put it in
CD/DVD reader, and just install it, as if you were in Windows. Go get
the .exe file, snap on it, and it will install.
So what you're saying is that Wine works on its own as a Windows installation, it doesn't need a real Windows to run, just software that runs under Windows?

That's correct. And you can put an icon on the desktop for the program
you want to run, just as if it were a Windows
system. Snap on the icon, and the program will run. (Assuming you don't
have some goofy Linux distro that doesn't
support desktop icons.)

--doug
semint
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Post by semint »

Great. I'm freeing one of the drives now to install it. I'm just really surprised that it will run Windows apps without Windows, and Microsoft isn't suing the Wine developers. I hope they don't, but given how lawsuits fly out of Redmond all the time, that's one thing you would think at least they would try to do.

I will install Mint 12 first, but I also downloaded Ubuntu Studio because it's supposed to have all the multimedia apps and an optimized kernel for them. However, when I installed it under VMWare, it was OK but it didn't have the nice look that Mint 12 has. Is there a way to make Ubuntu look exactly like Mint 12? After all, Mint is based in Ubuntu.
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dimesio
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Post by dimesio »

semint wrote:Is there a way to make Ubuntu look exactly like Mint 12? After all, Mint is based in Ubuntu.
Ask on the Ubuntu forum. This forum is for Wine only.

Regarding your earlier question about 64 bit apps, there is a 64 bit Wine, but very few 64 bit apps have been tested. I am also not sure if Ubuntu even packages 64 bit Wine, so you may have to build it yourself if you really want to try it.
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