Hi all!
I've started a working list of windows-based software sound synthesizers that run well on linux through Wine, here: http://amsynth.com/vstsynths.html
As you can see, there are quite a few instruments (some "big players" too) that work just fine, although there are a few that create problems. (I'd be happy to help with testing, although I'm not a programmer.)
As I didn't see much mention of VST instruments on WineHQ, and I got thinking it might be good to dedicate a place here for VST instrument users, as there are many, and "compatibility-with-linux" is always an issue with these users.
briandc something dimesio did not mention it is possible to ask for a extra Category added to the Appdb. ( appdb.winehq.org )
Appdb entries can be connected to bug reports so really each VST really should be listed in the Appdb so that bug fixing and tracking works properly.
I would think out of existing categories "Sound Editing" I think would be the current closes match but due to the way wine works it up to the users to put in requests if that category is too incorrect.
briandc decanted places seam like such a good idea at first. The appdb was invented to do in a lot of the decanted places for groups of applications and have a integrable structure with everything else going on. The most important thing on the Appdb entries do end up marked old if updates don't keep coming.
I am sorry to say briandc without exact information on what you were testing with as the Appdb test ask for in case of something breaking we don't have the data to start a regression test to find where the problem was introduced.
Yes I like what you are wish todo briandc but the way you are going about it will just cause problems long term like with the information you are collecting how will you regression test that if one of them stops working one day and how can you let others join you in submitting more(this is what the appdb is designed to solve). Use the appdb you can even link to it from your page as application id numbers in the Appdb don't change.
Hi dimesio and oiaohm,
thank you for your responses.
From what you both said it sounds as though the best path would be to start posting the VSTs that I have tested in the Appdb, which I would be happy to do, as it appears that there isn't much listed for this category (audio production/softsynthesizers).
I noticed that to post in the Appdb I need to indicate the version of Wine which I am using; the Ubuntu Studio/KXStudio repositories appear to give a rather dated version of Wine, ver. 1.5.17-0ubuntu4. I'm not sure the reason for this. Perhaps it is the best version for audio production? Would you suggest a better version for my testing? (I imagine I can get the newest version from github or sourceforge..?)
https://www.winehq.org/download/
briandc normally for bug reporting you want to use the latest testing to see if bug is already fixed(yes this does happen).
Also anything prior to the last official stable most wine support people don't want to deal with. Wine 1.6.2 is stable and 1.5.xx is prior to this.
Yes that 1.5.x stuff support people normally don't want to touch. It might be a question to post to the distribution to ask them why.
I'm not sure the reason for this. Perhaps it is the best version for audio production?
If this is the case really I hope they have submitted bug reports. This can be a problem some distributions just lock a versions and never update and the have turned out not to have reported problem upstream.
Yes as you can see this is an area were the project has not had people do testing and reporting on what works,what does not and what has been broken.
briandc wrote:
I noticed that to post in the Appdb I need to indicate the version of Wine which I am using; the Ubuntu Studio/KXStudio repositories appear to give a rather dated version of Wine, ver. 1.5.17-0ubuntu4. I'm not sure the reason for this.
Distro repositories normally only contain whatever version of Wine they originally shipped with; you generally have to add another repository to get updated Wine packages. In the case of Ubuntu & flavors, that repository is https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-wine/+archive/ubuntu/ppa. However, the Ubuntu package maintainers only build packages for the newest versions of Ubuntu; if your system is based on an older version, there may not be newer Wine packages for it. (They have also been behind in packaging lately; I don't know why.)
Regarding the AppDB, you can only submit test reports for the last 6 development versions or any stable version, so you could not submit test reports for any 1.5.x version.
Ok, I included the Wine ppa for Ubuntu and updated the repos, and installed version 1.7.18.
I've done testing on a synth that was unusable in the previous Wine version I had installed (1.4), now it seems to work, although I get the errors (shown below) in the terminal. How do I determine if this is an error in the synth app, or a bug in Wine?
Ok; I have a .dll softsynth app that does not work/open in Wine. I have upgraded Wine to version 1.7.18. It appears to be the newest version I can get from the Wine ppa that I added to my Ubuntu Studio repos. --Is this version sufficient to post a bug report?
briandc wrote:Ok; I have a .dll softsynth app that does not work/open in Wine. I have upgraded Wine to version 1.7.18. It appears to be the newest version I can get from the Wine ppa that I added to my Ubuntu Studio repos. --Is this version sufficient to post a bug report?
No. 1.7.18 is over a year old; if you file a bug, you will just be told to retest in the current development release. If there are no distro packages for it you will have to build Wine yourself.
