problem starting Visual dBASEv 5.7

garydale · Post by **garydale** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:56 pm

I'm running Debian/Wheezey (testing) which uses the rather old Wine v1.0.1. This is on an AMD64 machine. I was able to install Borland's Visual dBASE without any problems but when I start it, or any application developed with it, I get an error message in an Alert box on top of the startup splash screen that reads:
Error: Printer error.
When I click OK, the application exits.

The command line and terminal output is:

wine "c:\visualdb\bin\dbasewin.exe"
fixme:mixer:ALSA_MixerInit No master control found on HDA ATI HDMI, disabling mixer
fixme:toolhelp:InterruptRegister16 (0000, 0x197700a8), stub.
fixme:int31:DOSVM_Int31Handler Real mode segment (1d87) to descriptor: no longer supported
fixme:wnet:WNetGetUser16 (0x1, 0x3cf646, 0x3cf74a): stub
fixme:int31:DOSVM_FreeRMCB callback address: 1001:0000

Any ideas on how to get around this issue?

SpawnHappyJake · Post by **SpawnHappyJake** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 6:28 pm

You KNOW the FIRST thing they're going to tell you is to upgrade your WINE. So do that. That alone might even fix it.
Good luck.

Cheers,
Jake

garydale · Post by **garydale** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:12 am

I would but it gets me out of the official Debian packages, which defeats the purpose of running Testing.

garydale · Post by **garydale** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:59 am

After going through dependency hell trying to get the latest version installed, I get the same "Error: Printer error" on startup. The terminal messages are a little different but that's all.

wine "c:\Visualdb\bin\DBASEWIN.EXE"
fixme:toolhelp:InterruptRegister16 (0000, 0x193f00a8), stub.
fixme:int31:DOSVM_Int31Handler Real mode segment (1d5f) to descriptor: no longer supported
fixme:int31:DOSVM_FreeRMCB callback address: 1001:0000

wine --version returns wine-1.3.23

lahmbi5678 · Post by **lahmbi5678** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 2:13 pm

The dBase version you are trying to install is probably a 16bit-version intended to run on Win 3.11. As one of the fixmes says, it is trying to use some Real Mode stuff, which is probably not supported under wine, still you could file a bug.

You could either try the dos version with dosbox or install a newer 32bit version of dBase (at least 7.x).

garydale · Post by **garydale** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:02 am

Thanks. It's interesting to note that Visual DB v5.7 runs fine under Windows XP but not under Wine even when configured with the Windows 3.1 profile.

v5.7 dates to July, 1999, which is well into the Windows 32bit era but Borland never did update it. I believe the issue back then was that Microsoft fractured the dBASE base by taking FoxPro in a different and incompatible direction While CA did what they do best - sunk Clipper.

I've been trying to move my application to a more mainstream and portable language but dBASE was popular because it combined database support with an easy to use screen handler. It's not easy to find anything that does it better.

lahmbi5678 · Post by **lahmbi5678** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:18 am

Well, the usage of real mode features in a 16-bit Windows programm was never considered good style, using the DOS binary with dosbox&Co seems much more reasonable. Windows has a lot of backwards compatibility hacks incorporated, even some application-specific ones.

There should be newer versions, Visual dBase 7.5 (old 32-bit) or dBase plus 2.70 (very recent), if you can get hold of them, try them.

Post by **dimesio** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:39 am

garydale: Do you have DOSBox installed on your system? If not, try installing it and then running your app with Wine. Some DOSBox support was added to Wine awhile ago (I forget which version).

perryh · Post by **perryh** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 4:11 am

"dimesio" <[email protected]> wrote:

garydale: Do you have DOSBox installed on your system? If not,
try installing it and then running your app with Wine. Some DOSBox
support was added to Wine awhile ago (I forget which version).

Does Wine detect DOSBox at runtime, or would it be necessary to
rebuild Wine from source after installing DOSBox for that support
to work?